The blatantly racist and truly appalling treatment of migrants in Italy continues a pace in Italy in places such as Lampedusa, a small island south of Sicily which houses a 'Centre of First Reception' (Cpa), that also functions as a 'Centre of Identification and Expulsion' (Cie).
Nearly 2000 persons are crammed in the centre, which can barely contain 850, after a series of arrivals of boats from the African coast. Many are sleeping out in the rain because of the overcrowding (see video for an example of the conditions in the camp). The Interior Minister Roberto Maroni has refused to move them to other centres operating in Italy, insisting they must be processed and eventually deported directly from Lampedusa, which is the first point of arrival for many migrants, especially since increased immigration controls at the Spansh border have changed the migration routes.
Amnesty International, Save The Children, Cir, Asgi, Medicines Sans Frontieres have all denounced the situation in Lampedusa and the possibility of serious human rights violations. The UNHCR had also expressed their concern, since many of the men women and children confined in Lampedusa are refugees.
The situation reached breaking point on Saturday 24th, when approximately 1300 migrants forced open the entrance gates and got past police controls. They then proceeded to form a demonstartion, marching towards the square in front of the Town Hall shouting slogans: 'Freedom, Freedom' and 'Help us'.
The day before the break-out, local residents had stopped a bus with 110 migrants enroute to the new camp and held a demonstration against a new Cie camp being built at the Loran ex-NATO base on the island and against conditions inside the Lampedusa camp, with some 4000 people taking part. The local Mayor, Bernardino de Rubeis was quoted as saying, "The people of Lampedusa are out on the streets to say to Minister Maroni that we are against the creation of an open air prison."
The most striking fact is that the local residents and the migrants have come together in solidarity and on Saturday, when the residents went on general strike, the locals and migrants held a joint demonstration. They have been eating and drinking together, with locals feeding the migrants after their mass escape. Things have been peaceful and the days of protest have gone without incidents, apart from on Saturday, when the police attacked demonstrators. In one incident an ambulance drove into the crowd and a cop also kicked a local resident for no apparent reasons. In both cases the people reacted and the police charged the crowd. A 16 years old local boy was also injured during the demonstration.
The Italian interior ministry, trying to hide their embarrassment at the situation, said there had been "no escape of illegal immigrants" because it was a camp for assistance rather than expulsion, "so there is no obligation to stay there". Italian PM Berlusconi, who is largely to blame for the conditions created by the new laws that seek to speed-up expulsions, also had the bare-faced cheek to try and reassure locals by saying "The situation in Lampedusa is absolutely a contingency. The residents of Lampedusa need to remain calm and tranquil and know the situation is under control but that, above all, we will do something to compensate them for this inconvenience."
Monday, 26 January 2009
Thursday, 15 January 2009
News Round-Up
Immigration Minister Calls For Changes In 'Outdated' Geneva Convention.
Yes our old friend Phil Woolas, the immigration minister, has been at it again. He has called for the Geneva Convention to be scraped, as he claims that "a significant number of people who claim asylum" are abusing the 58-year-old convention, which enshrines individuals' rights to asylum from state persecution. His proposals closely mirror those of that other fine upholder of liberal democracy the French president Nicholas Sarkozy. [See: Guardian 10 Jan]
From Belsen To Zimbabwe: Sorry Minister, But To Call The Geneva Conventions Outdated Traduces 60 Years Of Torture And Abuse.
In an article in the same paper 3 days later Helen Bamber, founder of the Helen Bamber Foundation, a UK-based human rights organisation that works with survivors of genocide, torture, trafficking and rape who seek safety and refuge, attacked Woolas' ignorance of the "documented fact that patterns of migration mirror patterns of global conflict." [See: Guardian 13 Jan]
Campsfield: 'Staff Ignored Suicide Threat'.
Detainees at Campsfield House Immigration Removal Centre claim wardens repeatedly ignored warnings an inmate was going to commit suicide.
Brice Mabonga, a 33-year-old detainee from Congo, tried unsuccessfully to kill himself on New Year’s Day, after spending more than a week on hunger strike.
