Despite all the secrecy surrounding the run up to the deportation flight to Baghdad yesterday, it appears that the UK authorities forgot to tell the Iraqi government they were coming. When the plane touched down in Iraq yesterday, only 10 of the deportees were allowed off the flight and the rest were forced to return to the UK at 4:30am today.
An expensive little daytrip one assumes, given that the 'Operation Rangat' Air Italy flight probably cost somewhere around £250,000, or £25,000 per successful deportee removed. Of course Lin Homer, chief executive of the UK Border Agency, sought to paint a slightly rosier picture, saying: "We are establishing a new route to southern Iraq and have successfully returned 10 Iraqis to the Baghdad area. This is an important first step for us."
Previous UK deportation flights to Iraq had been to the Kurdish Autonomous Region, claiming that it was a 'safe' destination, but the government have long sought to make flights to the rest of the country. Given that Sweden and Denmark have started to return Iraqi deportees to Baghdad, the UK authorities thought the could too. However, they have been condemned by the UNHCR. According to their London office "returns to central Iraq are premature. They could send the wrong signal to other countries, like Syria and Jordan, which have large numbers of refugees and could trigger a destabilising wave of returns." Never mind the constant string of bomb attacks and kidnappings.
Campaign Against Air Italy @ no-racism.net
Friday, 16 October 2009
Thursday, 15 October 2009
Tamil 'Boat People' On Hunger Strike
A stand-off has developed between the 253 Sri Lankan migrants on board a cargo ship in Merak Harbour, West Java and the Indonesian authorities. The wooden vessel was intercepted by the Indonesian navy, after a direct plea from Australian Prime Minister Kevin Rudd to President Susilo Bambang Yudhoyono at the weekend, and has been in the port for the last 4 days. The migrants had been at sea for 13 days before being intercepted, many of them having paid $US15,000 after having been forced to wait in the Malaysian jungle several months before a people smuggling syndicate took their passports and promised to deliver them to Australia.
Now the Tamil asylum seekers are refusing to leave the vessel, fearing being returned to Sri Lanka where their lives are in danger. The 222 adults are currently on hunger strike, having previously threatened to blow up the boat using gas cylinders and to jump in the ocean to prevent the Indonesian military removing them from the boat. The 226 adults amongst the group have since gone on hunger strike and have unfurled large banner reading 'Life? Death? Hunger strike for international community' and 'We are Sri Lankan civilians. Plz save our life'. The Indonesian authorities want to move the migrants on to dry land, but as most Indonesian detention centres are too full, they may move the Tamils into empty local hotels.
A spokesman for the Tamils told the media, ''We may as well die here. We cannot go back to Sri Lanka,'' and said they would stay on the boat for months, if necessary. "If you come see the situation in Sri Lanka, where most Tamils live ... you can see it's a lot worse than living on this ship. So most of these people are used to a life like this [having come from Jaffna and government camps]. We're comfortable in a life like this. So I can guarantee you, we can go on months." They also remain adamant that the want to go on to Australia.
The stand-off is taking place against a backdrop of inter-party warfare over the level of 'illegal' migration to Australia. Phil Ruddock, right-wing immigration minister in the previous Howard government and architect of the so-called 'Pacific solution', is constantly in the news claiming that there are tens of thousands of 'illegals' waiting in Iran, Pakistan and Syria for the chance to get to Australia. The opposition Liberal party also claim that the current government is too 'soft' on migrants claiming that the removal of Temporary Protection Visas (TVP) and mandatory detention. Yet the figures belie this.
Mandatory detention and TVP's were introduced in 1992 and 1999 respectively, and the number of asylum seeker arriving by boat continued to rise till they peaked in 2001 and 2002 (5,500 and nearly 3,000 each). There have been 1,704 boat people so far this year, up from roughly 1,500 last year, so Australia is hardly being 'swamped' as Ruddock seems to think. Compared to the Italy's 36,000 last year and the UK's 30,500 it's a trickle.
