We are calling a demonstration at 12pm on Sunday, 14 March in solidarity with the women on hunger strike in Yarl’s Wood Immigration Removal Centre. We join these women in their protest against the detention of migrants. We support their bravery and we oppose immigration laws that restrict the freedom of movement of those in need.
We have chosen to act on Mother’s Day to highlight the cruel way that migrant women, many of whom have come to the UK to seek respite from violence and torture, have been separated from their families for no good reason and at little notice. They have since been subjected to further violence and humiliation within the immigration centre.
We support the hunger strikers at Yarl’s Wood in all of the demands that they have issued. We support the hunger strikers at Harmondsworth Immigration Centre and in immigration centres in Italy. We are acting to express our disgust at immigration laws and to re-affirm the belief that freedom of movement is a human right. We are outraged by the fact that Serco are controlling the Yarl’s Wood Immigration Centre in the interest of private profit. We oppose the idea of national borders and nation-states as a whole and we do not believe that there is any such thing as an illegal human being.
We invite those who share in our beliefs, and anyone who opposes the detention of migrants, the abuse of women and the separation of families, to join us at 12 pm on Sunday, 14 March. Bring voices, whistles, drums and anything else that makes a noise: we want the hunger strikers to know that we are with them, and that they are not alone on Mother’s Day.
Hope to see you there...
Yarl's Wood Migrant Solidarity
yarlswoodsolidarity@hushmail.com
Map of the location of Yarl's Wood.
Thursday, 11 March 2010
Calais Town Hall Banner Hang
Yesterday afternoon a banner reading "Solidarite avec les sans papiers" was hung from the scaffolding on the town hall in Calais. While the local council tries to clean up its municipal image, they cannot hide the dire situation being faced by hundreds of migrants on the streets of the town. Not carrying their identity documents in solidarity with the migrants they have been working with these last few days, the three people arrested during the action are currently being held inside the police station for an ID check and questioning.Calais Migrant Solidarity blog
Wednesday, 10 March 2010
Red Road Residents March & Rally, Glasgow
Saturday 13 March 11.00am*
Starting at Red Road flats, 63 Petershill Drive, Glasgow G21
Marching to a rally in George Square
The march, organised by Red Road residents, Glasgow Campaign to Welcome Refugees and the Unity Centre, will begin at the exact spot of grass where a family of three asylum seekers, the Serykh family, fell to their deaths on Sunday 7 March.
These tragic deaths in the Red Road must be the last. The scapegoating and persecution of asylum seekers must stop. Please raise the event in your organisations and add their names to the list of supporters. The residents of the Red Road and all other asylum seekers and refugees need and deserve our support. Make this march huge so that the politicians and the media get the message loud and clear - Refugees are welcome here!
The purpose of the march and rally is to:
1. Remember the Serykh family and call for an immediate end to any further forced removals of refugee families in the Red road area by the UK Borders Agency (UKBA) ; and
2. Call for the immediate return of Stephanie Ovranah and her twin six year old sons, Joshua and Joel, to their friends, neighbours and local church in Glasgow's Cranhill where they have lived for past five five years. (The family were detained at Brand Street reporting centre without warning last Friday with the children still in their school uniforms. They are currently in Yarl's Wood Detention Centre and the children are understood to be terrified of being returned to Africa which they do not know or remember).
SAY IT LOUD, SAY IT CLEAR: REFUGEES ARE WELCOME HERE!
Starting at Red Road flats, 63 Petershill Drive, Glasgow G21
Marching to a rally in George Square
The march, organised by Red Road residents, Glasgow Campaign to Welcome Refugees and the Unity Centre, will begin at the exact spot of grass where a family of three asylum seekers, the Serykh family, fell to their deaths on Sunday 7 March.
These tragic deaths in the Red Road must be the last. The scapegoating and persecution of asylum seekers must stop. Please raise the event in your organisations and add their names to the list of supporters. The residents of the Red Road and all other asylum seekers and refugees need and deserve our support. Make this march huge so that the politicians and the media get the message loud and clear - Refugees are welcome here!
The purpose of the march and rally is to:
1. Remember the Serykh family and call for an immediate end to any further forced removals of refugee families in the Red road area by the UK Borders Agency (UKBA) ; and
2. Call for the immediate return of Stephanie Ovranah and her twin six year old sons, Joshua and Joel, to their friends, neighbours and local church in Glasgow's Cranhill where they have lived for past five five years. (The family were detained at Brand Street reporting centre without warning last Friday with the children still in their school uniforms. They are currently in Yarl's Wood Detention Centre and the children are understood to be terrified of being returned to Africa which they do not know or remember).
SAY IT LOUD, SAY IT CLEAR: REFUGEES ARE WELCOME HERE!
