The Home Office has agreed to pay £150,000 compensation to family originally from the Congolese Republic - who included a one year old baby and a child of eight - left traumatised by dawn raids by immigration officers on their home. The family were asylum seekers at the time of the raids and have since been given leave to stay in the country. Their claim related to their arrest and detention between the 6 June and 3 August 2006 (57 days) and 29 September and 2 October 2006 (3 days). On both occasions they were detained at Yarl's Wood Detention Centre.
In the face of court proceedings brought by the family, the Home Office has accepted that their arrests and subsequent detentions was unlawful as they could not have been lawfully removed from the country. Both detentions followed much criticised "dawn raids", with large numbers of uniformed officers arriving to arrest the family at their then homes in the West Midlands, as well as the controversial practice of detaining children under the Immigration Act.
These events caused both children to suffer psychiatric damage, the younger child suffering from an adjustment disorder and the older child also suffering post traumatic stress disorder. The children remained in detention despite the fact that Bedfordshire Social Services and a psychologist raised with the Home Office their concerns about the impact of the detention on them.
Mark Scott, of Bhatt Murphy solicitors, who acted for the family, commented that “this case demonstrates not only the very damaging impact that detention has on children but the wholesale failure of the Home Office to comply with their own policy and the commitments given to Parliament that detention of children is only used as a measure of last resort and even then for the shortest possible time.” [Sources 1, 2]
Wednesday, 11 February 2009
Tuesday, 10 February 2009
Officially Sanctioned: Racism And Xenophobia In Italy
On 6 February the Italian Senate approved a new emergency decree known as the “security package”, a series of discriminatory and persecutory measures that will affect the Roma people, immigrants and the homeless. The new legislation calls for ethnic profiling under the guise of the registration of all people with no fixed address, encourages doctors to report “illegal” immigrants and allows for civilian 'anti-foreigner security' patrols (i.e. officially sanctioned vigilantes) to work along side the police.
According to Everyone, an international minority groups rights organisation, “Italy is an ongoing political and media campaign to criminalise the Roma people and agree a large number of brutal evictions, intimidation, expulsions of fact and law entire families, and judicial abuses.” [badly translated from Italian]
"What is more, the security package also authorises the presence of “Padane” patrols. Like the Arrowed Cross in Hungary, the Brownshirts in Germany and the Blackshirts in Italy, we are talking about voluntary militia legally authorised to work alongside the police force in the operations of hunting out and reporting people who are considered a security problem. Even before they were authorized, the Padana patrols were the protagonists of violent actions against the Roma people and immigrants, including the arson attack on the Roma settlement in Opera (Milan) in 2007."
Even the Civil Liberties Committee of Parliament, who visited Italy last September to investigate the situation of Roma and immigrants there, has recognised the incipient fascism of the Italian regime. In a highly critical 23-page report just approved by the group they found that:
Meanwhile, the situation in the detention camps on Lampedusa have not improved, with ten Tunisian refugees awaiting deportation there attempting suicide in recent days.
EveryOne has an excellent website featuring up-to-date reports on the situation in Italy and elsewhere.
According to Everyone, an international minority groups rights organisation, “Italy is an ongoing political and media campaign to criminalise the Roma people and agree a large number of brutal evictions, intimidation, expulsions of fact and law entire families, and judicial abuses.” [badly translated from Italian]
"What is more, the security package also authorises the presence of “Padane” patrols. Like the Arrowed Cross in Hungary, the Brownshirts in Germany and the Blackshirts in Italy, we are talking about voluntary militia legally authorised to work alongside the police force in the operations of hunting out and reporting people who are considered a security problem. Even before they were authorized, the Padana patrols were the protagonists of violent actions against the Roma people and immigrants, including the arson attack on the Roma settlement in Opera (Milan) in 2007."
