Amnesty International has reiterated its condemnation of the Australian government's continued use of a high-security offshore detention centre on Christmas Island 1000 miles off the Australian mainland (and only 225 miles from West Java).
This comes the day after the Australian parliament's joint standing committee on migration said that it was "appalled at the extraordinarily high level of security... and considers this security to be inappropriate and inconsistent with the current immigration principles," and that "the level of security in terms of the height of the electrified fences, surveillance and the segregation of staff from detainees was considered to be excessive and inhumane and bordering on ludicrous."
Immigration Minister Chris Evans said the Government remained committed to detaining and processing illegal arrivals at the facility and refused to remove the electrified razor-wire fences and caged walkways as recommended by the committee, saying major alterations would be financially unfeasible. [See also: 'Australia ends detention regime for asylum seekers' & ''Tis The Season Of Good Will...']
Wednesday, 19 August 2009
Tuesday, 18 August 2009
Footnote to MailWatch #3
We spoke too soon! A day after the MailWatch #3 post flagging up the lack of Calais migrants stories in the past week or so, up pops the Mail with a bit of barrel-scraping in a revisit of its 'Migrant hid in Border Agency bus to reach UK... and twenty immigration officers failed to spot him' story.
'Stowaway express: Border agency coach waved through every day could have brought hundreds of illegals into UK' trumpeted the headline of a story yesterday claiming that a "source close to the Border Agency" had told it that the coach in question was "a 'magnet for illegals' trying to sneak into the UK" and that it "could have provided a route for hundreds of illegal immigrants into Britain."
The paper did miss one trick however. After claiming that 2 hiding places, each big enough for 2 people, had been discovered under the coach and that it has "been ferrying border officers between Folkestone and Coquelles, at the Channel Tunnel entrance near Calais, for 365 days a year since 2006", it could have calculated that potentially more than 4,300 'illegals' could have entered the country via this route (allowing for the odd day when only one migrant chose to take advantage of the "secret hiding place" that the Mail's informant thought might have "been common knowledge among illegals for years").*
Oddly, the paper chose to illustrate the article with a new Calais migrants photo, courtesy of Reuters suggesting that their photographer had indeed been scared off (see MailWatch #2 & 'Bloody siege of Calais'), captioned 'Asylum seekers wait outside a medical tent near Calais. Authorities believe illegal immigrants may have been using the coaches to get into the UK for years'** What the paper fails to say is that the migrants are queueing for medical treatment and the chance of a shower and change of clothes as part of an attempt to combat an outbreak of scabies amongst the migrants brought on by the appalling conditions they are forced to live in. [See: 1, 2]
Calais authorities have systematically thwarted attempts to either refurbish or replace the already inadequate provision of showers by the charity Secours Catholique and the only source of water for the main Jungles in the east of Calais, which has only recently been installed after a prolonged period of pressure from the local humanitarian associations, is routinely contaminated by the CRS with tear gas when they are not being otherwise physically prevented from using it. On top of that what few clothes the migrants may have are destroyed by the police in their routine destruction of living structures. No wonder scabies is rife amongst a poorly fed and traumatised population forced to live in unsanitary conditions in their desire to make a better life for themselves, something we all desire for ourselves and those we care about.
* Strange isn't it that the day that only one migrant chose to make the trip was the day that the route ended up being discovered?
** It is their 'informant' that suggests this and the Head of Border Force for the UK Border Agency, Brodie Clark, interviewed in the article suggests nothing of the sort.
'Stowaway express: Border agency coach waved through every day could have brought hundreds of illegals into UK' trumpeted the headline of a story yesterday claiming that a "source close to the Border Agency" had told it that the coach in question was "a 'magnet for illegals' trying to sneak into the UK" and that it "could have provided a route for hundreds of illegal immigrants into Britain."
