Things have been quiet on the news front concerning the Tamil refugees holed up on a rickety old wooden-hulled boat in Merak harbour since the news that Alex their spokesman had disappeared at the beginning of last month*. However, we have not forgotten about them and neither have the Indonesian authorities, who have just issued them with yet another ultimatum. This one states that unless the Tamils, who have been on the boat for the last six months, come ashore within the next 5 days they will be forcibly removed from the Jaya Lestari 5 and deported immediately, with no chance of applying for asylum.
This obviously contravenes all international agreements and legislation against the refoulement of refugees but that does not seem to concern the Indonesian government who have become increasingly angry at their inability to get the Tamils to agree to come ashore. So much so that they have even been claiming in recent days that a deal has been reached. This has been denied by supporters of the refugees.
This morning officials from the UNHCR, the International Organisation for Migration and Indonesia's police and immigration departments arrived dockside. They boarded the boat and photographed everybody on board. Mobile phone and laptops were confiscated and the ultimatum issued. According to Nimal, one of the Tamils who has been acting as their spokesperson since Alex left, the officials also refused to answer any questions.
The Tamils have been holding off leaving the Jaya Lestari 5 until they get assurances that they will have their asylum applications considered, that they will not be placed in detention and that they get the same deal afforded the 78 Tamils from the MV Oceanic Viking last year. They have been expressly told that this will not happen according to Nimal, speaking via a mobile phone that the Indonesians had failed to confiscate. He also reiterated the Tamils' plea that the "Australian government must help us for resettlement," something that the Rudd government have steadfastly refused to do.
* Australian refugee advocate Ian Rintoul claimed that Sanjeev "Alex" Kuhendrarajah had decided to flee because he believed his presence was slowing progress toward a resolution of the stand-off. The Indonesian authorities had claimed that he was pressurising the rest of the Tamils to remain on board and was therefore a hindrance to any deal to end the siege, but given the continuance of the situation, this has been proved to be a lie. Alex however was not the first to try and escape from the boat, 16 had tried up to the date he left, but so far he is believed to be the only one not to have been recaptured and interned by the Indonesians.
Wednesday, 7 April 2010
Tuesday, 6 April 2010
The Mail Says: 'Foreign Nurses Forced To Take English Lessons'...
...So It Must Be True?
Ah yes! The Daily Mail, in its xenophobic Spitfires-over-the-cliffs-of-Dover and Churchill-fighting-the-damn-foreigners-on-the-beaches world, is at it again, revealing the startling news that (as the Telegraph puts it in its more sedate rehash of the Mail's story), 'NHS trust employs staff from 70 countries' - "Managers at Oxford Radcliffe Hospitals in Oxford have arranged for employees to take English lessons after patients complained that they could not make themselves understood."
Except that the Mail's original version is slightly more sensationalist, 'Revealed: Hospital has staff from 70 countries as nurses who don't even understand 'nil by mouth' forced to take English lessons' [note the word 'forced'] - "An NHS hospital has staff from a staggering 70 countries on its payroll. The huge number of overseas nurses, cleaners and porters has forced health chiefs to send them on ten-week English courses because many do not understand basic medical phrases."
And how do we know this to be the case? You can bet your bottom dollar that the NHS Trust did not press-release the story. Of course not, far too obvious a target for Mail-like sensationalism. So, in sightly torturous English, the Telegraph reveals who did, "Many nurses and other front-line staff at the hospitals have such poor language skills that they are unable to read or write English, patient groups said."
The aforementioned 'patient group(s)' was, according to the Mail, the Oxford Radcliffe Patients' Forum, or to be more accurate, one Jacquie Pearce-Gervis,* who apparently "called last night for English lessons to be made compulsory rather than voluntary." The Telegraph, who appear to have checked her bona fides before publishing, identified her as spokeswoman for "Patient Voice, the Oxfordshire-based campaign group". And a quick search of the internet reveals that she was certainly a member of the 'Oxford Radcliffe Patients' Forum'** in 2006 (the most recent listing on the Trust's website) but most recently she has been a member of the Oxford-based or Oxfordshire-based group 'Patients Voice', depending on who one reads. Whether this is the same group as the pro-vivisection Oxford-based group Patients' Voice for Medical Advance we do not know.
