A multicultural society is unity in a shared identity.
Not separation, discrimination, and polarization.

In multicultural and liberal countries, where a diverse composition has been democratically chosen - such as Sweden, Denmark, the Netherlands, Belgium, the US, Germany, and the UK - every effort should be made to prevent polarization.
If diversity and inclusion are at the core of national identity, one must guard against the emergence of segregated worlds.
However, in current practice, a reverse inequality threatens to arise, where the original inhabitants increasingly feel marginalized.

Polarization arises when remembrance or attention to suffering is one-sided.
For example, if only the slavery of Africans is emphasized while the suffering of other groups is completely ignored, some people feel excluded or unrecognized. This can lead to resentment and an "us versus them" mentality.

In reality, slavery is a worldwide historical phenomenon: almost all peoples have been enslaved or have themselves held slaves—ranging from Europeans to Africans, Asians, and Arabs.
A fair and balanced approach helps to prevent division.

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Racism is racism – period. Whether it is directed against people with black, white, brown, or any other skin color, it remains a denial of human dignity. No one deserves to be collectively humiliated, excluded, or hated based on their origin.

Yet we see that the fight against racism is not always free from new forms of exclusion. When statements like "I don't like white men. I want them to be a lost species in a hundred years" (Yasmin Alibhai-Brown) or "we need to abolish the white race" (Noel Ignatiev) are hardly criticized, while every racist remark directed at people of color rightly meets fierce resistance, a dangerous double standard arises.

For example, actress Jane Fonda stated that "white people are responsible for the climate crisis" – a statement that unjustly reduces the complex, worldwide history of exploitation and ecological damage to a single race, while nearly every civilization in history has been guilty of oppression and slavery.

Also, Tim Wise, an anti-racist speaker, claimed that white people can never be victims of racism in principle. But racism without power is not an innocent variant – it remains racism.

Such tendencies have societal consequences. In Rotherham, England, between 1997 and 2013, about 1,400 children were victims of systematic sexual abuse by so-called 'grooming gangs,' predominantly made up of men of Pakistani descent. 

Police and youth care ignored reports, partly out of fear of being labeled racist or Islamophobic. In some cases, victims were even seen as "choosing prostitution." Official reports confirm that institutional fear of stigma led to the neglect of fundamental human rights.

Those who want to fight injustice must do so consistently. When fighting one injustice leads to ignoring or even causing another injustice, we lose our credibility – and ultimately our moral compass.

No work for Joris, but work for Sadiqa. Joris van Os, a white Dutch man, was unable to get his literary work published despite its quality. Therefore, he created a pseudonym and identity as a young Moroccan-Dutch woman, Sadiqa Almakhadie. Under that name, he suddenly received much praise, publications, and a literary award. When he revealed his true identity, the publisher initially showed understanding, but later controversy arose. An intern accused his work of cultural appropriation, and the publishing house ultimately decided not to release the book due to 'misleading' the publishers. Van Os wanted to demonstrate how identity and marketing in the literary world can sometimes be more important than the work itself, and that publishers often prefer to 'market' white men.

He advocates for more openness and clarity about how publishers deal with identity. Read the full article here.

Christian identity suddenly offensive.  In 2017, Lidl removed images of church crucifixes from packaging in Italy and Belgium. After protests, including a complaint from the mayor of Dolceacqua, the images were replaced with versions where the crucifixes were visible again.

Censorship and alteration of classic literature. In March 2021, controversy arose in the Netherlands and Belgium over a new translation of Dante's The Divine Comedy, in which the name of the Islamic prophet Muhammad was omitted from the passage about hell (Inferno). The translator explained that this was done to "avoid unnecessary offense" and to make the book more accessible to a wider audience. However, popes and homosexuals were still depicted in hell.

No room for one's own heritage. Woke row erupts after Nottingham University puts trigger warning on Geoffrey Chaucer's The Canterbury Tales - because they contain 'expressions of Christian faith'

Bob Vylan is a British music duo blending punk and grime, known for their aggressive, politically charged performances. During their 2025 Glastonbury set, they sparked controversy with the line: "I heard you want your country back?" While meant as a provocation against nationalist rhetoric, many interpreted it as dismissive of real concerns among the British public.

