Statement From The Harmondsworth Hunger Strikers

As we want the world to know about our hunger strike we want the world to know why:

1- the Home Office do not respect the medical report about the detainees and that is on the case of one, a guy from China in Harmondsworth he is there for a long long time and the guy needs a mental health care

2- a guy from Lebanon named also needs a mental health care and hospitalization

3- a guy from Russia is losing his liver and needs a real health care even he is married to a British Citizen for 10 years and his daughter is more than 8 years old and she was born in UK as was his son who is now 3-years old.

4- a guy named Nidal has many medical reports one from NHS one from a doctor and one from the health care centre say he is not fit to fly but the home office did not take that reports and he was supposed to be removed on the 25-02-2010 and he had to stop it by the High Court he has angina

5- muhamad needs professional health care.

"We Live Like Rats"

Since March 1st and the Day Without Us protests, the situation in Italy's detention centres, the Centres for Identification and Expulsion (CIEs), with widespread hunger strikes and on-going protests by detainees.

In Rome's Ponte Galeria CIE, the biggest in Italy holding more than 350 men and women in separate compounds, the situation is especially tense. The Day Without Us just happened to coincide with the handover of control of the CIE from the Red Cross, who had managed it since it opened in 1998, to a company called Auxilium, which already manages the reception centre for asylum seekers (CARA) in Bari and bid a lower tender. Francesco Rocca, special commissioner of the Italian Red Cross, claims that Auxilium were only able to win the contract, as they will cut corners and not pay union rates. He also warned that it was inevitable that respect for the human rights of the detainees will suffer.

Auxilium also happens to be currently under investigation by a prosecuting magistrate in Potenza, one John Woodcock (has an English father and Italian mother), for its involvement in the opening of the Policoro CDA (Centro di Primo Soccorso e Accoglienza - Centre for initial support and reception) mini-detention centre in Puglia, part of a network opened around the country since 2008 as part of the government's crackdown on 'illegal' migration, and canteen services to the San Carlo hospital and 91st Army Battalion. Rather dodgy all round one would have thought? However, the lure of saving money from the running of the Italian asylum system proved too much.

The night of the handover at Ponte Galeria (28 February) a Tunisian migrant Badis Barhumi tried to escape from the CIE, setting off the alarms. He quickly returned inside to hide but the chief police officer on duty found Barhumi among the other migrants and beat him with his baton. “We yelled at him to stop,” said Mustafa, an eyewitness who denounced the assault to a local radio station, “but he just kept going.” The incident soon ignited a revolt. Migrants started grabbing blankets and mattresses, setting them on fire and throwing them at the police and army who patrol the detention centre.

This is not the first such explosion of violence and it will not be the last as the conditions inside Italy's CIEs are truly appalling. A report released earlier this year by Medicins Sans Frontiers (MSF) entitled 'On The Other Side Of The Wall' based on visits to 10 CIEs, 7 CARAs and 4 CDAs last summer. It concluded that the whole system plagued by scarce hygiene, crowded quarters and inadequate care for chronic illnesses like diabetes, hypertension and HIV. And when MSF visited the Rome CIE, it found that the inmates had gone without toilet paper, soap or towels for two weeks.

As well as the Ponte Galeria CIE, the Milan (Via Corelli), Bologna (Via Mattei) and Turin (Corso Brunelleschi) CIEs are also carrying out a hunger strike. The detainees in the Corso Brunelleschi CIE have issued a statement: "We are tired of being treated badly. We live like rats. The food sucks. We live like prisoners, but we are not prisoners. The time in detention is too long, six months to identify a person is too much. We are victims of the Bossi-Fini law (...). We are not criminals, 80% of us have worked for years for Italian companies.”


Turin CIE

Elkattani Abdelatif, a Moroccan detainee in the Ponte Galeria CIE, echoed these sentiments when he spoke to the press during the Rome riot: “This is worse than a prison. I’ve seen people breaking their hands or feet or eating batteries and razor blades just to go to the hospital. The other day a Romanian guy drank a bottle of detergent, just to get out. This is worse than a prison. I’ve seen people breaking their hands or feet or eating batteries and razor blades just to go to the hospital. The other day a Romanian guy drank a bottle of detergent, just to get out.”

Another detainee claimed that "the police came with batons and beat us like animals" following the suicide attempt. "But we are not animals, we are immigrants, non-EU immigrants as we define them. We consider ourselves world citizens. This protest is an act of despair: We are tired of this life. We want to be free as a seagull and fly."

