At 7 am this morning 4 women and 3 men D-locked and superglued themselves to the main gates of Tinsley House IRC at Gatwick Airport in an attempt to prevent the forced* mass expulsion of around 50 Iraqi refugees.
A special deportation charter flight is scheduled to leave Stanstead airport to Iraqi Kurdistan (northern Iraq) later today. If it goes ahead, it will be the eighth time in the last eight months that people have been deported to Iraq by charter flight.
Unlike many other European countries, the UK government is refusing to ratify Protocol 4 to the European Convention on Human Rights, which prohibits the collective expulsion of foreigners. The Home Office also claims that Kurdistan is 'safe' but recent deportees have committed suicide, been kidnapped and been killed in car bombs. It is particularly dangerous at the moment as political in-fighting intensifies in the run-up to the regional elections.
One of the protesters, Brian Arcola, said: "Charter flights like this are the latest step in the government's macabre immigration policy. Aside from the ethical implications of handcuffing and deporting innocent people under the threat of the baton, by not telling them when they're going to be deported they deprive many people from adequate legal representation. If there's to be any truth in the claim that Britain is a tolerant, fair country, this has got to be stopped."
One of the deportees, whose real name cannot be used for his own security if he goes back to Iraq, said earlier on the phone: "I've been in the UK for nine years. I have a partner and an 18-month-old son. If I am deported, all this will be gone. I've made a life for myself here, living as everyone else does in this country, but I'm now being treated like I'm a criminal, imprisoned then deported." He added: "I left Iraq originally because my life was threatened by a radical Islamic group. That same group is now more powerful than they were before. I won't be safe, I won't be safe."
Another Iraqi refugees, who was deported last month and prefers to keep anonymous, said: "I don't know when I'll see my partner or my daughter again. I speak to them in tears on the phone every night. I am still in shock after being sent back. I have had to change my name so I'm not targeted by the same people who threatened to kill me before. My entire world has caved in."
*Each deportee is handcuffed and accompanied by two security guards.
Tuesday, 17 March 2009
Friday, 13 March 2009
"They're Back: Mass Of Migrants Queue Up At Sangatte..."
- Daily Mail Headline
Let me let you in on a secret, 'they' never went away, you just chose (like some many others including the French & UK governments) not to look, as the reality was far too embarrassing to acknowledge.
Eric Besson, in a surprising about face since January this year, when he declared he was going to make Calais an 'immigrant free zone', has said that, "with humanitarian workers and elected officials, we (he must mean the French government here) are moving towards the setting up of light structures around Calais."
Besson also said that the new buildings would "offer to foreigners without papers information services about their rights, but also sanitary facilities, and food points." This is an astounding turn of events, if it is in fact true.
But of course there will be a big catch. The migrants will become even more visible to the authorities and especially the CRS, who are at the forefront of the French state's war on 'illegal' immigrants, regularly attacking the residents of the 'Jungles' with tear-gas and batons, arresting them and burning any structures and the meagre possessions they contain to the ground.
No doubt the International Organisation for Migration will be there in force, trying to bribe the migrants into returning to where they came from with a few magic beans or their equivalent of 40 acres and a mule. Or using scare tactics, with (unfortunately all too true) tales of the terrors of migrant lives in the UK, to induce them into going home to the countries from which they have fled.
Since the new UMP mayor of Calais, Natacha Bouchart, entered office, the situation for migrants and the overstretched volunteers, who provide the far from basic support structures that they rely upon, has deteriorated significantly. Systematic harassment, overstretched resources and official attempts to drive a wedge between groups such as Salam and Belle Etoile, have led in recent times to friction between some of the groups (usually referred to as associations) and to Belle Etoile ceasing to provide lunchtime meals in protest at the local council's lack of support.
Just last month Natacha Bouchart was quoted in the Nord Littoral, a local paper, as saying, "They [the migrants] have a dream life in Calais! See how they are dressed! See how they eat! Four times a day! And all this thanks to us who have put in place a WC, opened places for them in times of extreme cold, established the Council for Migrants, will make available to the Associations the homes of the lock-keepers!"*
And what of this Council for Migrants? It has met just 3 times since it was inaugurated last September and Belle Etoile, the oldest of the Calais associations, is prohibited from attending by the mayor. And no doubt the migrants will be subject to this sort of patronising and ignorant attitude, as displayed by the mayor in this quote, if these 'centres' ever actually open.