The UK continues to face surging levels of violent crime — including knife attacks, sexual assaults, and youth gang violence — leaving many citizens feeling unsafe and unheard. Against that backdrop, the desire to "take the country back" often reflects a longing for order and security, not hatred. Rather than bridging divides, Bob Vylan's rhetoric is deepening them. By mocking or simplifying these concerns, the duo arguably contributes to the growing sense of polarization and cultural tension in British society.

Violence Against White Farmers: What's Going On?

Some white farmers in South Africa have been brutally murdered. There are harrowing cases in which entire families have been attacked — sometimes involving torture or hate-filled language. These incidents are real and horrific.

South Africa has an extremely high murder rate overall: more than 20,000 murders per year, which amounts to roughly 60 per day.
Most victims are Black South Africans, often living in poor townships. Farm murders represent a small percentage of all killings, but they stand out due to their often violent nature and the isolation of many farms. South Africa continues to struggle with the legacies of apartheid: poverty, inequality, trauma, and a deeply violent society.

Many South Africans — Black, white, and everyone in between — are working hard together toward healing and justice.

"Makeba" is a song by Jain, released in 2015. It is a tribute to Miriam Makeba, a famous South African singer and activist known as "Mama Africa", who fought against apartheid in South Africa.

Apartheid (1948–1994) was a system of legalized racial segregation imposed by the white minority government in South Africa.

Many people around the world mistakenly think of Africa as a single country, but in reality, Africa is a vast continent made up of 54 diverse countries, including Algeria, Angola, Benin, Botswana, Burkina Faso, Burundi, Central African Republic, Comoros, Republic of the Congo (Congo-Brazzaville), Democratic Republic of the Congo (Congo-Kinshasa), Djibouti, Egypt, Equatorial Guinea, Eritrea, Eswatini (formerly Swaziland), Ethiopia, Gabon, Gambia, Ghana, Guinea, Guinea-Bissau, Ivory Coast (Côte d'Ivoire), Cameroon, Cape Verde, Kenya, Lesotho, Liberia, Libya, Madagascar, Malawi, Mali, Morocco, Mauritania, Mauritius, Mozambique, Namibia, Niger, Nigeria, Uganda, Rwanda, São Tomé and Príncipe, Senegal, Seychelles, Sierra Leone, Somalia, South Africa, South Sudan, Sudan, Tanzania, Togo, Tunisia, Chad, Zambia, Zimbabwe.

There is a common misconception that everyone in Africa is poor. This is simply not true. Many Africans live prosperous and comfortable lives, often owning their own homes without mortgages or taxes - a lifestyle that, in some ways, can be better than what many experience in America.

Another false belief is that all Africans are uneducated or uncivilized. While there are certainly challenges in some areas, Africa is home to countless educated, skilled, and innovative people, thriving in cities and rural areas alike.  It's important to move beyond stereotypes and recognize the richness, complexity, and diversity of Africa and its people.

"There will come a day when we will see many more radicals, extremists, and terrorists coming from Europe, due to a lack of decisiveness, trying to be politically correct, or assuming that they know the Middle East, Islam, and 'the others' better than we do. And I'm sorry, but that is pure ignorance." — from the speech of Sheikh Abdullah bin Zayed Al Nahyan (Minister of Foreign Affairs of the UAE) during the Tweeps Forum in 2019.

The Tweeps Forum is an international, interactive event launched in 2013 and held in Riyadh. It is organized by the MiSK Foundation of Mohammed bin Salman. It serves as a platform where youth and leaders worldwide come together to discuss how social media can effectively contribute to society, peace, and security. Themes include combating extremism, counter-terrorism, and the role of social media in sharing meaningful ideas.

For sheer ignorance and the deliberate choice to ignore problems, it is the citizens who pay the highest price.

The number of attacks is no longer countable. On 7 July 2005, four suicide bombers carried out coordinated attacks on London's public transport system, killing 52 people and injuring more than 700.
And then there was the Manchester Arena bombing (2017), the Bataclan and Paris attacks (2015), the Brussels Zaventem and metro attacks (2016), the Berlin Christmas market attack (2016), the Nice truck attack (2016), the London Bridge and Borough Market attack (2017), the Stockholm truck attack (2017), the Vienna attack (2020), the Utrecht station attack (2019), and more. 

