NCADC Weekly News, Friday 18 June 2010
NCADC weekly newsletter with anti-deportation campaigns, the campaign to end child detention, save Refugee & Migrant Justice, media reports, legal and parliament, European and international developments, research and reports, upcoming events.
To subscribe to NCADC news by email, visit www.ncadc.org.uk/news
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CAMPAIGN NEWS
Kiana Firouz has asylum!
By Paul Canning at LGBT Asylum News, Wednesday, 16 June 2010
Iranian lesbian Kiana Firouz today received ‘leave to remain’ in the UK – saving her from removal to Tehran after two refusals, originally and at appeal. Kiana has been the focus of the largest ever international campaign for an LGBT asylum seeker, with over 45,000 signing a petition
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Florence and Precious Mhango: Scotland’s First Minister urges review
The Herald 18 June
Alex Salmond has urged the UK Government to review the case of Florence and Precious Mhango – the Glasgow-based mother and child facing deportation to Malawi, despite 10-year-old Precious having spent the most of her life in Britain. In response to questions from SNP MSP Anne McLaughlin – who has been supporting the Mhangos –the First Minister said the Scottish Government had written to Immigration Minister Damien Green asking him to look into the circumstances of the case.
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Stop deportations to Iraq
Amnesty International believes that it is not safe to return Iraqi nationals to Baghdad and returns should only take place when the security situation has stabilised. At the Amnesty website you can use the online form to quickly send an email to the Minister of Immigration urging him to end all forcible returns of Iraqis from the UK to Baghdad
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END CHILD DETENTION
OUTCRY! Campaign
Have your say on child detention before 1 July!
The UKBA have now announced a public consultation as part of their review into ending the immigration detention of children. Views can be submitted by anyone up to Thursday 1 July. Please take this opportunity to have your say and tell the UKBA that it’s vital that they put children’s welfare at the heart of the new system.
Outcry! has set up an online action to make it easy for you to email the UKBA Review Team. Don’t forget, the deadline is 1 July!
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Review into ending the detention of children for immigration purposes
Consultation invited from all interested parties (June to July 2010)
Home Office Press Office 14th June 2010
The government is carrying out a review into the ending of the detention of children in the UK for immigration purposes, and we are keen to receive your views. A copy of the review’s terms of reference can be downloaded at the Home Office website http://bit.ly/aNsEPT . These terms of reference indicate some of the issues we will be looking at, and we would welcome your thoughts on any or all of these areas. We are also working with a number of partner organisations, which will be submitting their views and sharing any relevant evidence or research on alternatives to detention in the UK and other parts of the world.
Whether you have views on some or all of the elements of the review, you can contribute by emailing your comments to the review team. Your comments may be published, so please indicate if you would like your response to remain confidential.
The government has asked for the review to take place quickly, so please submit your views by 1 July 2010.
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Review of child detention launched in Glasgow
BBC, 14 June 2010
A UK-wide review of how asylum seeker families with children are treated has been launched in Glasgow.
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Sexually harmful behaviour at Yarl’s Wood
Bedfordshire Local Safeguarding Children Board
Publishes highly critical report, 14 JUNE 2010
Executive summary of independent review exposes litany of failings by:
Local authority managers; Local authority social workers; Local police; Local GP; UKBA’s ‘Children’s Champion’; Serco
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Yarl’s Wood staff criticised for poor investigation into child sex case
The Guardian
Detention centre did not deal properly with case of five-year-old boys found engaging in sexual activity, report finds.
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The UK Border Agency child welfare manager Amanda Read has been awarded an MBE just as the government announces that they will finally end the detention policy that has harmed so many asylum seeking children in her care. Oh, and the boss of Serco gets a gong too, presumably for services to child imprisonment at Yarl’s Wood. Rule Britannia!
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A public meeting in Glasgow on 15 June, hosted by the National Coalition of Anti-Deportation Campaigns, will hear from lawyers, child welfare experts, charities, church leaders, refugees and campaigners calling for humanity and justice to be brought in to the asylum system as part of the review to end child detention. The meeting is 7pm at STUC, 333 Woodlands Rd Glasgow.
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Scottish Refugee Council on child detention June 14, 2010
Scottish Refugee Council urges UK Government to take action on child detention while consultation underway
Scottish Refugee Council has restated its call for the detention of children to end now, after meeting with Immigration Minister Damian Green earlier today [Monday].