Last year, 4,750 people sought asylum in Australia as part of an internationally agreed humanitarian program of 13,500 places (less than 1% of the world's allocation of refugees). And in the year to March 2009, Australia had a total net legal migration figure of 278,000. Of the current 'surge' in arrivals, 48% are Afghans, and 36% are Sri Lankan. In short, the wars in Pakistan, Afghanistan and Sri Lanka account for nearly 85% of the current arrivals.
Most of the 'boat people' are taken to detention centres on Christmas Island 2,600 km north west of Australia but only 500 km south of the Indonesian capital Jakarta. Originally set up by the Howard regime at a cost of more than $400m, there are currently more than 1,000 people detained on the island* and the facility is costing more than $80,000 a day to run. Yet this is chicken feed compared to the $48m people-smuggling program announced earlier this year by the Australian Police Force. Or the $14m that Australia is paying to Indonesia over the next 4 years to help stop the flow of asylum seekers, which includes $1m to ''enhance capacity'' at Indonesia's two detention centres in Jakarta and Tanjung Pinang, which had previously been refurbished at a cost of $7.7m to the Australian tax payer.
* 200 extra bunk beds have just been delivered and 81 demountables (portable buildings) are on the way from Woomera to increase the current 1400 bed capacity.
Now the Tamil asylum seekers are refusing to leave the vessel, fearing being returned to Sri Lanka where their lives are in danger. The 222 adults are currently on hunger strike, having previously threatened to blow up the boat using gas cylinders and to jump in the ocean to prevent the Indonesian military removing them from the boat. The 226 adults amongst the group have since gone on hunger strike and have unfurled large banner reading 'Life? Death? Hunger strike for international community' and 'We are Sri Lankan civilians. Plz save our life'. The Indonesian authorities want to move the migrants on to dry land, but as most Indonesian detention centres are too full, they may move the Tamils into empty local hotels.
A spokesman for the Tamils told the media, ''We may as well die here. We cannot go back to Sri Lanka,'' and said they would stay on the boat for months, if necessary. "If you come see the situation in Sri Lanka, where most Tamils live ... you can see it's a lot worse than living on this ship. So most of these people are used to a life like this [having come from Jaffna and government camps]. We're comfortable in a life like this. So I can guarantee you, we can go on months." They also remain adamant that the want to go on to Australia.
The stand-off is taking place against a backdrop of inter-party warfare over the level of 'illegal' migration to Australia. Phil Ruddock, right-wing immigration minister in the previous Howard government and architect of the so-called 'Pacific solution', is constantly in the news claiming that there are tens of thousands of 'illegals' waiting in Iran, Pakistan and Syria for the chance to get to Australia. The opposition Liberal party also claim that the current government is too 'soft' on migrants claiming that the removal of Temporary Protection Visas (TVP) and mandatory detention. Yet the figures belie this.
Mandatory detention and TVP's were introduced in 1992 and 1999 respectively, and the number of asylum seeker arriving by boat continued to rise till they peaked in 2001 and 2002 (5,500 and nearly 3,000 each). There have been 1,704 boat people so far this year, up from roughly 1,500 last year, so Australia is hardly being 'swamped' as Ruddock seems to think. Compared to the Italy's 36,000 last year and the UK's 30,500 it's a trickle.
Last year, 4,750 people sought asylum in Australia as part of an internationally agreed humanitarian program of 13,500 places (less than 1% of the world's allocation of refugees). And in the year to March 2009, Australia had a total net legal migration figure of 278,000. Of the current 'surge' in arrivals, 48% are Afghans, and 36% are Sri Lankan. In short, the wars in Pakistan, Afghanistan and Sri Lanka account for nearly 85% of the current arrivals.
