Friends Meeting House on Jesus Lane at 19:30 on Wednesday 19th of May
Cambridge Migrant Solidarity will be holding a public meeting at the Friends Meeting this Wednesday. Speakers will include Dr Frank Arnold of Medical Justice and Keith Best, from the Medical Foundation for the Care of Victims of Torture.
On Thursday 15th April 2010 Eliud Nyenze, a 40 year old Kenyan man, died at Oakington Detention Centre, after requests for medical attention were apparently denied. Despite this, and allegations that an ambulance called by fellow detainees was turned away by staff at Oakington, the death is not being officially treated as suspicious. The cause of death is still unclear.
In the wake of the death and the “disturbances” involving distressed detainees, up to 60 men were removed to other detention centres and in some cases prisons, despite not being accused of, or charged with any criminal offence.
At this public meeting we will be exploring what really happened to Eliud Nyenze at Oakington on the 19th of May, and what has happened to fellow detainees since.
Wednesday, 19 May 2010
Monday, 17 May 2010
Glacially Slow, Wilfully Stupid And Blind To Human Suffering
Imagine this: You escaped your home 13 years ago and claimed refugee status in a foreign land. You get a job, put down roots and have 3 kids, only to be told that because you were once a member of the party that provides the current legitimate government and president in your home country, El Salvador, you are finally about to be deported back there. But, and it is a big but, it is not because it is safe for you to return but because the organisation was the FMLN, which once waged an armed struggle against the military dictatorship and "is an organisation that there are reasonable grounds to believe is or was engaged in terrorism and/or subversion," according to the Canadian Border Services Agency.
Even more bizarre is the fact that when Jose Figueroa's refugee claim was originally turned down in 2000 the Immigration and Refugee Board recognised the FMLN as a legitimate political party, and that the civil war in El Salvador had ended in 1992, five years before Mr Figuera entered Canada. On top of that, Mr Figuera's 3 Canadian-born children only speak English and the eldest, 12-year-old Jose Ivan, is autistic and will not be able to get the special schooling he needs in El Salvador and is very unlikely be able to learn Spanish at his age. It seems like immigration bureaucracy is the same the world over: glacially slow, wilfully stupid and blind to human suffering.
Even more bizarre is the fact that when Jose Figueroa's refugee claim was originally turned down in 2000 the Immigration and Refugee Board recognised the FMLN as a legitimate political party, and that the civil war in El Salvador had ended in 1992, five years before Mr Figuera entered Canada. On top of that, Mr Figuera's 3 Canadian-born children only speak English and the eldest, 12-year-old Jose Ivan, is autistic and will not be able to get the special schooling he needs in El Salvador and is very unlikely be able to learn Spanish at his age. It seems like immigration bureaucracy is the same the world over: glacially slow, wilfully stupid and blind to human suffering.
Freedom of Movement For All: Transnational Action Paris/Berlin
Saturday night saw police descended upon the Gare du Nord, a Franco-British border and the target for the mass action. Police attempted to disrupt plans, telling all cars to leave the area, and shops to close. Migrants were threatened with arrest if they attempted to interact with No Borders activists. A high level of undercover police combined with many other types deterred some from participating. However, over 200 people joined the main demonstration and refused to be intimidated, stopping traffic, setting off flares, and calling for an end to the escalating repression against migrants in Calais, and across Europe.
No arrests were made, and many Afghan migrants watched the demonstration despite the threats of the police.
Simultaneous demonstrations occurred in Berlin, with several hundred people demonstrating in front of the French Cultural Centre.
Several hundred Afghans most of whom intend to make the journey North to the UK and elsewhere are currently living a precarious existence in the city, and across Northern France often living in the streets exposed to the elements and to arrest or eviction at the whim of the police. To enforce elitist migration laws, oppressive levels of surveillance are employed at the station: the police are on permanent stand-by, the military patrol the area, and CCTV is pervasive. This surveillance facilitates the identification and exclusion of those deemed 'undesirable' such as 'illegal' immigrants who often congregate near the station or 'yobs from the surburbs'. These youth are often excluded from participating in major public events by the CRS (public order police) who await them on the platforms and send them back to their areas. Without the requisite I.D. or travel documents, or the means to pay for the prohibitively high cost of public transport, access to the Eurostar, plus other international lines and suburban trains, is denied. Join us in this mass action and fight to reclaim freedom of movement for all!
Discussions and a party will follow the demonstration. For more information visit: http://www.calaismigrantsolidarity.wordpress.com
No Borders calls for freedom of movement for all. We act in solidarity with all those repressed by the state and Fortress Europe. No borders! No nations!
Photos and more information to follow.....
http://parisactionday.wordpress.com/
http://parisactionday.noblogs.org/
No arrests were made, and many Afghan migrants watched the demonstration despite the threats of the police.
Simultaneous demonstrations occurred in Berlin, with several hundred people demonstrating in front of the French Cultural Centre.
