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For Euronews I wrote about the EU’s emerging gender-based violence policy.
“On New Year’s Day this year, three women were found dead in different parts of France. All had been killed in the previous 24 hours by their partners. The brutal murders prompted a wave of protest and outcry that, in 2022 in one of the richest countries of the world, the government had failed to tackle femicide.”
Read the full article here.
Following the revelations that significant figures in public life are openly flirting with ideas of eugenics, I wrote up a piece for Byline Times on how eugenics was behind some of the policy disasters of the 20th Century.
“Alongside the revelation that it was British institutions such as UCL which pioneered the thinking that informed the Nazis’ Final Solution, the other surprise for me when watching Angela Saini and Adam Pearson’s BBC documentary, Eugenics: Science’s Greatest Scandal, earlier this year was just how pervasive eugenics and the bunk science behind it was in British social policy.”
Since the start of May, Natalie Bloomer and I have been writing a series of social affairs features in the Byline Times. Check out what we’ve done so far.
Thousands of Homeless People Excluded from London’s Flagship Support Service
Kicked and jumped on in their sleep. That was the appalling experience of two men sleeping rough in Hull city centre. Humberside Police have released CCTV footage of the incident in the hope of identifying the three people responsible. The police appeal comes as new figures, given exclusively to this programme, show a significant increase over the last five years in violent crimes against homeless people.
Natasha entered the UK on a student visa after fleeing from sexual and physical abuse in the Caribbean. Despite living in the country for 19 years, her immigration status remains unsettled. Because of this, she is not entitled to free NHS care, so when she suffered a miscarriage in the 19th week of her pregnancy she ended up with a bill of £3,500. She was supposed to attend follow-up medical appointments but was too afraid of occurring further charges to do so.
It’s 9:30am outside the county court and Mary is about to discover her fate. Before the day is done, 169 people will be evicted across Britain. This grandparent, who has been a housing association tenant for 25-years, is about to find out if she will be one of them.
This story was commissioned as part of the Bureau’s Local Reporting Fund – a grant that supports the reporting of untold stories across the UK.
Last winter as temperatures plummeted, a homeless man with learning disabilities found his way to a severe weather emergency facility in Northampton. The cold had already taken effect. The man ended up with such severe frostbite that he had eight toes amputated.
Before getting this emergency care he had tried to gain access to a newly set up night shelter in the town, but was only allowed to stay for one night before being turned away because he had rent arrears at former temporary accommodation.
The latest in my work on the hostile environment. It was amazing to work with Catrin Nye, the team at Victoria Derbyshire and my long-term collaborator on hostile environment issues, Natalie Bloomer, to reveal a truly shocking story.
“More than half of UK police forces are handing over victims of crime to the Home Office for immigration enforcement, new figures show. One woman who was beaten by her partner was then herself arrested by police. There are fears the approach is stopping vulnerable people – including rape victims – reporting crimes, playing into the hands of traffickers.” Read the story here and watch the TV package here.
For the past year I’ve been working on the issue of evictions in the UK. This piece in the New Statesman should be the first of several on the topic. It looks at the impact of eviction on a single person and her family.
“Iwona is early. She is always early for appointments, including being interviewed by a journalist. This is no easy task. She is a lone parent and a carer to her mother who both has dementia and uses a wheelchair. Iwona works in a supermarket, volunteers at a local food bank, and is studying part time to become a social worker.”
The ‘hostile environment’ for migrants is impinging on everyday life for the public and for people in public and (increasingly) private services. Immigration checks at the border have now been extended in housing, education, health, and employment. Natalie Bloomer and I have been looking at the impact on people of these policies and just how far ‘everyday bordering’ has reached into our lives. I’ve been a big fan of Natalie’s work since I read a piece she did a few years back on ‘Baby Banks‘ (like a food bank, but for baby stuff like nappies, wipes, formula, clothes), so it’s a real privilege to be working with her on this. I’ll be adding to this series as we publish more.
Met police hands victims of crime over to the Home Office for immigration enforcement
Sadiq Khan says police are “duty bound” to report victims of crime to the Home Office
Revealed: MPs using immigration enforcement hotline to report people to the Home Office
Big Brother state: How May’s obsession with immigration turned Britain into a surveillance state
Samir Jeraj - Freelance Journalist