Even the Civil Liberties Committee of Parliament, who visited Italy last September to investigate the situation of Roma and immigrants there, has recognised the incipient fascism of the Italian regime. In a highly critical 23-page report just approved by the group they found that:
- "there has been a rise in acts of xenophobia and racism, some of which involving unprecedented violence."
- the planned new "Security Package" and "Emergency Orders" were overly complex and difficult to understand. Their communication to the general public and the media seems to have been simplified and incorrect, creating some grey areas that are open to exploitation by political opportunists. Some areas of the legislation were also not compliant with current EC law.
- "the over reactive role of the media and of the political discourse seem more heating than calming the existing tensions in the Italian society."
Meanwhile, the situation in the detention camps on Lampedusa have not improved, with ten Tunisian refugees awaiting deportation there attempting suicide in recent days.
EveryOne has an excellent website featuring up-to-date reports on the situation in Italy and elsewhere.
Monday, 9 February 2009
European Parliament Strongly Criticises Governments On Their Asylum Proceedures
Following a programme of inspection visits to immigration centres across Europe, the European Committee on Civil Liberties has released a report labelling the conditions in the detention centres for asylum seekers and refugees as "intolerable".
The report found that existing directives were being poorly applied, or were not being applied at all, by some Member States. In particular, the principles of the Charter of Fundamental Rights of the European Union and the ECHR, such as the right to live in dignity, the protection of family life, access to health care and the right of effective recourse against detention, should be applied at all times and regardless of the status of the third-country national involved.
It also calls for priority to be given to the reception of asylum seekers and immigrants in open reception centres rather than in closed units. Also that basic reception conditions, such as food, housing and emergency heath care should never be withheld, since their withdrawal may violate the fundamental rights of asylum seekers.
The Committee found that legal aid often amounts to no more than a list of lawyers' names. That, together with the frequent lack of adequately trained interpreters and the fact that information about procedures was largely in writing and the deadlines are very short, this "constitutes an obstacle to asylum seekers effectively exercising their rights when they submit an application."
In most of the detention centres visited there were also problems with "insufficient and inadequate medical care...consulting or communicating with doctors and the lack of specific care (in particular, for pregnant women and victims of torture) and of appropriate medicines."
The report also expressed concerns about "the prison conditions in which irregular migrants and asylum seekers are detained even though they have committed no crime," and called for the detention of minors "to be prohibited in principle."
Also highlighted was the increase in the number of people being detained under the Dublin System and the near-routine use of detention measures by certain Member States, and the report called for people not to be placed in detention if the Member State has not demonstrated a real risk of their absconding.
The report was adopted by the European Parliament by 483 votes to 39, with 45 abstentions.
The report found that existing directives were being poorly applied, or were not being applied at all, by some Member States. In particular, the principles of the Charter of Fundamental Rights of the European Union and the ECHR, such as the right to live in dignity, the protection of family life, access to health care and the right of effective recourse against detention, should be applied at all times and regardless of the status of the third-country national involved.
It also calls for priority to be given to the reception of asylum seekers and immigrants in open reception centres rather than in closed units. Also that basic reception conditions, such as food, housing and emergency heath care should never be withheld, since their withdrawal may violate the fundamental rights of asylum seekers.
The Committee found that legal aid often amounts to no more than a list of lawyers' names. That, together with the frequent lack of adequately trained interpreters and the fact that information about procedures was largely in writing and the deadlines are very short, this "constitutes an obstacle to asylum seekers effectively exercising their rights when they submit an application."
In most of the detention centres visited there were also problems with "insufficient and inadequate medical care...consulting or communicating with doctors and the lack of specific care (in particular, for pregnant women and victims of torture) and of appropriate medicines."
The report also expressed concerns about "the prison conditions in which irregular migrants and asylum seekers are detained even though they have committed no crime," and called for the detention of minors "to be prohibited in principle."
Also highlighted was the increase in the number of people being detained under the Dublin System and the near-routine use of detention measures by certain Member States, and the report called for people not to be placed in detention if the Member State has not demonstrated a real risk of their absconding.