However, it would appear that all one needs to do to get a story in the Mail, whatever group one claims to represent, is to ring up some dodgy Mail journo or the 'News' desk itself with some juicy titbit about damn foreigners causing good English stock some form of upset and Bob's your uncle (or aunty as the case maybe be, though she wouldn't get any favourable space if she were the later).
Anyway, to get back to the Mail: "Among the terms some workers from countries such as Burma, the Philippines and Poland can't follow are 'nil by mouth', 'doing the rounds' and 'bleeping a doctor'." Err! Why that particular choice of countries? Burma possibly, the Philippines less obviously, but Poland!? Clearly Poles (swan-eating shed-squatters) are now up there with the French (cheese-eating surrender monkeys, though they do want to ban the burqa) and Germans (the Boche - no can't use that word, its French - started WWI, WWII and the EU along with the French and always beating England on penalties at the World Cup) on the Mail's list of countries to hate.
Now here's the juicy bit, the meat (or TVP) in the sandwich of this story: "The lessons follow several 'near-disaster' cases, including one where a meal was delivered to a patient because a member of staff did not understand that 'nil by mouth' meant the man could not eat or drink." Disturbing, especially as the headline implied that this was due to "nurses who don't even understand 'nil by mouth'."
Reading on through the article, after learning that "all doctors from outside the EU must pass an English language test set by the General Medical Council before they can practise" and that "the same rules do not apply for other hospital workers", except that nurses and porters of course do not practice medicine and therefore do not have to take the GMC tests. "Instead, they are usually assessed on their grasp of the language at interview."
OK then? Except, "the problem has become so acute at Oxford Radcliffe Hospitals that foreign workers are being encouraged to attend ten-week, taxpayer-funded 'English For Speakers Of Other Languages' courses, which are run by a nearby college."
So exactly how bad is this 'problem'? The Mail seems reluctant to actually say. It does reveal the interesting 'factoid' that "research has found that up to a quarter of nurses - more than 60,000 - working in London are foreign, with the largest number coming from the Philippines." What research this is the article does not reveal, or why the facts about London are relevant to Oxford and a hospital (or is that a hospital trust, not necessarily the same thing) that the paper clearly implies has much more of a 'problem' with foreign staff as they surely would be leading with the banner 'London hospitals employ staff from 70 countries' or some such rubbish?
Then we get a list of some hospitals in London and that "Manchester Royal Infirmary also has a high proportion of foreign staff from countries including India, Ghana, Spain, Germany, Iceland and the Yemen." Outstanding journalism! But probably nicked from a 2002 edition of the Independent.*** And its only then that we learn, both that this earth-shattering story is due to this Ms Pearce-Gervis calling "last night for English lessons to be made compulsory rather than voluntary."
And, wait for it, "There have been cases when porters have delivered a patient food despite the fact there is a clear sign on their bed saying "nil by mouth"." So it is NOT nurses who don't understand the phrase 'nil by mouth', it is porters delivering food to patients who apparently do not understand it. And even then we have no evidence that the food being delivered to the bed of someone due to have an operation was because the porters could not read English or because they got mixed up over who was having what meal, a mistake that we are sure no English-reading porters has ever made.
And even then, in the very next sentence, Ms Pearce-Gervis states "obviously this could have led to disaster but fortunately THE PATIENT [our emphasis] has been intelligent enough to point out that they are not allowed the food." So it was only one patient, as the Mail itself claimed earlier in the article. One case and even then there's no evidence presented of possible 'disaster' if the patient had gone ahead and eaten the food.
So what do Oxford Radcliffe Hospitals NHS Trust have to say on the subject? After a short anonymous quote from 'a member of staff at the trust' ("I think it should be compulsory. There can often be problems with common slang terms used on the ward." - something that 10 weeks of English lessons are not necessarily going to solve) and as many column inches of space dedicated to Dr Daniel Ubani, the German (naturally) GP involved in the death of a patient through the administration of a massive overdose of a painkiller he had never used before, but who also happened to have failed the GMC language test, their spokesperson, Rainy Faisey, deputy director of human resources at Oxford Radcliffe Hospitals, claimed that the courses were a way of giving staff in lower-paid jobs a chance to develop their skills.