Several hundred Afghans most of whom intend to make the journey North to the UK and elsewhere are currently living a precarious existence in the city, and across Northern France often living in the streets exposed to the elements and to arrest or eviction at the whim of the police. To enforce elitist migration laws, oppressive levels of surveillance are employed at the station: the police are on permanent stand-by, the military patrol the area, and CCTV is pervasive. This surveillance facilitates the identification and exclusion of those deemed 'undesirable' such as 'illegal' immigrants who often congregate near the station or 'yobs from the surburbs'. These youth are often excluded from participating in major public events by the CRS (public order police) who await them on the platforms and send them back to their areas. Without the requisite I.D. or travel documents, or the means to pay for the prohibitively high cost of public transport, access to the Eurostar, plus other international lines and suburban trains, is denied. Join us in this mass action and fight to reclaim freedom of movement for all!
Discussions and a party will follow the demonstration. For more information visit: http://www.calaismigrantsolidarity.wordpress.com
No Borders calls for freedom of movement for all. We act in solidarity with all those repressed by the state and Fortress Europe. No borders! No nations!
Photos and more information to follow.....
http://parisactionday.wordpress.com/
http://parisactionday.noblogs.org/
9 Years In Immigration Detention Update
The identity of Ms X, a Chinese grandmother who is Australia’s longest-serving immigration detainee has been released by her lawyer, Michaela Byers, in a bid to publicise her client Ms Bao's poor mental and physical health. Ms Byers claims the six and a half years Ms Boa spent in Villawood detention centre and the continuing uncertainty of her immigration status since she was moved into community detention have
Listen to a podcast of a 2SER radio interview with Michaela Byers about Ms Bao's case.
Listen to a podcast of a 2SER radio interview with Michaela Byers about Ms Bao's case.
Saturday, 15 May 2010
Melbourne Detention Centre Disturbance
Three teenagers were injured and taken to hospital following disturbances at the Serco-run Melbourne Immigration Transit Accommodation Facility yesterday. The detention centre, part of an overstretched Australian detention estate, currently holds nearly 50 young Afghan men in overcrowded conditions with little access to recreation activities. The Asylum Seeker Resource Centre have also claimed that poor management of the facility by Serco, who run all the country's detention centres on behalf of the Australian government.
Australia has recently had to open new holding centres on the mainland that had been closed following the introduction of the 'Pacific Solution' in 2001, as Christmas Island, the main off-shore immigration denotion centre, became overcrowded. Most notorious of these is the Curtin detention centre, widely described as an 'outback gulag', was closed in 2002 after a third of its 340 detainees were involved involved in a riot. The centre was also known for the high rate of self-harm amongst its inmates, yet that did not stop the Rudd government from reopening it last month for a planned 200-300 mainly Sri Lankan and Afghan detainees. The Baxter detention centre was also reopened to house sixty 13 to 18-year-olds from Afghanistan, Iran and Iraq.
Australia has recently had to open new holding centres on the mainland that had been closed following the introduction of the 'Pacific Solution' in 2001, as Christmas Island, the main off-shore immigration denotion centre, became overcrowded. Most notorious of these is the Curtin detention centre, widely described as an 'outback gulag', was closed in 2002 after a third of its 340 detainees were involved involved in a riot. The centre was also known for the high rate of self-harm amongst its inmates, yet that did not stop the Rudd government from reopening it last month for a planned 200-300 mainly Sri Lankan and Afghan detainees. The Baxter detention centre was also reopened to house sixty 13 to 18-year-olds from Afghanistan, Iran and Iraq.
Friday, 14 May 2010
Reflections On The Media, Immigration & The Election
We heartily recommend an article by John Grayson of the South Yorkshire Migration and Asylum Action Group on the Institute of Race Relations website entitled 'Reflections on the media, immigration and the election'. It contains an excellent analysis of the increasing adoption by the 'political classes' of a "general 'common sense' racist political culture driven by media images and messages" during the election.
It is also timely as the big danger facing Nu Labour as it reinvents itself (Forced Labour or maybe Induced Labour anyone?) is that it embraces this thinly disguised racism, adopting it wholesale as new party policy in order to win back disaffected 'white working class' voters, rather than actually challenging the ignorant and ill-informed assumptions that this thinly disguised racism is based upon.
And more sensible comment on this subject can also be found at the Angry Mob blog - 'Immigration and 'Social Cohesion''.
It is also timely as the big danger facing Nu Labour as it reinvents itself (Forced Labour or maybe Induced Labour anyone?) is that it embraces this thinly disguised racism, adopting it wholesale as new party policy in order to win back disaffected 'white working class' voters, rather than actually challenging the ignorant and ill-informed assumptions that this thinly disguised racism is based upon.
And more sensible comment on this subject can also be found at the Angry Mob blog - 'Immigration and 'Social Cohesion''.
Thursday, 13 May 2010
The Tory-Whig Coalition II
Oh dear! And Damien Green IS the new immigration minister. We just hope he doesn't appoint his namesake Mr MigrationBotch Alan Green as his chief advisor.
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