Campaign Against Charter Deportations To Cameroon press release:
UKBA have served 'Open ended removal directions' on an unknown number of Cameroonian families, individual men & women, who are all currently in detention. They have not and will not be told the date/time of the removal, only that it will take place before the 15th September 2009. It may well happen this week.
Despite the constitution and laws of Cameroon prohibiting the practice of torture, or other cruel, inhuman or degrading treatments, according to US Department of State Human Rights Report Cameroon 2008 (published 25/2/09) , "there were credible reports that security forces tortured, beat, and otherwise abused prisoners and detainees, including demonstrators and a human rights worker arrested during the February riots. The government rarely investigated or punished any of the officials involved."
The report also stated that "The government's human rights record remained poor, and it continued to commit human rights abuses. Security forces committed numerous unlawful killings. Security forces also engaged in torture, beatings, and other abuses, particularly of detainees and prisoners. Prison conditions were harsh and life threatening. Authorities arrested and detained anglophone citizens advocating secession, local human rights monitors and activists, persons not carrying government-issued identity cards, and other citizens. The government restricted citizens' freedoms of speech, press, assembly, and association, and harassed journalists. Impeded citizens' freedom of movement. Other problems included widespread official corruption; societal violence and discrimination against women; female genital mutilation (FGM); trafficking in persons, primarily children; and discrimination against pygmies, ethnic minorities, indigenous people, and homosexuals. The government restricted worker rights and the activities of independent labor organizations. Child labor, hereditary servitude, and forced labor, including forced child labor, were problems."
According to IRIN Yaounde, 26 August 2009, Cameroon as of end of 2008, more than 23,000 detainees were being held in facilities with a capacity for 16,000 people, according to CNHDL. Prison conditions are "draconian, inhuman and degrading", a report released 12 August by the national commission on human rights and freedoms (CNDHL), which condemns both the physical conditions and the slowness of the judicial system. For years human rights watchdogs in and outside Cameroon have decried prison conditions in Cameroon. In addition to overcrowding, the organization cited the following as the most serious problems it found in visits to five of the country's prisons: high death rate among detainees, absence of hygiene and medical care, shortage of toilet and washing facilities, failure to separate minors from the rest of the prison population and overall dilapidation of detention areas. Lack of food is also a problem, CNHDL says. "The food ration comes to less than 100 CFA francs (21 US cents) per prisoner per day."
Please support the fight against charter flight removals to Cameroon by:
Sending Email/faxes to Rt Hon Alan Johnson, Home Secretary, demanding that this flight be cancelled on humanitarian grounds (especially in light of the numerous Human Rights reports expressing concerns about Cameroon authorities attitudes and actions particularly towards cultural and political persecution).
Model letter.
Fax: 020 8760 3132,
UKBApublicenquiries@UKBA.gsi.gov.uk
CITTO@homeoffice.gsi.gov.uk
Privateoffice.external@homeoffice.gsi.gov.uk
Please send copies of emails and faxes sent to:
Campaign Against Removals to Cameroon
g_macv@yahoo.co.uk
For further info please contact:
Geraldine Agbor - Tel 078 8194 8859
Update: Friday 4th September
Unfortunately the flight went ahead on Thursday evening on a Titan Airways charter from Stanstead Airport.
Wednesday, 2 September 2009
Saturday, 29 August 2009
Pagani Detention Centre & Lesvos No Border Camp 2009
The Lesvos No Border camp is currently under way on the picturesque Aegean island, home to the less than picturesque Pagani detention centre. Pagani is, like many other Greek detention centres, a converted warehouse. Sited 5 km from Mitilini, the capital of Lesvos, it was originally designed to hold around 250 migrants but current numbers exceed 1,000, at least 200 of whom are unaccompanied children.
On 19 August, 160 of the unaccompanied minors detained in Pagani went on hunger strike to demand their immediate freedom. All of them are detained in just one room, where they share one toilet, many need to sleep on the floor due to lack of beds. Some of the minors are only eight or nine years old. 50 of them have been detained for over 2 months, the others have been in Pagani for several weeks already. Detention of minors is of course illegal under Greek and International law.