The report was adopted by the European Parliament by 483 votes to 39, with 45 abstentions.
17,000 Asylum Seekers' Files Lost
Last month it was revealed that the backlog of asylum cases had more than doubled by 8,700 over the year leading up to mid-2008, despite the introduction of the so-called New Asylum Model (Nam), designed to speed up and improve decision making.
The National Audit Office report criticised a second backlog of unresolved asylum applications under the old system, that totalled up to 450,000 in June 2006 but which had been reduced via 'fast-tracking' to 245,000 by last summer.
Now we know why atleast some of these applicants are having to wait in bureaucratic limbo for years. It's all down to the usual government inefficiency i.e. 'lost files' which has, according to the Guardian, "plunged the asylum system into chaos."
According to immigration caseworkers, the number of lost files, which include the names, dates of birth, passport numbers and addresses of people applying to stay in Britain as well as details of their children, has escalated because more casework is being done by regional offices, instead of offices in central London. As a result, more paper files are being transported across the country and being lost in transit.
According to a UK Border Agency statement, on 10 November 2008 there were 17,208 principal files officially recorded as lost. And as a direct result the affected applicants have had to begin the process again, while still being unable to work or claim benefits.
The National Audit Office report criticised a second backlog of unresolved asylum applications under the old system, that totalled up to 450,000 in June 2006 but which had been reduced via 'fast-tracking' to 245,000 by last summer.
Now we know why atleast some of these applicants are having to wait in bureaucratic limbo for years. It's all down to the usual government inefficiency i.e. 'lost files' which has, according to the Guardian, "plunged the asylum system into chaos."
According to immigration caseworkers, the number of lost files, which include the names, dates of birth, passport numbers and addresses of people applying to stay in Britain as well as details of their children, has escalated because more casework is being done by regional offices, instead of offices in central London. As a result, more paper files are being transported across the country and being lost in transit.
According to a UK Border Agency statement, on 10 November 2008 there were 17,208 principal files officially recorded as lost. And as a direct result the affected applicants have had to begin the process again, while still being unable to work or claim benefits.
Wednesday, 4 February 2009
Uprising In US Detention Prison
On January 31 there was an uprising amongst the immigration detainees at the Reeves County Detention Centre in Pecos, Texas. Details are still sketchy but it is understood that, after complaints of poor medical treatment were ignored by the prison authorities, inmates rioted setting fires and are said to have seized guards’ radio communication equipment.
The uprising, which lasted for 2 days and resulted in at least three inmates being injured and hospitalized, was the second time detainees had staged violent protests at the prison in the past two months. 700 of the Pecos prisoners have now been moved to another detention centre in Sierra Blanca, Texas, because sleeping areas were destroyed during Saturday’s rebellion.
The Pecos detention facility, with a capacity of 2,400 inmates, is the largest of the many immigrant detention centres in the United States currently run by private companies. It is managed by the Geo (Global Expertise in Outsourcing) Group, formerly known as Wackenhut Corrections Corporation, who also run the 200 place Campsfield House IRC in Oxfordshire.
Campsfield itself has been the scene of a number of disturbances over the years. There was an uprising there in March 2007, following the brutalisation of a detainee during an attempted removal. Police and prison staff took several hours to quell the riot, which left nine detainees and staff in hospital suffering from smoke inhalation.
In August of that year, there was a mass break-out following a fire, with 26 men going on the run. Most were quickly recaptured, although eight are believed to have disappeared without trace. More than 120 detainees rioted in December 2007, smashing CCTV systems and other equipment during another removal. In June 2008 further fires were set, the 'Tornado Team' riot squads were sent in and the camp was locked down again. Later that month, 7 detainees also escaped, with only 4 being recaptured, and the latest of a long line of hunger strike took place amongst Iraqi Kurds in August of last year.
