October 2003
Some stories
Australia must release the names of the 353 dead!
On 19 October 2001, 146 children, 142 women and 65 men lost their lives when the small, grossly-overloaded Indonesian fishing boat, in which they were travelling, capsized and sank as they sought to flee persecution in their homelands and rebuild their lives in Australia.
30 October 2003 (395 words)
Black people face double discrimination
A two-year independent research project into the Crown Prosecution Service (CPS) has found that while black defendants appear to be more harshly treated than their white counterparts in the criminal justice system, prosecutors are too willing to drop 'race charges'.
27 October 2003 (1042 words)
Discrimination against Somalis in housing
A new report into the needs and experiences of the Somali community and its access to housing in Britain has found that Somalis are often discriminated against and do not receive good levels of service provision.
23 October 2003 (314 words)
Forced deportation of Roma
A well-respected Roma political organiser and twenty-five other Czech Roma are to be deported to the Czech Republic on 25 October, despite the fact that by next May the Czech Republic will be part of the European Union.
21 October 2003 (218 words)
England's 'ghetto' schools
An analysis by researchers at Bristol University has found that secondary schools in Oldham, Blackburn, Bradford, Birmingham and Luton have the highest levels of segregation between pupils of different ethnic groups.
12 October 2003 (458 words)
School exclusions increase again
New figures from the Department for Education and Skills show that Black Caribbean children are still three times more likely than White children to be permanently excluded from school in England. The overall number of exclusions has also increased for the second year running.
12 October 2003 (340 words)
Roger Sylvester - police condemned for black death
It has taken the Sylvester family four years to get an inquest into Roger's death. A verdict of unlawful killing has been returned. But the last successful prosecution of a police officer involved in a black death was in 1971, despite numerous inquest verdicts of unlawful killing since then.
9 October 2003 (2400 words)
Canary Islands tragedy: did the RAF put border security before human safety?
An official inquiry was prompted in Spain after twenty-one migrants, trying to cross from the North African coast to the Canary Islands, drowned in two separate incidents in June. Their boats capsized after being intercepted by Spanish patrols. But now questions are being asked about the role of British planes deployed in the region as part of the multinational 'Operation Ulysses'.
2 October 2003 (1929 words)