Video footage recorded by some of the children shows the room where they sleep, two or even three together, in a pile of bunk beds or in layers on the floor. In appalling scenes, children with severely wounded legs claim that there is no medical treatment. Other footage shows over 150 women and 50 babies crammed into to a single room 20 x 15 m with little or no exercise, fresh air or access to adequate food and medical care. [Video 1, 2, 3, 4]
Since the beginning of August a MSF team that includes a psychologist and translator has been working inside the detention centre. “We have seen that there is an urgent need for psychosocial support for many detainees inside the center," says Micky van Gerven, head of mission of the MSF project for migrants, asylum seekers, and refugees in Greece. “Most of them have endured a very difficult and perilous journey to reach Greece and are faced with an uncertain future in the country."
MSF had previously operated in the camp provided primary health care and psychosocial support during the summer of 2008 but withdrew after interference from the Greek authorities made it impossible to continue their mission. They have only recently returned after an agreement was concluded with the national and local authorities to ensure collaboration and access for MSF to undocumented migrants in the camp.
However, following the recent new restrictive anti-immigration legislation doubling the length of detention and severely restricting appeals against deportation decisions, together with the mass arrests instituted across Greece, the numbers in the already overcrowded detention centres have gone through the roof.
On 21 August, with tension inside the detention centre escalating, 930 detainees, including women and children, also went on hunger strike demanding their release, hanging on balusters and crying for freedom. This resulted in the release of 38 refugees the same day, including a pregnant woman with little children. However, whilst they were issued with papers they received no other support and were stuck on the island with no ferry ticket and no money for food.
On 24th, the UNHCR director for Greece Giorgos Tsarbopoulos visited Pagani and talked to activists from the No Border camp who had gathered outside. Earlier on in the day he had called for the immediate closure of another camp on the island, the over-crowded Ministry of Health and Social Solidarity facility at Agiassos for unaccompanied minors. The UNHCR later released a statement deploring the conditions inside Pagani and, following representations, the Greek government agreed to remove all unaccompanied minors from the camp by the end of the month.
It is difficult to get a accurate picture of exactly what is going on inside the detention centre, but in the past week roughly 250 migrants have been released. They have been given 30 days to proceed with their journey or face being detained again. That is of course if they can manage to get off the island at the busiest time of the year when everyone tries to travel home from the large cities and all the ferries are booked. News has also reached the No Border Camp today (29 Aug) that 450 people are due to be either released or moved from the camp and that (somehow) ferry tickets have already been booked, but it is still to be confirmed.
To keep up to date with events at the Camp visit the camp website: http://lesvos09.antira.info/
On 19 August, 160 of the unaccompanied minors detained in Pagani went on hunger strike to demand their immediate freedom. All of them are detained in just one room, where they share one toilet, many need to sleep on the floor due to lack of beds. Some of the minors are only eight or nine years old. 50 of them have been detained for over 2 months, the others have been in Pagani for several weeks already. Detention of minors is of course illegal under Greek and International law.
Video footage recorded by some of the children shows the room where they sleep, two or even three together, in a pile of bunk beds or in layers on the floor. In appalling scenes, children with severely wounded legs claim that there is no medical treatment. Other footage shows over 150 women and 50 babies crammed into to a single room 20 x 15 m with little or no exercise, fresh air or access to adequate food and medical care. [Video 1, 2, 3, 4]
Since the beginning of August a MSF team that includes a psychologist and translator has been working inside the detention centre. “We have seen that there is an urgent need for psychosocial support for many detainees inside the center," says Micky van Gerven, head of mission of the MSF project for migrants, asylum seekers, and refugees in Greece. “Most of them have endured a very difficult and perilous journey to reach Greece and are faced with an uncertain future in the country."
MSF had previously operated in the camp provided primary health care and psychosocial support during the summer of 2008 but withdrew after interference from the Greek authorities made it impossible to continue their mission. They have only recently returned after an agreement was concluded with the national and local authorities to ensure collaboration and access for MSF to undocumented migrants in the camp.
However, following the recent new restrictive anti-immigration legislation doubling the length of detention and severely restricting appeals against deportation decisions, together with the mass arrests instituted across Greece, the numbers in the already overcrowded detention centres have gone through the roof.
On 21 August, with tension inside the detention centre escalating, 930 detainees, including women and children, also went on hunger strike demanding their release, hanging on balusters and crying for freedom. This resulted in the release of 38 refugees the same day, including a pregnant woman with little children. However, whilst they were issued with papers they received no other support and were stuck on the island with no ferry ticket and no money for food.