The uprising, which lasted for 2 days and resulted in at least three inmates being injured and hospitalized, was the second time detainees had staged violent protests at the prison in the past two months. 700 of the Pecos prisoners have now been moved to another detention centre in Sierra Blanca, Texas, because sleeping areas were destroyed during Saturday’s rebellion.
The Pecos detention facility, with a capacity of 2,400 inmates, is the largest of the many immigrant detention centres in the United States currently run by private companies. It is managed by the Geo (Global Expertise in Outsourcing) Group, formerly known as Wackenhut Corrections Corporation, who also run the 200 place Campsfield House IRC in Oxfordshire.
Campsfield itself has been the scene of a number of disturbances over the years. There was an uprising there in March 2007, following the brutalisation of a detainee during an attempted removal. Police and prison staff took several hours to quell the riot, which left nine detainees and staff in hospital suffering from smoke inhalation.
In August of that year, there was a mass break-out following a fire, with 26 men going on the run. Most were quickly recaptured, although eight are believed to have disappeared without trace. More than 120 detainees rioted in December 2007, smashing CCTV systems and other equipment during another removal. In June 2008 further fires were set, the 'Tornado Team' riot squads were sent in and the camp was locked down again. Later that month, 7 detainees also escaped, with only 4 being recaptured, and the latest of a long line of hunger strike took place amongst Iraqi Kurds in August of last year.
Wednesday, 28 January 2009
The Situation In Calais
The situation for migrants in Calais is reaching crisis point. Since the agreement between the UK and French governments to close the Red Cross ran Sangatte camp in 2002 conditions have gone from bad to worse.
The Sangatte camp was housed in an old Eurotunnel building close to the tunnel entrance 3 miles from the main port. Designed to hold 900 migrants, it held 2,000 at its peak, most coming from the near and middle east but all heading for the UK.
The agreement itself was designed to reinforce the Dublin convention, under which asylum seekers are meant to apply for asylum in the first 'safe' country they enter. The practical consequences were the extension of UK border controls to the French side of the channel, a rapid increase in the UK detention estate together with joint UK-French deportation flights.
For migrants the channel became an even narrower bottle neck. So-called 'illegal immigrants' detected entering Kent from Calais fell by 88% from more than 10,000 in 2002 to 1,500 in 2006. The conditions they have to endure have also deteriorated significantly, with the French government upping their repression of migrants in the north east of the country. It was already against the law to aid 'illegal immigrants' in France, but it became policy to send newly recruited police and CRS officers to the Calais area to 'blood' them.
According to the French 'humanitarian' groups (local ad hoc associations that organise in defiance of the law to help feed and aid the migrants) there are around 800 migrants in Calais itself, mostly staying in the makeshift camp called the 'Jungle'. There are also many more in the surrounding area and in the towns along the coast that have crossing points to England, such as Dunkuerque.
At the weekend a group of UK No Borders activists visited Calais on our way to a meeting in Lille to organise a trans-national No Borders Camp in Calais planned for June this year . We visited the only 2 groups, Belle Etoile & Salam, still providing, food for the migrants in the town in defiance of the authorities. And in the jungle we found a Kurdish family with a 3 year old child having to survive in the freezing cold. Such desperate conditions have lead to a renewed call for the opening of a new centre to provide shelter for these people having to survive there.
Yet the new French immigration minister, Eric Besson, can breeze into town a couple of days ago, in what was a national media event, with news crews fighting for the best space, to announce that he wants to see an "exclusion zone" for immigrants in this region of France.
This will be greeted with a sigh of relief by UK ministers as they had lobbied hard for the French government to not reopen humanitarian shelters in the Calais area. No doubt when Besson meets his British counterpart, Phil Woolas, in the UK in February they will get on like a house on fire. That is until the French ask the UK tax-payers to help pay for the increased costs of the new regime.
The Sangatte camp was housed in an old Eurotunnel building close to the tunnel entrance 3 miles from the main port. Designed to hold 900 migrants, it held 2,000 at its peak, most coming from the near and middle east but all heading for the UK.