Most of the 'boat people' are taken to detention centres on Christmas Island 2,600 km north west of Australia but only 500 km south of the Indonesian capital Jakarta. Originally set up by the Howard regime at a cost of more than $400m, there are currently more than 1,000 people detained on the island* and the facility is costing more than $80,000 a day to run. Yet this is chicken feed compared to the $48m people-smuggling program announced earlier this year by the Australian Police Force. Or the $14m that Australia is paying to Indonesia over the next 4 years to help stop the flow of asylum seekers, which includes $1m to ''enhance capacity'' at Indonesia's two detention centres in Jakarta and Tanjung Pinang, which had previously been refurbished at a cost of $7.7m to the Australian tax payer.
* 200 extra bunk beds have just been delivered and 81 demountables (portable buildings) are on the way from Woomera to increase the current 1400 bed capacity.
Wednesday, 14 October 2009
Swiss Style Self-Help
It is estimated that Switzerland is home to 100,000 to 200,000 sans-papiers, all of whom are victims of Switzerland's harsh new asylum policy introduced in January 2008. These sans-papiers, many of whom lost their jobs and homes because of the change in immigration laws, fall into 3 main groups: those who entered the country on work permits, didn't get them renewed but decided to stay; those who came to Switzerland looking for clandestine employment make up the second category; & a third steadily growing group containing migrants whose asylum request was rejected or not even looked into, and refugees who've lost their temporary admission when they were asked to leave because their countries of origin where considered "safe to return".
Like most European countries, life for sans-papiers in Switzerland is extremely precarious, no longer able to receive any form of social welfare and subject to the constant threat of being arrested and deported. The recent Swiss asylum legislation left a tiny door open for these marginalised migrants, hardship grants for those who have lived in Switzerland for at least five years and have "integrated very well". If they are then able to register with the Department of Migration they receive the equivalent of 60-70 Swiss francs ($60-70) per week in vouchers for the Swiss supermarket chain Migros. As in Britain, migrants support organisations, such as the Refugees Welcome Café in Zurich, have set up voucher exchange schemes where state aid can be exchanged for cash and used for transport and phone call costs.
For many years Switzerland had probably Europe's toughest naturalisation laws, stipulating a minimum 12 years residence before one could even apply, and being born in Switzerland also brings no automatic right to citizenship. On top of that an individual's citizenship application is handled by their town or village and is voted upon by the local community. One of the current major pitfalls the migrants come across is the applicant's ability to speak German. And of course it is impossible to pay for language lessons with supermarket vouchers. So some migrants and their supporters have open up a free language school in a squatted church in Zurich, and they have been giving German lessons to three different ability streams (A1, A2 & B1) for the past 10 months.
Irene Holliger, one of the teachers, says she's amazed by the students' motivation to learn and the joy in their eyes. She regards her engagement as an act of solidarity: "I'm retired. I have free time and want to support the refugees. All of us work as volunteers. Many students live in emergency centres far away from the school. We've raised some money with fundraising meals and a party. This allows us to cover travel expenses for many of the students, but it's not sufficient." Bah Saidou, another of the teachers at the school, came to Switzerland from Guinea in September 2002. He was swiftly refused leave to remain and told to leave. He chose to stay and ended up homeless and in an emergency centre following the changes in the law in 2008. As well as teaching German, he is active in the sans-papiers' campaign: "This is my way to struggle. We have realised that we have to stick together. The school is part of our struggle."
Many of the migrants are bemused that the Swiss politicians keep demanding foreigners integrate into Swiss society, but don't give them an opportunity to do so. "Integration consists of different aspects such as access to education, the labour market and decent housing. However, we have no chance to visit a school, are forbidden to work, and live in fenced-off emergency-centres often far away from towns and villages," says Berhanu Tesfaye, one of the students at the school. Born in Ethiopia, he fled to Switzerland in 2000 and was issued a NEE twice. Then he filed a request under the hardship provision, but failed: "My application was rejected because my German language skills weren't good enough. Then I came to the school. Three months later I successfully passed an exam in A2, and four months later in B1. The certificate allows me to hand in an application again."
