the latest stories that you might have missed (an on-going service designed to cover up the fact that we have either been too busy or too lazy to cover certain news):
Immigration scare tactics. Get Bruce Willis! - Five Chinese Crackers' latest comment on the usual thinly disguised racist Tabloid coverage of another batch of population statistics. In particular, we like very much the rubbishing of yet more MigrationBotch disinformation and down-right lies.
Defying Borders at a De-Facto Refugee Camp in France - coverage of No Borders activity in calais by an independent journalist.
Why Becoming a Legal Immigrant Is Next to Impossible - an American view of why asylum has become a dirty word through the progressive (sic) criminalisation of almost all forms of migration (except of course the few routes that make the host country materially better off - imperialism still holds sway).
UN Report: US abuse of Native Americans and migrants - an article on the publication of the Universal Periodic Review Joint Report y the U.S. Human Rights Network. A must for anyone still labouring under the delusion that the U.S. is still the home of the brave and the land of the free.
Is France lying about Roma crime rates? - an English language story from the Tehran Times based on a Rue89 article outlining well-known post-fascist French Interior Minister Hortefeux's rather less than truthful use of statistics to help justify the on-going Gallic persecution of Roma.
Immigration to Europe: how many foreign citizens live in each country? - just what it says. 43.5% of the population of Luxembourg are foreign citizens; 21.7% of anti-minarets and veils Switzerland; 10.3% of Jörg Haider's Austria; and 6.6% of David Cameron and (not) Nick Giffen's UK - almost exactly the same as the EU27 average of 6.4%.
From the Guardian, all the statistics needed to help you counteract the next idiot that starts quoting dodgy Daily Mail or MigrationBotch statistics at you.
Speaking of which...
Are foreign students good or bad for Britain? - from Mark Easton's BBC blog. Can the incredibly arrogant commentator nautonier on this piece be none other than Mr MigrationBotch Andrew Green himself? "Yes ... I also know that many British people work/study overseas ... I have worked extensively overseas myself and do not need a lecture from anyone about British people working overseas..." "Do you really know better than the House of Lords, Mr Easton?" See what you think?
Sri Lankan Tamil refugees spark racism row in Canada - the true face of a Conservative PM?
Agency 'Manipulating' Asylum Figures - Sky News breaking a story criticising the UK Border Agency's manipulation of figures to show that rather than 60% of new cases dealt with within 6 months, the figure is actually only 4%? Whatever next?
Anti-immigration hysteria tied to the private prison industry - absolutely no surprise here. After all, the private prison industry has to expand even in these financially troubled times, so where better than into running immigration prisons. And if that means stirring up racist sentiments, then so be it.
Anti-Anti Immigration: Principles to Make Migration Work - a sort of companion piece to 'Why Becoming a Legal Immigrant Is Next to Impossible' written by the Co-Directors of Immigration Studies at NYU.
Wednesday, 8 September 2010
Dale Farm Update & Thoughts
News is still sketchy but there were at least 2 arrests when around 50 bailiffs from the notorious Constant & Co., supported by 3 van-loads of police and a number of Basildon District Council officers, attempted to enter the Hovefields Drive site to evict families and their caravans from 7 sites. Bulldozers were used to tear up the ground works in order to prevent the caravans return.
The bailiffs were met by a number of protesters who had gathered in advance of their arrival to try and prevent the eviction but they were overwhelmed by sheer force of numbers. As one observer said: "The bailiffs came in at eight in the morning and told everyone they had to leave immediately. I think it's been pretty violent in how they were dealing with things."
One Hovefields resident, who managed to get a High Court injunction following last month's issuing of 28 days notice of eviction by the Council, remained on the site following the bailiff's action. As to the fate of the other residents forced out, some of the children involved were being sheltered by other Dale Farm residents but many of the families no doubt spent the night parked up on the side of the road somewhere nearby.
The whole Dale Farm saga is indicative not only of the nimby attitude of residents to gypsies, travellers and Roma in general, but also reveal a widespread racism that lurks just below the surface of polite society. This almost universal stigmatisation of Roma and travellers has lead to centuries of persecution and marginalisation within society, resulting in the 'self-fulfilling prophecy' of a whole group of peoples who just wish to be left alone to live their lives as they see fit.