It is believed Mr Mabonga, who had been in the Blue Wing of the Kidlington facility, attempted to slit his throat with a sharpened plastic knife in order to avoid deportation on January 2. [More on this story: Oxford Mail 13 Jan]
Lack Of Accountability Is At Heart Of The Mistreatment Of Asylum-Seeker.
In an article in the Independent, the paper's Law Editor, Robert Verkaik, argues that "a disturbing feature of Britain's record on immigration is the treatment of failed asylum-seekers (sic). Successive governments have overseen the establishment of a system that is best suited to meeting deportation targets, rather than the care of some of the most vulnerable members of our society. Immigrants who have committed no criminal offence can be locked up for as long as three years. Failed asylum-seekers have few rights and often know very little about the legal system in which they are held. In such a climate, it is easy to see how those employed to guard them are in a position to abuse their power." [See: Independant 14 Jan]
[Courtesy of NCADC]
Yes our old friend Phil Woolas, the immigration minister, has been at it again. He has called for the Geneva Convention to be scraped, as he claims that "a significant number of people who claim asylum" are abusing the 58-year-old convention, which enshrines individuals' rights to asylum from state persecution. His proposals closely mirror those of that other fine upholder of liberal democracy the French president Nicholas Sarkozy. [See: Guardian 10 Jan]
From Belsen To Zimbabwe: Sorry Minister, But To Call The Geneva Conventions Outdated Traduces 60 Years Of Torture And Abuse.
In an article in the same paper 3 days later Helen Bamber, founder of the Helen Bamber Foundation, a UK-based human rights organisation that works with survivors of genocide, torture, trafficking and rape who seek safety and refuge, attacked Woolas' ignorance of the "documented fact that patterns of migration mirror patterns of global conflict." [See: Guardian 13 Jan]
Campsfield: 'Staff Ignored Suicide Threat'.
Detainees at Campsfield House Immigration Removal Centre claim wardens repeatedly ignored warnings an inmate was going to commit suicide.
Brice Mabonga, a 33-year-old detainee from Congo, tried unsuccessfully to kill himself on New Year’s Day, after spending more than a week on hunger strike.
It is believed Mr Mabonga, who had been in the Blue Wing of the Kidlington facility, attempted to slit his throat with a sharpened plastic knife in order to avoid deportation on January 2. [More on this story: Oxford Mail 13 Jan]
Lack Of Accountability Is At Heart Of The Mistreatment Of Asylum-Seeker.
In an article in the Independent, the paper's Law Editor, Robert Verkaik, argues that "a disturbing feature of Britain's record on immigration is the treatment of failed asylum-seekers (sic). Successive governments have overseen the establishment of a system that is best suited to meeting deportation targets, rather than the care of some of the most vulnerable members of our society. Immigrants who have committed no criminal offence can be locked up for as long as three years. Failed asylum-seekers have few rights and often know very little about the legal system in which they are held. In such a climate, it is easy to see how those employed to guard them are in a position to abuse their power." [See: Independant 14 Jan]
[Courtesy of NCADC]
Thursday, 8 January 2009
No Borders UK Newsletter Jan 2009 (No. 5)
The latest newsletter for the UK No Borders Network is available for download from here. Issues covered include I.D. cards, Amey and the cleaners strike in London and a short report on the last No Borders UK gathering in Newcastle last November.
Tuesday, 6 January 2009
Deaths On The Walls Of Fortress Europe
According to an article on the Fortress Europe blog at least 13,341 people have died since 1988 along Europe's external frontiers. Some of their figures follow:
In the Mediterranean sea and through the Atlantic Ocean on the crossing to Spain, 9,409 migrants have died. In the Sicily channel 3,128 people died along the routes from Libya, Egypt and Tunisia to Malta and Italy, this includes some 2,051 missing presumed drowned. 125 other people are known to have drowned sailing from Algeria to Sardinia.
1.066 people died in the Aegean sea, between Turkey and Greece, including 592 missing, and 603 people died in the Adriatic sea, between Albania, Montenegro and Italy, including 220 missing.
Most of these deaths have occurred on makeshift craft or in overloaded craft supplied by people smugglers but migrants have also died sailing hidden inside registered ferries and cargo vessels, with 152 men being asphyxiated or drowned.