Anti-Islamic sentiment is also rife in the country, especially since the right-wing Swiss People's Party (SVP) more than doubled its share of the vote in the 2007 federal elections (we are sure you remember the infamous 'black sheep' election poster). Earlier this year the European Commission against Racism and Intolerance (ECRI) published a report on the progress made Switzerland in implementing recommendations for action in curbing racism made by the Council of Europe in 2004.
Needless to say the SVP were slatted for their "racist and xenophobic tone" and racist generalisations: "Repeated attacks by Swiss People's Party members against foreigners' fundamental rights and against the prohibition of racism and xenophobia have created a deep sense of unease in Swiss society generally and especially in minority communities." The report also warned about the Swiss media reinforcing racist stereotypes and the rise of neo-Nazi and far-right groups in the country.
Also criticised was the general level of discourse about asylum: "Public opinion is so poisoned by this dialogue that asylum and refugees are a problem that it is very difficult to get away from this. You need to start again with a totally new communication. If you want to stop asylum seekers being seen as a problem then you need to communicate in a totally different way, you need to show positive examples of integration."
Like most European countries, life for sans-papiers in Switzerland is extremely precarious, no longer able to receive any form of social welfare and subject to the constant threat of being arrested and deported. The recent Swiss asylum legislation left a tiny door open for these marginalised migrants, hardship grants for those who have lived in Switzerland for at least five years and have "integrated very well". If they are then able to register with the Department of Migration they receive the equivalent of 60-70 Swiss francs ($60-70) per week in vouchers for the Swiss supermarket chain Migros. As in Britain, migrants support organisations, such as the Refugees Welcome Café in Zurich, have set up voucher exchange schemes where state aid can be exchanged for cash and used for transport and phone call costs.
For many years Switzerland had probably Europe's toughest naturalisation laws, stipulating a minimum 12 years residence before one could even apply, and being born in Switzerland also brings no automatic right to citizenship. On top of that an individual's citizenship application is handled by their town or village and is voted upon by the local community. One of the current major pitfalls the migrants come across is the applicant's ability to speak German. And of course it is impossible to pay for language lessons with supermarket vouchers. So some migrants and their supporters have open up a free language school in a squatted church in Zurich, and they have been giving German lessons to three different ability streams (A1, A2 & B1) for the past 10 months.
Irene Holliger, one of the teachers, says she's amazed by the students' motivation to learn and the joy in their eyes. She regards her engagement as an act of solidarity: "I'm retired. I have free time and want to support the refugees. All of us work as volunteers. Many students live in emergency centres far away from the school. We've raised some money with fundraising meals and a party. This allows us to cover travel expenses for many of the students, but it's not sufficient." Bah Saidou, another of the teachers at the school, came to Switzerland from Guinea in September 2002. He was swiftly refused leave to remain and told to leave. He chose to stay and ended up homeless and in an emergency centre following the changes in the law in 2008. As well as teaching German, he is active in the sans-papiers' campaign: "This is my way to struggle. We have realised that we have to stick together. The school is part of our struggle."
Many of the migrants are bemused that the Swiss politicians keep demanding foreigners integrate into Swiss society, but don't give them an opportunity to do so. "Integration consists of different aspects such as access to education, the labour market and decent housing. However, we have no chance to visit a school, are forbidden to work, and live in fenced-off emergency-centres often far away from towns and villages," says Berhanu Tesfaye, one of the students at the school. Born in Ethiopia, he fled to Switzerland in 2000 and was issued a NEE twice. Then he filed a request under the hardship provision, but failed: "My application was rejected because my German language skills weren't good enough. Then I came to the school. Three months later I successfully passed an exam in A2, and four months later in B1. The certificate allows me to hand in an application again."