*The lock-keepers houses had previously been squatted by migrants and on February 13th this year the CRS tear-gassed the buildings, forcing some of the migrants to escape the gas by climbing on the roof. 20-30 migrants were arrested in this raid.
Let me let you in on a secret, 'they' never went away, you just chose (like some many others including the French & UK governments) not to look, as the reality was far too embarrassing to acknowledge.
Eric Besson, in a surprising about face since January this year, when he declared he was going to make Calais an 'immigrant free zone', has said that, "with humanitarian workers and elected officials, we (he must mean the French government here) are moving towards the setting up of light structures around Calais."
Besson also said that the new buildings would "offer to foreigners without papers information services about their rights, but also sanitary facilities, and food points." This is an astounding turn of events, if it is in fact true.
But of course there will be a big catch. The migrants will become even more visible to the authorities and especially the CRS, who are at the forefront of the French state's war on 'illegal' immigrants, regularly attacking the residents of the 'Jungles' with tear-gas and batons, arresting them and burning any structures and the meagre possessions they contain to the ground.
No doubt the International Organisation for Migration will be there in force, trying to bribe the migrants into returning to where they came from with a few magic beans or their equivalent of 40 acres and a mule. Or using scare tactics, with (unfortunately all too true) tales of the terrors of migrant lives in the UK, to induce them into going home to the countries from which they have fled.
Since the new UMP mayor of Calais, Natacha Bouchart, entered office, the situation for migrants and the overstretched volunteers, who provide the far from basic support structures that they rely upon, has deteriorated significantly. Systematic harassment, overstretched resources and official attempts to drive a wedge between groups such as Salam and Belle Etoile, have led in recent times to friction between some of the groups (usually referred to as associations) and to Belle Etoile ceasing to provide lunchtime meals in protest at the local council's lack of support.
Just last month Natacha Bouchart was quoted in the Nord Littoral, a local paper, as saying, "They [the migrants] have a dream life in Calais! See how they are dressed! See how they eat! Four times a day! And all this thanks to us who have put in place a WC, opened places for them in times of extreme cold, established the Council for Migrants, will make available to the Associations the homes of the lock-keepers!"*
And what of this Council for Migrants? It has met just 3 times since it was inaugurated last September and Belle Etoile, the oldest of the Calais associations, is prohibited from attending by the mayor. And no doubt the migrants will be subject to this sort of patronising and ignorant attitude, as displayed by the mayor in this quote, if these 'centres' ever actually open.
*The lock-keepers houses had previously been squatted by migrants and on February 13th this year the CRS tear-gassed the buildings, forcing some of the migrants to escape the gas by climbing on the roof. 20-30 migrants were arrested in this raid.
Wednesday, 11 March 2009
Yarl's Wood Demonstration March 21st
On Saturday 21 March London No Borders, Campaign Against Immigration Controls, SOAS Detainee Support Group, No-one is Illegal, Campaign To Stop Arbitrary Detention at Yarl’s Wood, Campaign to Close Campsfield, Legal Action for Women, All African Women's Group and Barbed Wire Britain Network to End Detention have called a demonstration at Yarl's Wood IRC calling for an end to immigration detention.
Yarl's Wood is one of 7 IRC's run by private companies for profit in this country and is currently run by Serco under an £87m contract. In May 2007 (just a month after Serco took over there) women detainees, many of them single mothers, began a hunger strike in response to new measures being introduced by the company. At its height, there were over 100 people refusing food, including a number of children.
The women's 15 demands were:
* Release from detention
* No lock up
* No punishment or retribution against those protesting or on hunger strike.
* Proper access to legal information
* Respect for privacy and the end to male guards entering cells without warning
* An end to violence from staff
* The dismissal of sexist and racist staff
* The right to keep mobiles
* An investigation into money sent by relatives and supporters which disappeared.
* A reinstatement of the 71p daily allowance
* No profiteering
* No fingerprinting of visitors
* A choice of sanitary pads
* Adequate health care
* Edible food we can eat.