At least 1,677 people have died since 1996 crossing the Sahara along the tracks between Sudan, Chad, Niger and Mali from one side and Libya and Algeria on the other one. The data includes also the victims of the collective deportations practised by Tripoli, Algeri and Rabat Governments, accustomed to abandon groups of hundreds migrants in open desert border areas.
In Libya serious migrants abuses are also recorded. There is not any official data, but in 2006 Human Rights Watch and AFVIC accused Tripoli of arbitrary arrests, beatings and tortures in the migrants detention centres, three of which are financed by Italy. In September 2000 in Zawiyah, in the north-west of the Country, at least 560 foreigners were killed during racist putsches
In Eastern Europe 352 people have been found dead, travelling as stowaways in the trucks. 208 migrants drowned crossing border rivers, the majority in the Oder-Neisse, between Poland and Germany; in the Evros, between Turkey and Greece; the Sava, between Hroatia and Bosnia; and the Morava between Slovakia and Czech Republic. At least 112 other people have frozen to death in their tracks through the icy mountains frontiers, especially in Turkey and Greece. In the Greek border region with Turkey there are still mine-fields along Evros river and atleast 92 people have died there trying to enter Greece.
207 migrants were shot dead by border police: 35 of them were killed in Ceuta and Melilla Spanish enclaves in Morocco, 50 in The Gambia, 55 in Egypt and 32 in the eastern Turkey, along the Iranian and the Iraqi borders. Others have also been killed by French, German, Spanish and Swiss policemen, as well as in Morocco and Libya.
41 men have been found dead hidden in the undercarriage of the planes, and 27 people died in Calais or under the trains in the Channel Tunnel trying to reach England, while another 12 people died under other trains at other Europen borders and 2 are also known to have drowned crossing the English Channel.
See also: noborder.org/dead
In the Mediterranean sea and through the Atlantic Ocean on the crossing to Spain, 9,409 migrants have died. In the Sicily channel 3,128 people died along the routes from Libya, Egypt and Tunisia to Malta and Italy, this includes some 2,051 missing presumed drowned. 125 other people are known to have drowned sailing from Algeria to Sardinia.
1.066 people died in the Aegean sea, between Turkey and Greece, including 592 missing, and 603 people died in the Adriatic sea, between Albania, Montenegro and Italy, including 220 missing.
Most of these deaths have occurred on makeshift craft or in overloaded craft supplied by people smugglers but migrants have also died sailing hidden inside registered ferries and cargo vessels, with 152 men being asphyxiated or drowned.
At least 1,677 people have died since 1996 crossing the Sahara along the tracks between Sudan, Chad, Niger and Mali from one side and Libya and Algeria on the other one. The data includes also the victims of the collective deportations practised by Tripoli, Algeri and Rabat Governments, accustomed to abandon groups of hundreds migrants in open desert border areas.
In Libya serious migrants abuses are also recorded. There is not any official data, but in 2006 Human Rights Watch and AFVIC accused Tripoli of arbitrary arrests, beatings and tortures in the migrants detention centres, three of which are financed by Italy. In September 2000 in Zawiyah, in the north-west of the Country, at least 560 foreigners were killed during racist putsches
In Eastern Europe 352 people have been found dead, travelling as stowaways in the trucks. 208 migrants drowned crossing border rivers, the majority in the Oder-Neisse, between Poland and Germany; in the Evros, between Turkey and Greece; the Sava, between Hroatia and Bosnia; and the Morava between Slovakia and Czech Republic. At least 112 other people have frozen to death in their tracks through the icy mountains frontiers, especially in Turkey and Greece. In the Greek border region with Turkey there are still mine-fields along Evros river and atleast 92 people have died there trying to enter Greece.
207 migrants were shot dead by border police: 35 of them were killed in Ceuta and Melilla Spanish enclaves in Morocco, 50 in The Gambia, 55 in Egypt and 32 in the eastern Turkey, along the Iranian and the Iraqi borders. Others have also been killed by French, German, Spanish and Swiss policemen, as well as in Morocco and Libya.
41 men have been found dead hidden in the undercarriage of the planes, and 27 people died in Calais or under the trains in the Channel Tunnel trying to reach England, while another 12 people died under other trains at other Europen borders and 2 are also known to have drowned crossing the English Channel.
