Asylum Update – 18th June 2008

Research

UNHCR has released its annual report “2007 Global Trends: Refugees, Asylum-seekers, Returnees, Internally Displaced and Stateless Persons”, showing refugee numbers rising for second year running.

See also: UNHCR press release, Guardian interview with the High Commissioner, 2007-8 increase in Afghan minors at Dover

The Red Cross have publicized the findings of a survey of British perceptions of refugees [...]

Asylum Update – 4th June 2008

Research
Amnesty International’s 2008 report entitled “Torture: Truth and Consequences” highlights the approach of EU member states to the human rights of migrants, asylum seekers and refugees.
A comparative overview of the implementation of the Reception Directive has been published by the EC-funded Academic Network for Legal Studies on Immigration and Asylum in Europe (Odysseus Network). The [...]

The binary logic of asylum

There is a certain logic that often pervades coverage of asylum issues from all sides. The logic turns on the fact that the asylum decision is seen as a pure determination of an individual’s moral worth. Those who are given asylum, the refugee, are often seen as saintly; the failed asylum seeker is seen as [...]

Campaigning against deportation

Al Bangura, the Watford footballer set to be deported back to Sierra Leone, has received unprecedented support from football fans of all clubs in recent days. Bangura fled the civil war in his country and arrived in the UK as an unaccompanied minor four years ago; he is now a well-paid professional with a family [...]