Anti-Islamic sentiment is also rife in the country, especially since the right-wing Swiss People's Party (SVP) more than doubled its share of the vote in the 2007 federal elections (we are sure you remember the infamous 'black sheep' election poster). Earlier this year the European Commission against Racism and Intolerance (ECRI) published a report on the progress made Switzerland in implementing recommendations for action in curbing racism made by the Council of Europe in 2004.
Needless to say the SVP were slatted for their "racist and xenophobic tone" and racist generalisations: "Repeated attacks by Swiss People's Party members against foreigners' fundamental rights and against the prohibition of racism and xenophobia have created a deep sense of unease in Swiss society generally and especially in minority communities." The report also warned about the Swiss media reinforcing racist stereotypes and the rise of neo-Nazi and far-right groups in the country.
Also criticised was the general level of discourse about asylum: "Public opinion is so poisoned by this dialogue that asylum and refugees are a problem that it is very difficult to get away from this. You need to start again with a totally new communication. If you want to stop asylum seekers being seen as a problem then you need to communicate in a totally different way, you need to show positive examples of integration."
Calais Migrants Remain In Limbo: Video
We recommend that you watch this AlJazeera news report from Calais on the conditions that the migrants are suffering following the on-going destruction of the various 'Jungles' and squats.
Tuesday, 13 October 2009
Wizard Of Oz Looses His Magic
Tziki Sela, head of the notorious Israeli Oz immigration police unit that has terrorised 'illegal immigrants' since its formation earlier this year, has resigned after only six months in the job. He claimed that, “At this point I think I have given the unit what I could, and I would like to turn to other professional channels in the private sector.”
The truth is somewhat different, depending on who you listen to. One of the reasons given is that Oz Unit officers were not receiving their wages, as no one in the Interior Ministry's Immigration and Population Administration had actually gotten around to drafting wage agreements for the unit before it was formed.
However, the Israeli media and civil groups were outraged by an interview Sela gave to the tabloid Ma’ariv in August, where he claimed that, “These groups, those who protest against us [the new Oz unit], the ones that call me ‘Goebbels’ and a Nazi, are anarchists who want the destruction of the state of Israel, with three exclamation marks. They should be condemned. This is criminal behaviour, pure and simple.”
After dismissing the plight of the children of foreign workers with the line "(they) do not have a legal permit and that is it. They are just guests here.", he went on to say, “We mean business, I am telling the illegal migrants, take yourselves from here and go away willingly. We will give you the plane tickets. Get out of here.” This article provoked a prolonged barrage of criticism, which in the end seems to have done for him.
In other news, Israeli ministers held a fractious meeting on Monday to decide the future of the 1,200 children of foreign workers currently in Israel, many of who were born there. Some ministers, such as the Social Affairs Minister Isaac Herzog, managed to reverse the existing policy of expulsion by the end of the current school year, but the Interior Minister Eli Yishai, a leading light in the deportation campaign, threatened to resign if he was forced to grant permanent residence status to the children.
So a compromise of sorts has been reached whereby any deportation of the children, and one presumes their parents, has been postponed for the foreseeable future. In the meantime the Oz unit will continue rounding up the 280,000 'illegal' foreigners in Israel.
The truth is somewhat different, depending on who you listen to. One of the reasons given is that Oz Unit officers were not receiving their wages, as no one in the Interior Ministry's Immigration and Population Administration had actually gotten around to drafting wage agreements for the unit before it was formed.
However, the Israeli media and civil groups were outraged by an interview Sela gave to the tabloid Ma’ariv in August, where he claimed that, “These groups, those who protest against us [the new Oz unit], the ones that call me ‘Goebbels’ and a Nazi, are anarchists who want the destruction of the state of Israel, with three exclamation marks. They should be condemned. This is criminal behaviour, pure and simple.”