The paper did miss one trick however. After claiming that 2 hiding places, each big enough for 2 people, had been discovered under the coach and that it has "been ferrying border officers between Folkestone and Coquelles, at the Channel Tunnel entrance near Calais, for 365 days a year since 2006", it could have calculated that potentially more than 4,300 'illegals' could have entered the country via this route (allowing for the odd day when only one migrant chose to take advantage of the "secret hiding place" that the Mail's informant thought might have "been common knowledge among illegals for years").*
Oddly, the paper chose to illustrate the article with a new Calais migrants photo, courtesy of Reuters suggesting that their photographer had indeed been scared off (see MailWatch #2 & 'Bloody siege of Calais'), captioned 'Asylum seekers wait outside a medical tent near Calais. Authorities believe illegal immigrants may have been using the coaches to get into the UK for years'** What the paper fails to say is that the migrants are queueing for medical treatment and the chance of a shower and change of clothes as part of an attempt to combat an outbreak of scabies amongst the migrants brought on by the appalling conditions they are forced to live in. [See: 1, 2]
Calais authorities have systematically thwarted attempts to either refurbish or replace the already inadequate provision of showers by the charity Secours Catholique and the only source of water for the main Jungles in the east of Calais, which has only recently been installed after a prolonged period of pressure from the local humanitarian associations, is routinely contaminated by the CRS with tear gas when they are not being otherwise physically prevented from using it. On top of that what few clothes the migrants may have are destroyed by the police in their routine destruction of living structures. No wonder scabies is rife amongst a poorly fed and traumatised population forced to live in unsanitary conditions in their desire to make a better life for themselves, something we all desire for ourselves and those we care about.
* Strange isn't it that the day that only one migrant chose to make the trip was the day that the route ended up being discovered?
** It is their 'informant' that suggests this and the Head of Border Force for the UK Border Agency, Brodie Clark, interviewed in the article suggests nothing of the sort.
Monday, 17 August 2009
Detainee Escorts And Removals: A Thematic Review
Everybody knows it happens, the brutalisation of immigration detainees when they are being forcibly removed from the country (the clue is in the use of the term 'forcibly'). Just last year a major report 'Outsourcing Abuse' by Birnberg Peirce and Partners, Medical Justice and the National Coalition of Anti-deportation Campaigns highlighted the routine violence and racism that detainees are subjected to by employees of private security companies carrying out removals on behalf of the state. Even the BBC have gotten in on the act with 'Asylum Undercover - The Real Story?', made by two BBC journalists worked for 3 months undercover in the Global Solutions Ltd-run Oakington detention centre and for GSL's detainee transport arm.
Yet those actually involved in the removal process, the UKBA, IRC and escort staff, have always denied brutality occurs or have excused it as being the fault of those detainees who refuse to cooperate in their forced ejection from land that they had until recently called their home.
Now a HM Inspectorate of Prisons report published last week* not only confirms that routine use of force occurs but that it is actually detrimental to the stated purpose for its use: use of force decreases the chance of a removal being concluded successfully! The report by the Inspectorate on the so-called 'detainee escort services' of SERCO and G4S found a litany of problems:
long exhausting consecutive journeys;
denial of access to prescribed medication;
use of abusive and forceful behaviour;
lack of follow-up medical attention or prompt medical intervention to such incidents;
a total lack of information about complaints procedure at some detention centres;
failure to provide detainees with their property prior to removal, exacerbating already highly stressful and dramatic situations;
inconsistent or poor escort staff practice with regard to use of force and incident reporting;
failed removals mainly caused by the use of force, others due to lack of staff or incorrect documents.
We can only hope that 'official' recognition of this long festering sore will receive some urgent medical attention and that the practice of the routine use of force by 'detainee escort services' is ended as soon as possible, if not sooner!
* The report has yet to be posted [a.m. 17/08] on the Inspectorate's website (hence the delay in publishing this article) but is now available from Medical Justice and bizarrely from the 'Information for local government' section of the DirectGov website.
Yet those actually involved in the removal process, the UKBA, IRC and escort staff, have always denied brutality occurs or have excused it as being the fault of those detainees who refuse to cooperate in their forced ejection from land that they had until recently called their home.
Now a HM Inspectorate of Prisons report published last week* not only confirms that routine use of force occurs but that it is actually detrimental to the stated purpose for its use: use of force decreases the chance of a removal being concluded successfully! The report by the Inspectorate on the so-called 'detainee escort services' of SERCO and G4S found a litany of problems:
long exhausting consecutive journeys;
denial of access to prescribed medication;
use of abusive and forceful behaviour;
lack of follow-up medical attention or prompt medical intervention to such incidents;
a total lack of information about complaints procedure at some detention centres;
failure to provide detainees with their property prior to removal, exacerbating already highly stressful and dramatic situations;
inconsistent or poor escort staff practice with regard to use of force and incident reporting;
failed removals mainly caused by the use of force, others due to lack of staff or incorrect documents.
