The action involves eight former soldiers, who were all recruited to the army from Fiji, but the lawyers believe hundreds of ex-service personnel from Commonwealth countries are similarly affected. One of them said: “It is so unfair for veterans to have to suffer the indignity of being vulnerable to being forcibly removed from the country that we so loyally served, especially when we are in this situation because of oversights on the part of army during the discharge process.” Read the full story here.
A group of soldiers who served in Iraq and Afghanistan are taking legal action against the Home Office and the Ministry of Defence over an alleged systemic failure to assist them with complex, unaffordable immigration rules on discharge, part of the tightening of the Home Office’s “hostile environment” regulations after 2012. This has left them classified as illegal immigrants, facing unemployment and homelessness and fearing deportation.
The action involves eight former soldiers, who were all recruited to the army from Fiji, but the lawyers believe hundreds of ex-service personnel from Commonwealth countries are similarly affected. One of them said: “It is so unfair for veterans to have to suffer the indignity of being vulnerable to being forcibly removed from the country that we so loyally served, especially when we are in this situation because of oversights on the part of army during the discharge process.” Read the full story here. The Independent has reported that 25 Jamaicans who were granted a last-minute reprieve from a deportation flight two weeks ago are still in detention and unable to reunite with their families. Lawyers have said this could be illegal on the part of the Home Office as their removal was ruled unlawful by the courts.
One of them, Reshawn Davis, 30, who has been in the UK since the age of 11 and has a seven-month-old British daughter, said that despite this he was still in detention and hadn’t been informed by the Home Office what was happening with his case. Mr Davis was facing deportation on the basis that he was convicted for robbery 10 years ago under the now-unlawful “joint enterprise” rule – for which he spent two months in prison. Read more about Reshawn and others here. It has been revealed that a report which concluded that the Home Office was 'institutionally racist' over its 'hostile environment' immigration policy has been 'watered down'. The claim has been edited out of the final draft of the so-called 'lessons learned' Windrush Review into detentions and deportations of members of the Windrush Generation. The report was originally due to be published in March 2019 but has yet to appear.
An early draft of the report, led by inspector of constabulary Wendy Williams, described the Home Office as 'institutionally racist'. But according to sources reported by The Times, this has been removed. Previous leaked extracts of the report said the department had been 'reckless' and had a 'defensive culture' over how it handled immigration. A leak that emerged last week said the government should end the removal of foreign-born offenders who arrived in the UK as children. According to The Times, this recommendation has also been removed from the latest version Labour MP David Lammy, who has campaigned on the Windrush scandal, said it had resulted in the "systematic deportation and detention of black citizens by the Home Office. The victim's nationality and rights were denied because of the colour of their skin. If that is not institutionally racist, I have no idea what is." Read more here and here. In the light of the recent deportation to Jamaica, this article looks at the provision for legal advice in detention centres. And finds it sorely lacking, speaking of "systemic failures". For example, a survey by charity Bail for Immigration Detainees (BID) found that most detainees waited over a week to see an adviser on the rota in one of 40 half-hour slots per week. This often makes their services useless, as the Home Office offers only a 72-hour notice period before removal – one reason why challenges to deportation so often happen at the last minute.
This makes it all the more remarkable that last-minute legal interventions managed to get so many potential deportees off the flight as "brilliant, committed immigration lawyers worked hard to uphold their client’s rights, no matter how complex their case; fought tirelessly to ensure that everyone had access to justice, no matter who they are". Read the full article. The Church of England is “deeply, institutionally” racist, the Archbishop of Canterbury said yesterday, as the church seeks to increase the number of black and ethnic minority clergy in its ranks. Addressing the General Synod in London, the Most Rev Justin Welby said that he was “almost beyond words” after hearing about the racism faced by minority parishioners, priests and officials within the church. “I’m ashamed of our history and I’m ashamed of our failure,” he said. Read more here.
Eighteen months after the government apologised and promised to “do right” by those affected by the Windrush scandal, complex problems are still being experienced by many Windrush descendants. This recent article describes one family's story as three generations struggle to prove they are British in a protracted fight for documentation which has left a London-born woman facing homelessness with her two-year-old son.
Courtney Lawrence, 25, was denied emergency housing in May because officials said she needed to show a passport to prove she was eligible for council support, despite the fact that she was born in the UK and has never left the country. As a result she was forced to sofa-surf with her son for five months; she has subsequently been given emergency accommodation in a Travelodge hotel. Her parents both came to the UK as children over 50 years ago. Though it may have been pushed from the headlines by other news, the "Hostile Environment" would still seem to be in full effect. Read the full article here. The University of Bristol has appointed Professor Olivette Otele as its first Professor of the History of Slavery. The appointment comes after a number of universities, including Cambridge, have launched inquiries into how their institutions may have benefited from the slave trade.
Professor Otele will undertake a two-year research project on the involvement of the University of Bristol and the wider city in the slave trade. Her research examines the various legacies of colonial pasts, understanding trauma, recovery and social cohesion, but also amnesia and reluctance to address various aspects of colonial legacies. She has already been working on these complex and sensitive questions for nearly two decades. Otele, who became the UK's first black female history professor at Bath spa University in October 2018, said she wanted the research project to be "a landmark in the way Britain examines, acknowledges and teaches the history of enslavement". University Provost and deputy vice-chancellor Judith Squires said: "This new role provides us with a unique and important opportunity to interrogate our history, working with staff, students and local communities to explore the university's historical links to slavery and to debate how we should best respond to our past in order to shape our future as an inclusive university community." Read more here and here and the official Press Release here. A petition to the UK Government to build a memorial to remember the victims of the slave trade has been launched by the charity Memorial 2007. There is no major memorial in England to commemorate the victims of the Transatlantic Slave trade – millions of people who were transported from Africa in ships and kept as slaves. Many of them built Britain, but were subjected to cruelty and forced into inhumane conditions.
Planning permission has been secured for a space in London’s Hyde Park, but runs out in a few weeks, so the charity is calling on the Ministry of Housing, Communities and Local Government to fund a memorial. Read about and sign the petition here. The controversial ruling by the BBC's Complaints Unit that one of its most popular presenters, the BBC Breakfast host Naga Munchetty, had breached editorial guidelines by criticising racist comments made by President Donald Trump about the backgrounds of four US politicians was later reversed after a storm of protest. The blog 'Black and White TV' run by experienced broadcast journalist Marcus Ryder gives a detailed analysis of the original ruling, ending with this intriguing suggestion:
"The BBC, should give Dan Walker and Naga Munchetty their own documentary to investigate racism and what it means to 'go home'! If a brief chat on a studio sofa can generate this much interest, I am sure I am not the only one who would watch a 2-part documentary on it. And if the BBC won’t commission it I worry Channel 4 will instead… Let’s (literally) watch this space…" Read the full blog here. Also, read Sir Lenny Henry's comments on the issue during a talk on diversity in TV in another post on 'Black and White TV' here. Italian Serie A club Roma's response to a racist message sent by a supporter on Instagram sent to one of their players Juan Jesus has been hailed as bold and ground-breaking . First the club publicly named and shamed the perpetrator, reported him to the police and banned him for life – a first. It then Tweeted this message to the league authorities: “Are you really serious about tackling racism in Italian football @SerieA.” The league has been criticised for not responding robustly enough to previous incidents and Roma's challenge has been received positively by many, including Prime Minister, Giuseppe Conte. This article calls the Tweet "a pertinent inquiry, applicable way outside Italy's borders."
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