See also: noborder.org/dead
Monday, 22 December 2008
'Tis The Season Of Good Will...
...Unless Of Course You Are A Migrant!
It seems fitting that in the week leading up to Xmas, and against the backdrop of the global financial downturn, that a number of so-called Christian countries should be putting up the "no more room at the inn" signs.
In Spain the recession is beginning to bite and unemployment is starting to rise. And of course the easiest and most populist option for the government is to target migrants. To this end they are proposing new legislation to limit immigration, that also allows police to hold sans-papiers for longer prior to expulsion and that will make it harder for foreign-born residents to bring relatives into the country.
Currently 10% of the Spanish population are legally entitled residents and a fair portion of these were once so-called 'illegal immigrants', cornerstones of the building industry boom in the late 90's and early '00's, together with the agricultural labourers that the Costa del Polythene depends upon, that were granted residency during the 2005 amnesty. These people have brought enormous wealth into the country but as times are getting hard they are going to be the first to suffer.
Further east, Italy has already seen widespread repression and attacks on the Roma and migrant populations (see the 1st & 5th October posts), with the Army being sent onto the streets following a state of emergency being announced in the South of the country.
In Greece during the on-going civil uprising (which, if the BNP are to believed, has been caused entirely by 'asylum seekers') there have been a series of savage attacks on migrants carried out by the police in concert with fascists from the Golden Dawn organisation. The police have also been carrying out mass arrests of migrants and an unknown number of these are currently remanded in custody, and can be held up to 18 months before they have to be tried or released. Many have also been tried in flagrante delicto [in a police or Magistrate's court] and convicted in the absence of adequate interpreting facilities.
Greece has a long history of deaths of migrants at the hands of the police, many of whom are Golden Dawn members and sympathisers. [See] Just a week before Alexandros Grigoropoulos was shot, a 29-year old Pakistani named Mohammed Ashraf was killed by the riot-police in Athens as they dispersed a group of migrants waiting to apply for green cards.
The current picture is confused but atleast 50 migrants have received 18 month sentences (without the right to parole). There are also reports that there has been an increase in the number of migrants being rounded up and suffering forced illegal deportation.
The Southern hemisphere is also lacking in seasonal good cheer for migrants. In a rapid about turn, the Australian government have gone back on their decision to end the so-called "Pacific Solution" of using remote Pacific islands to house detained asylum seeker (see the 1st July post). Kevin Rudd's government, one of whose members labeled it a "stalag", have decided to open the £180M detention centre on Christmas Island, 1,000 miles from the Australian mainland.
Meanwhile, we have slightly better Xmas news here in Brighton. Kandazi and Harvey Sisya, 13 & 15 years old respectively, and their mother Gift Mubanga, have been bailed from Yarl's Wood IRC and will spend Christmas back in Hove, which had been their home since 2001 until they were detained on 28th November. Their attempted deportation back to Zambia on 16th December was stopped following a last-minute court injunction, a full judicial review of which is due to take place on 9th January. In the meantime the campaign for them to remain in the country started by Kandazi and Harvey's fellow pupils at Hove Park School continues. We wish them well.
It seems fitting that in the week leading up to Xmas, and against the backdrop of the global financial downturn, that a number of so-called Christian countries should be putting up the "no more room at the inn" signs.
In Spain the recession is beginning to bite and unemployment is starting to rise. And of course the easiest and most populist option for the government is to target migrants. To this end they are proposing new legislation to limit immigration, that also allows police to hold sans-papiers for longer prior to expulsion and that will make it harder for foreign-born residents to bring relatives into the country.
Currently 10% of the Spanish population are legally entitled residents and a fair portion of these were once so-called 'illegal immigrants', cornerstones of the building industry boom in the late 90's and early '00's, together with the agricultural labourers that the Costa del Polythene depends upon, that were granted residency during the 2005 amnesty. These people have brought enormous wealth into the country but as times are getting hard they are going to be the first to suffer.
Further east, Italy has already seen widespread repression and attacks on the Roma and migrant populations (see the 1st & 5th October posts), with the Army being sent onto the streets following a state of emergency being announced in the South of the country.