Let us also not forget the French history teacher Samuel Paty, who was beheaded in October 2020, and the murder of Theo van Gogh (2004). 

Or the 85-year-old French priest Jacques Hamel, who was beheaded during a Mass in the church of Saint-Étienne-du-Rouvray in 2016 by two Islamic terrorists. Or the sexual violence. 

How do we address this issue? Certainly not by denying its existence and immediately labeling those who point it out as Nazis. If anything is fascist, it is silencing dissenting voices. 

Think of Pim Fortuyn, who was demonized for years and was ultimately murdered in 2002 by a left-wing activist. Or Wil Schuurman, the wife of Janmaat, who was left permanently disabled in an attack by left-wing activists and still uses a wheelchair. To this day, the perpetrators show little to no remorse. These are painful examples of how political polarization and hatred lead to violence and injustice — something we must never ignore.

What can we learn from the United Arab Emirates?

The United Arab Emirates (UAE) has traditionally taken a very different approach to refugee reception than many Western countries. Unlike some European countries, such as Germany or Sweden, the UAE has not taken in large numbers of refugees through official refugee programs or asylum systems. However, the UAE provides significant humanitarian aid to refugees in the region. It has relatively strict immigration and residency permit rules, making it difficult for refugees to be admitted. The number of attacks in the UAE is relatively rare. 

Recognizing a problem is the first step towards a solution.

See Unveiled: How the West Empowers Radical Muslims by Yasmine Mohammed

Germany offers refugees and asylum seekers free housing, healthcare, monthly allowances, and child benefits. Yet, some still openly express hostility toward the very country that welcomed them.

An Islamist demonstration in Hamburg Germany in April 2024 calling for the establishment of a caliphate and the implementation of Sharia law, where more than 1,000 people participated and some held signs with messages like "Caliphate is the solution" and "Sharia is the solution. 

2025 August, Netherlands - Multiple stab and slash wounds—including injuries to the neck—were discovered on 17-year-old Lisa when her body was found in a ditch early Wednesday morning. She had cycled home from Amsterdam to Abcoude via the Holterbergweg, called the police herself, but tragically was found dead upon their arrival. A 22-year-old man residing in an asylum seeker center has been arrested; he is also suspected of a violent sexual assault last week and an attempted sexual assault earlier this month. He faces charges including murder and rape and will appear before a court on Monday.

Muslim countries have highest rates of suicide, murder, rape and mental health problems

(source) A lost generation and grim future awaits if the Middle East is not stabilised, according to 25-year study of countries stretching from Morocco to Pakistan.

Suicide, murder, rape and mental health conditions are skyrocketing in a stretch of Muslim-majority countries from Morocco to Pakistan, many of which have been wracked by violence and conflict.

A major study covering data from the last 25 years shows soaring rates of death by suicide or at the hands of others. In 2015 alone, the last year for which data was used, around 30,000 people committed suicide, while 35,000 were murdered. The figures do not include deaths in places which are at war, such as Syria and Iraq, and represent increases of 100 per cent and 152 per cent respectively since 1990.

The study was conducted by researchers at the University of Washington's Institute for Health Metrics and Evaluation (IHME).

"In other parts of the world during the same period, the number of deaths from suicide increased 19 percent and interpersonal violence by 12 percent," stated one of the 15 reports published this week in the International Journal of Public Health.

The researchers also found a "sharp increase" in mental health conditions such as depression, anxiety, bipolar disorder and schizophrenia. "Depression and anxiety disorders were the most common mental conditions," according to the study.

"Intractable and endemic violence is creating a lost generation of children and young adults," said Dr Ali Mokdad, the study's lead author and the Director for Middle Eastern Initiatives at IHME. "The future of the Middle East is grim unless we can find a way to bring stability to the region."

The research showed that the wars in Yemen, Iraq and Syria in particular are taking a severe toll on the health of the population in those countries. Not only are the effects immediate in terms of death and injury, but "these events will lead to increased health burden in the future as the next generation…is being raised under the harsh conditions of malnutrition and lack of preventive health services."

