Colnbrook IRC Heavily Criticised

The Colnbrook high security detention centre near Heathrow run by SERCO has been heavily criticised by the Chief Inspector of Prisons Anne Owers in a new inspection report.

Anne Owers is quoted as saying, "Overall, we found little improvement at Colnbrook since our last visit. Indeed, there was evidence of the centre taking inappropriate steps to manage some of the challenges it faces; in particular, there were examples of separation being misused and the vulnerable persons unit was not fit for purpose.

"A significant number of complaints, including allegations of staff bullying, were not adequately investigated and replies lacked detail." And that "staff and managers readily admitted that Colnbrook was struggling to cope."

The full announced inspection took place last November and followed a similar critical report the previous year.

Amongst the criticisms were:

• Between 80% and 90% of the immigration removal centre (IRC) population were former prisoners. More than a third in our survey reported spending more than four hours in an escort van. Vehicles often arrived late. There were a significant number of night-time journeys, and only 32% of respondents reported that they had been treated well by escort staff, against an Immigration Removal Centre (IRC) comparator of 50%.

• Only 37% of survey respondents said that they had been well treated by reception staff, which compared poorly with the IRC comparator of 59%.

• Only 30% of the detainees surveyed said that they felt safe on their first night.

• Overall, there was a relatively poor standard of staff-detainee relationships and, whilst 52% of detainees saying that most staff treated them with respect, similar to the figure at the previous inspection, the figure was significantly lower than the IRC comparator of 70%.

• 49% of detainees said that they had been victimised by another detainee or group of detainees, which was significantly worse than the 30% comparator and also significantly worse than the 40% figure reported at the previous inspection. Thirty-four per cent said that they had felt threatened or intimidated by a member of staff, which was significantly worse than the 23% comparator. In line with the centre’s internal survey, our survey indicated a reluctance to report bullying. Only 48% of detainees who said that they had been victimised by detainees or staff said that they had reported it. This was significantly worse than the 63% comparator in the previous survey.

• Colnbrook's control and restraint (C&R) was heavily criticised for being oppressive: There was insufficient de-escalation of use of force incidents, and the monitoring of these incidents was inadequate. Kept too long in isolation after incident de-escalated. Complaints were inadequately investigated. The standard of replies was poor, many were not answered within the prescribed timescale and the standard of replies was insufficiently monitored.

• Rule 40 (removal from association in the interests of security or safety) was regularly used as punishment. The Incentives and Earned Privileges (IEP) scheme used as system of punishment rather than as the system of reward as it was designed to be.

• The unit for vulnerable detainees was an oppressive and degrading environment. It offered no privacy and was an oppressive and degrading environment. Arrangements for the support of potentially suicidal or self-harming detainees were inadequate, with poor documentation, and some inappropriate separation of vulnerable detainees. Use of force had increased and was not always well managed.

• The Short term Holding Facility (STHF) had a restricted regime and detainees were locked up for 23 hours a day, with little access to information. Despite previous inspectorate recommendations, it continued to hold women in wholly inappropriate conditions, some of them extremely distressed, or co-located with male ex-prisoners.

• Restraints used during all visits to outside medical or dental facilities irrespective of likelihood of flight posed by detainee.

• There was relatively poor access to expert legal advice, with just over half of detainees surveyed indicating that they had a solicitor, which was significantly worse than the IRC comparator of 61%.

• Bail applications were heard through the on-site video suite but UKBA summaries arrived by post - often late, only in English and limited ability to challenge court's assumptions.

Calais Night At The Cowley Club 7th June

No Borders Brighton presents a night of Food, Music, Film and information on 7th June at 6:00pm - fundraising for the Calais No Border Camp which is being held 23-29th June somewhere in or around Calais.

We will be serving a selection of foods from around the world and showing the film 'No Comment', which highlights the everyday lives of migrants in and around Calais.

Come along for some good food, good music and learn about the plans for the Calais Camp.

Suggested donation for the food is £3- (or more if you can afford it) and we will be serving from 7:00pm.

Members and Guests only.

TRANSNATIONAL DEMONSTRATION FOR FREEDOM OF MOVEMENT AND THE ABOLITION OF MIGRATION CONTROLS

Calais, Saturday 27th June 2009.

In Calais there are around 800-1000 migrants at any one time that are trying to cross the Channel, under constant harassment from the police.

These migrants are harassed because they do not have the right papers, or in many cases no papers at all - they are 'sans-papier'.

These 'sans-papier' in Calais are only the tip of the iceberg: it is estimated that there are over 200,000 sans-papier in France, 1 million in the UK, and up to 7 million in Europe as a whole.

All sans-papier face the same battle - to live and work without exploitation, harassment and fear of arrest and deportation.

NoBorders calls for a world without papers, where everyone lives where they choose.

The route of the demo is the reverse of the walk that many migrants in Calais make on a daily basis - from Coquelles, where they are detained, to the lighthouse, where there is a daily food distribution.

We call on all individuals and groups that struggle for the rights of migrants to sign this call and mobilise for the demo.

The demo is part of a NoBorder camp that is taking place in Calais from 23rd to 29th June (http://calaisnoborder.eu.org).

The demo will start at 10am from the lighthouse on Boulevard des Alliés.

