Thursday, 6 May 2010
A Light On Asylum
As an indictment of the way the Home Office and UK Borders Agency systematically fail to adequately examine asylum applications, even when patently obvious evidence of torture is present, or provide proper medical care (in this case via the private detention centre management company G4S) for those held in immigration detention, we suggest you take a look at a new Corporate Watch article covering the case of Nigerian asylum claimant Prince Ademola Babatunde Bakare. The article covers the full background of the case covered by the Independent back in February and also highlights the difficulty of getting fair and balanced press coverage, even in liberal newspapers such as the Independent.
Wednesday, 28 April 2010
Australian Version Of 'Delit De Solidarite'?
It looks highly likely that Australia will soon introduce their own version of the French Article 622, commonly known as Delit de Solidarite or 'Offence of Solidarity'. A secret deal appears to have been concluded between the Rudd government and the Liberal opposition to bring in a criminal offence of supporting people smuggling. Thus even anyone offering humanitarian assistance to say a boat of migrants that got in trouble, such as the captain of the MV Tampa did for 438 Afghans trying to reach Australia in 2001 but whose boat was sinking, would be liable to 10 years in prison. Needless to say news of the putative law leaking has provoked outrage amongst refugee support groups and legal advice groups. The new law will back up a new high-profile IT system called WebMethods which aims to collate all potential sources of information from Customs, other government and external IT systems to identify people-smugglers and other 'border threats'.
Invisible Victims
The plight pf migrants in Mexico, who face what has been labelled as the 'most dangerous journey in the world', is highlighted in the latest Amnesty International report 'Invisible victims - Migrants on the move in Mexico'. According to Amnesty International's Mexico Researcher, Rupert Knox:
“Migrants in Mexico are facing a major human rights crisis, with virtually no access to justice and the constant fear of reprisals and deportation if they complain of abuses.”
“Persistent failure by the authorities to tackle the abuses carried out against irregular migrants, has made the journey through Mexico one of the most dangerous in the world.”
The vast majority of these migrants are travelling through Mexico from Central Americans on their way to the US border in search of work. The National Human Rights Commission has said that nearly 10,000 of them were abducted over a six month period in 2009, with almost half of victims they interviewed saying that public officials were involved in their kidnap. An estimated six out of ten migrant women and girls also experience sexual violence.
On 23 January 2010, armed police stopped a freight train carrying over 100 migrants in Chiapas State, southern Mexico. Migrants on the train then claim that Federal Police forced them to lie face down on the ground. They then stole their belongings and threatened to kill them unless they continued their journey by foot along the railway.
After walking for hours, the group was assaulted by armed men who raped some of the women and killed at least one of the migrant group. Two suspects were later detained after a local activist helped the migrants file a complaint but no action was taken against the Federal Police, despite migrants identifying two officers as having been involved.
“Migrants in Mexico are facing a major human rights crisis, with virtually no access to justice and the constant fear of reprisals and deportation if they complain of abuses.”
“Persistent failure by the authorities to tackle the abuses carried out against irregular migrants, has made the journey through Mexico one of the most dangerous in the world.”
The vast majority of these migrants are travelling through Mexico from Central Americans on their way to the US border in search of work. The National Human Rights Commission has said that nearly 10,000 of them were abducted over a six month period in 2009, with almost half of victims they interviewed saying that public officials were involved in their kidnap. An estimated six out of ten migrant women and girls also experience sexual violence.
On 23 January 2010, armed police stopped a freight train carrying over 100 migrants in Chiapas State, southern Mexico. Migrants on the train then claim that Federal Police forced them to lie face down on the ground. They then stole their belongings and threatened to kill them unless they continued their journey by foot along the railway.
After walking for hours, the group was assaulted by armed men who raped some of the women and killed at least one of the migrant group. Two suspects were later detained after a local activist helped the migrants file a complaint but no action was taken against the Federal Police, despite migrants identifying two officers as having been involved.
Stop Deportation Info Day
The Stop Deportation Network presents:An Info Day & Fundraiser on the Deportation Machine
Saturday 15 May @ the Cowley Club, 12 London Road, Brighton.
2-6pm Workshops: the Deportation Machine, the companies that profit from it and how to campaign against them / Frontex - the European Union borders managing agency.