Yet, 'normal society' want them to assimilate, to settle down and be just like them. Failing that, to just go away. But 'society' refuses to accept any of the blame for creating 'the problem'. I Eastern Europe the centuries of persecution of Roma and traveller folk developed into official state policy, reinforcing and legitimising this racism. Even now, governments are struggling to undo this structural persecution, the condemning of a particular group of people to being second class citizens. Having their children singled out for sending to inferior schools, then being denied access to further eduction or jobs; denied housing and health care; access to the courts; all simply because of who their parents are. Basically Apartheid under another name.
Now this problem, which has existed on a smaller scale through out the rest of Europe* has move on to our doorsteps and the consequences have been played out in the headlines and T.V. news reports in France recently, and before then in Italy. In those cases, the Roma have moved in order to flee that persecution only to run into the same sort of racist resentment and stigmatisation, dressed up in the guise of protecting law and order.
In the Dale Farm situation exactly the same forces are in operation.
* One only has to think of how many derogatory terms for gypsies and travellers are in common usage to work out how true this is.
The bailiffs were met by a number of protesters who had gathered in advance of their arrival to try and prevent the eviction but they were overwhelmed by sheer force of numbers. As one observer said: "The bailiffs came in at eight in the morning and told everyone they had to leave immediately. I think it's been pretty violent in how they were dealing with things."
One Hovefields resident, who managed to get a High Court injunction following last month's issuing of 28 days notice of eviction by the Council, remained on the site following the bailiff's action. As to the fate of the other residents forced out, some of the children involved were being sheltered by other Dale Farm residents but many of the families no doubt spent the night parked up on the side of the road somewhere nearby.
The whole Dale Farm saga is indicative not only of the nimby attitude of residents to gypsies, travellers and Roma in general, but also reveal a widespread racism that lurks just below the surface of polite society. This almost universal stigmatisation of Roma and travellers has lead to centuries of persecution and marginalisation within society, resulting in the 'self-fulfilling prophecy' of a whole group of peoples who just wish to be left alone to live their lives as they see fit.
Yet, 'normal society' want them to assimilate, to settle down and be just like them. Failing that, to just go away. But 'society' refuses to accept any of the blame for creating 'the problem'. I Eastern Europe the centuries of persecution of Roma and traveller folk developed into official state policy, reinforcing and legitimising this racism. Even now, governments are struggling to undo this structural persecution, the condemning of a particular group of people to being second class citizens. Having their children singled out for sending to inferior schools, then being denied access to further eduction or jobs; denied housing and health care; access to the courts; all simply because of who their parents are. Basically Apartheid under another name.
Now this problem, which has existed on a smaller scale through out the rest of Europe* has move on to our doorsteps and the consequences have been played out in the headlines and T.V. news reports in France recently, and before then in Italy. In those cases, the Roma have moved in order to flee that persecution only to run into the same sort of racist resentment and stigmatisation, dressed up in the guise of protecting law and order.
In the Dale Farm situation exactly the same forces are in operation.
* One only has to think of how many derogatory terms for gypsies and travellers are in common usage to work out how true this is.
Tuesday, 7 September 2010
Dale Farm Eviction Starts
The eviction of the Hovefields site at the dale Farm travellers site in Essex started today, with water being cut off and bulldozers moving in to tear down structures. A number of arrests amongst those who were on-site to resist the evictions have taken place. More to follow.
Press release from the Dale Farm Support group:
Press release from the Dale Farm Support group:
The eviction of Gypsy families at Hovefields, Essex SS12 9JA started this morning. Approximately 50 bailiffs arrived this morning at the site to launch the next stage of the eviction process. Legal proceedings are currently underway regarding breaches of health and safety law at previous operation Hovefields in June. (1)
Basildon District Council is employing Constant & Co bailiffs, who were recently awarded a £2 million contract to evict Dale Farm, the largest traveller site in the UK, (2) only 2 miles away.
Bailiffs arrived from 8am this morning, with large numbers of police. They have occupied a plot in order to set up an operating unit, and are currently telling families to leave the site.
Residents from around East Anglia are supporting the traveller communities facing eviction, including the Hovefields residents, through the Save Dale Farm campaign: http://dalefarm.wordpress.com.
