Unlawful Detention Of Detainees
147 detainees are staging a protest by refusing meals at Campsfield immigration removal centre. The protest erupted as a result of the treatment of detainees in detention centres especially for people who have been detained for a long period of time. We continue to refuse meals indefinitely for our voices to be heard.
Some of us detainees have been detained for over 3 years with no prospect of removal or any evidence of future release. There is no justification whatsoever for detaining us for such period of time. Our lives incidentally have been stalled without any hope of living a life, having a family or any future. More often than not, we are been detained even when our family (wife and children) are resident in the United Kingdom, depriving us of having a life with our family. We the detainees are also humans.
In certain cases, some of us are tortured and even face death or mental distress. On 14 April 2010, a detainee of Kenya national Eliud Nyenze died at Oakington IRC due to negligence. Mr. Nyenze, age 40, had a heart attack, requested for painkillers, repeatedly and kept crawling around the floor in pain before he died.
Detainees are currently undergoing mental stress with some of us developing mental problems on a monthly basis. We are issued removal directions without given enough time for an appeal.
It has become a habit by the UK Border Agency to use force in enforcing removal of detainees who have a pending Judicial Review without giving appropriate time or consideration to our case and forcing our removal before our cases are concluded. In some situations, we are not given enough time to appeal against the decision which breaches our rights under Article 6 of the ECHR. Our liberty and security has been taking away.
We as foreign nationals are often been criminalised for the purpose of detention and removal as the law under the European Convention of Human Rights permits the removal of foreigners who have established there lives in the United Kingdom and are a treat to national security. Foreign nationals are now been sent to prison for 12 months custodial sentence or more prompting the deportation of such individual. Removals are enforced on specially chartered flights with security personnel who abuse and torture detainees in the process. Detainees are restrained, strapped, beating and forced on the airplane.
On 26 July 2010, one of the detainee at Campsfield attempted suicide due to the level of treatment received at the detention centre.
The Amnesty International has also reported that our detention breaches the internationally recognised human rights.
On a regular basis, we are tortured, restrained, strapped like animals and beating to effect removal. This cannot be lawful given that there is provision within the ECHR convention that prohibits torture both mentally and physically.
We painfully ask that the government, the house of parliament, the house of common, the parliamentarians and all concerned to rise to our aid and address these issues that affects not only our lives and our future but the lives and future of the thousands of our families who are constantly under pain and torture.
Detainees - Campsfield House
Tuesday, 3 August 2010
Hunger Strike At Campsfield & Possibly Yarl's Wood
There seems to be some confusion on the newswires but there is definitely a hunger strike at Campsfield detention centre and, according to the Press Association, at Yarl's Wood. 147 detainees at Campsfield began refusing food - "indefinitely for our voices to be heard" - yesterday evening in protest against the poor treatment of long-term detainees.
The Home Office claim that only 108 detainees are involved but, just as they did with the Yarl's Wood hinger strikers last year*, their line is to attempt to suggest that the hunger strike is not genuine - Jonathan Sedgwick, UK Border Agency deputy chief executive: "they still have access to food from the on site shop and vending machines."
The Press Association have also got a release out linking the same UKBA statement to what is claimed to be a hunger strike at Yarl's Wood but this appears to be a mistake on their part as none of the websites for the local papers have the story.
More hopefully to follow.
UPDATE: The Press Association link above now goes to a new much shorter corrected version of the story (without mentioning that they got it wrong earlier). If you want to see the earlier version then 24Dash have more or less an exact copy of the PA text.
* There is an article in today's Guardian with a number of the women who took part in that hunger strike and they talk about their experiences and the fact that they are still involved in "a legal battle to gain official recognition that the protest even took place."
The Home Office claim that only 108 detainees are involved but, just as they did with the Yarl's Wood hinger strikers last year*, their line is to attempt to suggest that the hunger strike is not genuine - Jonathan Sedgwick, UK Border Agency deputy chief executive: "they still have access to food from the on site shop and vending machines."
The Press Association have also got a release out linking the same UKBA statement to what is claimed to be a hunger strike at Yarl's Wood but this appears to be a mistake on their part as none of the websites for the local papers have the story.
More hopefully to follow.
UPDATE: The Press Association link above now goes to a new much shorter corrected version of the story (without mentioning that they got it wrong earlier). If you want to see the earlier version then 24Dash have more or less an exact copy of the PA text.
* There is an article in today's Guardian with a number of the women who took part in that hunger strike and they talk about their experiences and the fact that they are still involved in "a legal battle to gain official recognition that the protest even took place."
Monday, 2 August 2010
European-wide Anti-Roma Racism
Ma de pr'oda, savi hinmanuces morci, ale dikh, savo les hin jilo.
[Don't look at the skin of a man; look at his heart.]