This was just one of many examples of attempts by detainees to resist the often brutal detention regimes found in UK IRC's (it was in fact the second hunger strike at Yarl's Wood that month and another followed in September of that year).
Come along and show your solidarity with the detainees there and your opposition to the regime everywhere. Gather at Bedford Town Centre to march from Bedford to Yarl’s Wood Detention Centre, to demonstrate between 12.30 and 2pm.
Tuesday, 10 March 2009
Does Every Child Matter?
In a report released today, the Refugee and Migrant Justice, formerly the Refugee Legal Centre, criticises the UK Border Agency's treatment of children in detention. The report, 'Does Every Child Matter?', is the first "comprehensive review of children’s experiences" carried out since the UKBA's first Code of Practice for 'Keeping children safe from harm' was introduction 2 months ago.
The report (as itself says) "paints a distressing [but unfortunately accurate] picture of how children seeking asylum fare in Britain today: their families are consigned to poverty; if unaccompanied, they are subjected to a hostile legal process often marked by a culture of disbelief, sometimes without any adult representation or support; they are left for months and in many cases years without a clear decision about their future, traumatized and in limbo; and they are even locked up, sometimes for months."
"In short, some of the most vulnerable children in the world are routinely denied basic protection that all other children in the UK enjoy, when all they are doing is seeking sanctuary here."
This is just one in a long line of damning reports about their methods and practices, yet the UKBA have of course, as they do in the case of any criticism, denied the report's claims and have stated that treating children with care and compassion was their "number one priority".
The report (as itself says) "paints a distressing [but unfortunately accurate] picture of how children seeking asylum fare in Britain today: their families are consigned to poverty; if unaccompanied, they are subjected to a hostile legal process often marked by a culture of disbelief, sometimes without any adult representation or support; they are left for months and in many cases years without a clear decision about their future, traumatized and in limbo; and they are even locked up, sometimes for months."
"In short, some of the most vulnerable children in the world are routinely denied basic protection that all other children in the UK enjoy, when all they are doing is seeking sanctuary here."
This is just one in a long line of damning reports about their methods and practices, yet the UKBA have of course, as they do in the case of any criticism, denied the report's claims and have stated that treating children with care and compassion was their "number one priority".
Monday, 9 March 2009
Set Our Children Free
In September 2008, the UK government finally removed its immigration opt-out to the UN Convention on the Rights of the Child and committed to introducing a duty on the UK Border Agency equivalent to section 11 of the Children Act 2004, which requires it to safeguard and promote the welfare of children.
Yet the government continue to imprison children for weeks on end, and at one detention centre (Yarl's Wood) over 40% of children detained are eventually released without being deported. In fact, on 27 December 2008, 40 children were in detention – 20 of them had been in detention for over two weeks despite 'implementing' the Convention in full.
At the weekend, the Welsh Refugee Council hit the headlines highlighting just this point, criticising the government's treatment of the children of asylum seekers in detention as 'abusive' and 'dehumanising' and claiming it continues to be in breach of the Convention on the Rights of the Child.
Mike Lewis, the chief executive of the WRC, was quoted as saying, "We're not talking about 15 year olds. We're talking about three and four year olds, babies even. We've got stories of children who haven't been fed all day in this process. They then go into these places [detention centres] where they could be there for months while their claims are sorted out. I don't think you could make it any more dehumanising really".
According to Bail for Immigration Detainees (BID), in a "Briefing Paper on Children and Immigration Detention" (Feb '09), every year around 2,000 children (the UK government refuses to release the exact numbers) are detained for the purposes of 'immigration control', under exactly the same conditions as adults. The government justifies their detention by arguing that they would abscond if released or that their removal from the country is imminent.
Yet "there is no evidence that families are systematically at risk of absconding if they are not detained. The education and health needs of children, friendship ties and the desire to be granted status in the UK all work against families ‘disappearing’."
The BID report goes on to list a number 'Key concerns about the detention of children':
As a sop to these concerns, shared by amongst others the UN Committee on the Rights of the Child, the Children’s Commissioner for England, the UK Parliamentary Joint Committee on Human Rights, HM Chief Inspector of Prisons and the Council of Europe’s Commissioner for Human Rights, and in an attempt to postpone the inevitable, the government has been piloting so-called 'alternatives to detention for families' in Ashford, Kent (which ended in summer 2008) and Glasgow (to start spring 2009).