We can only hope that 'official' recognition of this long festering sore will receive some urgent medical attention and that the practice of the routine use of force by 'detainee escort services' is ended as soon as possible, if not sooner!
* The report has yet to be posted [a.m. 17/08] on the Inspectorate's website (hence the delay in publishing this article) but is now available from Medical Justice and bizarrely from the 'Information for local government' section of the DirectGov website.
Somali Migrants Rescued From Drowning
A group of 115 life jacket-less Somali migrants were rescued off the Maltese coast on Saturday by local fishermen. The migrants' boat was in imminent danger of sinking and 5 of them had already been rescued from the water. The 34 women and 51 men on board the sinking dingy were eventually taken by a Navy vessel to the Maltese mainland.
The current policy on migrant boats sailing from Libya to southern Europe is to deny them landing rights and to turn them back to the African mainland, as happened 2 days earlier when 84 migrants were forced to turn back to Africa after being intercepted by the Italian Navy. This was only after a Maltese helicopter had ferried a mother and her new-born baby from the boat to hospital.
Recently the numbers of migrants attempting to make the crossing from Libya to southern Europe has dropped off significantly since an agreement between the EU and Libya to cooperate on anti-migration patrols was negotiated. However, these 2 boats may be the beginning of a new spike in boat numbers following the mass killing of Somali detainees in a Libyan prison a week ago. Reports coming out of Banghazi indicate that on 10 August Libyan prison guards opened fire on Somali prisoners causing at least 20 deaths and wounding 50 others.
The Maltese rescue comes a week after a stand-off between 3 boats carrying migrants and coast guards off the Algerian coast. At least one man is reported to have drown and 11 others were missing after 2 of the boats sank, one after colliding with a coast guard vessel.
The current policy on migrant boats sailing from Libya to southern Europe is to deny them landing rights and to turn them back to the African mainland, as happened 2 days earlier when 84 migrants were forced to turn back to Africa after being intercepted by the Italian Navy. This was only after a Maltese helicopter had ferried a mother and her new-born baby from the boat to hospital.
Recently the numbers of migrants attempting to make the crossing from Libya to southern Europe has dropped off significantly since an agreement between the EU and Libya to cooperate on anti-migration patrols was negotiated. However, these 2 boats may be the beginning of a new spike in boat numbers following the mass killing of Somali detainees in a Libyan prison a week ago. Reports coming out of Banghazi indicate that on 10 August Libyan prison guards opened fire on Somali prisoners causing at least 20 deaths and wounding 50 others.
The Maltese rescue comes a week after a stand-off between 3 boats carrying migrants and coast guards off the Algerian coast. At least one man is reported to have drown and 11 others were missing after 2 of the boats sank, one after colliding with a coast guard vessel.
Sunday, 16 August 2009
MailWatch #3
Instalment number three of our occasional service debunking migration stories in the Daily Mail, self-styled 'Last Bulwark Against The Tide Of Filth That Is Threatening To Engulf Civilisation'™
Since the last edition of MailWatch, the intervening two weeks have been incredibly quiet on the vilification-of-Calais-migrants’ front. In fact there have only been two Calais-related stories, 'Migrant hid in Border Agency bus to reach UK... and twenty immigration officers failed to spot him' [02/08] and 'Calais people smugglers 'more likely to be British'' [03/08], and both of those were at the beginning of the month. Of course that doesn't normally stop the Mail reminding its reader that there are still 'dangerous hordes of filthy foreigners' just waiting to cross the Channel to 'steal our jobs/homes/benefits/women/etc.'. So on 4 August, in a story entitled 'Lesson One in Britishness: Migrants taught how to claim benefits', there was a photo of, yes you've guessed it, Calais migrants.
Now forgive us for being obtuse, but where is the link between the following:
"Immigrants are to be given instructions on how to claim benefits as their first step in a new life in Britain…The instructions were set out in a Home Office paper on how immigrants will in future be asked to qualify for a British passport by earning points and credits." ... “At present those allowed entry into Britain gain citizenship almost automatically after five years.”
and a photograph with the caption 'Asylum seekers in Calais: The government is suggesting a points-based system for migrants who want citizenship (file picture)' that appeared between the two sections of text?