After dismissing the plight of the children of foreign workers with the line "(they) do not have a legal permit and that is it. They are just guests here.", he went on to say, “We mean business, I am telling the illegal migrants, take yourselves from here and go away willingly. We will give you the plane tickets. Get out of here.” This article provoked a prolonged barrage of criticism, which in the end seems to have done for him.
In other news, Israeli ministers held a fractious meeting on Monday to decide the future of the 1,200 children of foreign workers currently in Israel, many of who were born there. Some ministers, such as the Social Affairs Minister Isaac Herzog, managed to reverse the existing policy of expulsion by the end of the current school year, but the Interior Minister Eli Yishai, a leading light in the deportation campaign, threatened to resign if he was forced to grant permanent residence status to the children.
So a compromise of sorts has been reached whereby any deportation of the children, and one presumes their parents, has been postponed for the foreseeable future. In the meantime the Oz unit will continue rounding up the 280,000 'illegal' foreigners in Israel.
Monday, 12 October 2009
Destination: Baghdad
The first mass deportation flight to Southern Iraq is expected later this week. Previously the destination of flights to Iraq was Kirkuk in the autonomous Iraqi Kurdistan region, which the British government had considered safe despite the numerous regular car and suicide bombings, extra-judicial killings and the routine 'disappearances' of returnees by various governmental paramilitary forces.
Now the Home Office seem to have declared the rest of Iraq safe, at least for anybody other than UK citizens: "We advise against all travel to Baghdad and its surrounding area, the provinces of Basra, Maysan, Al Anbar, Salah Ad Din, Diyala, Wasit, Babil, Ninawa and At-Tamim (At-Tamim is often referred to as "Kirkuk Province"). We also advise against all but essential travel to the provinces of Al Qadisiyah, Muthanna, Najaf, Karbala, and Dhi Qar. Although there has been a decrease in the level of violence throughout Iraq the situation remains highly dangerous with a continuing high threat of terrorism throughout the country". [current Foreign Office travel advice]
In the Kurdish Region the Foreign Office say: "despite largely effective policies countering terrorism in the region, extremist Islamist terrorist groups including Al-Qaida in Iraq and Ansar al Islam have planned and carried out infrequent attacks in the past. A network of Iran-based Kurdish extremists, affiliated with Al-Qaida in Iraq mount occasional cross-border attacks. The threat of terrorism and kidnap remains possible. Terrorist operations, including in the cities of Erbil and Sulaymaniyah, have generally been conducted against Kurdistan Regional Government targets. Outside the Kurdistan Region, the security situation in northern Iraq remains highly dangerous and volatile. In Kirkuk and Mosul there are still a number of terrorist attacks, including suicide bomb attacks, vehicle bombs, and shootings, which have led to many innocent bystanders being killed." Doesn't sound particularly safe to us.
Approximately 30 people are currently being held in immigration detention centres around London according to the International Federation of Iraqi Refugees and have been given deportation tickets informing them they will be removed to Iraq sometime this week. It is UK Border Agency policy not release the exact time or date to detainees or their legal representatives. It is claimed that this is because of the need to prevent disruption of these highly expensive charter flights but the practical effect is to prevent solicitors from submitting last-minute appeals as all detainees are held incommunicado of the day of the deportation.
Most deportations take place with deportees handcuffed between two private security guards and are carried out under threat of force, with any form of resistance being regularly met by disproportionate force. These factors, along with the inadequate provision of medical attention for those subjected to the use of force, have been criticised in a recent Inspectorate of Prisons thematic review.
In addition to the private security companies such as G4S/GSL and SERCO, many other companies are coming to rely on the deportation industry to maintain their profitability during the current economic downturn. This is especially true of some of the smaller airlines like Hamburg International and Czech Airlines (although the larger airlines like Air France and Virgin are more than happy to cash in as well) and even small bus firms like WH Tours and Woodcock coaches have come to rely on the steady stream of deportees being transported to airports around the country. And it is a very lucrative industry, the UKBA spent £8,227,553 on 66 deportation charter flights in the financial year 2008-9, almost double the usual amount spent in previous years.
