Polish campers vow to stay put despite racist attacks (UK)

They came to Edinburgh hoping to earn more money and build better lives for themselves. But four Polish friends have told how they instead ended up living in a tent at the side of the road and fell victim to racist thugs.

After pitching up the tent a month ago in woods on Orchard Brae, their makeshift home has now come under a string of attacks. Youths have repeatedly trashed the campsite, stealing their belongings, and cutting holes and daubing racist graffiti on the tent.

But incredibly, the friends have all pledged to stay in the Capital despite their difficulties in finding jobs and the persistent harassment.

One of the campers, Dariusz Serafinski, who moved to Edinburgh from Poland seven months ago, said: "When I first came to Edinburgh, I was staying at the home of my friend's uncle while I looked for work. But it has taken so long and been so difficult that last month myself and three friends decided to pool our benefits and scrape together enough money to buy a five-man tent while we kept looking.

"The police knew about us living here and they said we were not breaking the law and could stay as long as we want.

"When I was in Warsaw, I decided I wanted to move out from my parent's house and strike out on my own. I was wondering where to go and a friend of mine said Edinburgh was really lovely and the people were very friendly.

"I can't understand how difficult it has been to get work, though. There seems to be a lot of jobs out there. It is not easy, but we'll keep trying."

The 25-year-old has been living rough with his friends, three men aged, 25, 30 and 35, while sending out hundreds of CVs to firms, and visiting the Job Centre two or three times a week to search for vacancies.

The thugs have targeted their campsite on five occasions, including pulling down their tent and wrecking their belongings.Mr Serafinski said: "We spend most of the day going from place to place to put in job applications. That means we can't always have someone staying at the tent to make sure it is not vandalised.

"We repaired the holes in our tent with tape but they returned on Thursday and set about destroying our belongings yet again. This time they spread litter and food all over the inside of the tent, and put most of our belongings in the middle of the tent and squirted tomato ketchup and mayonnaise all over our belongings.

"They wrote "Polish *****!" on the side of our tent with mayonnaise sauce, basically leaving our only shelter un-inhabitable."

He added: "We're not looking forward to the colder weather but we are prepared. Hopefully we may find somewhere else before then.
We still want to stay here and find jobs."

A police spokesman said: "Officers are investigating after a tent in Orchard Brae was vandalised with graffiti of a racist nature. Anyone who saw any suspicious activity in the area is asked to contact police. Lothian and Borders Police treat all hate crime incidents as an operational priority ensuring that they are thoroughly investigated."

A council spokesman said racist attacks could not be condoned but encouraged the men to ask for help with accommodation, and added: "A range of services are provided by the council and their partners to ensure no one needs to sleep rough. In the first instance these young men should contact the council."

News.Scotsman

70 racism complaints against Kent Police (UK)

Almost 70 complaints of racism have been made against police in the county in the last three years.

The grievances since the start of 2008 range from racist jokes told at the station to an officer mimicking the accent of a complainant.

Five of the complaints resulted in misconduct hearings, with one officer resigning last year for being "a member of a group whose members made discriminatory comments".

Another faced a rap in the same year after bosses investigated claims he was "unjustifiably targeting black people for stop checks".

One officer didn't even wait for a misconduct hearing, resigning after it emerged they made discriminatory remarks while off-duty.

The majority of the 69 complaints alleged that the officer's actions "were due to the complainant's ethnicity".

Almost a quarter were "locally resolved", described by police as "a way of dealing with a complaint by solving, explaining, clearing up or settling the matter directly with the complainant".

A further 38 were discontinued, unsubstantiated, withdrawn or dispensed with, while seven - some going back to 2009 - are still classified as "live".

Officers in north Kent received the most complaints with 20 filed, while Medway followed in second with 16.

Mid Kent officers - covering Maidstone - had 14 complaints made against them and there were seven allegations against officers in west Kent.

South Kent police faced 11 complaints.

By Jow Walker at Kent Online

Public order arrests following Nuneaton Gurkha parade (EDL news)

Seven people have been arrested for public order offences following clashes after a parade in Warwickshire.

About 1,000 people watched the Queen's Gurkha Signals parade in Nuneaton on Sunday to mark the unit being given the Freedom of the borough.