In Greece during the on-going civil uprising (which, if the BNP are to believed, has been caused entirely by 'asylum seekers') there have been a series of savage attacks on migrants carried out by the police in concert with fascists from the Golden Dawn organisation. The police have also been carrying out mass arrests of migrants and an unknown number of these are currently remanded in custody, and can be held up to 18 months before they have to be tried or released. Many have also been tried in flagrante delicto [in a police or Magistrate's court] and convicted in the absence of adequate interpreting facilities.
Greece has a long history of deaths of migrants at the hands of the police, many of whom are Golden Dawn members and sympathisers. [See] Just a week before Alexandros Grigoropoulos was shot, a 29-year old Pakistani named Mohammed Ashraf was killed by the riot-police in Athens as they dispersed a group of migrants waiting to apply for green cards.
The current picture is confused but atleast 50 migrants have received 18 month sentences (without the right to parole). There are also reports that there has been an increase in the number of migrants being rounded up and suffering forced illegal deportation.
The Southern hemisphere is also lacking in seasonal good cheer for migrants. In a rapid about turn, the Australian government have gone back on their decision to end the so-called "Pacific Solution" of using remote Pacific islands to house detained asylum seeker (see the 1st July post). Kevin Rudd's government, one of whose members labeled it a "stalag", have decided to open the £180M detention centre on Christmas Island, 1,000 miles from the Australian mainland.
Meanwhile, we have slightly better Xmas news here in Brighton. Kandazi and Harvey Sisya, 13 & 15 years old respectively, and their mother Gift Mubanga, have been bailed from Yarl's Wood IRC and will spend Christmas back in Hove, which had been their home since 2001 until they were detained on 28th November. Their attempted deportation back to Zambia on 16th December was stopped following a last-minute court injunction, a full judicial review of which is due to take place on 9th January. In the meantime the campaign for them to remain in the country started by Kandazi and Harvey's fellow pupils at Hove Park School continues. We wish them well.
Monday, 15 December 2008
Tories Claim UK Asylum Process Inhumane
In an interview on the BBC's Today programme Iain Duncan Smith has claimed that the government's asylum process is inhumane. "The British government is using forced destitution as a means of encouraging people to leave voluntarily. It is a failed policy," he said.
He was presenting a new report from the right-wing think tank Centre for Social Justice, which estimates that at least 26,000 so-called 'failed asylum seekers' are subsisting on Red Cross food parcels in the run-up to Christmas. The same report also claims that hostility at the start of process prevents the proper submission of asylum claims and compares the UK system to Sweden's, where 80% of 'failed asylum seekers' return voluntarily to their country of origin compared to only 20% for the UK.
Does this mean that the Tories are suddenly becoming the Party of Compassion? Needless to say at the heart of the report are claims about the major possible financial savings that a change in the asylum process could bring, as the cost of forcibly removing a 'failed' asylum seeker is £11,000 compared to just £1,100 for voluntary removals.
Interestingly, this comes on top of a recent landmark legal ruling that has paved the way for thousands of asylum seekers in the UK to be allowed to work. The High Court, in case brought on behalf of an Eritrean asylum seeker, whose application for entry to the UK was refused, has ruled that current laws preventing him from taking a job are incompatible with the European Convention on Human Rights. This ruling could also affect asylum seekers who are also currently destitute and in limbo as they are from countries including Iran, Iraq, Sudan, Somalia and Zimbabwe which are also considered too dangerous to return to.
He was presenting a new report from the right-wing think tank Centre for Social Justice, which estimates that at least 26,000 so-called 'failed asylum seekers' are subsisting on Red Cross food parcels in the run-up to Christmas. The same report also claims that hostility at the start of process prevents the proper submission of asylum claims and compares the UK system to Sweden's, where 80% of 'failed asylum seekers' return voluntarily to their country of origin compared to only 20% for the UK.
Does this mean that the Tories are suddenly becoming the Party of Compassion? Needless to say at the heart of the report are claims about the major possible financial savings that a change in the asylum process could bring, as the cost of forcibly removing a 'failed' asylum seeker is £11,000 compared to just £1,100 for voluntary removals.
