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From Calais Migrant Solidarity:

So far the month of September has seen:

Eviction of the Beer House squat where around one-hundred Africans and
twenty Syrians had been living for the last year.
Three immediate evictions of the big squats where those people had been
seeking shelter in the nights following the eviction.
Complete destruction of the Sudanese jungle with around twenty arrests.
Police and city workers destroyed all the tents they could find, while
taking the blankets and personal things to the to city dump. There they
were mixed together with what rotting materials were left inside the Beer
House. Everything would have been immediately destroyed if it weren’t for
people going to the dump to take them back that day.
Tents have been destroyed by the police in the Afghan jungle during their
frequent morning raids.
An illegal eviction of a new squat that would have been able to house
everyone during the cold winter months based upon falsified testimonies.

We are now only halfway through the month and police have promised another
planned closure/destruction of a large sleeping space for the next two
weeks, most likely forcing another one-hundred people on to the streets.
This will be in addition to the spontaneous evictions that occur as people
moved-on continue to try and find shelter in the city. As more people have
to take to the street, police controls and harrassment are increasing as
well.

As the temperature drops again and the rains come there have also been a
series of attacks by Police on the garage rented by Calais Migrant
Solidarity, from where we distribute the blankets, tents, and clothes that
we have. Today, eight Police Nationale appeared at the garage as CMS were
distributing clothes and violently pushed those out-front away from the
garage, smacking people across the face and kicking them from behind. This
was before taking out their pepper spray and spraying everything inside,
making the clothes and blankets inside impossible to use. This is the
latest attack; however, last week the garage had already been peppered
sprayed, and in the mean time the locks on the garage door have been
forced and broken with people’s things going missing from inside.

People desperately need:

-Blankets
-Sleeping Bags
-Tents (make sure poles are included)
-Waterproof Clothes
-Shoes
-Socks
-money to buy food as they are living off of the one meal a day provided
by SALAM

and most importantly people who are able to support them and defend their
spaces

In Calais, inside an old “cash and carry” of beers ,which is abandoned since years and called “Beer house” by its inhabitants, living about 150 and 200 hundred migrants from Sudan, Chad, Syria, Eritrea, Somalia, Palestine…) They have  found a shelter there since almost a year. It’s been some time that the authorities want to […]

I’m sure not the only one to query the consistency of Cameron criticizing that Ukip MEP for his “bongo bongo land” comment on the one hand, while defending the Home Office racist van camapign & transport hub checks.

However, there are those who claim not be racist (but think that Britain is “full -up”) and it seems that Cameron is articulating a position of those who do prefer to keep their racism discreet & carried out by the State, so they can keep their a clean conscience and have a good nights sleep.

While the Home Office’s #racistvan campaign has attracted the negative comment it deserves, for those of us who have been paying attention to the way (im)migration politics is going it somewhat less shocking.

Dawn Raids, Forced deportations, mass immigration checks at tube stations, a massive increase of incarceration of migrants, often for years. The Racist Van is just a logical extension of all that.

People from Cardiff joined the ‘Dignity not Destitution March’ in Bristol this weekend, in solidarity with destitute asylum seekers. Marches and demonstrations were also held in Bradford, Leeds, Sheffield and Glasgow. This weekend, Cardiff Migrant Solidarity are announcing the creation of a new resource called Share Dydd. Share Dydd aims to offer hospitality, in theform […]

Friday 24th May 2013 from 6pm (film screening at 8pm)
71-73 County St, London, SE1 4AD

Join us for the screening of the documentary 'Into the Fire' followed by an
evening of food, music and discussion.

All funds raised will be sent to support a migrant stuck in Greece. 'Into
the Fire' is a hard-hitting documentary by Guy Smallman and Kate Mara
about the plight of thousands of refugees and migrants in Athens faced
with racist attacks from the fascist 'Golden Dawn' party and the police;
combined with the impossibility to get refugee status whilst being refused
the right to leave Greece to claim asylum in other European countries.

More info: www.intothefire.org

Ismael, a young Somali migrant who is featured in the documentary, will be
present for the discussion after the film.
Music by DJ Jolie Soze, Melissa Melodee, acoustic Jam sounds and more to
be confirmed.