Information and interviews at the site:
Phone: 07783322752
Email: dale.farm@btinternet.com
Notes to the editors
(1) http://dalefarm.wordpress.com/2010/08/05/hovefields-evictions/
(2) http://www.guardian.co.uk/society/2010/jul/27/dale-farm-essex-travellers-eviction
Sunday, 29 August 2010
Recommended:
more recent articles we have come across that you might have missed.
Mail immigration headline changes - Five Chinese Crackers on the latest in a long line of dodgy immigration statistic stories from the Daily Flail (and other tabloids - see: Immigration: Why Let The Truth Spoil A Good Story?).
Is England the most overcrowded country in Europe? Dutch figures get fishy - more from Five Chinese Crackers, yet again on the Flail and it's on-going inability to tell the truth about statistics.
Asylum seekers living in limbo - the first in a three-part series of articles in the Irish Times on the scandal of Eire's migrant hostels.
The ‘Boatophobia’ Debate: Dehumanising Asylum Seekers and Refugees - an article from the Sri Lanka Guardian showing that not everybody from the island thinks that the 'boat people' are all LTTE 'terrorists' and warning of the danger such claims being used by Western governments to delegitimise Tamils' asylum claims.
UN panel tells France to avoid mass Roma deportations - news from the AFP about the UN Committee on the Elimination of Racial Discrimination and their discussions on Friday of anti-Roma discrimination in the EU, and France in particular.
Calls for constitution revamp to combat discrimination - from Australian ABC News another article about the UNCERD, this time focusing on a damning report into discrimination against Indigenous Australians.
Mail immigration headline changes - Five Chinese Crackers on the latest in a long line of dodgy immigration statistic stories from the Daily Flail (and other tabloids - see: Immigration: Why Let The Truth Spoil A Good Story?).
Is England the most overcrowded country in Europe? Dutch figures get fishy - more from Five Chinese Crackers, yet again on the Flail and it's on-going inability to tell the truth about statistics.
Asylum seekers living in limbo - the first in a three-part series of articles in the Irish Times on the scandal of Eire's migrant hostels.
The ‘Boatophobia’ Debate: Dehumanising Asylum Seekers and Refugees - an article from the Sri Lanka Guardian showing that not everybody from the island thinks that the 'boat people' are all LTTE 'terrorists' and warning of the danger such claims being used by Western governments to delegitimise Tamils' asylum claims.
UN panel tells France to avoid mass Roma deportations - news from the AFP about the UN Committee on the Elimination of Racial Discrimination and their discussions on Friday of anti-Roma discrimination in the EU, and France in particular.
Calls for constitution revamp to combat discrimination - from Australian ABC News another article about the UNCERD, this time focusing on a damning report into discrimination against Indigenous Australians.
Saturday, 28 August 2010
New Iraqi Deportation Flight Due
from a NCADC news release:
NCADC has been contacted by several detainees facing forcible removal to Iraq on the two charter flights scheduled for the 1 September 2010 and 6 September 2010. Rabar, whose campaign began several weeks ago when the UKBA reassessed his age at 20 instead of 16, is to be deported on the charter flight to Baghdad on the 1st of September.
Two other detainees that have contacted NCADC, who will be on the charter flight PVT010 to Baghdad on the 6th are Hussein Samer Mahmood, HO Ref. No. M1371631, and Ibrahim Hussein Sharif Sahidi, HO Ref. No., S1361211. Both men have been in Campsfield for about a month and have received threats to their lives in Iraq.
Ibrahim fled to the UK in 2006. His asylum claim was refused in 2007 and he has struggled through the asylum system since. His father was murdered in 2007 and his brother was murdered this year. New evidence is on its way from Iraq and he hopes that it arrives in time to file a fresh claim.
Hussein arrived in the UK in 2008 and his case was refused in 2009. He moved to Jordan and became an informal translator to the British Foreign Embassy and also made a living by assisting immigrants file their applications. However, he and his family began receiving threats in 2006 and while he was visiting the UK in 2008 he received a call from his family in Iraq saying that Hussein's brother had been threatened with kidnappings on a number of occasions and then shot and blinded. Because of this incident he decided to claim asylum from the UK.
UNCHR remains deeply concerned that returning Iraqi's to Baghdad could put them in serious danger as is outlined in the April 2009 UNHCR Eligibility Guidelines for Assessing the International Protection Needs of Iraqi Asylum-Seekers and Note on the Continued Applicability of the April 2009 UNHCR Eligibility Guidelines for Assessing the International Protection Needs of Iraqi Asylum-Seekers, 28 July 2010.