If the article is meant to be about so-called 'legal' migration, those arriving through official channels or who have legal status as approved asylum seekers, why put a photograph of Calais migrants in it? Obviously some of the migrants in Calais will be applying for asylum status when they make it across the Channel (and many are likely to fail as they will already have been fingerprinted in France or a third country and, as a consequence, will be denied asylum in the UK). However, the vast majority will not bother to gain 'official' status, either because they have some naive belief that Britain is a land of freedom and opportunity or, more likely, because they know that they have not got a snowball's chance of remaining in the country legally. So we ask again, why put that particular photograph in the article?
Anyway, in the ten days since those three articles the paper has been suspiciously quiet on the Calais migrants’ front. Why, you might be asking? Well, as we understand it, at least one complaint has been submitted to the Press Complaints Commission about the very same areas of press coverage that we have been highlighting in this blog. Now this may just be coincidence but the fact is that the Mail has turned its target of xenophobic spleen from the Calais migrants on to gypsies/travellers and bloody foreigners in general.
So we get, 'Councils spend £250,000 on consultants because they can't find anywhere to put travellers' [03/08]; 'How gipsies got £5m of Lottery cash to beat planning rules... and fund course on assertiveness training' [11/08]; 'Gypsy convoy invades site... just hours after council evicts travellers following six-year battle costing £400,000' [14/08]; and '£1m neighbours from hell: Meet the gipsy family terrorising an entire street' [15/08], four gypsy-related stories in less than 2 weeks instead (as opposed to three in the whole of July).
Then of course there are the usual items such as 'Top judge faces sack for speaking out about immigrants abusing benefits system' [05/08], about their favourite Judge of the moment Ian 'Itchy Finger' Trigger (immigrants are always a good alternative to hoodies and hanging for a judge to publicly pontificate on); more foreigners-are-the-bane-of-our-existence stories like 'English-speaking pupils are a minority in inner-city London primary schools' [12/08] and the usual rampant sensationalism: 'Illegal immigrant rapes woman twice after escaping from Heathrow cell' [08/08]. And last but not least, the inevitable can-you-believe-those-crazy-foreigners stories; 'Merde! Paris reveals the reason it lost the 2012 Olympics to London... dog poo' [12/08] and 'Muslim woman banned from wearing a 'burkini' in a French swimming pool' [13/08]. The latter is a classic Daily Mail-style story, as it hits so many of the right buttons: crazy foreigners, Muslims, the French, the nanny state and, on top of all that, the chance to publish 2 pictures of women in swimwear, although I'm sure the average Mail reader would not rate the burkini particularly high in the titillation stakes.
Since the last edition of MailWatch, the intervening two weeks have been incredibly quiet on the vilification-of-Calais-migrants’ front. In fact there have only been two Calais-related stories, 'Migrant hid in Border Agency bus to reach UK... and twenty immigration officers failed to spot him' [02/08] and 'Calais people smugglers 'more likely to be British'' [03/08], and both of those were at the beginning of the month. Of course that doesn't normally stop the Mail reminding its reader that there are still 'dangerous hordes of filthy foreigners' just waiting to cross the Channel to 'steal our jobs/homes/benefits/women/etc.'. So on 4 August, in a story entitled 'Lesson One in Britishness: Migrants taught how to claim benefits', there was a photo of, yes you've guessed it, Calais migrants.
Now forgive us for being obtuse, but where is the link between the following:
"Immigrants are to be given instructions on how to claim benefits as their first step in a new life in Britain…The instructions were set out in a Home Office paper on how immigrants will in future be asked to qualify for a British passport by earning points and credits." ... “At present those allowed entry into Britain gain citizenship almost automatically after five years.”
and a photograph with the caption 'Asylum seekers in Calais: The government is suggesting a points-based system for migrants who want citizenship (file picture)' that appeared between the two sections of text?
