IRR has, since 1989, been recording the deaths of asylum seekers and undocumented migrants – two of the most vulnerable sections of our society – as a result of attempting to enter the UK, self-harm, denial of medical treatment, destitution, hazardous working conditions or racist attacks. Forced by circumstances beyond their control to seek a
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
The deportation, this morning, of the Vucaj family to Kosovo has been condemned by supporters who have led a vociferous campaign to keep them in Scotland. The Kosovan family were fighting deportation following a dawn raid on their family home in Scotstoun, Glasgow on 13 September. The Vucajs, who have been living in Scotland since
Welcome, a 20-minute film by the Camcorder Guerillas collective, tells the story of three asylum seekers who have faced eviction in Glasgow. ‘My life is frozen’, says Jabulani Moyo, a teacher and member of the opposition movement in Zimbabwe. His claim for asylum was rejected because the adjudicator did not believe that he was really
Section 55 of the Nationality, Immigration and Asylum Act 2002 is not simply making an asylum seeker destitute. For destitution, itself, opens up a ‘failed’ refugee to yet more racism, indignity and uncertainty. On Friday 16 April, Ali Mohammed Sadegh, a destitute Iranian asylum seeker was viciously beaten and stabbed by a group of White
Asylum seekers, refugees and settled migrants in Scotland have experienced a 75 per cent increase in racial harassment since April 2003. According to a report by Positive Action in Housing (PAIH), a Scottish housing charity, 28 per cent of its clients have suffered racial harassment. This represents an increase of 75 per cent on last
The details of Imran’s fatal stabbing are now sub judice as several youths have been arrested. But his family are now considering action against the hospital after a post-mortem revealed that he died of septicaemia, not of his stab wounds. The police too, are the subject of complaints that they did not carry out forensic