On 24th, the UNHCR director for Greece Giorgos Tsarbopoulos visited Pagani and talked to activists from the No Border camp who had gathered outside. Earlier on in the day he had called for the immediate closure of another camp on the island, the over-crowded Ministry of Health and Social Solidarity facility at Agiassos for unaccompanied minors. The UNHCR later released a statement deploring the conditions inside Pagani and, following representations, the Greek government agreed to remove all unaccompanied minors from the camp by the end of the month.
It is difficult to get a accurate picture of exactly what is going on inside the detention centre, but in the past week roughly 250 migrants have been released. They have been given 30 days to proceed with their journey or face being detained again. That is of course if they can manage to get off the island at the busiest time of the year when everyone tries to travel home from the large cities and all the ferries are booked. News has also reached the No Border Camp today (29 Aug) that 450 people are due to be either released or moved from the camp and that (somehow) ferry tickets have already been booked, but it is still to be confirmed.
To keep up to date with events at the Camp visit the camp website: http://lesvos09.antira.info/
Thursday, 27 August 2009
News Digest
Having been out of action for the past week, due to circumstances beyond our control, we return with a digest of some of the news that you may have missed.
Malta, Italy and Libya:
The stretch of the Mediterranean between Libya and the Malta/Lampedusa area has long been a major route for clandestine migration into Europe, and the Maltese and Italian governments have long sought solutions to decreasing the numbers attempting to cross the sea from Libya. Italy and Libya have recently concluded a pact that saw them agree to operate joint naval patrols and for Italy to be able to return migrants (contrary to international law) directly to Libyan waters without processing any potential asylum applications.
At the same time the simmering political row between Italy and Malta over maritime jurisdiction has reached boiling point. The Italian island of Lampedusa is 200km south of Sicily and 130 km west of Malta (Malta itself is only 90 km from Sicily) and there has long been disputes over exactly who is responsible for dealing with migrant boats in the area, each having refused to take responsibility for vessels that they say are in the other's maritime 'search & rescue zone'.
Now both sides are taking an even hard line on dealing with each other, as well as with floundering migrants. Malta has long argued that it bears a burden out of all proportion to its size and its detention centres have been grossly overcrowded for years, whilst the recent increasingly repressive political atmosphere in Italy has seen the Italian navy even less likely to render humanitarian aid to migrants in trouble at sea. Now they merely tow them back to the African mainland.
The latest flare-up stems from an incident on 20 August when a boat with 5 exhausted and weakened Eritreans, including a 7-year old boy, landed on Lampedusa. The Eritreans claimed that they were the only survivors and that the other 73 passengers had all died of lack of food and water and been thrown overboard. The boat had left Libya 3 weeks before but had run out of fuel 3 days into the voyage. They had been given bread and water by a passing fishing boat at one point but apparently had refused assistance, other than life jackets and fuel, from an Armed Forces of Malta (AFM) vessel 2 days before they arrived at Lampedusa, saying they wished to continue on to Italy.*
Both the UNHCR and the Vatican were quick to express their outrage and blame both sides. However, that did not stop the Italian opposition from claiming the migrant's arrival on Italian territory as a failure of the Berlusconi regime's immigration policy, a policy that will see the migrants face a fine of €10,000.
Franco Frattini, Italy's Foreign Minister in turn blamed Malta, claiming it's search & rescue zone was "too large for tiny Malta", sparking a war of words with Maltese officials. He also turned his fire on the rest of the EU for not doing enough to stop the migrants from reaching Italy and not sharing the 'burden' of those that did. In response the EU's duty president, Swedish Premier Carl Bildt, promised that the matter would be discussed by EU foreign ministers at the end of October. A relocation project is also due to be unveiled in September by the EU justice commissioner, Jacques Barrot.
The mainstream Italian media were also not slow to get involved in the controversy, whipping themselves up into a frenzy, with Il Giornale claiming that Malta is the "most racist country in Europe." And, in an act of rank hypocrisy, the paper also warned of the threat of growing far-right and police brutality against immigrants in Malta. [video link]
In recent day more boats have been intercepted in the area. Two days ago 57 migrants were rescued by Italian coastguards off of Lampedusa. One was evacuated to the island suffering from dehydration whilst the remainder were taken to Sicily. And just today 79 Somalis landed in two groups on Malta, with one dead migrant from one of the groups being recovered from the sea.