Interestingly, this comes on top of a recent landmark legal ruling that has paved the way for thousands of asylum seekers in the UK to be allowed to work. The High Court, in case brought on behalf of an Eritrean asylum seeker, whose application for entry to the UK was refused, has ruled that current laws preventing him from taking a job are incompatible with the European Convention on Human Rights. This ruling could also affect asylum seekers who are also currently destitute and in limbo as they are from countries including Iran, Iraq, Sudan, Somalia and Zimbabwe which are also considered too dangerous to return to.
Friday, 12 December 2008
Oakington IRC Condemned As Unsafe
The latest HM Chief Inspector of Prisons (HMCIP) report in to Oakington Immigration Reception Centre in Cambridgeshire, the government's flagship "fast-track" asylum centre, had "lost direction and purpose and is not performing well, especially in the areas of safety and respect". In fact, the relationships between the Global Solutions Ltd (GSL) security staff running the centre and the 328 detainees had deteriorated to the extent that they are significantly worse than at any other removal centre.
"Half the detainees, compared with a third last time [2005], said that they had felt unsafe. Only 60%, compared with 89% last time, and 94% in 2004, said that most staff treated them with respect. These are significant and troubling slippages." The use of force to control detainees had also increased at the centre from 53 incidents last year to 34 in the first six months of this year. The number of detainees put on segregation for breaching rules has also risen, from 328 times in the whole of 2007 to 220 in the first six months of this year.
The report also states the management and staff take so little interest in individual detainees that they were unaware of the fact that they had been holding one Chinese man for nearly two years. The Chinese authorities had said that the remote village he came from did not exist and it took 16 months before an immigration officer bothered to check on the internet and found it was genuine. "After 16 months, a member of the UK Border Agency team at Oakington established through the internet that the village did indeed exist and sent a copy of the map showing the village to the case owner. She also reported to the case owner that he appeared compliant and would like to return as soon as possible."
When the information was then passed on to the relevant case worker, the man was issued with a notice of non-compliance with the authorities and threatened with legal action and his monthly review also continued to claim that he had given false information about his address. On top of this "he had already served a short custodial sentence for having a false document and was now at risk of a further custodial sentence," the report said.
Interestingly, Global Solutions Ltd is the company that, in addition to already running Tinsley House, will be operating the latest addition to the Detention estate when Brook House at Gatwick Airport opens at the end of February or the beginning of March next year. We can only hope that the GSL staff make a better fist (if that's the right phrase) of their duty of care that the law imposes upon them. But given the number of complaints from staff about the way that management are forcing them to cut corners and disregard the welfare of the detainees in their custody (see "Outsourcing Abuse", the latest publication by Medical Justice) we somehow doubt it.
"Half the detainees, compared with a third last time [2005], said that they had felt unsafe. Only 60%, compared with 89% last time, and 94% in 2004, said that most staff treated them with respect. These are significant and troubling slippages." The use of force to control detainees had also increased at the centre from 53 incidents last year to 34 in the first six months of this year. The number of detainees put on segregation for breaching rules has also risen, from 328 times in the whole of 2007 to 220 in the first six months of this year.
The report also states the management and staff take so little interest in individual detainees that they were unaware of the fact that they had been holding one Chinese man for nearly two years. The Chinese authorities had said that the remote village he came from did not exist and it took 16 months before an immigration officer bothered to check on the internet and found it was genuine. "After 16 months, a member of the UK Border Agency team at Oakington established through the internet that the village did indeed exist and sent a copy of the map showing the village to the case owner. She also reported to the case owner that he appeared compliant and would like to return as soon as possible."
When the information was then passed on to the relevant case worker, the man was issued with a notice of non-compliance with the authorities and threatened with legal action and his monthly review also continued to claim that he had given false information about his address. On top of this "he had already served a short custodial sentence for having a false document and was now at risk of a further custodial sentence," the report said.
Interestingly, Global Solutions Ltd is the company that, in addition to already running Tinsley House, will be operating the latest addition to the Detention estate when Brook House at Gatwick Airport opens at the end of February or the beginning of March next year. We can only hope that the GSL staff make a better fist (if that's the right phrase) of their duty of care that the law imposes upon them. But given the number of complaints from staff about the way that management are forcing them to cut corners and disregard the welfare of the detainees in their custody (see "Outsourcing Abuse", the latest publication by Medical Justice) we somehow doubt it.
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