"As an employer, Oxford Radcliffe Hospitals NHS Trust offers a wide variety of training and development opportunities to its staff to help them to provide excellent care for our patients and further their career in the NHS. Like all good employers we give all staff the opportunity to develop their reading, writing and numeracy skills, whether their first language is English or not."
So, all in all, another xenophobic Mail non-story. And NO nurses are in fact being "forced to take English lessons."
* Who a back copy of the May 2004 issue of ORH News helpfully tells us "began work at the Radcliffe Infirmary as a shorthand typist when she was 17 and worked in the NHS for 20 years before re-training as a teacher in further education."
** As an aside, the Oxford Radcliffe Patients' Forum or Patient and Public Involvement Forum or the Oxfordshire and Berkshire Consortium for Patient and Public Involvement in Health (or even Oxfordshire and Berkshire Consortium for Patient and Public Involvement in Health depending on which NHS trust website one visits) no longer appears to exist in one or maybe all of its previous forms. Certainly neither of the websites [1, 2] are up and running and there is no mention of it in recent issues of the ORH News.
If, however, you live in the Oxford area, you can apply to join the panel by filling out this form. And maybe you'll get to meet the famous Ms Pearce-Gervis who the Mail is happy to dedicate so much of its valuable advertising space to.
*** This really does show up how little research goes in to this sort of story. No doubt the journo Google a few hospitals abd came up with the Independent article 'Why foreign nurses hold the nation's health in their hands', which contains the following information: "Indian nurses now account for one in ten of the infirmary's nursing workforce." Followed by: "In addition, a dozen other countries supply staff, including the Philippines, Australia, Spain, Ghana, Germany, Iceland and the Yemen."
Ah yes! The Daily Mail, in its xenophobic Spitfires-over-the-cliffs-of-Dover and Churchill-fighting-the-damn-foreigners-on-the-beaches world, is at it again, revealing the startling news that (as the Telegraph puts it in its more sedate rehash of the Mail's story), 'NHS trust employs staff from 70 countries' - "Managers at Oxford Radcliffe Hospitals in Oxford have arranged for employees to take English lessons after patients complained that they could not make themselves understood."
Except that the Mail's original version is slightly more sensationalist, 'Revealed: Hospital has staff from 70 countries as nurses who don't even understand 'nil by mouth' forced to take English lessons' [note the word 'forced'] - "An NHS hospital has staff from a staggering 70 countries on its payroll. The huge number of overseas nurses, cleaners and porters has forced health chiefs to send them on ten-week English courses because many do not understand basic medical phrases."
And how do we know this to be the case? You can bet your bottom dollar that the NHS Trust did not press-release the story. Of course not, far too obvious a target for Mail-like sensationalism. So, in sightly torturous English, the Telegraph reveals who did, "Many nurses and other front-line staff at the hospitals have such poor language skills that they are unable to read or write English, patient groups said."
The aforementioned 'patient group(s)' was, according to the Mail, the Oxford Radcliffe Patients' Forum, or to be more accurate, one Jacquie Pearce-Gervis,* who apparently "called last night for English lessons to be made compulsory rather than voluntary." The Telegraph, who appear to have checked her bona fides before publishing, identified her as spokeswoman for "Patient Voice, the Oxfordshire-based campaign group". And a quick search of the internet reveals that she was certainly a member of the 'Oxford Radcliffe Patients' Forum'** in 2006 (the most recent listing on the Trust's website) but most recently she has been a member of the Oxford-based or Oxfordshire-based group 'Patients Voice', depending on who one reads. Whether this is the same group as the pro-vivisection Oxford-based group Patients' Voice for Medical Advance we do not know.
However, it would appear that all one needs to do to get a story in the Mail, whatever group one claims to represent, is to ring up some dodgy Mail journo or the 'News' desk itself with some juicy titbit about damn foreigners causing good English stock some form of upset and Bob's your uncle (or aunty as the case maybe be, though she wouldn't get any favourable space if she were the later).
Anyway, to get back to the Mail: "Among the terms some workers from countries such as Burma, the Philippines and Poland can't follow are 'nil by mouth', 'doing the rounds' and 'bleeping a doctor'." Err! Why that particular choice of countries? Burma possibly, the Philippines less obviously, but Poland!? Clearly Poles (swan-eating shed-squatters) are now up there with the French (cheese-eating surrender monkeys, though they do want to ban the burqa) and Germans (the Boche - no can't use that word, its French - started WWI, WWII and the EU along with the French and always beating England on penalties at the World Cup) on the Mail's list of countries to hate.
