We reproduce here the letter sent by the Director of Oldham Race Equality Partnership to Tony Blair on proposed anti-terror laws and the damage they are likely to cause. The Executive Committee of the Oldham Race Equality Partnership has asked me to write to government, local MPs and others who are in a position to
Theme: Violence and harassment
Protecting ethnic minorities
One would have thought that governments concerned about the impact on social cohesion of a resurgent far-Right would want to reassure members of minority communities that the police service and criminal justice system were there to protect them and were sensitive to their needs. Unfortunately, many police services in Europe have not even come to
Eliminating electoral racism
The failure of states to protect minority communities from racial violence is compounded by the opportunistic way in which race, religion and immigration are discussed in local, regional and federal elections. Over the past year, the following trends have been observed: Xenophobic slogans and propaganda deployed in campaigning shows electoral parties are using language which
Fighting fascism
How can governments combat the activities of racist and far-Right parties that undermine democracy while, at the same time, preserving civil rights and democratic values such as freedom of speech and freedom of assembly? Country notes Over the last eighteen months, politicians across Europe have been forced to ask themselves how best to counter the
Fighting for disabled students
The family of a wheel-chair bound overseas student is, after its own successful struggle, fighting the government’s institutionalised discrimination against disabled ‘foreign’ students. On 9 September 2005, an intelligent severely disabled 19-year old wheel-chair bound overseas student, Nirav Shah, and his parents won a year-long battle to overturn two key decisions by UK immigration officials.
Deportation is Freedom!
A new book castigates immigration controls for their Orwellian connotations. On 18 October 2005, the Asylum and Immigration Tribunal ruled that deportations to Zimbabwe put failed asylum seekers at risk and should cease. The end of the matter, you would think. And yet, last week, the case of RA was being heard at York House
Pressure to end returns to DRC
Over fifty people, mainly asylum seekers from the Democratic Republic of Congo (DRC), demonstrated outside the Home Office following the broadcast of a BBC radio documentary on the fate of asylum seekers who are deported back to the DRC. Jenny Cuffe, the World Service programme-maker, went to the DRC and interviewed people who had been
More law, fewer rights
Another Bill dealing with immigration, asylum and nationality will seriously erode rights, according to immigration lawyers and organisations working with refugees. Appeal rights lost The Immigration, Asylum and Nationality Bill, which had its third Commons reading on 16 November, will remove entirely the rights of appeal of those refused permission to stay as students, workers
Opposition in Scotland to Westminster’s immigration policies is growing
Last week, the UK’s minister on immigration Tony McNulty, in a high-handed intervention, forbade the assistant head of Immigration Services in Scotland from meeting a delegation of concerned Scottish church, charity and political representatives. Rolf Toollen, the Scottish official, was all ready for the meeting. In fact, it was reported that he had cancelled a
Appearance battles against reality in Zimbabwe deportation policy
The Home Office has been accused of deliberately ignoring the national identity of failed asylum seekers in order to return Zimbabwean nationals to their homeland, despite the High Court’s suspension of removals of Zimbabweans subject to a reappraisal of the situation. Immigration lawyers have claimed that Home Office officials are choosing not to investigate false