Refugee Archives Update

The last week or so has been a busy one in terms of breaking news stories in regard to refugee and asylum issues.  The following news stories, exhibitions and publications are worthy of note:

News Stories

UK Appeal Court Terrorism Ruling

The Daily Telegraph (11/02/10): Binyam Mohamed: choose human rights or Britain's protection?
The Daily Telegraph (11/02/10): Binyam Mohamed: MI5 and Whitehall in torture 'cover-up'
BBC News (11/02/10): US disappointed at UK Appeal Court torture ruling
The Independent (11/02/10): Britain did know CIA tortured suspect
The Daily Telegraph (10/02/10): Binyam Mohamed torture allegations published
BBC News (10/02/10): Binyam Mohamed torture appeal lost by UK governmentThe Daily Telegraph (10/02/10): Binyam Mohamed: the secret torture file
The Daily Telegraph (10/02/10): Binyam Mohamed torture allegations must be disclosed, day judges

Student Visas

The Guardian (11/02/10): Clampdown on overseas student visas sparks funding concerns
The Guardian (07/02/10): Alan Johnson announces crackdown on student visas
The Daily Telegraph (06/02/10): Foreign student visa numbers to be slashed

Government Immigration Policy

The Daily Telegraph (10/02/10): Labour changes its tune over immigration limit as election looms
The Daily Telehraph (09/02/10): Labour's 'secret plan' to lure migrants
The Daily Telegraph (09/02/10): The deceit of Labour's immigration policy

UK Border Agency

The Daily Telegraph (09/02/10): Border Agency cannot perform basic functions, warns watchdog
BBC News (03/02/10): Whistleblower's claims about Cardiff asylum office


Child Asylum Seekers in the West Midlands

BBC News (08/02/10): Starting afresh in a foreign city

BBC News (08/02/10): Child asylum seeker numbers rise in West Midlands

See Also: BBC West Midlands Inside Out  programme on this issue.  Further details availble on

the Inside Out website and the programme is available to watch in the UK with the BBC iPlayer (29 minutes)

General Refugee and Asylum Related News Stories

The Guardian (11/02/10): 'Every Hindu and Sikh should be praising the BNP'

BBC News (11/02/10): Minister 'admits paying millions to detained migrants'
The Independent (11/02/10): Sri Lanka police fire tear gas on opposition in bid to quell protests
The Independent (11/02/10):  Leading article: Nelson Mandela's greatness transcended nation and tribe
The Independent (11/02/10): Joan Smith: Amnesty shouldn't support men like Moazzam Begg
The Independent (11/02/10):  Rankin in Africa: Images of love in a land of conflict.

See Also:  From Congo with Love exhibition details below.

The Daily Telegraph (10/02/10): Immigration officer rounds on Home Secretary

BBC News (10/02/10): Timeline: Democratic Republic of Congo

ICRC (10/02/10): ICRC activities in Iraq in 2009 – Facts and figures

The Daily Telegaph (10/02/10): Sir Andrew Green: the public are too polite on immigration

The Daily Telegraph (10/02/10: Reading: a Babel of dialects

The Daily Telegraph (10/02/10): Immigrants 'exploiting loophole at Stansted Airport to enter the country'

The Daily Telegraph (09/02/10): Mothers go on hunger strike at immigration centre after being separated from children

The Guardian (09/02/10): Police 'ignore' rights of sex trafficking victims

The Guardian (09/02/10): Yarl's Wood women on hunger strike 'locked up and denied treatment'

The Guardian (08/02/10): Spain sees sixfold increase in immigrants over decade

Amnesty International (08/02/10): Afghanistan: No impunity for war criminals

BBC News (08/02/10): Did immigration transform Britain by accident?