Solidarity Demonstration At Harmondsworth 13/03/10
The Detainee Solidarity London network has called a noise demo at Harmondsworth IRC, near Heathrow airport, between midday and 1:30pm this Saturday (13th) in support of the detainees who have been on hunger strike since 2 March. Bring banners and noise making instruments.
Second Statement From The Harmondsworth Hunger Strikers
Below is the second statement released by the detainees in Harmondsworth who have been on hunger strike since 2 March:
1) The courts used at the detention centres are a mockery of the justice system, they are staged. It seems the outcomes are decided before the actual court appearance.
2) The Home Office appear to have put in place their own officials (solicitors, judges), both in the AIT courts and the High Court, to raise a high standard of failures in people's applications to boost their statistics.
3) There are people who have spent 5, 8 or 10 years working hard in this country, who have never been involved in any criminal activities, please like religious leaders and many more, who are valuable to this country.
4) The immigration system in this country is a cold war that has separated familes and their loved ones, and has caused mental, physical and emotional torture to both detainees and their families.
5) Many people are in poor medical conditions to be kept in detention, some of whom have even been removed to their countries, yet their conditions can only be managed in the UK.
6) We are aiming for a fact finding mission, we recommend they send an independent body to come and audit, and interview detainees and also re-examine their cases.
7) People are being denied their bail rights even though they meet all the requirements needed. Detainees' sureties are not allowed in court after travelling from far distances to support bail applications.
8) The general treatment of detainees is very appalling e.g. medical treatment, security control etc. We wonder if such treatment as we are undergoing is an order from above.
In summary, considering the reputation of Great Britain, we fear this will jeopardize the good work of the great men and women of this country and the efforts of their forefathers.
1) The courts used at the detention centres are a mockery of the justice system, they are staged. It seems the outcomes are decided before the actual court appearance.
2) The Home Office appear to have put in place their own officials (solicitors, judges), both in the AIT courts and the High Court, to raise a high standard of failures in people's applications to boost their statistics.
3) There are people who have spent 5, 8 or 10 years working hard in this country, who have never been involved in any criminal activities, please like religious leaders and many more, who are valuable to this country.
4) The immigration system in this country is a cold war that has separated familes and their loved ones, and has caused mental, physical and emotional torture to both detainees and their families.
5) Many people are in poor medical conditions to be kept in detention, some of whom have even been removed to their countries, yet their conditions can only be managed in the UK.
6) We are aiming for a fact finding mission, we recommend they send an independent body to come and audit, and interview detainees and also re-examine their cases.
7) People are being denied their bail rights even though they meet all the requirements needed. Detainees' sureties are not allowed in court after travelling from far distances to support bail applications.
8) The general treatment of detainees is very appalling e.g. medical treatment, security control etc. We wonder if such treatment as we are undergoing is an order from above.
In summary, considering the reputation of Great Britain, we fear this will jeopardize the good work of the great men and women of this country and the efforts of their forefathers.
Tuesday, 9 March 2010
Red Road Protests Today
Residents of Red Road in Glasgow have called for a protest today at 11:00 outside the Home Office reporting centre on Brand Street, Glasgow in memory of the three people who fell to their death on Sunday morning from one of the tower blocks in Red Road. The three people who died are thought to have been a Russian family who had lived in Red Road for two months.
It is difficult to understand why it has taken the police more than 24 hours to identify the three people as all asylum seekers are repeatedly asked to give their finger-prints by the Home Office and their landlords, the YMCA, should be able to tell the police who was living in the flat at the time.
Neighbours have told the Unity Centre, a volunteer-run migrants support centre in Glasgow, that Strathclyde police visited the people's flat on the 15th floor last Friday to tell them that their asylum case had been refused and that they would have to leave the flat. In our experience the police only come to the door of a refused asylum seeker at the request of the landlord after the family have refused to leave their accommodation. So far, the YMCA who were landlords for the three are refusing to comment to the media.
At the moment, the Home Office are denying any involvement however it has been known for asylum seekers to be so desperate that they jump from their windows if they think they are about be detained in a dawn raid by the Home Office's Enforcement Team. Neighbours have said that they thought the Home Office had been there on Sunday morning when the three jumped.
Yesterday 30 residents of the Red Road flats laid flowers and candles outside 63 Petershill Drive to commemorate the deaths of the three people who jumped to their deaths. They have also asked for people to come to Petershill Drive at 18:00 today with banners demanding freedom and safety for all asylum seekers.
It is difficult to understand why it has taken the police more than 24 hours to identify the three people as all asylum seekers are repeatedly asked to give their finger-prints by the Home Office and their landlords, the YMCA, should be able to tell the police who was living in the flat at the time.
Neighbours have told the Unity Centre, a volunteer-run migrants support centre in Glasgow, that Strathclyde police visited the people's flat on the 15th floor last Friday to tell them that their asylum case had been refused and that they would have to leave the flat. In our experience the police only come to the door of a refused asylum seeker at the request of the landlord after the family have refused to leave their accommodation. So far, the YMCA who were landlords for the three are refusing to comment to the media.
