IRR: More on the Hodge affair Date: Thu, 24 May 2007 15:15:11 +0100 WEBWATCH Positive Action for Refugees & Asylum Seekers in Leeds (PAFRAS) has published its first newsletter. Download the newsletter at: http://www.irr.org.uk/pdf/PAFRAS_Newsletter_One.doc (word file 84kb) The Hammersmith and Fulham Refugee Forum's CRE funded Media Project has now been externally evaluated by the ICAR (Information Centre about Asylum & Refugees). This report illustrates how the Media Project in Hammersmith & Fulham has impacted on press and broadcast coverage of asylum and refugees. Download the report at: http://www.hfrf.org/pdf/HFRF_Media_project_evaluation_report_May_2007.pdf (pdf file, 176kb) The Joseph Rowntree Foundation has published a report by Rose Smith, Roger Grimshaw, Renee Romeo and Martin Knapp on: 'Poverty and disadvantage among prisoners' families'. Download the findings at: http://www.jrf.org.uk/knowledge/findings/socialpolicy/pdf/2065.pdf (pdf file, 360kb) Download the full report at: http://www.jrf.org.uk/bookshop/eBooks/2003-poverty-prisoners-families.pdf (pdf file, 72kb) Amnesty International has published its annual assessment of human rights worldwide: 'Amnesty International Report 2007'. View the main facts at figures at: http://news.amnesty.org/index/ENGPOL100072007 Or view the report website at: http://web.amnesty.org/report2006/launchpack-eng The Home Office has published research on: 'Asylum Statistics: 1st Quarter 2007 - United Kingdom'. Download the report at: http://www.homeoffice.gov.uk/rds/pdfs07/asylumq107.pdf (pdf file, 280kb) The Home Office has published a Statistical Bulletin by John Freelove Mensah on: 'Persons Granted British Citizenship United Kingdom, 2006'. Download the report at: http://www.homeoffice.gov.uk/rds/pdfs07/hosb0807.pdf (pdf file, 704kb) The Home Office has published a: 'Report on progress in clearing the overseas convictions backlog'. Download the report at: http://www.homeoffice.gov.uk/documents/220507-overseas-convictions?view=Binary (pdf file 56kb) The Home Office has published a report by Dusty Amroliwala OBE on: 'The Inquiry into the handling by Home Office officials of notifications, by other European countries, of criminal convictions for UK citizens - February 2007'. Download the report at: http://www.homeoffice.gov.uk/documents/inquiry-criminal-convictions?view=Binary (pdf file, 1.6mb) WEBSITES The National Coalition of Anti Deportation Campaigns (NCADC) has information that is regularly updated on self-harm in immigration removal centres. View the information at: http://www.ncadc.org.uk/resources/self-harm2006.html The Centre for Corporate Accountability (CCA) has a website where you can keep up-to-date with what is happening with the Corporate Manslaughter Bill. On 22 May, the House of Lords rejected the amendment on custody deaths passed by the Commons. What does this all mean and what is happening now? Keep updated at: http://www.corporateaccountability.org/manslaughter/reformprops/2007/update.htm The Information Centre about Asylum and Refugees in the UK (ICAR) has recently launched the 'Researching Asylum in London (RAL) website'. The website hosts a database of research on refugee and asylum issues relating to London from 1999 onwards. View the website at: http://www.researchasylum.org.uk/ The Refugee Council have linked up with Amnesty International UK and Church Action on Poverty to arrange a series of sleepouts across Britain at the end of June in support of the Still Human Still Here campaign. For more information and details of how to get involved: http://www.refugeecouncil.org.uk/gettinginvolved/campaign/just_fair/summersleepouts.htm FREEDOM OF INFORMATION ACT RELEASES Under the Freedom of Information Act the Home Office has released information on the: 'Recording of crimes committed by Britons overseas'. View the information at: http://www.homeoffice.gov.uk/about-us/freedom-of-information/released-information/foi-archive-crime/5706-crimes-britons-overseas/ Under the Freedom of Information Act the Ministry of Justice has released information on: 'General Pinochet's 1995 visit to UK'. View the information at: http://www.justice.gov.uk/foi-pinochet.htm EARLY DAY MOTIONS (EDM) Jeremy Corbyn, MP, has introduced an EDM on: 'The Chagos Islands'. Read EDM1559 at: http://edmi.parliament.uk/EDMi/EDMDetails.aspx?EDMID=33360&SESSION=885 Neil Gerrard, MP, has introduced an EDM on: 'Access to treatment for HIV'. Read EDM1556 at: http://edmi.parliament.uk/EDMi/EDMDetails.aspx?EDMID=33357&SESSION=885 Diane Abbott, MP, has introduced an EDM on: 'Rights of child migrants'. Read EDM 1531 at: http://edmi.parliament.uk/EDMi/EDMDetails.aspx?EDMID=33330&SESSION=885 c o m m e n t u n i t e d k i n g d o m - - > >> More on the Hodge affair > By IRR News Team 24 May 2007, 2:00pm One aspect of the Hodge affair which has not received attention is the fact that Margaret's husband, Henry, is involved in immigration decision making. Industry minister Margaret Hodge's proposal for a return to housing policies privileging 'indigenous' communities over immigrants has attracted much comment. It has been pointed out, not least by her own constituents whose 'legitimate fears' she claimed to be speaking for, that the real problem in Barking, as elsewhere in the country, is the abandonment by government of responsibility for social housing provision by selling off council housing and not building any more. Commentators have also observed that immigrants are not entitled to social housing anyway - allocation policies are obliged by law to exclude all 'voluntary' immigrants from provision. (Asylum-seekers are housed by NASS in accommodation no-one would volunteer to live in.) The Refugee Council accused Hodge of 'fanning the flames of racial tension'. One aspect of the Hodge affair which has not received much attention is the fact that Hodge's husband, Henry Hodge, is President of the Asylum and Immigration Tribunal. Like her, he started out on the left, as a founding partner in the committed legal aid firm of Hodge Jones and Allen in Camden. Like her, his politics have moved commensurately with his embrace of and by the new Labour establishment. His recent judgments include rulings that Zimbabweans, Somalis and Darfurians from Sudan do not qualify for refugee status. The Court of Appeal overturned his rulings that persecuted Darfurians should return to Sudan, where they would live in squalid refugee camps in the capital if they were unwilling to return to Darfur, and that returning Zimbabweans would not be persecuted by Mugabe's ZANU-PF thugs. As a judge, Henry Hodge has expressed cricitism of the government's failure to deport more undocumented migrants from the country. ---- FOOTNOTE The Institute of Race Relations is precluded from expressing a corporate view: any opinions expressed are therefore those of the authors. IRR is not responsible for the content of external websites. Inclusion of a link does not constitute an endorsement. Please contact us (/contact/index.html) if you come across a broken link. > RELATED LINKS National Coalition of Anti-Deportation Campaigns (http://www.ncadc.org.uk) Medical Justice Network (http://www.medicaljustice.org.uk/) Barbed Wire Britain (http://www.barbedwirebritain.org.uk) IRR is not responsible for the content of external websites. Inclusion of a link does not constitute an endorsement. Please contact us if you come across a broken link. ---------- © Institute of Race Relations 2007 To read this article with full formatting or to add a comment to this article, go to the web page: http://www.irr.org.uk/2007/may/ha000019.html ------------------------------------------------------ You should have only been sent this email directly from us if you are one of the 7388 subscribers to the IRR news network. 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