It seems that however much the Italians and Maltese want to bicker over who is responsible for the migrants that make it across the Mediterranean alive, no one wants to take responsibility for the ones that fail in their quest for a better life. Migrants from across the world will continue to want to come to Europe however high EU governments high they build the walls of Fortress Europe and however loud they trumpet their desire to keep them out.
* The AFM has also released a photograph of the 20 August boat casting doubt on the migrants' story and claiming that it is far too small to have set sail with 78 passengers.
G4S:
On 24 August G4S announced that its profits have soared since winning new contracts to run Brook House and Tinsley House IRCs at Gatwick airport. The 2 detention centres are expected to generate £10 million and £5m a year respectively for the company over the next five years.
In other news G4S was fined £5,000 after UK Border Agency officers found the firm had employing an illegal worker at its Glasgow offices. A spokesman for G4S claimed that it was an "isolated incident" after it was found an employee was working in excess of the 20 hours a week permitted for a resident on a student visa.
Netherlands:
In the early hours of 23 August part of the construction site of a new detention centre at the Fairoaksbaan, Rotterdam Airport in The Netherlands was set on fire. On-site offices used by the management of the planning and construction companies responsible for the construction were targeted in protest against the continuing construction of Fortress Europe and was planned to coincide with the start of the international No-Border Camp on the Greek island of Lesvos.
Canada, Roma & Fingerprints:
Canada has imposed swingeing visa restrictions on Czech citizens in an attempt to prevent Roma people form going to Canada to claim asylum. Canada's Immigration Minister, Jason Kenney, claimed the aim was to stop “economic migrants jumping the queue” who could easily move to “26 other Western democracies in the European Union.” He also paid lip-service to the fact that the Roma faced social and economic discrimination but that the Czech Republic was “in compliance with the European human rights law" and that there “is no policy of state-sponsored persecution against the Roma.”
This clearly ignores the fact that, whilst the Roma have the right to free movement within the EU, their chances of finding work in other countries is severly restricted because of widespread anti-Roma prejudice. And in the Czech Republic itself, despite recent anti-discrimination legislation designed to put the country in step with European Union human rights law, persecution of the Roma is on the increase.
Amnesty International recently said that, “Roma in the country continue to suffer discrimination at the hands of both public officials and private individuals, including in the areas of housing, education, health care and employment. Not only do they face forced evictions, segregation in education and racially motivated violence, but they have been denied justice when seeking redress for the abuses against them.”
Other recent news sees the signing of a data sharing agreement between the UK, Canada and Australia to share fingerprint data of people applying for asylum or resisting deportation. New Zeland and the United States are expected to sign-up in the near future, mirroring the type of cooperation between the five states that operates under the UK-USA Security Agreement on signals intelligence. It is not known whether this agreement will give the 4 non-EU countries access to Eurodac fingerprint data system.
Malta, Italy and Libya:
The stretch of the Mediterranean between Libya and the Malta/Lampedusa area has long been a major route for clandestine migration into Europe, and the Maltese and Italian governments have long sought solutions to decreasing the numbers attempting to cross the sea from Libya. Italy and Libya have recently concluded a pact that saw them agree to operate joint naval patrols and for Italy to be able to return migrants (contrary to international law) directly to Libyan waters without processing any potential asylum applications.
At the same time the simmering political row between Italy and Malta over maritime jurisdiction has reached boiling point. The Italian island of Lampedusa is 200km south of Sicily and 130 km west of Malta (Malta itself is only 90 km from Sicily) and there has long been disputes over exactly who is responsible for dealing with migrant boats in the area, each having refused to take responsibility for vessels that they say are in the other's maritime 'search & rescue zone'.
Now both sides are taking an even hard line on dealing with each other, as well as with floundering migrants. Malta has long argued that it bears a burden out of all proportion to its size and its detention centres have been grossly overcrowded for years, whilst the recent increasingly repressive political atmosphere in Italy has seen the Italian navy even less likely to render humanitarian aid to migrants in trouble at sea. Now they merely tow them back to the African mainland.
The latest flare-up stems from an incident on 20 August when a boat with 5 exhausted and weakened Eritreans, including a 7-year old boy, landed on Lampedusa. The Eritreans claimed that they were the only survivors and that the other 73 passengers had all died of lack of food and water and been thrown overboard. The boat had left Libya 3 weeks before but had run out of fuel 3 days into the voyage. They had been given bread and water by a passing fishing boat at one point but apparently had refused assistance, other than life jackets and fuel, from an Armed Forces of Malta (AFM) vessel 2 days before they arrived at Lampedusa, saying they wished to continue on to Italy.*
Both the UNHCR and the Vatican were quick to express their outrage and blame both sides. However, that did not stop the Italian opposition from claiming the migrant's arrival on Italian territory as a failure of the Berlusconi regime's immigration policy, a policy that will see the migrants face a fine of €10,000.