—Romani proverb
Eric Pickles, the rather unpleasant Tory communities and local government minster, seems hell bent on making sure that he is not left out of the wave of anti-Roma/Gypsy/Traveller activities that are sweeping Europe. Pandering to apparently nimby but essentially racist sentiment, he is busy drafting a swathe of new laws that will make it easier for the police to evict and arrest people that trespass on public land, the very land that Gypsies and Travellers are being forced to camp on following the increased number of court actions forcing the eviction of the very same families from land that they own but for which they have no planning permission to live.
The most notorious recent example of this phenomenon is Basildon Council's on-going attempts to try and evict the Dale Farm community. Just last week eight families were issued with eviction notices and a further 70 families are under threat of losing their homes. Yet, by European standards, they can count themselves relatively lucky, they may face daily racist antipathy and violence from hostile locals but at least they do not face forced deportation as other Roma and Travellers are.
Across Europe they are being scapegoated for the failures of politicians and economies with apparently ever increasing vigour. So much so that organisations like UNICEF, Amnesty International, the European Roma Policy Coalition and the European Roma Rights Centre have all issued recent stark warnings about the treatment of the Romani and how the EU appear to be "turning blind eye to discrimination against Roma" as the Guardian put it.
These people are EU citizens and should have the right to freedom of movement and protection under the ECHR, but nobody appears to care. Just this year we have had a series of forced evictions of Roma in Slovakia, Serbia, Italy, Romania and the Czech Republic; the forced deportation of 23 Roma from Denmark, with a two-year entry ban, for camping in the wrong place and the city of Copenhagen has requested government assistance to deport up to 400 more Roma from the country; Swedish police had expelled 50 Roma so far this year for begging, which is not illegal in Sweden; the caravan of 700 Roma who were attempting to hold an evangelical rally on squatted land forced out of the Dutch-speaking Flanders region of Belgium but managed to negotiate temporary permission to camp in Dour, in the French-speaking Wallonia; Sarkozy announced plans to dismantle 300 or so 'illegal' Roma and Travellers camps and expel them from the country in response to the recent riots that followed the shooting dead of 22-year-old Luigi Duquenet in the quiet French village of Saint Aignan*; and German plans to forcibly return 12,000 Roma, Ashkali and Egyptians to Kosovo, more than 5 000 of whom are children, including a majority that were born or grew up in Germany and speak no language other than German.**
One small piece of welcome news has been the success of a test case brought in the Hungarian supreme court against the segregation of schools in Miskolc, Hungary's third-largest city. Five Roma children were awarded damages for the detrimental effects they suffered from this form of persecution. The 100,000 florint (about £300) damages may not be much but it remains an historic decision that hopefully should bring to have an effect in the Hungarian educational system.
* "France's estimated 400,000 Travellers already have to undergo regular police checks and critics fear they are at risk of becoming the scapegoats of a government in need of a populist boost."
** There are numerous stories of the persecution of returnees and the particular problems faced by the children. Germany is not the only EU country returning Kosovans as it has been the policy of a number of Western European countries to deport refugees back to what they now consider a 'safe' country, whatever the consequences.
[Don't look at the skin of a man; look at his heart.]
—Romani proverb
Eric Pickles, the rather unpleasant Tory communities and local government minster, seems hell bent on making sure that he is not left out of the wave of anti-Roma/Gypsy/Traveller activities that are sweeping Europe. Pandering to apparently nimby but essentially racist sentiment, he is busy drafting a swathe of new laws that will make it easier for the police to evict and arrest people that trespass on public land, the very land that Gypsies and Travellers are being forced to camp on following the increased number of court actions forcing the eviction of the very same families from land that they own but for which they have no planning permission to live.
The most notorious recent example of this phenomenon is Basildon Council's on-going attempts to try and evict the Dale Farm community. Just last week eight families were issued with eviction notices and a further 70 families are under threat of losing their homes. Yet, by European standards, they can count themselves relatively lucky, they may face daily racist antipathy and violence from hostile locals but at least they do not face forced deportation as other Roma and Travellers are.
Across Europe they are being scapegoated for the failures of politicians and economies with apparently ever increasing vigour. So much so that organisations like UNICEF, Amnesty International, the European Roma Policy Coalition and the European Roma Rights Centre have all issued recent stark warnings about the treatment of the Romani and how the EU appear to be "turning blind eye to discrimination against Roma" as the Guardian put it.