The arrests happened when the English Defence League clashed with officers as they were ordered to disperse, police said.

The force is now studying CCTV footage as part of its investigation.

'Minor disorder'
Ch Insp Adrian Knight, from Warwickshire Police, said the Gurkha parade itself passed off without incident.

"Post parade there were several incidents of minor disorder which were dealt with," he said.

"Arrests were made but it was an appropriate and proportionate response from police."

Nuneaton and Bedworth Borough Council awarded the Freedom of Entry to the regiment - the highest honour a council can award to a serving unit of the armed forces.

The Second Battalion, The Royal Regiment of Fusiliers, was presented with Freedom of Entry to the borough earlier this month.

BBC

Grahame Park Estate youngsters designing hate crime mural for peace week event (London, UK)

Youngsters from a range of backgrounds are designing a mural for the Grahame Park Estate to give an idea of what hate crime means to them.

The project being co-ordinated by the Colindale Safer Neighbourhoods policing team is being run for Peace Week.

On Saturday the group gathered on the estate for a talk about hate crime and what it means to their lives, and are now developing the mural.

The images, with the theme we are one peaceful community, will be painted onto a wall in the estate before a grand unveiling next month.

PC Paul Sparks from Barnet's diversity team, said: "This is an important event that enables youths from Barnet's less privileged areas to discuss how they are perceived by the police, adults and what hate crime means to them.”

Times Series

UK Home Office to ‘Rigorously’ Defend New Immigration Cap

The British Government Home Office has said that it will rigorously defend itself, against a High Court challenge over its temporary immigration cap.

The Joint Council for the Welfare of Immigrants (JCWI) said that the interim immigration cap brought about the Government in June was “disproportionate” and has asked judges to consider the policy as unlawful.

The JCWI also went on to claim that the government had “side-stepped” the proper parliamentary process when it brought in the policy, which will be implemented next year, the UK Independent reported.

A permanent yearly cap will follow the current interim cap on skilled migrants from outside the EU. The cap was brought in to prevent a “surge in applications” from skilled migrants from outside Europe. The latest official immigration figures show that more than 500,000 people came to the UK in 2008. Almost half of those were returning British nationals or EU citizens.

The Court of Appeal had earlier ruled that, the Home Secretary had acted unlawfully, with reference to changes made to the, now in question, points-based system without prior parliamentary agreement.

JCWI’s lawyer Shahram Taghavi, of Simons Muirhead and Burton, said he was “surprised to see that, despite that ruling, the Secretary of State has again sought to avoid parliamentary scrutiny on such an important change to British immigration laws, a change which, unusually, also impacts upon British businesses”.

He added: “The coalition Government has once again sought to rush through significant changes to the United Kingdom’s immigration laws while side-stepping proper parliamentary process.”

However, many businesses fear that the cap would stop them from hiring people to fill any vacancies during really high demand. Others voice out that it could have a bad to detrimental effect on higher education, which is reliant on income from foreign students, the BBC reported.

Habib Rahman, JCWI chief executive, said it was “very concerned about the immense damage the interim cap appears to already be doing to British businesses”.

“JCWI considers that the caps are a further attempt by the government to blame part of the financial difficulties the country finds itself in on migrants,” he further added.

But Immigration Minister, Damian Green, says he is committed to getting net migration back to levels of those incurred in the 1990s.

“We will rigorously defend this challenge and are confident of success, “he said.

The case is expected to come for hearing in October by the High Court.

A video report on this issue.