Franco Frattini, Italy's Foreign Minister in turn blamed Malta, claiming it's search & rescue zone was "too large for tiny Malta", sparking a war of words with Maltese officials. He also turned his fire on the rest of the EU for not doing enough to stop the migrants from reaching Italy and not sharing the 'burden' of those that did. In response the EU's duty president, Swedish Premier Carl Bildt, promised that the matter would be discussed by EU foreign ministers at the end of October. A relocation project is also due to be unveiled in September by the EU justice commissioner, Jacques Barrot.
The mainstream Italian media were also not slow to get involved in the controversy, whipping themselves up into a frenzy, with Il Giornale claiming that Malta is the "most racist country in Europe." And, in an act of rank hypocrisy, the paper also warned of the threat of growing far-right and police brutality against immigrants in Malta. [video link]
In recent day more boats have been intercepted in the area. Two days ago 57 migrants were rescued by Italian coastguards off of Lampedusa. One was evacuated to the island suffering from dehydration whilst the remainder were taken to Sicily. And just today 79 Somalis landed in two groups on Malta, with one dead migrant from one of the groups being recovered from the sea.
It seems that however much the Italians and Maltese want to bicker over who is responsible for the migrants that make it across the Mediterranean alive, no one wants to take responsibility for the ones that fail in their quest for a better life. Migrants from across the world will continue to want to come to Europe however high EU governments high they build the walls of Fortress Europe and however loud they trumpet their desire to keep them out.
* The AFM has also released a photograph of the 20 August boat casting doubt on the migrants' story and claiming that it is far too small to have set sail with 78 passengers.
G4S:
On 24 August G4S announced that its profits have soared since winning new contracts to run Brook House and Tinsley House IRCs at Gatwick airport. The 2 detention centres are expected to generate £10 million and £5m a year respectively for the company over the next five years.
In other news G4S was fined £5,000 after UK Border Agency officers found the firm had employing an illegal worker at its Glasgow offices. A spokesman for G4S claimed that it was an "isolated incident" after it was found an employee was working in excess of the 20 hours a week permitted for a resident on a student visa.
Netherlands:
In the early hours of 23 August part of the construction site of a new detention centre at the Fairoaksbaan, Rotterdam Airport in The Netherlands was set on fire. On-site offices used by the management of the planning and construction companies responsible for the construction were targeted in protest against the continuing construction of Fortress Europe and was planned to coincide with the start of the international No-Border Camp on the Greek island of Lesvos.
Canada, Roma & Fingerprints:
Canada has imposed swingeing visa restrictions on Czech citizens in an attempt to prevent Roma people form going to Canada to claim asylum. Canada's Immigration Minister, Jason Kenney, claimed the aim was to stop “economic migrants jumping the queue” who could easily move to “26 other Western democracies in the European Union.” He also paid lip-service to the fact that the Roma faced social and economic discrimination but that the Czech Republic was “in compliance with the European human rights law" and that there “is no policy of state-sponsored persecution against the Roma.”
This clearly ignores the fact that, whilst the Roma have the right to free movement within the EU, their chances of finding work in other countries is severly restricted because of widespread anti-Roma prejudice. And in the Czech Republic itself, despite recent anti-discrimination legislation designed to put the country in step with European Union human rights law, persecution of the Roma is on the increase.
Amnesty International recently said that, “Roma in the country continue to suffer discrimination at the hands of both public officials and private individuals, including in the areas of housing, education, health care and employment. Not only do they face forced evictions, segregation in education and racially motivated violence, but they have been denied justice when seeking redress for the abuses against them.”
Other recent news sees the signing of a data sharing agreement between the UK, Canada and Australia to share fingerprint data of people applying for asylum or resisting deportation. New Zeland and the United States are expected to sign-up in the near future, mirroring the type of cooperation between the five states that operates under the UK-USA Security Agreement on signals intelligence. It is not known whether this agreement will give the 4 non-EU countries access to Eurodac fingerprint data system.
Wednesday, 19 August 2009
Australian Detention "Extreme And Inhumane"
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...']
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...']
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.
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