These people are EU citizens and should have the right to freedom of movement and protection under the ECHR, but nobody appears to care. Just this year we have had a series of forced evictions of Roma in Slovakia, Serbia, Italy, Romania and the Czech Republic; the forced deportation of 23 Roma from Denmark, with a two-year entry ban, for camping in the wrong place and the city of Copenhagen has requested government assistance to deport up to 400 more Roma from the country; Swedish police had expelled 50 Roma so far this year for begging, which is not illegal in Sweden; the caravan of 700 Roma who were attempting to hold an evangelical rally on squatted land forced out of the Dutch-speaking Flanders region of Belgium but managed to negotiate temporary permission to camp in Dour, in the French-speaking Wallonia; Sarkozy announced plans to dismantle 300 or so 'illegal' Roma and Travellers camps and expel them from the country in response to the recent riots that followed the shooting dead of 22-year-old Luigi Duquenet in the quiet French village of Saint Aignan*; and German plans to forcibly return 12,000 Roma, Ashkali and Egyptians to Kosovo, more than 5 000 of whom are children, including a majority that were born or grew up in Germany and speak no language other than German.**
One small piece of welcome news has been the success of a test case brought in the Hungarian supreme court against the segregation of schools in Miskolc, Hungary's third-largest city. Five Roma children were awarded damages for the detrimental effects they suffered from this form of persecution. The 100,000 florint (about £300) damages may not be much but it remains an historic decision that hopefully should bring to have an effect in the Hungarian educational system.
* "France's estimated 400,000 Travellers already have to undergo regular police checks and critics fear they are at risk of becoming the scapegoats of a government in need of a populist boost."
** There are numerous stories of the persecution of returnees and the particular problems faced by the children. Germany is not the only EU country returning Kosovans as it has been the policy of a number of Western European countries to deport refugees back to what they now consider a 'safe' country, whatever the consequences.
Another Victim
Osman Rasul is sadly just the latest in a long line of victims of the UK's barbaric immigration and asylum prevention regime (for that is what it effectively is) that is so divorced from reality that it can keep thousands of people waiting in legal limbo, often destitute and homeless when not being kept in one the government's glorified internment camps, for years on end (in Osman's case nine frustrating and ultimately hopeless years).
An Iraqi Kurd, he had arrived in the UK in 2001 claiming asylum as his life was in danger from one of the main Kurdish political factions. Like so many products of the West's war against Saddam who have managed to make it to these shores, the country in part responsible for his plight turned its back on him, refusing his asylum application.
Thus he became a typical destitute asylum seeker, surviving on £20 a month in charitable donations plus gifts of food from friends and organisations like the Nottingham Refugee Forum, and sleeping rough on the streets. He set about trying to make a fresh asylum claim but any chance of that was ended when Refugee and Migrant Justice was forced into administration, depriving him of access to legal aid and expert immigration advice.
The final straw was when he travelled down to Croydon to visit the UK Border Agency offices that all refugees are forced to travel to where ever they live in England in order to make an asylum claim. He asked them to either accept his claim or send him back to Iraq. Instead, they told him to go away and find a solicitor. Fat chance of that as only half of the solicitors firms that carried out immigration and asylum work are now able to do so following the Legal Aid reforms and his chances of getting one of them to take his case were slim.
So instead he jumped from the seventh floor of a Nottingham tower block.
An Iraqi Kurd, he had arrived in the UK in 2001 claiming asylum as his life was in danger from one of the main Kurdish political factions. Like so many products of the West's war against Saddam who have managed to make it to these shores, the country in part responsible for his plight turned its back on him, refusing his asylum application.
Thus he became a typical destitute asylum seeker, surviving on £20 a month in charitable donations plus gifts of food from friends and organisations like the Nottingham Refugee Forum, and sleeping rough on the streets. He set about trying to make a fresh asylum claim but any chance of that was ended when Refugee and Migrant Justice was forced into administration, depriving him of access to legal aid and expert immigration advice.
The final straw was when he travelled down to Croydon to visit the UK Border Agency offices that all refugees are forced to travel to where ever they live in England in order to make an asylum claim. He asked them to either accept his claim or send him back to Iraq. Instead, they told him to go away and find a solicitor. Fat chance of that as only half of the solicitors firms that carried out immigration and asylum work are now able to do so following the Legal Aid reforms and his chances of getting one of them to take his case were slim.
So instead he jumped from the seventh floor of a Nottingham tower block.
Thursday, 29 July 2010
Surprise, Surprise...
...the UK Border Agency's own Professional Standards Unit has found that the agency's Cardiff office is not 'institutionally racist' or has a pervasive culture of abuse following a series of allegations made by ex-employee Louise Perrett in March this year. Nobody will face disciplinary action for actions apparently because they decided that there was nothing wrong with testing the veracity of boys from Africa who claimed they had been forcibly conscripted as child soldiers by making them lie down on the floor and demonstrate how they shot at people in the bush; or that singing "Umbongo, umbongo, they kill them in the Congo" in reference to a Congolese woman's asylum case; or that the fabled 'grant monkey' was not used as a 'badge of shame' when it was placed as a badge of shame on the desk of any UKBA officer who approved an asylum application.