MAARS

THE ROMA'S STRUGGLE TO FIND A HOME

Another day, and another ram-shackle encampment where Roma once lived is gone. The scrap-wood shelters have been pushed to the ground. The tents, collapsed. The inhabitants, scattered. In Rome, the eviction of the Roma — a European minority sometimes referred to as Gypsies — is taking place with the full force of the law: military police, bulldozers, German shepherds. But, in contrast to the international firestorm over such evictions in France, Italy's have attracted little attention. Even as French President Nicolas Sarkozy tussled with the European Union over the repatriation of dozens of Roma to Romania (despite the name, Roma don't historically come from the country, although many live there), the mayor of Rome announced the demolition of his city's 200 illegal squatter camps, at a rate of three or four a week. This means another wave of expulsions for the Roma, who have faced similar efforts all over the country. Meanwhile, Italy's Interior Minister, Roberto Maroni, took to the airwaves and declared the country's Roma problem — and many here see it as a problem — "practically resolved." He added, "The controversy around Sarkozy's decision made me smile a little. For us, it's a movie we've already seen." The Roma and their camps have been present in Italy since the Middle Ages. But a steep rise in their numbers after Romania's entry into the E.U. raised tensions in a country where bigotry runs deep: in Italian, to call somebody a Gypsy is to call him a thief and a liar. At its height, Italy's Roma population more than doubled to somewhere around 160,000, many of them living in unregistered squats without running water, electricity or sanitation. And they are not welcome. In 2008, after a teenage Roma girl was caught in a Naples apartment allegedly trying to steal a baby, a mob burned down the nearest camp. The government declared a state of emergency and announced it would fingerprint the country's Roma and expel those who were there illegally. Objections from the E.U. halted the fingerprinting, but the censure stopped there.

If Italy managed to avoid the opprobrium being heaped on France, it's not because it treats its Roma any better. The criticism leveled at France accuses Sarkozy's government of singling out a specific ethnicity. Italy's campaign came in a context of broad xenophobia: discrimination against the Roma is not much stronger than that against, say, Romanians in general (indeed, many Italians don't make a distinction between the two). Italy's politicians insist they aren't performing mass expulsions, but simply enforcing the law, closing camps and arresting criminals. But to many Roma, it all amounts to much the same thing. Frequent evictions, widespread discrimination and the risk of vigilante violence create constant pressure to go. Rebecca Covaciu, a 14-year-old immigrant from Romania, spent two years on the move, enduring police raids, beatings by thugs and a close brush with a mob in Naples before finally settling with her family in an apartment in Milan. "My family has had a terrible time finding work," she says. "When they see that we're Roma, they tell us, 'We don't need anyone.' And then you walk out, and there's 'Help Wanted' on the door." In theory, evicted Roma are to be resettled, but so great is the mistrust that when Rome started destroying camps in September, the inhabitants — alerted by the arrival of journalists — dispersed before the police and social services could arrive. Evictions continue, even though a dozen new settlements the city has planned won't be completed for several months. Other municipalities are following suit. As a result, say activists, most of Italy's immigrant Roma have already left — to Spain, Switzerland, France and beyond. Indeed, as more countries follow Italy's and France's leads, the pattern of rousting risks being replicated on a European scale. Italy's politicians have seized on the current uproar to up the ante, proposing laws that would allow the country to expel and bar entry to E.U. citizens who breach the conditions of their stay — just in case the Roma pushed out of France head their way.

Time Magazine

Racism at Commonwealth Games? Africans upset (New Delhi)

South Africa led the charge of the African nations against the shoddy Commonwealth Games preparations on Sunday. As the Delhi government carried out frantic clean-up operations in the Games Village, South Africa set the cat among the pigeons by saying a snake had been found in an athlete's room.

South Africa's high commissioner to India Harris Majeke told reporters a snake had been found in the room of an athlete at the Games Village. "That was really a threat to the lives of our athletes," he said, complaining of filth in the living quarters including basements of the buildings. "When everything is done, then we will ask our teams to come," he added.

The South African criticism is part of a larger grouse of the African nations against organisers of the Commonwealth Games. While the OC has been overly sensitive to the wishes of countries like the UK, Australia and Canada, the African countries found that they had been virtually ignored by the organisers.

The first site visit for the African countries to Games venues was arranged only this week. For months, said sources, African countries have been asking for information from the government, but in vain. Last week was the first time they got any briefing from the ministry of external affairs.

MEA has itself been kept out of the Games preparations, and was brought in virtually at the last minute when the damage control exercise had to be rolled out. Since they are the most familiar point of contact for the African nations, it was particularly frustrating that nobody was telling them anything, least of all the organisers. The first briefing was, sources said, little more than a bare bones briefing, because the MEA itself was not kept on board.

In fact, privately, the word from many African countries is that India was practising the same kind of racism against the African countries that India itself has complained against.

Out of the 53 nations in the Commonwealth, there are 19 from the African continent, all of whom are participating in the Games. This week, India will also play host to the president of Mozambique, a member of the Commonwealth, though it used to be a Portuguese colony and not a British one.