Now here's the juicy bit, the meat (or TVP) in the sandwich of this story: "The lessons follow several 'near-disaster' cases, including one where a meal was delivered to a patient because a member of staff did not understand that 'nil by mouth' meant the man could not eat or drink." Disturbing, especially as the headline implied that this was due to "nurses who don't even understand 'nil by mouth'."
Reading on through the article, after learning that "all doctors from outside the EU must pass an English language test set by the General Medical Council before they can practise" and that "the same rules do not apply for other hospital workers", except that nurses and porters of course do not practice medicine and therefore do not have to take the GMC tests. "Instead, they are usually assessed on their grasp of the language at interview."
OK then? Except, "the problem has become so acute at Oxford Radcliffe Hospitals that foreign workers are being encouraged to attend ten-week, taxpayer-funded 'English For Speakers Of Other Languages' courses, which are run by a nearby college."
So exactly how bad is this 'problem'? The Mail seems reluctant to actually say. It does reveal the interesting 'factoid' that "research has found that up to a quarter of nurses - more than 60,000 - working in London are foreign, with the largest number coming from the Philippines." What research this is the article does not reveal, or why the facts about London are relevant to Oxford and a hospital (or is that a hospital trust, not necessarily the same thing) that the paper clearly implies has much more of a 'problem' with foreign staff as they surely would be leading with the banner 'London hospitals employ staff from 70 countries' or some such rubbish?
Then we get a list of some hospitals in London and that "Manchester Royal Infirmary also has a high proportion of foreign staff from countries including India, Ghana, Spain, Germany, Iceland and the Yemen." Outstanding journalism! But probably nicked from a 2002 edition of the Independent.*** And its only then that we learn, both that this earth-shattering story is due to this Ms Pearce-Gervis calling "last night for English lessons to be made compulsory rather than voluntary."
And, wait for it, "There have been cases when porters have delivered a patient food despite the fact there is a clear sign on their bed saying "nil by mouth"." So it is NOT nurses who don't understand the phrase 'nil by mouth', it is porters delivering food to patients who apparently do not understand it. And even then we have no evidence that the food being delivered to the bed of someone due to have an operation was because the porters could not read English or because they got mixed up over who was having what meal, a mistake that we are sure no English-reading porters has ever made.
And even then, in the very next sentence, Ms Pearce-Gervis states "obviously this could have led to disaster but fortunately THE PATIENT [our emphasis] has been intelligent enough to point out that they are not allowed the food." So it was only one patient, as the Mail itself claimed earlier in the article. One case and even then there's no evidence presented of possible 'disaster' if the patient had gone ahead and eaten the food.
So what do Oxford Radcliffe Hospitals NHS Trust have to say on the subject? After a short anonymous quote from 'a member of staff at the trust' ("I think it should be compulsory. There can often be problems with common slang terms used on the ward." - something that 10 weeks of English lessons are not necessarily going to solve) and as many column inches of space dedicated to Dr Daniel Ubani, the German (naturally) GP involved in the death of a patient through the administration of a massive overdose of a painkiller he had never used before, but who also happened to have failed the GMC language test, their spokesperson, Rainy Faisey, deputy director of human resources at Oxford Radcliffe Hospitals, claimed that the courses were a way of giving staff in lower-paid jobs a chance to develop their skills.
"As an employer, Oxford Radcliffe Hospitals NHS Trust offers a wide variety of training and development opportunities to its staff to help them to provide excellent care for our patients and further their career in the NHS. Like all good employers we give all staff the opportunity to develop their reading, writing and numeracy skills, whether their first language is English or not."
So, all in all, another xenophobic Mail non-story. And NO nurses are in fact being "forced to take English lessons."
* Who a back copy of the May 2004 issue of ORH News helpfully tells us "began work at the Radcliffe Infirmary as a shorthand typist when she was 17 and worked in the NHS for 20 years before re-training as a teacher in further education."