Despite the report's conclusion "that Ms Perrett misinterpreted its significance [and] it was accepted that her misconception of it could have been felt by others and as such it was unwelcome", it was "accepted that [the monkey's] subsequent removal from the office was correct"! So it was removed from the office just in case someone might get the idea that the 'grant monkey', when placed on someone's desk after they had given someone leave to remain, was in no way connected and, despite its name' it wasn't intended as a 'badge of shame'. Maybe the fact that there was "no evidence to corroborate Ms Perrett's claims" was down to the PCS union's advice not to co-operate with the investigation?
Despite the report's conclusion "that Ms Perrett misinterpreted its significance [and] it was accepted that her misconception of it could have been felt by others and as such it was unwelcome", it was "accepted that [the monkey's] subsequent removal from the office was correct"! So it was removed from the office just in case someone might get the idea that the 'grant monkey', when placed on someone's desk after they had given someone leave to remain, was in no way connected and, despite its name' it wasn't intended as a 'badge of shame'. Maybe the fact that there was "no evidence to corroborate Ms Perrett's claims" was down to the PCS union's advice not to co-operate with the investigation?
IMPORTANT: 5 Years Limited Leave to Remain
Are you a Zimbabwean asylum seekers and were you granted 5 years refugee leave in 2005?
If so, please read the important information below and pass on to your friends.
From August 2005, refugees were granted 5 years refugee leave rather than indefinite leave to remain (ILR). Asylum seekers granted humanitarian protection (HP) were given HP for a 5 year period.
In August 2010, leave to remain will expire for the first of these people. It is VERY IMPORTANT that people do not wait for their leave to expire before making applications for further leave to remain or ILR.
They should apply for further leave to remain or ILR about a month before their leave expires.
See: Home Office website on Further Leave To Remain
Also: Download Cover letter
Also: Download Zip Info pack
[from the Zimbabwe Association website]
If so, please read the important information below and pass on to your friends.
From August 2005, refugees were granted 5 years refugee leave rather than indefinite leave to remain (ILR). Asylum seekers granted humanitarian protection (HP) were given HP for a 5 year period.
In August 2010, leave to remain will expire for the first of these people. It is VERY IMPORTANT that people do not wait for their leave to expire before making applications for further leave to remain or ILR.
They should apply for further leave to remain or ILR about a month before their leave expires.
See: Home Office website on Further Leave To Remain
Also: Download Cover letter
Also: Download Zip Info pack
[from the Zimbabwe Association website]
Some Light In The Limbo Of Everyday Existence?
And in another court decision, this time in the Supreme Court, the Home Office's challenge to an EU directive that asylum seekers who have already had one claim turned down but have submitted a fresh claim be allowed to look for work if their claim has not been processed within a year has been dismissed. Needless to say, the decision raised the ire of the usual suspects with claims that "tens of thousands" [Daily Telegraph] or even "up to 45,000" [Daily Mail] of "failed (sic) asylum seekers given right to work". Both of them of course took the opportunity to quote the latest MigrationBotch aka Andrew Green whinge, though only the Mail had the gall to print his smear about the refused asylum seekers in question not being "genuine refugees".
Just because someone's application for asylum has been turned down as it does not fit the ever more restrictive Home Office criteria, the ever smaller hoops that refugees have to jump through in order to be granted what is usually a very limited right to remain, doesn't make them bogus whatever all the anti-immigration propagandists would have you believe. At least this decision will allow the very small number of refused asylum seekers that actually do manage to get a job to live in something other than a limbo characterised by abject poverty that is hardly alleviated by an occasional charity hand-out whilst the rusty machinery of Home Office bureaucracy slowly grinds its way towards a decision on their case.
~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~
Yet the latest news is that Damian 'The Omen' Green is seeking to subvert the court ruling by imposing restrictions on the type of jobs refused asylum seekers could apply for, barring them from "more than 28.5m jobs and restrict them to industries in which there are official staff shortages" according to the latest from the Guardian. Blatant discrimination.
Just because someone's application for asylum has been turned down as it does not fit the ever more restrictive Home Office criteria, the ever smaller hoops that refugees have to jump through in order to be granted what is usually a very limited right to remain, doesn't make them bogus whatever all the anti-immigration propagandists would have you believe. At least this decision will allow the very small number of refused asylum seekers that actually do manage to get a job to live in something other than a limbo characterised by abject poverty that is hardly alleviated by an occasional charity hand-out whilst the rusty machinery of Home Office bureaucracy slowly grinds its way towards a decision on their case.
~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~
Yet the latest news is that Damian 'The Omen' Green is seeking to subvert the court ruling by imposing restrictions on the type of jobs refused asylum seekers could apply for, barring them from "more than 28.5m jobs and restrict them to industries in which there are official staff shortages" according to the latest from the Guardian. Blatant discrimination.
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