Things you can do to help stop this flight:
Contact your local MP and ask them to put pressure on the UK Border Agency to cancel the deportation. You can find your local MP at: http://findyourmp.parliament.uk
Contact the UKBA directly to demand the deportation be cancelled:
Privateoffice.external@homeoffice.gsi.gov.uk
UKBApublicenquiries@UKBA.gsi.gov.uk
CITTO@homeoffice.gsi.gov.uk
Contact the minister for borders and immigration Phil Woolas:
House of Commons phone number: 020 7219 1149
House of Commons fax number: 020 7219 0992
Constituency phone number: 0161 624 4248
Constituency fax number: 0161 626 8572
stopdeportation@riseup.net.
stopdeportations.net
Now the Home Office seem to have declared the rest of Iraq safe, at least for anybody other than UK citizens: "We advise against all travel to Baghdad and its surrounding area, the provinces of Basra, Maysan, Al Anbar, Salah Ad Din, Diyala, Wasit, Babil, Ninawa and At-Tamim (At-Tamim is often referred to as "Kirkuk Province"). We also advise against all but essential travel to the provinces of Al Qadisiyah, Muthanna, Najaf, Karbala, and Dhi Qar. Although there has been a decrease in the level of violence throughout Iraq the situation remains highly dangerous with a continuing high threat of terrorism throughout the country". [current Foreign Office travel advice]
In the Kurdish Region the Foreign Office say: "despite largely effective policies countering terrorism in the region, extremist Islamist terrorist groups including Al-Qaida in Iraq and Ansar al Islam have planned and carried out infrequent attacks in the past. A network of Iran-based Kurdish extremists, affiliated with Al-Qaida in Iraq mount occasional cross-border attacks. The threat of terrorism and kidnap remains possible. Terrorist operations, including in the cities of Erbil and Sulaymaniyah, have generally been conducted against Kurdistan Regional Government targets. Outside the Kurdistan Region, the security situation in northern Iraq remains highly dangerous and volatile. In Kirkuk and Mosul there are still a number of terrorist attacks, including suicide bomb attacks, vehicle bombs, and shootings, which have led to many innocent bystanders being killed." Doesn't sound particularly safe to us.
Approximately 30 people are currently being held in immigration detention centres around London according to the International Federation of Iraqi Refugees and have been given deportation tickets informing them they will be removed to Iraq sometime this week. It is UK Border Agency policy not release the exact time or date to detainees or their legal representatives. It is claimed that this is because of the need to prevent disruption of these highly expensive charter flights but the practical effect is to prevent solicitors from submitting last-minute appeals as all detainees are held incommunicado of the day of the deportation.
Most deportations take place with deportees handcuffed between two private security guards and are carried out under threat of force, with any form of resistance being regularly met by disproportionate force. These factors, along with the inadequate provision of medical attention for those subjected to the use of force, have been criticised in a recent Inspectorate of Prisons thematic review.
In addition to the private security companies such as G4S/GSL and SERCO, many other companies are coming to rely on the deportation industry to maintain their profitability during the current economic downturn. This is especially true of some of the smaller airlines like Hamburg International and Czech Airlines (although the larger airlines like Air France and Virgin are more than happy to cash in as well) and even small bus firms like WH Tours and Woodcock coaches have come to rely on the steady stream of deportees being transported to airports around the country. And it is a very lucrative industry, the UKBA spent £8,227,553 on 66 deportation charter flights in the financial year 2008-9, almost double the usual amount spent in previous years.