NoBorder Calais
Gdale-CGA
UK No Borders Network

Contact: calais@riseup.net

Calais No Border Camp Promo Video

[click on the image]

6 Arrested At Colnbrook Blockade

A five-hour blockade of Colnbrook detention centre near Heathrow airport yesterday ended with six protesters being arrested for 'obstructing the highway'. The six activists from the Stop Deportation Network had encased their arms in glass and plastic tubes and concrete blocks, blocking the entrance to Colnbrook and Harmondsworth detention centres for over four hours, in an attempt to stop the forcible deportation of 45 Iraqi refugees on a special charter flight to Iraqi Kurdistan. All six were taken to West Drayton police station near Heathrow and charged with obstruction of the highway under Section 14 of the Public Order Act.

Immediately after the blockade was removed by the police cutting team around 12:45pm, three WH Tours and Woodcock coaches were seen leaving the detention centre carrying about 45 deportees. Another 10 or so had been taken from Brook House detention centre at Gatwick earlier this morning. The time, airline and departure airport of the flight have not been disclosed by the Home Office but it is believed to have left Stanstead that afternoon.

At least three people were taken off the flight following last-minute High Court injunctions. Another man, who had not been given Removal Directions but was nonetheless being deported, was also taken off.

Earlier reports said detainees resisted being put on the coaches by taking off their cloths and refusing to leave their cells. A large number of private security guards eventually overcame them but other detainees, hearing what was going on both inside and outside Colnbrook, started a mass protest. There have not been any updates on the situation within Colnbrook since.

[Indymedia post]

Mass Deportation To Iraqi Kurdistan Imminent

In recent weeks the UK Borders Agency have been carrying out a series of arrests of Iraqi Kurds. All have been put in detention centres and notified by the Home Office that they could be removed within the next 72 days, but no earlier than 15 days. It is believed that the Home Office in fact plan another mass deportation this week. [see 17 March post]

In Brook House IRC, for example, Mohammed and Serkar Khadir Rao are currently on hunger strike in protest against their deportation and those of another sixty people back to Iraqi Kurdistan. Najih Ahmed Mohammed also has not eaten food since being detained. A resident of Plymouth, he says: "I have a three year old daughter and a partner here in the UK. I came because my life was threatened by an Al Qaeda-linked group. I’ve been on hunger strike for 11 days – it’s the only thing I can do as I can’t face leaving. I’m doing this for my life and my children’s life."

Maher Salah Mohammed, who has lived in Birmingham for nearly a decade and has a wife and three year old son says: "I’ve been living here for nine years. Two weeks ago immigration officials arrested me roughly in front of my wife and son. We were all so upset. Without them I am broken. My son is asking me every day why I am not at home with him. If they deport me tomorrow I never will be again."

If, as seems likely, these detainees are deported they will be handcuffed between 2 UKBA officers or 2 hired lackeys from one of the private companies like GSL that profit from the refugees' misery and forcibly removed to their deportation flight. They have not and will not be told the date of the flight until the last minute. They will be taken with little or no warning and they will have no chance to say a final farewell to their friends and loved ones.

All have heard of the fate of previous detainees who have been returned to Iraq and wait in fear of their fate. Many of those that have not been 'disappeared' or have not been openly killed by the various armed political factions upon return, live in destitution and in constant fear of their lives. Many of them return to find that their families have fled the area and cannot be found. Others return but deliberately do not contact their families as they do not want to place them in further danger. Some of the returnees who have survived have now joined together, under the banner of the International Federation of Iraqi Refugees, to campaign against further forced mass deportations to Iraq and call on the Iraqi Kurdistan Regional Government to renege on it's agreement with the UK Government to accept deportation flights.

But it is not just the deportees that are calling for an end to these flights. In April 2009 Amnesty International released a report highlighting the corruption and dangerous, unpredictable situation in Kurdistan and states “that no one should be forcibly deported to this region”. Yet the UK government continues to ignore this, EU human rights legislation that prohibits mass deportations and all the UN recommendations against forced returns to the region.

An Amnesty International report released in April 2009 has highlighted the corruption and dangerous, unpredictable situation in Kurdistan and states “that no one should be forcibly deported to this region”. Yet the UK government continues to ignore this, EU human rights legislation that prohibits mass deportations and all the UN recommendations against forced returns to the region.

Interestingly, this new deportation flight also comes against the renewed efforts by the UK government to persuade the French to operate joint flights to Iraq, to spread the costs and the opprobrium that such flights generate.

UPDATE:

This morning anti-deportation activists blockaded Colnbrook IRC near Heathrow, where 40-45 of the Iraqi Kurds are being held, when it was learnt that the deportation flight was due to take place today. At 10am there were 15 people blockading the road outside the detention centre.

Indymedia reports: 1, 2

Joint Afghan Deportation Flights Back On The Radar?

In an article in Sunday's Nord Littoral Phil Boyle, British Consul General in Lille, seems to have let the cat out of the bag about secret negotiations between the UK and French governments about resurrecting the idea of joint deportation flights to Afghanistan.

Last November saw similar attempts to carry out a joint deportation flight founder and nearly end in a major diplomatic rift between the 2 governments, following a legal appeal to the European Court of Human Rights by French Afghan detainees. [see: November posts] The situation has not changed - collective expulsions remain contrary to the European Convention on Human Rights and most of Afghanistan itself is still declared as being "unsafe" by the UN High Commission for Refugees.

Yet this hasn't stopped the UK and French governments from seeking ways of circumventing the legal safeguards via an exchange of 'experts' in such things. And so sure is Phil Boyle that these secret talks will in fact bear fruit, he has gone public, boasting that, "Very soon I think that our governments could jointly set up flights of forced returns." Clearly his Foreign and Commonwealth Service security training has let him down!