Yemen has the highest proportion of its population suffering from food insecurity,at 36 per cent.

Despite the fast increasing need for mental health professionals to address the psychological fallout of conflict and poverty, the region has very few psychiatrists and psychologists. Many of the countries have only 0.5 psychiatrists for every 100,000 people. By comparison, Europe has more than 40 per 100,000.

The study was conducted using estimates from the annual Global Burden of Diseases, Injuries, and Risk Factors study and focused on the 600 million people of the "Eastern Mediterranean", which includes 22 countries from the Maghreb, Horn of Africa, the Middle East — including the GCC — and Afghanistan and Pakistan.

The geographical area has endured, to varying degrees, conflict for decades.An estimated 208,179 people were estimated to have been killed by war, suicide and murder in 2015, of which 144,000 died in war.  

Such estimates are almost always below the true figures due to the difficulties of collecting reliable data in war zones. But violence and the associated psychological disorders are not the only alarming findings about the region's health trends.

"In recent years, many of the health gains for some countries have slowed and several health conditions that were under control are re-emerging," Dr Mokdad said. "This study clearly indicates that the future health of the region is in danger."

Even the wealthiest per capita countries of the GCC will be affected directly or indirectly by the impact of global warming and climate change.

Some of the countries "face significant environmental challenges due to lack of water, rising temperatures, and sandstorms," the study found. Air pollution also needs to be addressed. 

In the UAE, Qatar and Oman, transport-related accidents were the second highest cause of death in 2015, at 14 per cent, 20 per cent and 16 per cent respectively. While such deaths are falling in all the countries except Libya, Pakistan and Egypt, they were doing so at a slower rate than elsewhere in the world. The overall level of obesity in the Eastern Mediterranean has increased by 37 per cent since 1980, the study, but obesity is most prevalent in Qatar and Kuwait.

Child mortality also fell more slowly than the global rate in many of the 22 countries. Sudan, Pakistan and Afghanistan are all in the top ten countries with the highest child mortality rates. Eighty per cent of all child deaths occurred in those three countries along with Somalia, South Sudan and Yemen.

The study also found that most of the cases responsible for a tenfold increase in HIV and Aids-related deaths in the last 25 years occurred in three Horn of Africa countries — Djibouti, Somalia and Sudan.

"In this region, individuals infected with HIV are dying faster than the rest of the world,"said Charbel El Bcheraoui, assistant professor at IHME. "This is a sign that HIV patients are not receiving proper treatment in an era where HIV can be well controlled with the appropriate treatment regimens."

The countries studied are: Afghanistan, Egypt, Bahrain, Djibouti, Iraq, Iran, Jordan, Saudi Arabia, Kuwait, Lebanon, Libya, Morocco, Oman, Pakistan, Palestine, Qatar, Yemen, Somalia, Sudan, Syria, Tunisia, and the UAE.

What does this mean when these individuals migrate to Europe?
A 25-year study shows that many people from the Middle East and North Africa suffer from severe mental health issues due to war, poverty, trauma, and lack of healthcare. When they migrate to Europe—often as refugees—some bring unresolved trauma with them.

This poses significant challenges for reception, integration, and public health in Europe:

• Mental healthcare: Most European countries are not adequately prepared for the high number of migrants suffering from PTSD, depression, anxiety disorders, or other mental illnesses. There are language barriers, cultural differences, and a shortage of specialized care providers.

• 'Disturbed individuals' and incidents: A small portion of this group appears in the media as "mentally disturbed" following serious incidents, including violence or even attacks. While not representative of the whole group, this reinforces fear and polarization in society.

• Risk of radicalization: In combination with isolation, poverty, hopelessness, or religious extremism, mentally vulnerable individuals may also become more susceptible to radicalization.

• Important nuance: Not every migrant from these regions struggles with mental health issues or poses a risk. Some are victims of violence themselves and are seeking a safer life.

The explosive rise in mental health problems in countries like Afghanistan, Iraq, Somalia, or Syria has consequences that reach far beyond their borders. Without improved screening, support, and mental healthcare, the risks to public safety and social cohesion will only grow in Europe.