Film on Frontex and short introduction to the Brussels No Border Camp
6-8pm Fundraiser Vegan meal. £4
9pm-2am Benefit gig - live reggae & gypsy bands. £3 suggested donation (members and guests only)
For more info contact: arggg_deportations@riseup.net
Tuesday, 27 April 2010
Arizona Backlash Begins
Protesters chanting "no deportations today" blockaded the federal detention centre in Broadview, Illinois this morning, preventing a van of deportees leaving for Chicago O'Hare airport 20km to the East. The action is part of a country-wide series of protests against Arizona's new immigration law, with many of the 300 who people demonstrated at the Immigration and Customs Enforcement (ICE) facility camping out overnight prior to beginning their dawn blockade.
Arizona's Senate Bill 1070, which is due to come into force in the summer, will effectively enshrine 'racial profiling' into state law as it allows the police to stop and question anyone they suspect is an 'illegal' immigrant and demand paperwork (visa, passport, green card, etc.) to 'prove' their immigration status. Currently they can only do that if the person is suspected of participating in criminal activity.
Whilst only classified as a misdemeanour rather than felony crime, it will still carry a fine of $500-2,500 or up to 6 months imprisonment and potential deportation by federal authorities. Day labourers will also be banned from gathering on the side of highways as they currently do touting for work as they and anybody who stops to hire them or pick them up is also breaking the law. The law also allows for private citizens to bring civil actions against state officials or agencies that they consider are not enforcing the law vigorously enough!
Mexican president, Felipe Calderón, has condemned the new law and warned that relations with the border state will suffer as a result and already a boycott of the state has started from amongst others the American Immigration Lawyers Association, who have cancelled their Autumn convention which was due to be held there. Also prominent amongst those organising boycotts is the teamster union whose trucker members are refusing to deliver goods to the state.
Arizona's Senate Bill 1070, which is due to come into force in the summer, will effectively enshrine 'racial profiling' into state law as it allows the police to stop and question anyone they suspect is an 'illegal' immigrant and demand paperwork (visa, passport, green card, etc.) to 'prove' their immigration status. Currently they can only do that if the person is suspected of participating in criminal activity.
Whilst only classified as a misdemeanour rather than felony crime, it will still carry a fine of $500-2,500 or up to 6 months imprisonment and potential deportation by federal authorities. Day labourers will also be banned from gathering on the side of highways as they currently do touting for work as they and anybody who stops to hire them or pick them up is also breaking the law. The law also allows for private citizens to bring civil actions against state officials or agencies that they consider are not enforcing the law vigorously enough!
Mexican president, Felipe Calderón, has condemned the new law and warned that relations with the border state will suffer as a result and already a boycott of the state has started from amongst others the American Immigration Lawyers Association, who have cancelled their Autumn convention which was due to be held there. Also prominent amongst those organising boycotts is the teamster union whose trucker members are refusing to deliver goods to the state.
Threat To Oakington Inquest
Cambridge Migrant Solidarity have claimed that actions of the UK Borders Agency in trying to speed up the deportation of detainees involved in the recent disturbance at Oakington IRC could adversely affect the outcome of the inquest into the death of a 40-year-old Kenyan man that sparked the trouble. Approximately 60 of the detainees who took part in protests, some of whom could be potential witnesses at any inquest, were 'singled out' as ringleaders and to other more secure detention centres.
Some are believed to be potential witnesses into the circumstances leading up to the death of the man, tentatively identified as Eliud Nyenzi, from an apparent heart attack. It has been alleged that staff at Oakington ignored his requests for a doctor even though he was in obvious pain. One witnesses, Sunny Idika, was with the dead man in the hours before his death, was due to be deported to Nigeria yesterday but his removal was postponed due to his property not having been returned to him following his move from Oakington.
Some are believed to be potential witnesses into the circumstances leading up to the death of the man, tentatively identified as Eliud Nyenzi, from an apparent heart attack. It has been alleged that staff at Oakington ignored his requests for a doctor even though he was in obvious pain. One witnesses, Sunny Idika, was with the dead man in the hours before his death, was due to be deported to Nigeria yesterday but his removal was postponed due to his property not having been returned to him following his move from Oakington.