BBC News (08/02/10): Q&A: Sudan's Darfur conflict 

BBC News (07/02/10): French police close down illegal migrant shelter

The Daily Telegraph (07/02/10): Free flights for east Europe homeless

The Observer (07/02/10): Jobless migrants living in shanty towns offered free flights home

The Daily Telegraph (06/02/10): Joanna Lumley re-opens Gurkha battle

Human Rights Watch (05/02/10): Thailand: Cease Intimidation of Karen Refugees

Refugees International (05/02/10): UN Security Council: Progress on Sudan, Stagnancy on Somalia

The Guardian (05/02/10): Hideously diverse Britain: Born-again Britons at a citizenship ceremony 

Human Rights Watch (04/02/10): Kenya: Landmark Ruling on Indigenous Land Rights

The Daily Telegraph (04/02/2010): Nigerian prince would rather be sent back to torture than stay in "useless" Britain 

The Guardian (04/02/10): Solidarity is not an offence 

The Daily Telegraph (04/02/10): Failure to deport foreign criminals costs £60m a year

Human Rights Watch (04/02/10): Italy: Speed Investigations of Rosarno Attacks 

Human Rights Watch (03/02/10): EU: Follow Swiss Example of Accepting Guantanamo Detainees

BBC News (03/02/10): Timeline: Sudan 

The Guardian (03/02/10): Target apathy to stop the BNP

Exhibitions

An exhibition by the portrait photographer Rankin entitled From Congo with Love is currently featuring in a large exhibition being held at London's South Bank.  The exhibition has been develope din conjunction with Oxfam and displays "images and stories exploring romantic love, love lost, mother's love and the kindness of strangers, as well as photos taken by Congolese villagers with Rankin's guidance, providing an extraordinary insight into their everyday life."  There is also a book to accompany the exhibtion entitled `We Are Congo' which is available to purchase online. 

Image Copyright: Rankin / Oxfam.

Courses

Cultural aspects of working with refugees and asylum seekers, Leeds, 13 May 2010, organised by The Refugee Council, costs apply.  Further Details.  To Book, contact The Refugee Council: training@refugeecouncil.org.uk (Source: The Network).

Publications

Northern Ireland Human Rights Commission (09/02/10): Press Release:  Human Rights Commission’s Annual Report 2008-2009  The full and final report in PDF fomrat is also available to download: Here.

Open See Exhibition

Jim Goldberg

Open See Exhibition

http://www.photonet.org.uk/index.php?pxid=956

The Photographers' Gallery
16 - 18 Ramillies Street
London

W1F 7LW

16 October 2009 - 17 January 2010

Open See documents the experiences of people who travel from war torn, socially and economically devastated countries, to make new lives in Europe. They have left often violent, oppressive, poverty-stricken or AIDS ravaged communities, in search of stability and the promise of a better future. Originating from Africa, Asia, Eastern Europe and the Middle East, these ‘new Europeans’ have met violence and brutality as well as hope and liberation in their new homes.

Since 2003, Magnum photographer Jim Goldberg (b.1953, USA) has been photographing and collecting stories through a range of media: Polaroids, video, written text, ephemera, large and medium format photographs. The exhibition installation reflects his dynamic approach to documentary through dense displays of images, objects and text.

The Polaroids on show have often been defaced and written on by the people they portray. The words and images combine to tell intimate stories of past and present experiences. Faces and features are sometimes scratched out, coloured in, or marked in some way. Larger-scale colour photographs depicting landscapes from the subjects’ countries of origin appear both poetic and dystopic in equal measure. One image shows a young family walking along a sunlit road, while another is of a man standing on a vast rubbish tip holding a dead goat salvaged from the debris.

Part of an ongoing project by Goldberg, Open See confronts us with the realities of migration and the conditions for desiring escape.

This exhibition is presented in collaboration with Magnum Photos.

Slave Britain Exhibition

	Slave Britain
	Karen Robinson and David Rose
	As Britain commemorated 200 years since the abolition of the slave trade, Panos produced an exhibition to reveal how human trafficking is a bitter reality for thousands of women, men and children in the UK today. Slave Britain artfully documents the ordinary lives and everyday locations caught up in trafficking and calls for an end to this illegal 21st century trade. The show is produced by Panos Pictures in partnership with Amnesty International, Anti-Slavery International, Eaves and UNICEF UK.

Further details can be found on the websites at:

http://www.panos.co.uk/bin/panos.dll/go?a=disp&t=nwtl.html&si=&feature=447

http://www.guardian.co.uk/slideshow/page/0,,2013927,00.html