'I am just the wife' 

Samantha Lewthwaite, for anyone who may have forgotten, is the Christian-born daughter of a former British soldier who became a Muslim convert and married one of the 7/7 London suicide bombers, Germaine Lindsay.

Following the 2005 attacks, she initially claimed ignorance of her husband's plans, but later disappeared and resurfaced as a suspected key figure in multiple terrorist attacks in Africa.

'Samantha played dumb – I am just the wife,' former Metropolitan Police anti-terrorism officer David Videcette recalled when interviewed for the Netflix series, World's Most Wanted.

 Lewthwaite is believed to have joined the al-Qaeda-linked group al-Shabaab, playing a central role in financing and coordinating attacks that have killed over 240 people, including the 2013 Westgate mall siege and the 2015 Garissa University massacre.

Despite an international arrest warrant, she has evaded capture for nearly two decades and is thought to be hiding in Somalia. 

Fatima Aberkan, often referred to as one of Belgium's most prominent "ISIS brides," is a Belgian national who left for Syria during the rise of the Islamic State. Like other Western women who joined the caliphate, she initially claimed she had been misled and knew little about the group's true nature.

However, investigations revealed that Aberkan had strong ideological ties to jihadist networks in Belgium even before her departure. She came from a radicalised family, with multiple members involved in extremist circles. Fatima herself was suspected of playing a more active role than she publicly admitted, possibly in recruitment or propaganda.

Her case drew significant attention in Belgium and highlighted the challenges of dealing with returnees who pose potential security risks while often portraying themselves as victims.

 it is a common pattern in cases involving women connected to jihadist groups like ISIS or al-Shabaab: they often claim ignorance or downplay their role. This happens for several reasons, both strategic and psychological.

Many of these women portray themselves as passive followers — wives, mothers, or victims — rather than active participants. This narrative can serve as a legal defense, aiming to reduce criminal responsibility or public backlash. It also plays into wider societal perceptions that underestimate women's agency in violent extremism.

In some cases, women may indeed have been misled or held limited power within these networks. But in others, evidence shows that women acted as recruiters, fundraisers, or even moral enforcers within these groups — roles they rarely admit to publicly. Figures like Samantha Lewthwaite, Shamima Begum, and Fatima Aberkan all initially denied deeper involvement, but were later linked to radical networks and terrorist activity. Their stories highlight how ideology, manipulation, and self-preservation often intersect — blurring the line between victimhood and complicity.

Despite the serious consequences of their actions, many of these women rarely express genuine remorse or take responsibility. Instead, they maintain carefully crafted stories of innocence — denying involvement, shifting blame, or outright lying. This consistent refusal to acknowledge their role raises important questions about accountability, justice, and the true nature of radicalisation. 

Cultural Differences You Can't Ignore

Pretending cultural differences don't exist helps no one. It gives newcomers the false impression that certain behaviors are normal here, while the host community faces practices that clash with our values and rules. This can harm social cohesion, respect for people and animals, and even safety.

The images speak for themselves: swans, ducks, and other protected animals being caught to eat; flowers stolen from fresh graves; stuffed animals taken from a memorial for two recently deceased children. These are not abstract stories, but concrete incidents-captured on camera and confirmed in the news. Denying these differences only postpones the problems and leaves both newcomers and society uncertain. 

Eurojust supported the German and Dutch authorities in a coordinated operation against an organized criminal group (OCG) smuggling primarily Syrian migrants to Germany. Five suspects were arrested in a joint operation in Germany, the Netherlands, and Bosnia and Herzegovina. Since 2021, at least 500 migrants have been irregularly transported via the so-called Balkan route. 

However, the network itself boasts of far higher numbers of migrants being smuggled and advertises these figures on social media. 