Monday, 26 April 2010
Call for a European Week of Action Against the Deportation Machine
Call for a European Week of Action Against the Deportation Machine
1st - 6th June 2010
Deportation has become an integral part of the European immigration regime. Hundreds of refugees and migrants are forcibly deported everyday for doing what humans have done for thousands of years: moving in search of a better life, escaping poverty, abuse, discrimination, persecution, war and so on. The right of everyone to travel and live where they want is denied for those with the 'wrong' skin colour, passport or bank account. They are treated like 'criminals' and incarcerated in special prisons disguised under various euphemisms (removal centres, guest houses and so on). Racist and sexual abuse and physical violence at the hands of immigration officers and private security guards are institutionalised by legitimising the use of force in deportation operations. Even the more vulnerable among migrants facing detention and deportation, such as children and torture survivors, are treated with humiliation instead of being offered help and support.
Behind deportations lies a mixture of racism, nationalism and imperialism in a global capitalist context: whilst capital and the nationals of the EU and other 'first world' countries are free to travel wherever they want, those on the wrong side of artificially erected borders, whose countries are often torn apart by these very privileged Europeans and their capitalist and imperial conquests, are made illegal, criminalised and prevented from exercising their fundamental rights. They simply cease to be people; they become 'illegal immigrants', 'over-stayers' and 'failed asylum seekers' who can be dispensed with when their exploited labour is no longer needed or when they stand up for their rights. As a consequence, common struggles and communities are divided and a culture of suspicion and surveillance prevails.
When it comes to deportation orders, the causes of migration are also conveniently forgotten about. Western-manufactured weapons and armed conflicts, wars of aggression in pursuit of oil and other natural resources, repressive regimes backed by our democracy-loving governments, climate change and land grabs... they can all be traced back here, to our capitalist economies, consumerist lifestyles and imperial interests. Anti-deportation is not a 'single issue campaign' and people choose or are forced to migrate for a variety or reasons.
To operate a deportation flight, European governments contract a range of private and semi-private bodies to do the dirty work for them. Airlines are a key link in the deportation machine. Not only are they one of the major contributors to the progressive killing of the planet, many airline companies are also happy, in their pursuit of profit, to fly people to their possible death, both individually and en masse. Other profiteers include companies providing transport and escort services during forcible deportations and multinational security companies, such as Serco and G4S, that manage immigration prisons and carry out deportations on behalf of immigration authorities.
Then there are those shadowy, unaccountable, inter-governmental agencies, such as the EU external border agency (Frontex) and the International Organisation for Migration (IOM), whose role has become more and more prominent in recent years as European governments seek to carry out deportations through joint coordinated 'operations'. This not only saves them money but also, by putting deportations in the hands of a regional or international body, pushes accountability to another level away from national governments and immigration authorities. Indeed, Frontex has recently assumed extra powers to charter mass deportation flights on behalf of European governments, buy equipment and explore satellite technology to monitor the 'EU borders'. After all, a racist, imperial super-state like Fortress Europe needs a mercenary army like Frontex to protect its artificial borders.
Deportees, including families and children, are often handcuffed and accompanied by security guards as if they were 'dangerous criminals' (the label 'criminal', as used by those in power, is problematic anyway). There have been numerous reports of physical assaults and racial and sexual abuse suffered by deportees at the hands of immigration officers and private 'escorts' during individual and mass deportations. Proposals to have 'human rights monitors' on deportation flights, as recently recommended by a senior EU commissioner, may prevent some of these practices but will also legitimise the brutality of deportation itself.
We realise that resistance against deportation is continuous and not confined to days or weeks of action: people trying to cross the border in the most dangerous conditions everyday; hunger strikes and riots in immigration prisons; deportees and sympathetic passengers refusing to sit down quietly on board inconspicuous planes; communities coming together to defend their members; regular protests and actions against various parts of the deportation machine... Yet, more needs to be done as thousands of people continue to be forcibly deported everyday.
We are calling upon all concerned individuals and groups throughout Europe to join us in a decentralised, coordinated week of action against the deportation machine in the first week of June 2010. We are calling upon migrants and refugees and their supporters inside and outside Europe to organise their own actions and protests during this week in a united cry:
STOP DEPORTATIONS!
NO TO FORTRESS EUROPE!