There will also be food and a bar from 6pm

£3 suggested donation on the door, no one rejected!

greece2013

Update 16/5/2013 (full details below):

Abdul has been given his scheduled date for removal and flight time from the UK for early morning next Wednesday 22nd May at 00.10am. He is understandably very worried about this but his many friends continue to support him in every way they can.

What you can do:
- first and foremost, sign the petition at the website below:
- write to your local MP (or the relevant office for external affairs if you’re outside of the UK)
- write to Home Secretary, Theresa May MP at public.enquiries@homeoffice.gsi.gov.uk
- copy your email to Minister for Immigration, Mark Harper MP, at ministerforimmigration@homeoffice.gsi.gov
- telephone the office of the Home Secretary, Theresa May MP, on +44(0)20 7035 4848 or +44(0)870 606 7766
- telephone the office of the Minister for Immigration on +44(0)20 7035 4848 or +44(0)20 7219 5056

Let’s make a big push over the next few days to help ensure that Abdul stays.

Solidarity with Abdul!

We have been contacted by friends in Leicester about the detention of Abdul Ghafar Rajabali. As part of his asylum requirement, Abdul regularly reported to the UK Border Agency reporting station in Loughborough. However, while reporting to UKBA on Friday 10th May 2013, he was detained and held at Loughborough police station. From there, he was to be transferred to Morton Hall Detention Centre in Lincolnshire to await his removal back to Afghanistan. Morton Hall Visitors’ Group are aware of this.

Petition | Release Abdul Ghafar Rajabali and halt his deportation | Change.org
http://www.change.org/en-GB/petitions/release-abdul-ghafar-rajabali-and-halt-his-deportation

Here’s Abdul’s story in brief:

Abdul is being held in Morton Hall Detention Centre awaiting deportation to Afghanistan
He fled Afghanistan as a teenager to avoid the option of being either press-ganged into the Taliban or shot
His father was Russian and all his family were consequently murdered in connection with this
He arrived in the UK six years ago, when still a minor
He now knows no one in Afghanistan, would be unable to cope and would be in extreme danger there
He suffers from post-traumatic stress syndrome and has other medical problems
He has made many friends in Leicester, helps out with Leicester City of Sanctuary based at the Cathedral and participates in a local anti-racist/anti-fascist football team, FC Kolektivo Victoria – https://www.facebook.com/pages/FC-Kolektivo-Victoria/199020316797628
He is an asset to his local community

It’d be much appreciated if you could sign the petition to halt his deportation (in cases like this, they can be very useful):
Petition | Release Abdul Ghafar Rajabali and halt his deportation | Change.org
http://www.change.org/en-GB/petitions/release-abdul-ghafar-rajabali-and-halt-his-deportation

You will also find more information on his case and tips on how to help Abdul further at this website: Campaign for Abdul Ghafar Rajabali

http://releaseabdul.blogspot.co.uk/

Also, if you could forward this info to anyone else you reckon would support Abdul, that’d be ace.

New blog exposing UKBA immigration raiders, in the style of Fitwatch:
http://ukbastards.noblogs.org/

We are the friends and neighbours of detainees and deportees, some of us are migrants ourselves, some of us not. We are fellow human beings who give a damn about the invisible suffering of asylum seekers and undocumented migrants; a suffering that happens on a daily basis.

That injustice is not just the result of a nebulous system. It needs individuals willing to capitalise on it. Those individuals are the Ministers and the senior civil servants making policy decisions, but also the Immigration Officers prepared to carry out the dirty work. Although they may be at the bottom of the echelon, they still make a hefty sum from this business. After all, it’s probably not that easy to find people who can inflict such suffering on other human beings and remain unaffected by it.

These officers are few in number and need to be exposed. If they have the shamelessness and arrogance to show their faces on shows like UK Border Force, given what they are responsible for, they can be identified here. These people are given free reign to do what they can to detain and deport migrants without ‘permission’ to be here. They act with total impunity. We need to challenge the acceptability of this profession. We need to challenge the norm of immigration control.