Already there are a number of reports about the adverse effects of this scheme on those families that were involved in the first pilot. As BID conclude in their report, "until these commitments lead the government to accept that the detention of children in itself is incompatible with the promotion of their welfare, we believe that the continued detention of children in the UK is contrary to these obligations."
Yet the government continue to imprison children for weeks on end, and at one detention centre (Yarl's Wood) over 40% of children detained are eventually released without being deported. In fact, on 27 December 2008, 40 children were in detention – 20 of them had been in detention for over two weeks despite 'implementing' the Convention in full.
At the weekend, the Welsh Refugee Council hit the headlines highlighting just this point, criticising the government's treatment of the children of asylum seekers in detention as 'abusive' and 'dehumanising' and claiming it continues to be in breach of the Convention on the Rights of the Child.
Mike Lewis, the chief executive of the WRC, was quoted as saying, "We're not talking about 15 year olds. We're talking about three and four year olds, babies even. We've got stories of children who haven't been fed all day in this process. They then go into these places [detention centres] where they could be there for months while their claims are sorted out. I don't think you could make it any more dehumanising really".
According to Bail for Immigration Detainees (BID), in a "Briefing Paper on Children and Immigration Detention" (Feb '09), every year around 2,000 children (the UK government refuses to release the exact numbers) are detained for the purposes of 'immigration control', under exactly the same conditions as adults. The government justifies their detention by arguing that they would abscond if released or that their removal from the country is imminent.
Yet "there is no evidence that families are systematically at risk of absconding if they are not detained. The education and health needs of children, friendship ties and the desire to be granted status in the UK all work against families ‘disappearing’."
The BID report goes on to list a number 'Key concerns about the detention of children':
- The impact of detention on a child’s physical and mental health
- Safeguards to keep children from harm in detention are not meaningful
- Decisions to detain are not subject to automatic judicial oversight
- Detention is not used as a last resort or for the shortest possible time
- The detention of children is not properly monitored.
As a sop to these concerns, shared by amongst others the UN Committee on the Rights of the Child, the Children’s Commissioner for England, the UK Parliamentary Joint Committee on Human Rights, HM Chief Inspector of Prisons and the Council of Europe’s Commissioner for Human Rights, and in an attempt to postpone the inevitable, the government has been piloting so-called 'alternatives to detention for families' in Ashford, Kent (which ended in summer 2008) and Glasgow (to start spring 2009).
Already there are a number of reports about the adverse effects of this scheme on those families that were involved in the first pilot. As BID conclude in their report, "until these commitments lead the government to accept that the detention of children in itself is incompatible with the promotion of their welfare, we believe that the continued detention of children in the UK is contrary to these obligations."
Wednesday, 4 March 2009
1 In 9 People Can't Be Wrong?
Last Wednesday the Office of National Statistics released, as it does most days, a whole tranche of statistics - 22 in all to be exact. In amongst them was a news release entitled "Population by Country of Birth and Nationality from the Annual Population Survey". Now, the fact that the right wing press took up the statistic that roughly 12% (more than 1 in 9) of those resident in the UK being born in foreign countries is clearly uncomfortable for someone who clearly see's himself as Labour's very own Enoch, Powell that is. However, his lack of a clear grasp of the situation so obviously shows that he lacks the old Tory despot's intellectual credentials.
In the same report, the ONS also released figures for the estimated population resident in the UK by nationality (roughly 7% or 1 in 14), at the same time as making it perfectly clear the reasoning behind the ONS' own preference for the figures by country of birth: "It is possible that an individual’s nationality may change, but the respondent’s country of birth cannot change. This means that country of birth gives a more robust estimate of change over time." Perfectly clear as a far as we can see.
On top of that Woolas has made a number of other accusations against the ONS:
Now it goes against the grain to say this, but you have to agree with what Andrew Green of the hated MigrationWatch said, “To imply that there is some sinister motive in simply telling the truth is astonishing” (most of the rest of what Green also had to say on the subject was of course complete twaddle). Maybe the reason that the ONS was 'highlighting' this Phil was because they were only set up on 1 April 2008 and that this was the first time they had released an analysis of this type? And that it's you that's the fool not them?