The proceeds from the migrant smuggling operation are estimated at at least €1.4 million. The arrested suspects are all Syrian nationals who arranged the transport of migrants in vehicles overland from Greece to Germany. On average, they charged a fee of €4,500 per person for the irregular transports. source

Migrants as a profitable business model

Soft-touch asylum judge Hugo Norton-Taylor sides with rapists and murderers

A GAZAN family of six granted the right to settle in Britain under a scheme intended for Ukrainians. A convicted rapist who avoided deportation to Afghanistan on the basis that the authorities there might take a 'dim view' of sex offenders. A murderer blocked from deportation to his native Bangladesh because he claimed he was bisexual.

They might sound like a random selection of the increasingly bizarre legal cases to be heard in Britain under the European Convention on Human Rights (ECHR). But they all have one thing in common: one of the judges sitting on each of the cases was Hugo Norton-Taylor.

It is six years since Norton-Taylor, then 46, was appointed a salaried judge in the Upper Tribunal, Immigration and Asylum chamber – the court to which failed asylum-seekers and other foreign nationals eager to remain in Britain can apply to have their cases reconsidered.

But, in that time, Norton-Taylor has acquired something of a reputation. In a judiciary that sometimes seems dominated by bleeding-heart liberals, he stands out as having an unusually large number of unfathomable rulings to his name.

It takes something for both Keir Starmer, himself a human rights lawyer, and our Left-wing Foreign Secretary David Lammy to be shocked by a decision made under the ECHR. But that is what has happened in the case of a Gazan family who applied for asylum in the UK through the Ukrainian resettlement scheme.

The family – not unreasonably – lost their case in the Lower Tribunal on the grounds that they were not Ukrainian citizens and had no connection to the country.

Yet, in January this year, the decision was overturned by Norton-Taylor, who ruled that the earlier decision did not 'strike a fair balance between the appellants' interests and those of the public'.

Norton-Taylor was still trying to defend this ruling last week when he was involved in a public spat with Lammy.

The family, as it happens, have not yet made it to Britain because they are in Gaza and need permission from the Israeli government to leave. Lammy has so far refused to grant the consular support from the UK, which would be needed to facilitate their journey to Britain – prompting Norton-Taylor to urge him to 'think again'.

As the Foreign Office has pointed out with some alarm, Norton-Taylor's decision may open the door for anyone living in a conflict zone anywhere in the world to apply for asylum in the UK. That could be millions of people. 

Yet, unlike government ministers, the judiciary does not have to deal with the practical and financial consequences of its rulings. 

Norton-Taylor happens to be the son of Richard Norton-Taylor, a former Guardian journalist who now writes for online publication Declassified-UK, often on Palestinian issues.

In one recent offering, Norton-Taylor Sr argued, somewhat hysterically, that the Government's decision to proscribe the group Palestine Action after its activists broke into RAF Brize Norton and spray-painted two aircraft 'threatens all our civil liberties'. Perhaps he would like to name a single country in the world that would tolerate protesters breaking into its military bases and vandalising equipment.

I don't know what the younger Norton-Taylor thinks about the Government's decision to ban Palestine Action. But when it comes to his general liberal sympathies, he certainly appears to be a chip off the old block.

In the same month as his eccentric ruling granted asylum to the Palestinian family, it emerged that he had also handed Ramazan Morina, an Albanian who had twice been refused asylum, the right to remain in Britain on the grounds that it would be 'harsh' on his stepchildren. Never mind enforcing migration law, nor acknowledging that Albania is a safe country,

in Norton-Taylor's hands our immigration system hinges on the feelings of children who aren't even descended from the asylum seeker in question.

Even more outrageous, to my mind, was a ruling in 2022 to block the deportation of Afghan native Ibrahim Ahmadi, who had been granted asylum before being jailed for seven years for raping a woman in Glasgow.

Serious offenders are supposed to be removed from Britain on release from prison. But Norton-Taylor, sitting with another judge, Tom Wilding, ruled that Ahmadi couldn't be sent home because it was 'reasonably likely that the Taliban would take a dim view of an individual who had committed a violent sexual offence in a Western country'.

Given how the Taliban treat women, it is hard to see that they would be terribly bothered by what he had done, but yet again, thanks to judges such as Norton-Taylor, we have ended up with a migration system that rewards murderers and rapists for their crimes.

Ahmadi, by the way, was helped in his appeal by £1,330 worth of legal aid – paid for by you and me.