** As an aside, the Oxford Radcliffe Patients' Forum or Patient and Public Involvement Forum or the Oxfordshire and Berkshire Consortium for Patient and Public Involvement in Health (or even Oxfordshire and Berkshire Consortium for Patient and Public Involvement in Health depending on which NHS trust website one visits) no longer appears to exist in one or maybe all of its previous forms. Certainly neither of the websites [1, 2] are up and running and there is no mention of it in recent issues of the ORH News.
If, however, you live in the Oxford area, you can apply to join the panel by filling out this form. And maybe you'll get to meet the famous Ms Pearce-Gervis who the Mail is happy to dedicate so much of its valuable advertising space to.
*** This really does show up how little research goes in to this sort of story. No doubt the journo Google a few hospitals abd came up with the Independent article 'Why foreign nurses hold the nation's health in their hands', which contains the following information: "Indian nurses now account for one in ten of the infirmary's nursing workforce." Followed by: "In addition, a dozen other countries supply staff, including the Philippines, Australia, Spain, Ghana, Germany, Iceland and the Yemen."
A Truly Bespoke Service?
In need of an extension to your Tier 2 or Tier 4 visa?* Got £15,000 to spare? Then you can be fast-tracked with UKBA's new Super Premium Visa Service, which "will provide a high level of customer (sic) service and convenience."
The key features of the 'service' highlighted on the UKBA website are:
* customers can have their biometrics enrolled at a location of their choosing, including their home or business premises;
* customers can arrange a visit at a time and date of their choosing, subject to certain conditions; and
* we will make a decision on the application within 24 hours of the visit, if all the requirements are met.
However, you will need to obtain an foreign national identity card and this deluxe top-of-the-line fast-track scheme is only available to those of you in the South-East of England.
* Tier 2 work permits applied for by employers who need to fill a vacant position with a specific person and Tier 4 student visas. Also included are those renewing via the FLR(M), FLR(BID) and FLR(BUS) forms.
The key features of the 'service' highlighted on the UKBA website are:
* customers can have their biometrics enrolled at a location of their choosing, including their home or business premises;
* customers can arrange a visit at a time and date of their choosing, subject to certain conditions; and
* we will make a decision on the application within 24 hours of the visit, if all the requirements are met.
However, you will need to obtain an foreign national identity card and this deluxe top-of-the-line fast-track scheme is only available to those of you in the South-East of England.
* Tier 2 work permits applied for by employers who need to fill a vacant position with a specific person and Tier 4 student visas. Also included are those renewing via the FLR(M), FLR(BID) and FLR(BUS) forms.
Cheapskates, Petty And Vidictive...
...Or Something More Sinister?
It seems that the latest penny-pinching exercise by Serco, the multinational outsourcing company making billions out of governments outsourcing their 'criminal justice services' such a prisons, immigration detention centres and escort services, involves restricting the number of pages of documents immigration detainees in Yarl's Wood are allowed to fax for legal purposes to fifteen. Amazingly this has been been condoned by the Independent Monitoring Board (IMB).
The net result of this policy is to severely restrict last minute appeals against deportation as the High Court will not be able to access all the relevant documents in sufficient time to make a judgement and thus the deportation will be carried out without the detainee's full access to all forms of judicial oversight. That Serco blame the detainees themselves for sending too many legal documents, dressed up in terms of protecting the rights of other detainees of course, just adds insult to injury.*
Now, given Serco's well known policy of cutting as many corners as possible in order to maximise their profit margins, this might seem like a mere penny-pinching exercise. However, when one considers the massive amount of adverse publicity surrounding the recent hunger strike that the firm has garnered, a PR disaster that could well be repeated when the court case brought by some of the women reaches trial and, as seems certain, the hunger strike is renewed in the near future, the exercise appears to be one of vengeance-seeking rather than one of monetary gain.
You can fax Serco at Yarl's Wood on 01234 82 1152 yourself, requesting they immediately lift the restriction and add more fax machines. Or write to the IMB for Yarl's Wood and ask them why they are not doing more to protect the legal rights of the detainees:
Independent Monitoring Board
Twin Wood Road
Clapham
Bedfordshire
MK41 6BL
* The argument that detainees sending "100-200 pages, which as you can imagine is both time consuming for staff and also takes up the fax machine for an unreasonable amount of time, thus restricting access for other residents" is totally disingenuous. Maybe they should have more fax lines, these are an essential for of communication for any organisation supposedly involved in the criminal justice industry, or employ more staff?