FREEDOM OF MOVEMENT FOR ALL!
1st - 6th June 2010
Deportation has become an integral part of the European immigration regime. Hundreds of refugees and migrants are forcibly deported everyday for doing what humans have done for thousands of years: moving in search of a better life, escaping poverty, abuse, discrimination, persecution, war and so on. The right of everyone to travel and live where they want is denied for those with the 'wrong' skin colour, passport or bank account. They are treated like 'criminals' and incarcerated in special prisons disguised under various euphemisms (removal centres, guest houses and so on). Racist and sexual abuse and physical violence at the hands of immigration officers and private security guards are institutionalised by legitimising the use of force in deportation operations. Even the more vulnerable among migrants facing detention and deportation, such as children and torture survivors, are treated with humiliation instead of being offered help and support.
Behind deportations lies a mixture of racism, nationalism and imperialism in a global capitalist context: whilst capital and the nationals of the EU and other 'first world' countries are free to travel wherever they want, those on the wrong side of artificially erected borders, whose countries are often torn apart by these very privileged Europeans and their capitalist and imperial conquests, are made illegal, criminalised and prevented from exercising their fundamental rights. They simply cease to be people; they become 'illegal immigrants', 'over-stayers' and 'failed asylum seekers' who can be dispensed with when their exploited labour is no longer needed or when they stand up for their rights. As a consequence, common struggles and communities are divided and a culture of suspicion and surveillance prevails.
When it comes to deportation orders, the causes of migration are also conveniently forgotten about. Western-manufactured weapons and armed conflicts, wars of aggression in pursuit of oil and other natural resources, repressive regimes backed by our democracy-loving governments, climate change and land grabs... they can all be traced back here, to our capitalist economies, consumerist lifestyles and imperial interests. Anti-deportation is not a 'single issue campaign' and people choose or are forced to migrate for a variety or reasons.
To operate a deportation flight, European governments contract a range of private and semi-private bodies to do the dirty work for them. Airlines are a key link in the deportation machine. Not only are they one of the major contributors to the progressive killing of the planet, many airline companies are also happy, in their pursuit of profit, to fly people to their possible death, both individually and en masse. Other profiteers include companies providing transport and escort services during forcible deportations and multinational security companies, such as Serco and G4S, that manage immigration prisons and carry out deportations on behalf of immigration authorities.
Then there are those shadowy, unaccountable, inter-governmental agencies, such as the EU external border agency (Frontex) and the International Organisation for Migration (IOM), whose role has become more and more prominent in recent years as European governments seek to carry out deportations through joint coordinated 'operations'. This not only saves them money but also, by putting deportations in the hands of a regional or international body, pushes accountability to another level away from national governments and immigration authorities. Indeed, Frontex has recently assumed extra powers to charter mass deportation flights on behalf of European governments, buy equipment and explore satellite technology to monitor the 'EU borders'. After all, a racist, imperial super-state like Fortress Europe needs a mercenary army like Frontex to protect its artificial borders.
Deportees, including families and children, are often handcuffed and accompanied by security guards as if they were 'dangerous criminals' (the label 'criminal', as used by those in power, is problematic anyway). There have been numerous reports of physical assaults and racial and sexual abuse suffered by deportees at the hands of immigration officers and private 'escorts' during individual and mass deportations. Proposals to have 'human rights monitors' on deportation flights, as recently recommended by a senior EU commissioner, may prevent some of these practices but will also legitimise the brutality of deportation itself.
We realise that resistance against deportation is continuous and not confined to days or weeks of action: people trying to cross the border in the most dangerous conditions everyday; hunger strikes and riots in immigration prisons; deportees and sympathetic passengers refusing to sit down quietly on board inconspicuous planes; communities coming together to defend their members; regular protests and actions against various parts of the deportation machine... Yet, more needs to be done as thousands of people continue to be forcibly deported everyday.
We are calling upon all concerned individuals and groups throughout Europe to join us in a decentralised, coordinated week of action against the deportation machine in the first week of June 2010. We are calling upon migrants and refugees and their supporters inside and outside Europe to organise their own actions and protests during this week in a united cry:
STOP DEPORTATIONS!
NO TO FORTRESS EUROPE!
FREEDOM OF MOVEMENT FOR ALL!
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