If the article is meant to be about so-called 'legal' migration, those arriving through official channels or who have legal status as approved asylum seekers, why put a photograph of Calais migrants in it? Obviously some of the migrants in Calais will be applying for asylum status when they make it across the Channel (and many are likely to fail as they will already have been fingerprinted in France or a third country and, as a consequence, will be denied asylum in the UK). However, the vast majority will not bother to gain 'official' status, either because they have some naive belief that Britain is a land of freedom and opportunity or, more likely, because they know that they have not got a snowball's chance of remaining in the country legally. So we ask again, why put that particular photograph in the article?
Anyway, in the ten days since those three articles the paper has been suspiciously quiet on the Calais migrants’ front. Why, you might be asking? Well, as we understand it, at least one complaint has been submitted to the Press Complaints Commission about the very same areas of press coverage that we have been highlighting in this blog. Now this may just be coincidence but the fact is that the Mail has turned its target of xenophobic spleen from the Calais migrants on to gypsies/travellers and bloody foreigners in general.
So we get, 'Councils spend £250,000 on consultants because they can't find anywhere to put travellers' [03/08]; 'How gipsies got £5m of Lottery cash to beat planning rules... and fund course on assertiveness training' [11/08]; 'Gypsy convoy invades site... just hours after council evicts travellers following six-year battle costing £400,000' [14/08]; and '£1m neighbours from hell: Meet the gipsy family terrorising an entire street' [15/08], four gypsy-related stories in less than 2 weeks instead (as opposed to three in the whole of July).
Then of course there are the usual items such as 'Top judge faces sack for speaking out about immigrants abusing benefits system' [05/08], about their favourite Judge of the moment Ian 'Itchy Finger' Trigger (immigrants are always a good alternative to hoodies and hanging for a judge to publicly pontificate on); more foreigners-are-the-bane-of-our-existence stories like 'English-speaking pupils are a minority in inner-city London primary schools' [12/08] and the usual rampant sensationalism: 'Illegal immigrant rapes woman twice after escaping from Heathrow cell' [08/08]. And last but not least, the inevitable can-you-believe-those-crazy-foreigners stories; 'Merde! Paris reveals the reason it lost the 2012 Olympics to London... dog poo' [12/08] and 'Muslim woman banned from wearing a 'burkini' in a French swimming pool' [13/08]. The latter is a classic Daily Mail-style story, as it hits so many of the right buttons: crazy foreigners, Muslims, the French, the nanny state and, on top of all that, the chance to publish 2 pictures of women in swimwear, although I'm sure the average Mail reader would not rate the burkini particularly high in the titillation stakes.
Tuesday, 11 August 2009
Brook House Tops Self Harm Figures
The latest quarterly figure for self harm in the UK immigration detention estate show not only that incidents of self harm requiring medical treatment have increased by 51% compared to the previous quarter, but that Brook House, which opened in March this year, has leapt into the charts at number one with 24% of all reported incidents.
The previous quarter's figures (Jan-Mar) were 41 incidents of self harm, with 369 individuals on Assessment Care in Detention and Teamwork (i.e. formally registered as at risk of self-harming). The figures for April - June were 62 self harm incidents with ACDT figures down 1% at 365! Dover, Harmonsworth and Yarl's Wood were the other IRCs contributing significant percentage increases to the overall figures.
Brook House opened on the 18th March this year and is run by the private security firm Group 4 Securicor (G4S). In its' first full three months of operation there have been an increasing number of incidents, ranging from food distribution problems to staffing problems. The latter is believed to have contributed to the serious disturbance at the IRC on Friday 12th June.
The final spark appears to have been the issuing of removal orders to a number of Iraqi detainees resulting in a group of detainees refusing to be locked down. The handful of Duty Custody Officers on the wing* quickly lost control the incident and left A wing in the control of the detainees who had not already been locked down. In the 11 hours this riot squads retook the wing, the wing office and many of the cells were damaged. Mattresses and bedding were burnt and a large fire set in the exercise yard.
Roits squads regained control at about 9 a.m. Saturday morning but many of those already locked down when the disturbance broke out remained confined to their cells with little more than an apple and a Kitkat, and no medication, till the evening, a period of more than 24 hours. They were finally moved on to other wings and A wing closed for extensive repairs.
* The privately run detention centres are notorious for their low staffing levels and poorly trained and paid staff - after all, these multinational firms have got to make a profit somehow!