While they bear full responsibility for their actions, even these officers do not see the full picture. For a start, the sector is sanitised with terms like removal and pre-departure accomodation; and of course it is also criminalised with concepts such as illegal immigrant and sham marriage. Secondly, Immigration Officers are ignorant – whether willingly or not – of what migrants have experienced prior to the encounter with them, and are equally ignorant of or refuse to engage with what might happen to these people as a result of their work.

We are doing this for all those assaulted or killed by UKBA officers or their corporate partners – deaths which have gone barely investigated – and for those who’ve died or suffered after deportation. We are doing this for approximately 3,000 people currently held in the in misery of British detention centres; for the asylum seekers who’ve been pushed to self-harm or suicide whilst being held indefinitely in immigration detention, with the fear hanging over them of being returned to persecution, torture, female genital mutilation, rape, or war. We are doing this for the friends ripped away from us, for the families torn apart. It’s time to expose the lies and shine a light on these collaborators.

No Borders North East is not meeting at the moment, but there’s loads of other stuff to get involved in! To find out about similar anti-capitalist, anti-racist groups and actions in the area you can send an email to cannylittlelibrary[@]gmail.com check out cannylittlelibrary.tumblr.com also check out stopg4s.net

At around 7.30pm Saturday night, just as the Anti Raids benefit gig was getting underway, UKBA officers poured out of three vans and raided an off-licence in Whitechapel. Activists who were at the scene informed those present of their rights and passed on solicitors’ details in the event on an arrest. The Anti-Raids network has publsihed some pictures.

raidswhitechapel2013

Free Screening & Discussion: “Welcome”. Monday 15th April. 7.30pm

Bilal is 17 years old, a Kurdish boy from Iraq. He sets off on an adventure-filled journey across Europe. He wants to get to England to see his love who lives there. Bilal finally reaches Calais, but how do you cover 32 kilometers of the English Channel when you can’t swim? The boy soon discovers that his trip won’t be as easy as he imagined… After the screening members of Calais Migrant Solidarity will discuss the current situation in Calais, and what can be done to help.

calais2013

The government has admitted that it has tried to forcibly remove tens of thousands of people from the UK unlawfully (Guardian newspaper website 22nd March 2013).
http://guardian.co.uk/uk/2013/mar/22/ministers-forcibly-remove-people

March 23, 2013: Periodic controls and arrests in the Pashtu jungle and in town

During the past weeks the police have been frequently entering the jungles and performing ID controls and arresting people, taking them to Coquelles and trying to deport many back to other European countries (under Dublin II), particularly Italy.

It has started to become daily raids again in the jungles. On Friday (22nd) morning about 20 people were arrested. 17 people were released, three were taken to detention.

Also people are being harassed in the parks a lot, with the same police officers ID controlling the same people repeatedly again and again in the same day, sometimes after only minutes, including those who have papers for France.

And people are again being picked up late at night for ID controls in town, not just by the port, and held over night in cells at the police station illegally. It is illegal for the police to detain people for ID controls for more than 4 hours (from the moment they are stopped) and they are not allowed to hold them in custody cells at all for the purposes of ID controls. Yet this continues to be routinely ignored.

More about Calais Migrant Solidarity: http://calaismigrantsolidarity.wordpress.com/

As we are told that Job centre Staff get Easter eggs as rewards for sanctioning claimants, we are reminded of the “grant monkey” that was placed on UKBA staffs’ desk as a humilation if they gave a asylum seeker leave to remain. Remember folks, that was during Labour’s mythical  “open door” immigration policy, which they must repenteth of every day.

Somehow Ukip have become the xenophobic policy pace setter, which the rest of the parties try to breathlessly catch up with. It’s easy to blame the Lib Dems and The Labour Party.

Mind you, that’s because it is their fault. Suddenly, the out of context, exaggarated and exceptional “Criminal Immigrants in Mansions on Housing Benefit funded Cannabis Factory”  type Daily Mail stories have become policy primers for all three parties, and apparently We, “the public” are swallowing it.

The facts. Don’t bother with the facts. Just keep lying and believing the lies.