Write to the Home Secretary, Theresa May and let her know that you are strongly against these forced removals to Iraq.
Rt. Hon Theresa May, MP
Secretary of State for the Home Office,
2 Marsham St London SW1 4DF
Fax: 020 8760 3132
July 2010
NCADC has been contacted by several detainees facing forcible removal to Iraq on the two charter flights scheduled for the 1 September 2010 and 6 September 2010. Rabar, whose campaign began several weeks ago when the UKBA reassessed his age at 20 instead of 16, is to be deported on the charter flight to Baghdad on the 1st of September.
Two other detainees that have contacted NCADC, who will be on the charter flight PVT010 to Baghdad on the 6th are Hussein Samer Mahmood, HO Ref. No. M1371631, and Ibrahim Hussein Sharif Sahidi, HO Ref. No., S1361211. Both men have been in Campsfield for about a month and have received threats to their lives in Iraq.
Ibrahim fled to the UK in 2006. His asylum claim was refused in 2007 and he has struggled through the asylum system since. His father was murdered in 2007 and his brother was murdered this year. New evidence is on its way from Iraq and he hopes that it arrives in time to file a fresh claim.
Hussein arrived in the UK in 2008 and his case was refused in 2009. He moved to Jordan and became an informal translator to the British Foreign Embassy and also made a living by assisting immigrants file their applications. However, he and his family began receiving threats in 2006 and while he was visiting the UK in 2008 he received a call from his family in Iraq saying that Hussein's brother had been threatened with kidnappings on a number of occasions and then shot and blinded. Because of this incident he decided to claim asylum from the UK.
UNCHR remains deeply concerned that returning Iraqi's to Baghdad could put them in serious danger as is outlined in the April 2009 UNHCR Eligibility Guidelines for Assessing the International Protection Needs of Iraqi Asylum-Seekers and Note on the Continued Applicability of the April 2009 UNHCR Eligibility Guidelines for Assessing the International Protection Needs of Iraqi Asylum-Seekers, 28 July 2010.
Write to the Home Secretary, Theresa May and let her know that you are strongly against these forced removals to Iraq.
Rt. Hon Theresa May, MP
Secretary of State for the Home Office,
2 Marsham St London SW1 4DF
Fax: 020 8760 3132
July 2010
Friday, 27 August 2010
Immigration: Why Let The Truth Spoil A Good Story?
The Telegraph: Immigration up by a fifth. WRONG.
The Sun: Net immigration up 20% in year. WRONG.
Daily Mail: Number of immigrants living in the UK long-term soars by 20% in 1 year. WRONG.
London Evening Standard: Rise in immigration adds 200,000 to British population. WRONG.
Press Association (UK): Students lead 20% immigration rise. WRONG.
The Guardian: Figures show 20% increase in net migration to UK. CORRECT.
BBC News: Net migration to UK rose in 2009, statistics show. CORRECT.
The Associated Press (Canada): Number of immigrants to UK falls 4 per cent last year, statistics agency says. CORRECT.
Yet again the right-whinge press have manipulated the latest migration figures from the Office for National Statistics. Either that or their reporters still cannot get their head around a really simple concept that we have explained on a number of occasions before: IN MIGRATION (immigration + live births) - OUT MIGRATION (emigration + deaths) = NET MIGRATION.
So, for the idiots at the Telegraph, Mail and Sun to claim that IMMIGRATION has RISEN when it has in fact FALLEN by 4%, down from 590,000 in 2008 to 567,000 last year, is either an outright lie or a perfect illustration of the fact that they just do not know what they are talking about.
In the case of the Daily Flail it looks very much like the former, as they chose to feature their latest on-line version of the story [we don't buy the paper, so we don't actually know what the hard copy version looks like] chooses to focus on the fact that "The number of babies born to immigrant mothers has doubled in a decade" to one in four, "polluting our precious bodily fluids". [The last bit isn't in the Flail, but you get what we mean.] This of course is to be expected, as the ONS put it: "If the number of non UK-born women living in England and Wales increases then it follows that the number of births to these women is likely to increase." But that didn't put the Flail off from making a big thing out of it. Methinks, they do complain too much!
Here a nice helpful graph to illustrate exactly why immigration (the blue line) hasn't increased by 20% in the last year. And it is exactly the same one as in the Flail if you were wondering.