Things you can do to help stop this flight:
Contact your local MP and ask them to put pressure on the UK Border Agency to cancel the deportation. You can find your local MP at: http://findyourmp.parliament.uk
Contact the UKBA directly to demand the deportation be cancelled:
Privateoffice.external@homeoffice.gsi.gov.uk
UKBApublicenquiries@UKBA.gsi.gov.uk
CITTO@homeoffice.gsi.gov.uk
Contact the minister for borders and immigration Phil Woolas:
House of Commons phone number: 020 7219 1149
House of Commons fax number: 020 7219 0992
Constituency phone number: 0161 624 4248
Constituency fax number: 0161 626 8572
stopdeportation@riseup.net.
stopdeportations.net
Friday, 9 October 2009
MailWatch #5
It's time again for yet another instalment 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'™
Why is it that the Daily Mail has a total lack of understanding of migration issues? Their latest migration-related piece - 'Labour relaxes the rules to let 40,000 asylum seekers stay' [09/10/09] - continues the odious career of the paper's barely comprehensible rants about all things foreign, especially when they are foreigners here in good old Blighty.
The 40,000 figure actually relates to 40,000 files for various types of migrants and visitors who were told by the Home Office prior to 2003 that they no longer had a right to stay in the UK. So that is people on work permits, already granted temporary leave to remain, on student visas and visitor visas who were all subsequently turned down for extensions to their stay. NOT ONE SINGLE ASYLUM SEEKER amongst them.
The details come from a leaked memo, entitled 'Restricted – Policy. Completion of the legacy exercise', from Matthew Coats, the head of immigration at the UK Border Agency, to Home Secretary Alan Johnson and Phil Woolas, the Immigration Minister detailing changes in guidelines designed to grant indefinite leave to remain for the 40,000. And the reason why the guidelines were being changed was because the UKBA have no way of telling if any of the 40.000 had remained in the UK, as up until recently no checks were made on who was leaving the country, and would be almost impossible to locate all those who had remained.
Yet one would be hard pressed to work that out from the Mail's version of events. The reason they give is that "it would be virtually impossible to send many of them back as they were from countries with poor human rights records such as Zimbabwe, Somalia, Iran and China." i.e. blame it on the Human Rights Act again (though to give them their due, they don't actually say that this time).
And to top it all, what do we have but yet another photograph of Calais migrants queuing for "food handouts" (not charity from French humanitarian volunteers - 'bloody spongers' being the obvious subtext here) illustrating a story about historic migrants from pre-2003!
Why is it that the Daily Mail has a total lack of understanding of migration issues? Their latest migration-related piece - 'Labour relaxes the rules to let 40,000 asylum seekers stay' [09/10/09] - continues the odious career of the paper's barely comprehensible rants about all things foreign, especially when they are foreigners here in good old Blighty.
The 40,000 figure actually relates to 40,000 files for various types of migrants and visitors who were told by the Home Office prior to 2003 that they no longer had a right to stay in the UK. So that is people on work permits, already granted temporary leave to remain, on student visas and visitor visas who were all subsequently turned down for extensions to their stay. NOT ONE SINGLE ASYLUM SEEKER amongst them.
The details come from a leaked memo, entitled 'Restricted – Policy. Completion of the legacy exercise', from Matthew Coats, the head of immigration at the UK Border Agency, to Home Secretary Alan Johnson and Phil Woolas, the Immigration Minister detailing changes in guidelines designed to grant indefinite leave to remain for the 40,000. And the reason why the guidelines were being changed was because the UKBA have no way of telling if any of the 40.000 had remained in the UK, as up until recently no checks were made on who was leaving the country, and would be almost impossible to locate all those who had remained.
Yet one would be hard pressed to work that out from the Mail's version of events. The reason they give is that "it would be virtually impossible to send many of them back as they were from countries with poor human rights records such as Zimbabwe, Somalia, Iran and China." i.e. blame it on the Human Rights Act again (though to give them their due, they don't actually say that this time).
And to top it all, what do we have but yet another photograph of Calais migrants queuing for "food handouts" (not charity from French humanitarian volunteers - 'bloody spongers' being the obvious subtext here) illustrating a story about historic migrants from pre-2003!
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