Solidarity with the Harmondsworth 4!
Meetings
Next Public Meeting called by No Borders London and the Harmondsworth 4 solidarity campaign.
6pm, Tuesday 22nd January, at the Institute of Race Relations, 2-6 Leeke Street, London WC1X 9HS (near Kings Cross)
Demonstrations
Demonstrate 21st January 2008 9am-10.30am
at Southwark Crown Court 1 English Grounds (off Battlebridge Lane)
Southwark London SE 1 2HU (nearest tube London Bridge)
The trial of four men who were in Harmondsworth Immigration Removal Centre the time of the protest there on 28 November 2006 opened on 14 January 2008 and another demonstration will take place at Southwark Crown Court Monday 21st.
For more information email harmondsworth4@riseup.net
Background
In November 2006 detainees at Harmondsworth immigration detention centre protested against conditions inside the centre and their treatment by the guards. The centre was damaged and the detainees were moved to other detention centres and prisons.
Their trial starts on 14 January 2008 at Southwark Crown Court, London. Once again a handful of men are scapegoated for the failure of an unjust detention system. Similar trials (Campsfield 9, 1998, Yarl’s Wood 13, 2002) ended in all/nearly all Not Guilty verdicts.
The Support the Harmondsworth 4 campaign is supported by:
London No Borders,
Barbed-Wire Britain,
Campaign Against Racism and Fascism,
Fight Racism! Fight Imperialism,
All African Women's Group
Women of Colour in the Global Women's Strike
National Coalition of Anti-Deportation Campaigns
London ABC
North West Asylum Seekers Defence Campaign
Iraq Solidarity Campaign
and other individuals.
In the meeting we will give updates on the upcoming trials, feedback from meetings with the prisoners, and discuss possible political and practical support.
The Harmondsworth Uprising
A year ago, there was a mass protest at Harmondsworth Immigration Removal Centre near Heathrow Airport. The protest broke out shortly after 10pm when guards stopped detainees from watching TV news of a highly critical inspection report on the detention centre by Ann Owers, Chief Inspector of Prisons.
The centre was seriously damaged, the detainees were moved to other detention centres and prisons, and the centre was closed for some time – as it was after another protest in 2004. It is run by Kalyx (formerly UK Detention Services; owned by Sodexho), and in 2006 was the UK's biggest detention centre. Now it has 259 beds (Home Office website, 18.11.07). The human rights organisation Liberty has called for a public inquiry into the protest and its background.
contact: harmondsworth4@riseup.net
Donations (‘Harmondsworth 4’ on back of cheques) to: ‘No Borders London’, a/c. 65252615, Co-op Bank, Sort code: 08-92-99
Harmondsworth “Riots” Reports: Indymedia: http://www.indymedia.org.uk/en/2006/11/357432.html
Yarls Wood: http://www.irr.org.uk/2003/september/ha000005.html Campsfield: http://www.irr.org.uk/europebulletin/united_kingdom/ asylum_seekers_refugees/1998/ak000001.html