 

 

 

 

As David Cameron has said the allocation of public housing is a scandal. However, we can reveal that as well as council and housing association property being occupied by undeserving foreigners, some are allocated exclusive apartments at the cost of £120 per day to the tax payer*. Whether they like it or not. Residents at these designer apartments are treated to three meals a day, uniformed servants, and are handed highly sort after jobs -  earning up to 90p an hour. Many are then treated to a all expenses paid trip to a destination definitely not of their choice.

In fact, contrary to the tabloid-UKIP pleasing policy announcement made today, the expansion of UKBA’s detention estate is the only form of housing being built for foreign nationals. However,  the scarcity of affordable housing is something that the right has often  made the most of. Not only do they sell it off, they then profit politically from it’s scarcity.

However, with the rise of Ukip and the economic depression the kind of racist narrative that was once only winked at by the mainstream political parties is now part of a regular spiteful and normally xenophoboic weekend press release to feed the reactionary media.  When Steve Garner wrote in 2009:

“Housing is a basic right and is surrounded in emotive discourse about belonging and entitlement. It is therefore easy to manipulate politically. As a dwindling resource, social housing has become a flagship issue for the BNP.”

He probably hadn’t considered that 4 short years later the British PM would be making it a “flagship issue” for the governing party, with it’s coalition partners and opposition parties helping create a anti-immigrant consensus, rather than providing an alternative explanation.

The essay  “Home Truths: The White Working Class and the Racialization of Social Housing” from which the above quote comes from  tells the depressing story of how both new immigrants and a “undeserving” indigenous under class are blamed by the working class which was once given affordable housing as a right but which is now denied to them.

However, as Steve Garner explains it isn’t a “black and white issue”:

“The boundaries between ‘us’ and ‘them’are not always drawn in the same place. “I’m not racist”, begins another of our Bristol interviewees whose opening phrase is a familiar one. “I’m not racist … but I am prejudiced. I am prejudiced, but I’m not only prejudiced against people that are black. I’m prejudiced against people who are on the dole who don’t do nothing, and still get it all”.

The concern with”queue jumping” newcomers, or undeserving  is perhaps is understandable. They can be seen taking what is percieved to be “theirs”.  What is more mysterious to me is how those who create the conditions for the queue to form get away without being blamed. Of course, there is the biased media, the spineless labour party but perhaps as relevant is the “allocators” of this increasingly scarce resource are invisible to those who want it, so remote and untouchable that a more tangible and targettable neighbour, or near neighbour. What Steve Garner call the “Proximity Effect.”

His conclusion at least leaves a space for hope:

“Were a space to be created in which the white British working class, migrants and BME people could tell each other their stories of being refused housing, being obliged to live in sub-standard conditions (while paying a premium), and of asylum-seekers placed en masse in motels and in unwanted properties on estates (or even in detention centres!), our white respondents would probably find much more in common with these groups than they imagine. Feeling that you have less and less control over your life is not the monopoly of Britain’s white working class.” http://www.runnymedetrust.org/uploads/publications/pdfs/WhoCaresAboutTheWhiteWorkingClass-2009.pdf

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

*http://migrationobservatory.ox.ac.uk/briefings/immigration-detention-uk

As well as campaigning against the racist border regime, it’s important to organise against fascist thugs when they try to take over our streets. Ignoring the obvious contradiction, the National Front have called a “White Pride World Wide” demonstration in Swansea on March 9th, and a strong antifascist presence is planned in response. The National [...]

As we sneaked around preparing for the Heathrow Climate Camp in 2007, we could hardly believe our luck when the British Aviation Authority took out a injunction so wide ranging and absurd that it prohibited the entire membership of RSPB and the National Trust from travelling on the Piccadilly Line. It failed in it’s stated aim to prevent the camp.

You can’t buy that kind of publicity, or at least we can’t afford to. That’s why news that EDF are suing “No Dash for Gas” activists for a cool £5 million can only be good news and a boost for their campaign. (That is not to dismiss the extreme personal pressure that those named on the civil action will be under).

There are many other campaigns which have benefited from these heavy handed legal tactics. The most infamous is the McLibel case, but a lesser known one which I was drawn to by the very action designed to stifle it was the “Smash EDO” anti arms campaign based in Brighton.

