ISSN 1463 9696 Winter 2009 • Bulletin No 66 EUROPEAN RACE BULLETIN EUROPE’S SHAME A report on 105 deaths linked to racism or government migration and asylum policies By Liz Fekete This bulletin is part of a European Race Audit supported by the Joseph Rowntree Charitable Trust. The Institute of Race Relations is precluded from expressing a corporate view: any opinions expressed here are therefore those of the contributors. Please acknowledge IRR’s European Race Audit Project in any use of this work. An ‘Alternative Voices on Integration’ project is also being carried out by the IRR and funded by the Network of European Foundations (European Programme on Integration and Migration). For further information contact Liz Fekete at the Institute of Race Relations, 2-6 Leeke Street, London WC1X 9HS. Email:
[email protected] © Institute of Race Relations 2009 Introduction This issue of the Bulletin comprises a report of our research into deaths in the EU in 2007 and 2008 due to either racism or government migration and asylum policies. Those who died were asylum seekers, migrants, refugees, members of minority ethnic groups or targets of far-Right activity. Though we unearthed 105 deaths, we found that, all too often, such deaths are neglected by Europe’s political leaders, as well as its mainstream newspapers. Cases listed here, which took place within EU countries over the last two years, include murders by members of far-Right parties, racist killings, deaths that occurred in immigration removal centres or after contact with the police. Some people died at the hands of extremists, others because of the climate of racism and related intolerance which blights so much of the continent, and still more fell victim, one way or another, to Europe’s tough, unbending and inhuman asylum and immigration policies.