It was a similar story with 'EH', a Bangladeshi who had been jailed for a minimum of 12 years in 2008 for murdering his wife. The killer had claimed he was 'bisexual' – although the court accepted that he had lied about this to support his case. 

On his release, EH should have been summarily deported, but this was blocked on the grounds of Article 3 of the ECHR which provides protection against degrading and inhumane treatment, such as the type he may have faced for his fictitious 'bisexuality'.

The judge involved? You've guessed it: Norton-Taylor again.

Decisions such as these are surely a long way from what the bureaucrats who drafted the ECHR had in mind back in 1950.

But the problem with the convention – as its critics have rightly highlighted – is that its vague principles are open to wide interpretation. That gives judges huge leeway in their rulings – which certain liberal-minded officials are only too happy to take advantage of. And that's only scratching the surface.

Let's not forget Shaban Binaku, the Kosovan who illegally re-entered Britain after being convicted of theft, possessing a weapon and supplying class A drugs – but was granted permission to stay in 2020 on the grounds that deportation would be unfair on his children.

Or the Sudanese '16-year-old' who was ruled more 'likely than not' to be telling the truth about his age when he applied for asylum – despite his receding hairline, beard and physical assessments suggesting he was closer to 25. Once again, rulings with Norton-Taylor's fingerprints all over them.

He is not be the only judge making decisions that seem remarkably favourable to migrants.

But it is astonishing how many times he is involved in overruling 'harsher' decisions made in the Lower Tribunal.

More concerning than these, however, is the 'groupthink' of other judges to try to prevent any criticism. In February – when both the Prime Minister and Conservative leader Kemi Badenoch condemned the ruling to grant asylum to the Gazan family – Baroness Carr, Lady Chief Justice, complained about a 'mounting campaign of attacks' on judges.

In a democracy, it is vital that we have the right to hold those in power to account. When judges such as Norton-Taylor are effectively imposing a migration policy that is vastly at odds with public opinion and stated government policy, that matters.

For many of us, most of Norton-Taylor's rulings stink. Hopelessly soft-touch judges like him are undermining public confidence in our appeals courts, perhaps irreparably.

The Mail on Sunday, 10 Aug 2025
By ROSS CLARK 

Judge Fiona Beach who allowed knife-wielding drug dealer to stay in UK was on pro-asylum charity

A judge who controversially permitted a knife-wielding drug dealer to remain in Britain was once on the board of a pro-asylum charity.

Fiona Beach found that Christian Quadjovie, 26, was not a threat to the public despite a string of convictions including for sexual assault, carrying a knife and repeat drug offences.

The French-born criminal has spent a total of 963 days in prison since arriving in the UK in 2009 at the age of ten. 

But he was granted a reprieve by the judge, who is a former director at Asylum Aid and represented migrants for free on behalf of the Bail for Immigration Detainees charity, the Sun on Sunday reported.

The judgement has since been overturned after Government lawyers claimed it was 'made against the weight of evidence.'

And shadow justice secretary Robert Jenrick has made a formal request to the Judicial Conduct Investigations Office to investigate whether Judge Beach, 54, had declared her previous roles.

He said that the judge's apparent conflict of interest undermined confidence in the courts. 

'This is the latest example of an immigration judge with open borders views,' he told the Sun on Sunday. 

'The similarity between her decisions and the political views she has broadcast totally undermines confidence in the system. Judges must be independent.' 

 Judge Beach was listed in the 2007 annual report from Bail in Immigration among the barristers who had volunteered their time to represent its clients in court.

And records show she was a director of Asylum Aid between September 2004 and February 2007.

Judge Beach first heard Quadjovie's case last April.

He had first been convicted aged just 12 after sexually assaulting a girl under 13, then was given a nine-month referral order for carrying a knife in public in 2016.

Later that same year he was convicted of drug offences, was detained for 30 months then caught with more drugs after he was released.

The Home Office attempted to deport Quadjovie but he argued that he would not be able to reintegrate in France.

A judiciary spokesman said all judges took an oath to remain impartial.

They added: 'In each case, judges make decisions based on the evidence and arguments presented, and apply the law as it stands.'  source Dailymail