In the Milan CIE, detainees have claimed that the police have taken prisoners refusing food away. They also complain about the poor health and sanitation provision: rooms have things like dead pigeons in them for days, the cleaning staff do not clean and we are given "massive doses of psychotropic drugs."

Detainees in the CDA at Gradisca d’Isonzo, Gorizia, a former military barracks near the Slovenian border and scene of a number of mass protest last year, are also staging a “sciopero del carrello” (consumer boycott) against the low quality of food. Food supplies, according to them, are brought directly from the Slovenia to save on costs and are inedible.

All this is of course happening against the backdrop of the austerity measure being brought in by the government that public service workers are holding a series of strikes. Last December, the General Confederation of Italian Workers (CGIL) staged a general strike and they are doing so again on 12 March. Amongst the unions broad-based demands on work and taxes, are a series around 'citizenship':

"It is necessary to build a future for the country through reception policies and to fight against the new slavery. Fundamental is the regularization of migrants who are working, the suspension of the Bossi-Fini law for migrants in search of re-employment, to abolish the crime of illegal immigration, recognizing the citizenship by birth in our country, to extend the implementation of the article 18 of immigration law decree comparing the crime of illegal hiring to that of human trafficking."

Hunger Strike At Harmondsworth

News is beginning to leak out of Harmondsworth that up to 55 detainees have been refusing food for the last four days. We hope to be able to expand on this when we have more information.

Yarl's Wood Deportations Imminent

The latest news from the National Coalition of Anti-Deportation Campaigns (NCADC) is that a number of Nigerian women in Yarl's Wood have been issues with removal directions for Thursday 11 March on a private charter to Lagos at 19:30 hrs. It almost certain that the UKBA are taking revenge for the bad publicity surrounding the hunger strike and that a number of the Nigerian women who have taken part in it will be amongst those deported.

More Yarl's Wood News

Following on from last week's attempts by the Home Office and UKBA to try and smear the Yarl's Wood hunger strikers and their supporters, the campaign around the hunger strike has hit back at both the blatant lies coming from the government and at the victimisation of the 5 women removed from Yarl's Wood and currently being held in HMP Holloway (Gladys Obiyan from Nigeria, and Denise McNeil and Sheree Wilson from Jamaica) and HMP Bronzefield (Aminata Camara from Guinea and Shellyann Stupart from Jamaica) without charge for their part in the action.

The group Public Interest Lawyers have begun an application for a judicial review of the government's detention policy on behalf of 4 of the 5 women (Aminata, Shellyann, Gladys & Sheree), claiming it breaches articles 3, 5 and 8 of the European convention on human rights. Denise is currently in the segregation unit at Holloway, and has now spent 23 days of isolation in a clear attempt to punish her for her open defiance of the Borders Agency, which includes the smuggling out of photos of injuries sustained in an assault by Serco guards after being identified as a 'ring leader' and forcibly dragged off to isolation. The Home Affairs Select Committee were supposed to hold a hearing into this alleged violence yesterday at the same time as the UKBA are meant to be holding an internal inquiry into allegations of racism amongst its own staff made by a whistleblower.

Denise escaped from Jamaica with her child after her brother was killed in gang wars and her family received death threats to stop them reporting to the police. Her other brother was deported to Jamaica on 29 January and was murdered there. She has been detained for 11 months, having been convicted and imprisoned for “racially aggravated assault” after police were called to an argument in a shop (she tried to return a defective toy she had brought for five-year-old son). She tried to stop police taking her son from her, was held down and accused of kicking a police man. One of the officers (all white) called her a 'Black bitch' to which she responded 'white bastard'. Her son and a second child she gave birth to in this country were taken into care and she now faces deportation. [See: Denise's reasons for being on hinger strike.]

Meanwhile, back in Yarl's Wood, the latest news is that at least 27 women are still refusing food. And this does mean not eating, not simply refusing canteen meals as the Home Office have alleged (see the video below for the hunger strikers explanation of this). It is also becoming ever more difficult to get in contact with the hunger strikes as Serco clamp down on all forms of communication with the outside world.