It just seems that every time Woolas opens his mouth, he appears to be saying that "it's everyone else that's the racist, not me". Get a grip Phil, these are statistics. It's you and the right wing tabloids that are putting them to sinister use, not the ONS.
But then again, he's right to be worried the implications as it's likely that he'll loose his seat at the next election if the BNP take away sufficient numbers of the 'traditional' Labour voters that voted for him last time round; even if he is, as on blog described him, "one of those delightful left-wing racists history throws up from time to time"?
In the same report, the ONS also released figures for the estimated population resident in the UK by nationality (roughly 7% or 1 in 14), at the same time as making it perfectly clear the reasoning behind the ONS' own preference for the figures by country of birth: "It is possible that an individual’s nationality may change, but the respondent’s country of birth cannot change. This means that country of birth gives a more robust estimate of change over time." Perfectly clear as a far as we can see.
On top of that Woolas has made a number of other accusations against the ONS:
- about a press release running to 9 pages highlighting the 1 in 9 figure as the main finding (surely he can't be refering to the very same 8 page excel spreadsheet and 1 page of accompanying notes containing these figures but that nowhere highlights anything?);
- something about them "out of schedule, highlight(ing) the figure two weeks earlier because it was "topical"". (Where did they highlight this Phil? Please tell us.);
- and that the release was "at best, naive or, at worst, sinister."
Now it goes against the grain to say this, but you have to agree with what Andrew Green of the hated MigrationWatch said, “To imply that there is some sinister motive in simply telling the truth is astonishing” (most of the rest of what Green also had to say on the subject was of course complete twaddle). Maybe the reason that the ONS was 'highlighting' this Phil was because they were only set up on 1 April 2008 and that this was the first time they had released an analysis of this type? And that it's you that's the fool not them?
It just seems that every time Woolas opens his mouth, he appears to be saying that "it's everyone else that's the racist, not me". Get a grip Phil, these are statistics. It's you and the right wing tabloids that are putting them to sinister use, not the ONS.
But then again, he's right to be worried the implications as it's likely that he'll loose his seat at the next election if the BNP take away sufficient numbers of the 'traditional' Labour voters that voted for him last time round; even if he is, as on blog described him, "one of those delightful left-wing racists history throws up from time to time"?
Tuesday, 3 March 2009
Terre D'errance Update
On Saturday evening Terre D'errence called a meeting in Norrent-Fontes to show solidarity with their arrested member Monique Pouille. Monique was arrested on Wednesday apparently as part of an investigation into a network of 'people traffickers' operating at the truck stop at Saint-Hilaire-Cottes. [see 26 Feb post]
Present at the meeting were members and officials of Terre D'errance, C'SUR, La Belle Etoile and a number of the other migrant support groups that operate in the North West of France, local Green MEP Hélène Flautre and the mayors of Norrent-Fontes, Lillers and Isbergues. Strong statements of support for Monique and against the harassment of local humanitarian groups by the police were made.
Since her arrest, it has been discovered that the police had been monitoring the phones of the entire local Terre D’errance group, and as a result Terre D’errance has officially declared war on the government, police and judicial authorities. "I had always co-operated with the police and the RG [Renseignements Généraux - similar to the Special Branch], when they wanted information about the camp, but with the problems I have had, I have nothing to say to them!", as Monique stated at the meeting, raising loud applause.
[from: Lille newspaper Nord Éclair]
Present at the meeting were members and officials of Terre D'errance, C'SUR, La Belle Etoile and a number of the other migrant support groups that operate in the North West of France, local Green MEP Hélène Flautre and the mayors of Norrent-Fontes, Lillers and Isbergues. Strong statements of support for Monique and against the harassment of local humanitarian groups by the police were made.
Since her arrest, it has been discovered that the police had been monitoring the phones of the entire local Terre D’errance group, and as a result Terre D’errance has officially declared war on the government, police and judicial authorities. "I had always co-operated with the police and the RG [Renseignements Généraux - similar to the Special Branch], when they wanted information about the camp, but with the problems I have had, I have nothing to say to them!", as Monique stated at the meeting, raising loud applause.
[from: Lille newspaper Nord Éclair]
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