It seems that the latest penny-pinching exercise by Serco, the multinational outsourcing company making billions out of governments outsourcing their 'criminal justice services' such a prisons, immigration detention centres and escort services, involves restricting the number of pages of documents immigration detainees in Yarl's Wood are allowed to fax for legal purposes to fifteen. Amazingly this has been been condoned by the Independent Monitoring Board (IMB).
The net result of this policy is to severely restrict last minute appeals against deportation as the High Court will not be able to access all the relevant documents in sufficient time to make a judgement and thus the deportation will be carried out without the detainee's full access to all forms of judicial oversight. That Serco blame the detainees themselves for sending too many legal documents, dressed up in terms of protecting the rights of other detainees of course, just adds insult to injury.*
Now, given Serco's well known policy of cutting as many corners as possible in order to maximise their profit margins, this might seem like a mere penny-pinching exercise. However, when one considers the massive amount of adverse publicity surrounding the recent hunger strike that the firm has garnered, a PR disaster that could well be repeated when the court case brought by some of the women reaches trial and, as seems certain, the hunger strike is renewed in the near future, the exercise appears to be one of vengeance-seeking rather than one of monetary gain.
You can fax Serco at Yarl's Wood on 01234 82 1152 yourself, requesting they immediately lift the restriction and add more fax machines. Or write to the IMB for Yarl's Wood and ask them why they are not doing more to protect the legal rights of the detainees:
Independent Monitoring Board
Twin Wood Road
Clapham
Bedfordshire
MK41 6BL
* The argument that detainees sending "100-200 pages, which as you can imagine is both time consuming for staff and also takes up the fax machine for an unreasonable amount of time, thus restricting access for other residents" is totally disingenuous. Maybe they should have more fax lines, these are an essential for of communication for any organisation supposedly involved in the criminal justice industry, or employ more staff?
Thursday, 1 April 2010
Storm In A Statistical Teacup?
It is a bit rich for the likes of the Mail, Express, Telegraph, the Tories* and, of course, Andrew Green to be accusing Gordon Brown fiddling or even lying about the immigration figures, given the fact that they all regularly play fast and loose with facts and statistics themselves.
Daily Mail - "Mr Brown has been caught twisting the truth — yet again — earning a humiliating rebuke from the UK Statistics Authority for underestimating the scale of migration." & 'Brown's lies and chicanery on immigration are crying out to be exposed by the Tories'.
Express - "The head of the UK Statistics Authority wrote a personal note to the Prime Minister criticising his manipulation of data in an attempt to claim that the influx of migrants had significantly dropped during his premiership."
Telegraph - "Gordon Brown has misled the public on immigration figures. Again."
Sun - "Brown was humiliatingly caught out again using fiddled figures."
Andrew Green - “The Prime Minister has been caught red-handed fiddling the immigration statistics.” & "This amounts to fiddling the figures for presentational purposes and is completely unacceptable, especially on such a sensitive subject."
As Michael Scholar, head of the UK Statistics Authority said, "The Statistics Authority hopes that, in the political debate over the coming weeks, all parties will be careful to protect the integrity of official statistics." Fat chance of that.
* The Tories were of course more circumspect with their language: "inaccurate picture of his record on immigration" - Chris Grayling. Although he did say that Brown was turning into "a serial offender in misleading the British people."
Daily Mail - "Mr Brown has been caught twisting the truth — yet again — earning a humiliating rebuke from the UK Statistics Authority for underestimating the scale of migration." & 'Brown's lies and chicanery on immigration are crying out to be exposed by the Tories'.
Express - "The head of the UK Statistics Authority wrote a personal note to the Prime Minister criticising his manipulation of data in an attempt to claim that the influx of migrants had significantly dropped during his premiership."
Telegraph - "Gordon Brown has misled the public on immigration figures. Again."
Sun - "Brown was humiliatingly caught out again using fiddled figures."
Andrew Green - “The Prime Minister has been caught red-handed fiddling the immigration statistics.” & "This amounts to fiddling the figures for presentational purposes and is completely unacceptable, especially on such a sensitive subject."