The previous quarter's figures (Jan-Mar) were 41 incidents of self harm, with 369 individuals on Assessment Care in Detention and Teamwork (i.e. formally registered as at risk of self-harming). The figures for April - June were 62 self harm incidents with ACDT figures down 1% at 365! Dover, Harmonsworth and Yarl's Wood were the other IRCs contributing significant percentage increases to the overall figures.
Brook House opened on the 18th March this year and is run by the private security firm Group 4 Securicor (G4S). In its' first full three months of operation there have been an increasing number of incidents, ranging from food distribution problems to staffing problems. The latter is believed to have contributed to the serious disturbance at the IRC on Friday 12th June.
The final spark appears to have been the issuing of removal orders to a number of Iraqi detainees resulting in a group of detainees refusing to be locked down. The handful of Duty Custody Officers on the wing* quickly lost control the incident and left A wing in the control of the detainees who had not already been locked down. In the 11 hours this riot squads retook the wing, the wing office and many of the cells were damaged. Mattresses and bedding were burnt and a large fire set in the exercise yard.
Roits squads regained control at about 9 a.m. Saturday morning but many of those already locked down when the disturbance broke out remained confined to their cells with little more than an apple and a Kitkat, and no medication, till the evening, a period of more than 24 hours. They were finally moved on to other wings and A wing closed for extensive repairs.
* The privately run detention centres are notorious for their low staffing levels and poorly trained and paid staff - after all, these multinational firms have got to make a profit somehow!
Monday, 10 August 2009
'Legal' Migrants Now Being Targeted In Greek Clampdown
Whilst the hunger strike on Samos against the forced removal of migrants from Greece continues, news has leaked of further attempts by the Greek state to rid Greece of as many foreigners a possible. And it is not just those foreigners considered to be in the country 'illegally' that are now being targeted, families that already have a residence permit and legal status are under threat.
The Greek newspaper Kathimerini has revealed that a Greek law that stipulates that, in order for a migrant’s family to be allowed to remain in Greece, the head of the family must declare an income that is 20 percent more than that of an unskilled labourer, which amounts to 10,200 euros per year before taxes.
This is an almost impossible task for most migrant families and campaigners estimate that atlest 3,000 of the already 9,000 applications already made to remain will be turned down. It is of little comfort that the Interior Ministry have said that migrants can appeal the decision, especially given that the appeals system for asylum applications has already been severely restricted.
The recent massive clampdown on migrants in Greece is having unexpected consequences. It seems that so many migrants have been arrested in the past months, 2550 in July in Athens alone, that police cells are becoming over crowded. Senior officers in Attica and other parts of Greece have written to their superiors to complain.
The Interior Ministry has responded that is attempting to speed up the construction of three new 2,500 place detention centres (Aspropyrgos, west of Athens; Ritsona, north of Athens, and Evros, north-eastern Greece). Sources at the ministry said that the Ritsona center could be ready in October, although local officials and residents have vowed to keep up protests against its construction. Another detention centre to be sited near Kavala, northern Greece, has also run into local opposition and plans have been put on hold.
The Greek newspaper Kathimerini has revealed that a Greek law that stipulates that, in order for a migrant’s family to be allowed to remain in Greece, the head of the family must declare an income that is 20 percent more than that of an unskilled labourer, which amounts to 10,200 euros per year before taxes.
This is an almost impossible task for most migrant families and campaigners estimate that atlest 3,000 of the already 9,000 applications already made to remain will be turned down. It is of little comfort that the Interior Ministry have said that migrants can appeal the decision, especially given that the appeals system for asylum applications has already been severely restricted.
The recent massive clampdown on migrants in Greece is having unexpected consequences. It seems that so many migrants have been arrested in the past months, 2550 in July in Athens alone, that police cells are becoming over crowded. Senior officers in Attica and other parts of Greece have written to their superiors to complain.
The Interior Ministry has responded that is attempting to speed up the construction of three new 2,500 place detention centres (Aspropyrgos, west of Athens; Ritsona, north of Athens, and Evros, north-eastern Greece). Sources at the ministry said that the Ritsona center could be ready in October, although local officials and residents have vowed to keep up protests against its construction. Another detention centre to be sited near Kavala, northern Greece, has also run into local opposition and plans have been put on hold.
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