The Sun: Net immigration up 20% in year. WRONG.
Daily Mail: Number of immigrants living in the UK long-term soars by 20% in 1 year. WRONG.
London Evening Standard: Rise in immigration adds 200,000 to British population. WRONG.
Press Association (UK): Students lead 20% immigration rise. WRONG.
The Guardian: Figures show 20% increase in net migration to UK. CORRECT.
BBC News: Net migration to UK rose in 2009, statistics show. CORRECT.
The Associated Press (Canada): Number of immigrants to UK falls 4 per cent last year, statistics agency says. CORRECT.
Yet again the right-whinge press have manipulated the latest migration figures from the Office for National Statistics. Either that or their reporters still cannot get their head around a really simple concept that we have explained on a number of occasions before: IN MIGRATION (immigration + live births) - OUT MIGRATION (emigration + deaths) = NET MIGRATION.
So, for the idiots at the Telegraph, Mail and Sun to claim that IMMIGRATION has RISEN when it has in fact FALLEN by 4%, down from 590,000 in 2008 to 567,000 last year, is either an outright lie or a perfect illustration of the fact that they just do not know what they are talking about.
In the case of the Daily Flail it looks very much like the former, as they chose to feature their latest on-line version of the story [we don't buy the paper, so we don't actually know what the hard copy version looks like] chooses to focus on the fact that "The number of babies born to immigrant mothers has doubled in a decade" to one in four, "polluting our precious bodily fluids". [The last bit isn't in the Flail, but you get what we mean.] This of course is to be expected, as the ONS put it: "If the number of non UK-born women living in England and Wales increases then it follows that the number of births to these women is likely to increase." But that didn't put the Flail off from making a big thing out of it. Methinks, they do complain too much!
Here a nice helpful graph to illustrate exactly why immigration (the blue line) hasn't increased by 20% in the last year. And it is exactly the same one as in the Flail if you were wondering.
Wednesday, 25 August 2010
Legal Challenge To Australian Off-Shore Processing
One of the most amusing ironies of the Australian election is not that the two sides' anti-immigration rhetoric and desire to 'process' asylum claims even further from the mainland* got them nowhere further than a neck-and-neck finish and a hung parliament, rather it is that this situation coincides with a High Court challenge to the very basis of off-shore processing.
Christmas Island, like Manus island and Nauru, was specifically excluded from the Australian Migration Zone, the territory where a non-citizen must hold a visa to legally enter and remain, as part of the Pacific Solution. The legislation involved also removed the right of non-citizens to apply for visas when there, allowed the Australian state to remove them to other countries and limited access to the Australian legal system.
This ultimately means that, unlike in the UK, immigration department officials and private contractors rather than the courts have the final approval of any asylum application. Now two Tamil refused asylum seekers are seeking judicial review, challenging the constitutional basis to off-shore processing. if successful it would defeat one of the core purposes of government policy to severely limit the rights of 'boat people' to asylum.
The Immigration Minister in fact has the ultimate say in these cases but it is government policy to waive the right in favour of immigration officials. That he is not choosing to examine such cases as he would do for asylum applications made on the mainland by refugees that arrive by air, for example, also forms part of the challenge
* In fact in a completely different country, not just on an island specifically excluded by law from certain sections of the Australian legal process.
Christmas Island, like Manus island and Nauru, was specifically excluded from the Australian Migration Zone, the territory where a non-citizen must hold a visa to legally enter and remain, as part of the Pacific Solution. The legislation involved also removed the right of non-citizens to apply for visas when there, allowed the Australian state to remove them to other countries and limited access to the Australian legal system.
This ultimately means that, unlike in the UK, immigration department officials and private contractors rather than the courts have the final approval of any asylum application. Now two Tamil refused asylum seekers are seeking judicial review, challenging the constitutional basis to off-shore processing. if successful it would defeat one of the core purposes of government policy to severely limit the rights of 'boat people' to asylum.
The Immigration Minister in fact has the ultimate say in these cases but it is government policy to waive the right in favour of immigration officials. That he is not choosing to examine such cases as he would do for asylum applications made on the mainland by refugees that arrive by air, for example, also forms part of the challenge
* In fact in a completely different country, not just on an island specifically excluded by law from certain sections of the Australian legal process.
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