Timothy Lawson-Cruttenden -Injunction specialist & unintentional Pro Bono awareness raiser for campaigners.

Until the injunction, pursued by the amusingly incompetent legal firm Lawson Cruttenden & Co in 2005, it was a persistent but small local campaign. The injunction, which basically prohibited any kind of protest, legal or otherwise from happening became a civil liberties  ’cause célèbre’, ignited a couple of mass days of action which came close to riots, and inspired a group of people, during the bombardment of Palestine in 2009 to literally “Smash EDO”, putting the factory out of use for a while and causing £200,000 worth of damages.

Not only that, but the injunction itself collapsed in court, costing EDO MBM in legal costs of between £1 m & £1.5m – more than an entire year’s profit.

But, then, why do corporations continue to engage in such costly litigation, when it only can boost the campaigns against them? Fear and paranoia that such actions will catch on, and put them out of business seems to be the answer. This analysis seems to be supported by recent revelations that another energy firm – E.ON – had been lobbying Ministers for harsh sentencing for direct action(s) taken against them.

While the personal cost to those who have taken on these behemoths in the past has been great – including interference in personal lives by undercover police, as well as the more manageable but still disruptive civil and legal actions, if the old adage that you should “do what your enemy least wants you to do” is true then, “Dash for Gas” seem to be on the right lines.

Latest Morton Hall update, also on Nottingham Indymedia. 17th Jan 2013.

Another Hunger Strike at Morton Hall

A number of detainees have been on hunger strike inside Morton Hall IRC for as many as 9 days. Abbas Ayub, a Pakistani national said 3 men were protesting because they want to be returned to their countries of birth but the UK Borders Agency continues to detain them. Abbas said he had been refusing food since last Monday because he has been detained since May, even though he has agreed to return to Pakistan voluntarily. He said that no one from UKBA had spoken to him about his protest. “I just want to go back” he told No Borders Nottingham.

Indefinite detention is a deeply controversial part of the UK’s immigration detention system. According to Nick Hardwick, the chief inspector of prisons, speaking last month, some immigration detainees have “simply been forgotten”. One Somali migrant has been held for 9 years after he completed his prison sentence.

The hunger strike is the most recent in a series of protests by Morton Hall prisoners regarding their treatment over the last twelve months. On Wednesday 9th Jan, a Sudanese detainee attempted suicide by slitting his wrists. Friends of the man said that he was frustrated and angry at his long period of detention. Prior to this, a peaceful protest involving between 30 and 40 detainees took place on Christmas Eve. Prisoners had been left without running water, working toilets or cooked food for a number of days.

This is not the first hunger strike inside Morton Hall. In July 2011 an estimated 100 detainees went on hunger strike due to their treatment by the authorities. Two detainees scaled the centre’s rooftops and threatened to jump within less than 24 hours of each other. The detainees, originally from Palestine and Malaysia, were protesting at the ‘disrespectful’ and ‘inhumane’ treatment they experienced, including being detained for prolonged periods.

No Borders Nottingham activist Geoff Bates said “This hunger strike is only the most recent manifestation of ongoing resistance to this country’s inhuman migration control system. The indefinite detention of migrant detainees is an act of violence by the state on vulnerable members of our community and it must end.”

Morton Hall in revolt again - Published: January 03, 2013

The situation in Morton Hall immigration detention centre is at boiling point again after a series of incidents around Christmas. The trigger for events was another serious breach of their responsibilities by the detention centre management who failed to deal swiftly with disruptions to the water supply. A large number of detainees refused to return to their cells in protest. A serious disturbance on Christmas Eve resulted in a detainee ending up in hospital with a serious head injury and injuries to a number of prison officers. There was also a thwarted escape attempt on Christmas Day.

According to No Deportations the situation that sparked the incident was grim: there was a serious water supply failure, before the incident, all toilets blocked, no running water whatsoever, no cooked meals, detainees given sandwiches and cold drinks …

Full article on Nottingham Indymedia: http://nottingham.indymedia.org/articles/4699

See also:
Solidarity demo at Morton Hall detention centre, December 16, 2012
Hunger strike at Morton Hall immigration centre, July 25, 2012