On Saturday, a visibly upset high commissioner of Rwanda -- a former Belgian colony and one of the most recent additions to the Commonwealth -- was seen looking for the Indian quarters in the Games Village. "I want to see their quarters. The place they have given us for our accommodation is not clean and my athletes are arriving here tomorrow," was his explanation.

However, India got a vote of confidence from South Africa's Olympic boss. In a statement, Gideon Sam said he would himself clean toilets to ensure the success of the Games. "Our athletes will have no excuses if they do not perform at the Games," Sam, president of the South African Sports Confederation and Olympic Committee (Sascoc), said ahead of the team's departure on Sunday.

"If they are unhappy with their rooms because they have not been swept, they must take off their jackets and sweep them themselves. We will not complain. South Africans do not do that," Sam added. "And when I get there on Friday, if a toilet is not clean, I will clean it myself."

It only adds to India's shame.

Times of India

Gamers battle racism online

Heartbeats drum to the rhythm of steady machine gunfire and adrenaline is pumping high. Unaware of what the opponent will do next, the player analyzes each and every sound, the ultimate goal being to conquer the enemy.

Gamers indulge in this out-of-body experience every time they pick up a controller. Unfortunately, it also describes how gamers feel when they are bullied by other online gamers.

Gamers are misusing the live online communication feature on Sony's Playstation 3 and Microsoft's Xbox 360 by shouting racial slurs and life-threatening attacks.

Online attacks have become so intense that they cause people like 21-year-old Kender Massillon, a third year accounting student from Orlando, to refrain from gaming online.

"Go kill yourself nigger," include one of the many racist remarks he has received.

These hate attacks might come to as a surprise to first-time online gamers, but racial comments are commonly made about every race and nationality. Some ethnic groups have even organized online clans.

"There's KKK and Nazis, or Jew-killers as they like to call themselves, all over Call of Duty," Harold Bruney, 20, a third year information technology student from Hallandale, Fla., said.

These online clans blurt out repeated hate attacks to anyone they believe belongs to a different race or ethnicity.

Outside of the virtual world, it would be uncommon for 22-year-old Thanh Nguyen, who is Vietnamese, to receive comments like "go pick cotton" or "go hang yourself."

However, within the world of gaming, gamers are judged by the sound of their voice, which leaves anyone vulnerable to inaccurate hate attacks.

"Most people don't know I'm Vietnamese online, everyone says I sound black," the fourth year biology student from Orlando said.

Nguyen admits the prejudiced remarks are frustrating and even provoke him to respond back to racist gamers.

Though most players express racial tension through their microphone, others get their point across by creating hateful usernames or sending attacking messages.

"I won't forget the time someone made their user ID name Jew killer," Bruney said. Such hateful usernames may come as a shock to gamers at first, but it quickly becomes a natural occurrence.

Because of the popularity of online gaming nationwide, prejudiced remarks are bound to surface.

Also, with millions of online game users, some hate attacks go undetected by Microsoft Corp. and Sony Computer Entertainment.

Despite the difficulty of this task, both Microsoft and Sony have online complaint systems to try and reduce the amount of online attacks.

According to the Microsoft website, gamers who "witness a player behaving in an inappropriate or vulgar manner, cheating or harassing others" can file a complaint using their Xbox's feedback system and "appropriate action will be taken against offenders."

Gamers may also make use of the Xbox five star rating systems, which gives players the opportunity to rate their competitor's character without ever leaving the game.

A customer service representative from Sony urged gamers to report inappropriate content by filling out and submitting a complaint form online which could lead to a player's online access being suspended.

"Reporting everyone that says a racist remark would take up a lot of time, plus it's their freedom of speech so I just let it go," said 20- year -old Kevin Sharperson, a third year business administration student from Miramar, Fla. and daily online gamer.

Regardless of the constant hateful remarks, some gamers have not let it interfere with their love to play. Most gamers ignore the foul remarks and continue playing online for the opportunity to play against more challenging players.

Some gamers solve their racial gaming problems with online disputes while others find comfort in only playing with the people they are familiar with or simply pushing the mute button on opponents who insist on using racial slurs.

the famuan online