The agreement itself was designed to reinforce the Dublin convention, under which asylum seekers are meant to apply for asylum in the first 'safe' country they enter. The practical consequences were the extension of UK border controls to the French side of the channel, a rapid increase in the UK detention estate together with joint UK-French deportation flights.
For migrants the channel became an even narrower bottle neck. So-called 'illegal immigrants' detected entering Kent from Calais fell by 88% from more than 10,000 in 2002 to 1,500 in 2006. The conditions they have to endure have also deteriorated significantly, with the French government upping their repression of migrants in the north east of the country. It was already against the law to aid 'illegal immigrants' in France, but it became policy to send newly recruited police and CRS officers to the Calais area to 'blood' them.
According to the French 'humanitarian' groups (local ad hoc associations that organise in defiance of the law to help feed and aid the migrants) there are around 800 migrants in Calais itself, mostly staying in the makeshift camp called the 'Jungle'. There are also many more in the surrounding area and in the towns along the coast that have crossing points to England, such as Dunkuerque.
At the weekend a group of UK No Borders activists visited Calais on our way to a meeting in Lille to organise a trans-national No Borders Camp in Calais planned for June this year . We visited the only 2 groups, Belle Etoile & Salam, still providing, food for the migrants in the town in defiance of the authorities. And in the jungle we found a Kurdish family with a 3 year old child having to survive in the freezing cold. Such desperate conditions have lead to a renewed call for the opening of a new centre to provide shelter for these people having to survive there.
Yet the new French immigration minister, Eric Besson, can breeze into town a couple of days ago, in what was a national media event, with news crews fighting for the best space, to announce that he wants to see an "exclusion zone" for immigrants in this region of France.
This will be greeted with a sigh of relief by UK ministers as they had lobbied hard for the French government to not reopen humanitarian shelters in the Calais area. No doubt when Besson meets his British counterpart, Phil Woolas, in the UK in February they will get on like a house on fire. That is until the French ask the UK tax-payers to help pay for the increased costs of the new regime.
Lampedusa Update
Of the 78 women who have already been transferred to the new Cie ('centre of identification and expulsion') camp under construction at the ex- NATO Loran base on Lampedusa, 16 (12 from Tunisia and four from Morocco) have gone on hunger strike against their possible expulsion.
In Lampedusa itself, there was a general strike on Tuesday 27th and around 50 migrants, who have not returned to the 'reception' centre, are still sheltering on the island and the locals are feeding them. The Italian government also launched a public attack on Lampedusa's mayor, saying that he was guilt of leading the protests!
Meanwhile, in Massa, Tuscany police and carabinieri in riot gear attacked a demonstration of refugees, mainly from Somalia and Eritrea. Some refugees were injured and others were forcibly taken by the police back to the Red Cross centre where they were housed. About 50 people, many of them women, were protesting about delays in processing applications for refugee status and permits to remain. They occupied the centre of the town, blocking traffic and refused to move, asking to see a representative from the UN. Meanwhile they declared they were starting a hunger strike. Many of these refugees were part of a group of 104 persons transferred in August from Lampedusa.
In Lampedusa itself, there was a general strike on Tuesday 27th and around 50 migrants, who have not returned to the 'reception' centre, are still sheltering on the island and the locals are feeding them. The Italian government also launched a public attack on Lampedusa's mayor, saying that he was guilt of leading the protests!
Meanwhile, in Massa, Tuscany police and carabinieri in riot gear attacked a demonstration of refugees, mainly from Somalia and Eritrea. Some refugees were injured and others were forcibly taken by the police back to the Red Cross centre where they were housed. About 50 people, many of them women, were protesting about delays in processing applications for refugee status and permits to remain. They occupied the centre of the town, blocking traffic and refused to move, asking to see a representative from the UN. Meanwhile they declared they were starting a hunger strike. Many of these refugees were part of a group of 104 persons transferred in August from Lampedusa.
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