In other Yarl's Wood related news, there has been the timely release of a report entitled 'Fast-Tracked Unfairness: Detention and Denial of Women Asylum Seekers in the UK' by Human Right Watch. The report is based on 50 interviews with women, 17 who had either had direct experience of the Detained Fast Track (DFT) system, either in Yarl's Wood itself, pre-removal in other detention centres or post-release after a successful application. It concludes that women with complex asylum claims are regularly put into a system designed for straightforward ones, often involving female genital mutilation, trafficking, rape and domestic violence. As many of these asylum claims are based on violence inflicted on them by their husbands, relatives or other non-state people, the women also have to prove in their asylum claim that their home country does not offer them protection from that violence. These claims are legally complex and require expert evidence.

Additionally, these types of claims require sensitivity, time to build a basic level of trust, and knowledge of women’s rights and how they react to trauma. That’s why the fast-track rules already make an exception for torture and trafficking claims. The same exception should apply to claims based on sexual and gender-based violence. Basically, the system is too fast to be fair and not enough time is allowed to talk about sensitive issues such as rape and other forms of gender-based violence, thereby denying the women the chance to make a credible case. And all this occurs whilst the women, many of whom have been abused by the authorities in their countries of origin, are being held in what is effectively a glorified prison.

In other news, Alistair Burt, MP for North East Bedfordshire, has called on Government Immigration Minister Meg Hillier to announce an Inquiry by HM Prisons Inspector Ann Owers to resolve present situation at Yarl’s Wood. Fat chance of that on past experience.


See also: 'The Real Distress At Yarl's Wood' by Diane Abbott, 'The Scandal That Is Yarl's Wood' - Melanie McFadyean & 'Campaigners Accuse Minister Of Smearing Hunger Strikers' by Paddy McGuffin

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You can if you have time fax the governor HMP Holloway, requesting
Denise is immediately removed from segregation and returned to
general population.

Governor: Sue Saunders
HMP and YOI Holloway
Parkhurst Road
London
N7 0NU
Fax: 020 7979 4401

You could remind Sue as governor she is in charge of HMP Holloway to
receive women, who have been remanded to her care by a court of the
land. Denise, Sheree and Gladys are there on the whim of the
immigration minister.

[If anyone wants/can visit the detainees, Denise McNeil, EP7333,
Gladys Obiyan, EP7241, Sheree Wilson, EP7242, HMP Holloway visit
booking, phone 020 7700 1567, or email holloway@prisonadvice.org.uk.]


Demo In Solidarity With Yarl's Wood Five

Wednesday 3rd March 2010
6.:00 pm-7:30 pm
Outside Holloway Prison
Parkhurst Road
London
N7 0NU
(Nearest tube Caledonian Road, turn left out of station up Caledonian
road, turn left up Hillmarton Road, walk to top, HMP Holloway,
straight ahead)

We are calling for the immediate release of the "Yarls Wood 5" and
all the other women still on hunger strike in the centre.

Please come and demonstrate outside HMP Holloway this Wednesday
between 6.30-7.30pm.

Bring banners and instruments.

Close All Detention Centres! Stop Deportation!

Enquiries/further information:
noborderslondon@riseup.net

Defend the Yarl's Wood Five - Release them from Prison Today!

Women on Hunger Strike, behind the Wire @ Yarl's Wood

Yarl's Wood Hunger Strikers Refute The Home Office Claims

In this video the women currently on hunger strike in Yarl's Wood refute the claims made by Meg Hiller in a letter to MPs last week.



Who do you believe?

Day Without Us

Across large parts of Europe today migrant workers are taking part in a 24 hour strike to protest against racist murders and attacks; police harassment; immigration controls; severe exploitation and inhumane conditions in agriculture and other work, such as immigrant women sex workers. In France, Spain, Greece and Italy migrant workers and their supporters are holding a series of protests and actions in support of the day of action, timed to coincide with the anniversary of the date that the Code of Entry and Residence of Foreigners and Asylum Law (CESEDA) came into force, 1 March 2005, and is inspired by a similar initiative in the US in 2006.

In Italy, the protests have been spurred on not only by the increasingly repressive and openly racist anti-immigration legislation but also by recent racist attacks on migrants. One such incident we highlighted recently and the workers that fled the racist violence in Rosano have been at the forefront of helping organise the campaign (see the “Tangerines and olives don't fall from the sky” statement by the Assembly of African workers of Rosarno in Rome below).

Amongst the events in more than 60 towns and cities across Italy will be prison officers in varese being offered an 'ethnic' lunch; in Trieste migrants will spend the day removing racist graffiti from public buildings; Bologna is hosting an exhibition of photos of the faces of migrants; and in the squares of Milan the public will be able to have foreign language lessons.