At the moment, the Home Office are denying any involvement however it has been known for asylum seekers to be so desperate that they jump from their windows if they think they are about be detained in a dawn raid by the Home Office's Enforcement Team. Neighbours have said that they thought the Home Office had been there on Sunday morning when the three jumped.
Yesterday 30 residents of the Red Road flats laid flowers and candles outside 63 Petershill Drive to commemorate the deaths of the three people who jumped to their deaths. They have also asked for people to come to Petershill Drive at 18:00 today with banners demanding freedom and safety for all asylum seekers.
Home Ofice Lies Exposed
Phil Woolas, Meg Hiller and various other Home Office and UKBA lackeys have made great play recently of the fact (or at least what they claim is a fact) that people in immigration detention are only there because they are about to be deported. Very occasionally they will let slip that some detainees are also held whilst their cases are being processed.
Whether people are being held in detention whilst there is still a chance of their being granted leave to remain in the UK may seem to some people an extremely trivial point, irrespective of wheyher the government is lying about it or not. However, it is an extremely important point if it is you that is being held against your will in prison-like conditions, with little or no access to habeas corpus as you have been charged with no crime. This is doubly true if you are a child or if it is your family that is banged-up.
Now, despite Woolas' attempts at obfuscation yesterday in parliament, the truth is revealed and it turns out that more than half of all children held in immigration detention are released back in to the community and do not get deported alongside their parents. According to Woolas, in an answer to a question from Claire Short, "830 children entered detention solely under Immigration Act powers between April and December 2009 and 860 children left detention held solely under Immigration Act powers during the same period." Of those "a total of 415 children were removed from the UK upon leaving detention solely under Immigration Act powers in the same period." Now, allowing for Woolas' caveats and attempts to blow smoke up Claire's fundament, this indicates that half of all children were not removed from the country under the same criteria.
This was in fact confirmed last month in an answer from Meg Hiller to a question from Diane Abbott in an adjournment debate on Yarl's Wood. "In the last quarter of 2009, 315 children entered detention. In the financial year 2008-09, 1,116 children entered detention and slightly more departed it-clearly some cases would have been in both financial years. Some 539 of those children, slightly fewer than half, were removed, and 629 were released. I should put it on record that those statistics are based on management information and are not subject to the detailed checks that apply to the publication of national statistics. They may include some double counting, as some children may have been detained, released and detained again. The average length of detention was 16 days in 2008-09, and for this year, 2009-10, it is slightly less so far. Of the children detained on 30 September 2009, 25 had been detained for seven days or fewer, five for eight to 14 days, five for 15 to 28 days and ten for 29 or more days but less than two months. None was detained for longer than that."
So now we know, detention is NOT only used when people have refused to leave the country voluntarily, to slightly adapt Meg Hiller's words from her recent letter to MPs about the Yarl's Wood hunger strike.
Whether people are being held in detention whilst there is still a chance of their being granted leave to remain in the UK may seem to some people an extremely trivial point, irrespective of wheyher the government is lying about it or not. However, it is an extremely important point if it is you that is being held against your will in prison-like conditions, with little or no access to habeas corpus as you have been charged with no crime. This is doubly true if you are a child or if it is your family that is banged-up.
Now, despite Woolas' attempts at obfuscation yesterday in parliament, the truth is revealed and it turns out that more than half of all children held in immigration detention are released back in to the community and do not get deported alongside their parents. According to Woolas, in an answer to a question from Claire Short, "830 children entered detention solely under Immigration Act powers between April and December 2009 and 860 children left detention held solely under Immigration Act powers during the same period." Of those "a total of 415 children were removed from the UK upon leaving detention solely under Immigration Act powers in the same period." Now, allowing for Woolas' caveats and attempts to blow smoke up Claire's fundament, this indicates that half of all children were not removed from the country under the same criteria.
This was in fact confirmed last month in an answer from Meg Hiller to a question from Diane Abbott in an adjournment debate on Yarl's Wood. "In the last quarter of 2009, 315 children entered detention. In the financial year 2008-09, 1,116 children entered detention and slightly more departed it-clearly some cases would have been in both financial years. Some 539 of those children, slightly fewer than half, were removed, and 629 were released. I should put it on record that those statistics are based on management information and are not subject to the detailed checks that apply to the publication of national statistics. They may include some double counting, as some children may have been detained, released and detained again. The average length of detention was 16 days in 2008-09, and for this year, 2009-10, it is slightly less so far. Of the children detained on 30 September 2009, 25 had been detained for seven days or fewer, five for eight to 14 days, five for 15 to 28 days and ten for 29 or more days but less than two months. None was detained for longer than that."
So now we know, detention is NOT only used when people have refused to leave the country voluntarily, to slightly adapt Meg Hiller's words from her recent letter to MPs about the Yarl's Wood hunger strike.
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