As Michael Scholar, head of the UK Statistics Authority said, "The Statistics Authority hopes that, in the political debate over the coming weeks, all parties will be careful to protect the integrity of official statistics." Fat chance of that.
* The Tories were of course more circumspect with their language: "inaccurate picture of his record on immigration" - Chris Grayling. Although he did say that Brown was turning into "a serial offender in misleading the British people."
Defrosted
The 2 mentally disabled migrants held in the US Immigration and Customs Dentention (ICE) system for more than 4 years that we highlighted in the ICEd Up story on Tuesday were released yesterday from the Otay Mesa Detention facility after judges put their cases on hold due to serious questions about their mental competence. Guillermo Gomez-Sanchez and Jose Antonio Franco Gonzalez had effectively disappeared into the backwaters of the US immigration detention system as they were held to incapable of actively participating in their deportation proceedings.
In Gomez-Sanchez's case, an immigration judge halted proceedings ordered ICE to evaluate his mental competence back in January 2006. They didn't carry out that evaluation until 13 months later and didn't try resubmitting his case until June 2008, two and a half years after the intitial judgement. Last year a judge ordered his release on a $5,000 bond, ruling he was not a flight risk or a danger to the community. However, government attorneys challenged the order.
Franco, who has the mental age of a child, doesn't know his age or birthday, and has trouble counting and cannot tell time according to the ACLU court papers, was released into the care of his family.
U.S. Immigration and Customs Enforcement issued a one-sentence statement on the decision to release the detainees: "After a review of their custody status, medical conditions and assurances from their families, we believe their release from ICE custody is appropriate" The fact that that review was forced upon them by a Human Rights watch and ACLU court action, after having the men in their custody for the past four years, obviously did not warrant commenting upon.
In Gomez-Sanchez's case, an immigration judge halted proceedings ordered ICE to evaluate his mental competence back in January 2006. They didn't carry out that evaluation until 13 months later and didn't try resubmitting his case until June 2008, two and a half years after the intitial judgement. Last year a judge ordered his release on a $5,000 bond, ruling he was not a flight risk or a danger to the community. However, government attorneys challenged the order.
Franco, who has the mental age of a child, doesn't know his age or birthday, and has trouble counting and cannot tell time according to the ACLU court papers, was released into the care of his family.
U.S. Immigration and Customs Enforcement issued a one-sentence statement on the decision to release the detainees: "After a review of their custody status, medical conditions and assurances from their families, we believe their release from ICE custody is appropriate" The fact that that review was forced upon them by a Human Rights watch and ACLU court action, after having the men in their custody for the past four years, obviously did not warrant commenting upon.
Wednesday, 31 March 2010
Denis McShane - Delusional Or Just A Hypocrite?
Denis McShane, the very man that wrote an opinion piece in the Guardian last week calling for 'A non-toxic immigration debate', "one that must be reported sensitively, not sensationally", has just called on Iraqi asylum seekers in the UK to 'go home'. "The successful election that has just been held in Iraq suggests that we may now be moving towards a more stable Iraq. Yes, there will be violence and explosions but the British Isles have known plenty of those in the past 30 or 40 years."
So we are talking about a country where there are currently 3.5 deaths a day from gunfire/executions and 6 per day from suicide/vehicle bombs, and where 91 people have died in the past 7 days (22-28 March) from terrorist/insurgent violence are we? Or are we talking about the British Isles where 52 people have died from terrorist/insurgent violence in the past decade? Or the 800 or so killed in the UK since 1970 (including deaths in Northern Ireland and the Lockerbie bombing)? This is about a sixth of the total civilian deaths in Iraq for the whole of 2009 (4,644).
Is this really the sort of "sensitivity and balance" that he claims he wishes to see in the immigration debate?
So we are talking about a country where there are currently 3.5 deaths a day from gunfire/executions and 6 per day from suicide/vehicle bombs, and where 91 people have died in the past 7 days (22-28 March) from terrorist/insurgent violence are we? Or are we talking about the British Isles where 52 people have died from terrorist/insurgent violence in the past decade? Or the 800 or so killed in the UK since 1970 (including deaths in Northern Ireland and the Lockerbie bombing)? This is about a sixth of the total civilian deaths in Iraq for the whole of 2009 (4,644).
Is this really the sort of "sensitivity and balance" that he claims he wishes to see in the immigration debate?
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