NCADC – blog

The Ireland Refugee Documentation Centre, part of the Legal Aid Board, is an independent library and research service. The Centre provides a research and query service for all organisations involved in the asylum process, and builds and maintains a collection of objective and up to date country of origin , asylum, immigration and human rights [...]

The Fahamu Refugee Legal Aid Newsletter is a monthly forum for news and reflection on the provision of refugee legal aid. Focusing on the global south, it provides a unique range of news stories, organisation profiles, and legal explanations to assist those providing free legal advice on asylum, refugee and human rights cases across the [...]

In his presentation to the UN General Assembly yesterday, Ahmed Shaheed – the Special Rapporteur on human rights in Iran – expressed concern over alleged violations in Iran’s judicial system including torture, cruel or degrading treatment of detainees, and the imposition of the death penalty without proper safeguards. His report, based on first-hand testimonies from [...]

At least 70 Iraqi refugees have been rounded up in the UK over the last few weeks, as the UK government plans a controversial mass deportation charter flight to Baghdad. NCADC has been contacted by several detainees and their friends over the last few days. One such caller was Joanne, from County Durham. She has [...]

Country of Origin Information (COI) is central to refugee status determination. However, the Research Unit at (sadly now defunct) Immigration Advisory Service highlighted serious concerns about the quality of initial decision making in asylum claims in the UK, and in particular the use/misuse of COI. You can download the IAS research into COI here (pdf) [...]

Blogging around the campaigns – NCADC volunteers explore some of the latest issue affecting migrant rights 27 March 2011 David Shortland, NCADC Campaigns Volunteer As the conflict in Libya rages on, the number of refugees produced has steadily increased. The UNHCR has called on the international community to step up to the mark by supporting [...]

The 649-page report, Human Rights Watch’s 21st annual review of human rights practices around the globe, summarizes major human rights issues in more than 90 countries and territories worldwide. It is an essential resource for anyone campaigning against removal from the UK. You can browse chapters by country or download the full report in pdf [...]

The racism that kills The recent death of Jimmy Mubenga adds to the grim statistic of those who have died as a result of the UK’s brutal immigration laws. Harmit Athwal of Institute for Race Relations writes at the Guardian website on the launch of the new IRR report, Driven to Desperate Measures: 2006-2010, which documents [...]

Jimmy Mubenga died this week aboard the British Airways BA77 flight to Uganda while being restrained by G4S security guards using ‘excessive force’ according to one witness. Jimmy, a devoted husband and father of five children, is the not the first, and will not be the last migrant to die at the hands the European [...]

As another round of EU-coordinated Iraqi refugee collective expulsions gets underway, the United Nations Refugee Agency has called for European governments to provide protection for Iraqi refugees. From the UNHCR press statement: UNHCR is very concerned by on-going forced returns of Iraqi citizens from Western European countries. On September 1st, a chartered flight with 61 [...]