Italian call-out: "What would happen if the 4.5 million immigrants now living in Italy DECIDED to go on strike for one day? And what if also millions of Italians tired of racism will support them? And what if millions of Australians also tired of racism will support them? The 'Primo marzo 2010′ committee is organizing a major non-violent protest to let the public opinion understand the decisive role of migrants to help our society good functioning. The 'First in March 2010' Committee is organizing a major non-violent protest to let the public opinion understand the decisive role of migrants to help our society good functioning. This movement was born of mixed race and is proud to bring together Italians, foreigners, second generations, and whoever shares the rejection of racism and discrimination against less lucky people. This movement was born of mixed race and is proud to bring together Italians, foreigners, second generations, and whoever shares the rejection of racism and discrimination against people less lucky. We chose yellow as our march colour, because it is considered the colour of change and for its political neutrality: in fact, yellow doesn't refer to any political line-up. We chose as our march yellow colour, Because it is considered the colour of change and for its political neutrality: in fact, yellow does not refer to any political line-up."

In France, where the European initiative originated last year, more than 70,000 people have joined a Facebook group supporting the day of action. Demonstrations and pickets are planned outside town halls between 12.00 and 14.00 across the country and people are being invited to buy nothing for the next 24 hours in solidarity with the migrants. Five French unions, including the CFDT, FSU et Unsa, are supporting the protest.

One of the event's organisers in France, Reims deputy mayor Ali Aissaoui told TF1 News: "The current government does not seem to be aware of the positive impact of immigration. Sometimes I wonder what people will think of my children in 15 years' time. If they are given contemptuous looks and made to prove that they belong here, I'd rather raise them elsewhere."

French call-out: "On 1 March 2010: Take Action by ceasing to eat and/or work. For 24 hours, not to participate in economic activity in the enterprises, associations in the public service, in schools and colleges, in universities, in the hospitals, in shops, in industry, in construction, in agriculture, services, media, in politics ... For the first time in France, we decide to do not participate in the life of the city. In this absence, we need to mark our presence."

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“Tangerines and olives don't fall from the sky”

from the Assembly of African workers of Rosarno in Rome (Italy, January 2010)


On 31 January 2010 we met to form the Assembly of African workers of Rosarno in Rome. We are the workers who were forced to leave Rosarno after we demanded our rights. We were working in inhumane conditions. We lived in abandoned factories, without water or electricity. Our work was underpaid. We used to leave the places where we slept every morning at 6, only to go back at night at 8 for 25 euros [about £22], not all of them ending into our pockets. Sometimes we could not managed to get paid after a day of hard work. We were going back empty-handed and our body bending with tiredness. For many years we have been discriminated, exploited and threatened in all sort of ways. We were exploited during the day and chased around at night by the sons of our exploiters. They beat us up, threatened us, pursued like beasts, kidnapped, some of us disappeared for ever.

They shot us as a sport or in someone’s interest. We continued to work. In time we became easy targets. We couldn’t take it any more. Those of us who had not been wounded by bullets, were wounded in their human dignity, in their pride as human beings.

We could not wait any more for some help which would never arrive, because we are invisible, we don’t exist for this country’s authorities. We made ourselves visible, we went into the street to shout that we exist.

The people didn’t want to see us. How can anyone demonstrate if he doesn’t exist?

The authorities and the police arrived and they deported us from the town because we were not safe any more. The people of Rosarno were hunting us, lynching us, organised now in real chasing squads.

We were put in detention centres for immigrants. Many of us are still there, others went back to Africa, others are scattered around in the towns of Southern Italy.

We are in Rome. Today we have no job, no place to sleep, no belongings and no wages, which have not been paid by our exploiters.

We say we are part of the economic life of this country, but the authorities don’t want to see or listen to us. Tangerines, olives, oranges don’t fall from the sky. They are in the hands of those who pick them.

We had managed to get a job which we lost simply because we demanded to be treated as human beings. We did not come to Italy as tourists. Our work and our sweat are useful to Italy as they are to our families, who have placed many hopes on us.

We demand from the authorities of this country to meet us and listen to our demands:

We demand that the residence permit which was given to the 11 African men wounded in Rosarno for humanitarian reasons, be given to all of us, victims of exploitation and of our irregular situation which left us without a job, abandoned and left behind in the streets. We want the government of this country to face its responsibilities and guarantee us the possibility of working with dignity.

- Assembly of African workers of Rosarno in Rome.