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SAVE REFUGEE AND MIGRANT JUSTICE
Friday 18 June – Demonstrate for Refugee and Migrant Justice – Defend Legal Aid
Refugee and Migrant Justice (RMJ), the largest provider of specialist legal advice for asylum seekers and other vulnerable migrants in England and Wales, went into administration on June 16 2010. UNITE, the union that represents RMJ’s 340 staff, has called a demonstration outside the Ministry of Justice at 4pm on Friday 18th June 2010. Please join us.
Ministry of Justice
102 Petty France
London SW1H 9AJ
Tubes: St James’s Park and Westminster
For further details, please contact Rachael Maskell, Unite National Officer, Community and Non Profit Sector: 07768 693933
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RMJ is facing possible closure because the government is not giving them their payments. Support their campaign so that they can continue their work for the immigrant community! Go to the RMJ website for information, and download the model letter to the Ministry of Justice. Write to Ken Clarke in protest at their closure; they also want to raise awareness of the situation as widely as possible, in as many different sectors as possible. Spread the word. http://www.rmj.org.uk
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MEDIA
UK border officials ‘beat deported Iraqis’
BBC news
Iraqi asylum seekers deported from the UK have said that they were beaten by UK Border Agency (UKBA) personnel to get them on and off the plane. The deportation was carried out by the UK Border Agency in conditions of complete secrecy, with no information of any kind being given out. The flight landed at around 0600 (0300GMT) at Baghdad airport on Thursday and journalists were not allowed any access.
Of the 42 deportees believed to be on board, only six were released swiftly. One of them, Sherwan Abdullah, a Kurd, told the BBC he and others had been beaten by UKBA personnel to force him off the plane in Baghdad. “They was grabbing us, they told us if you don’t come down, we’re gonna beat you badly, and we’re gonna take you out,” said Mr Abdullah.
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Fifty people forcibly deported to Baghdad last night
Press release from International Federation of Iraqi Refugees
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Iraqi Mothers of Oxford, Leeds and London statement against deportation of Iraqi youth
On behalf of a group of concerned Iraqi mothers of Oxford, Leeds and London we are issuing this statement in opposition of the deportation of Iraqi youths on Wednesday 16th of June. Click here for complete statement:
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Deported Iraqis arrive in Baghdad
BBC
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Iraqi asylum seekers face grave risk if sent back home, warns UN
The Guardian, 16 June
UNHCR claims Iraq’s violence will endanger lives of 50 deportees due to be forcibly returned to Baghdad
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It’s not just asylum seekers who need to make a case for legal aid
Connor Johnston, Guardian, 17 June 2010
It is in the public interest to take a stand against government cuts that have forced Refugee and Migrant Justice into administration
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Freedom – but not for all
By Frances Webber at IRR, 17 June
The government’s much vaunted freedom agenda entrenches a two-tier system of rights, with migrants and other unpopular minorities largely excluded.
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Yarl’s Wood immigration centre treated children in a shameful way
Malcolm Stevens, the Telegraph
It’s clearer than ever that this centre must be closed. The Government must not delay its promise to close Yarl’s Wood to children. And it must surely reconsider the wisdom of its decision to repeat the error of the previous government in allowing the organisation most culpable – the UK Border Agency – to lead its current review of services for children in detention.
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Denying child asylum seekers a legal lifeline
Jon Robins, Guardian, 16 June 2010
Children seeking refuge in Britain are being deprived vital help of lawyers because of cuts to legal aid funding.
“They made me sit there and, like in a slave market, immigration officers were told to look at me and guess my age. It was like I was going to be sold. One would say 24 years, and other would say 21.”
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Child refugees exposed to great danger and abuses in Europe, says UNHCR
Alexandera Topping, Guardian, 14 June 2010
‘Extraordinary suffering’ as number of unaccompanied minors seeking asylum in the EU booms
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The asylum seekers who survive on £10 a week
Amelia Gentleman, The Guardian, 16 June 2010
They can’t work, they can’t claim benefits, they have nowhere to live. And their only means of survival is one £10 food voucher a week. Four failed asylum seekers tell their desperate stories.
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We must extend the rights of asylum seekers in the modern world
Bernard Keenan, Guardian, 15 June 2010
The 1951 refugee convention was a response to the Holocaust; but the realities of the 21st century require a broader definition
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Refugees: a problem that won’t go away
Gary Younge, Guardian, 17 June 201
The right to asylum is enshrined in international law – but you wouldn’t know it from the behaviour of many western nations
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Flight and detention – a deportee’s story
The June 2010 edition of New Internationalist magazine reports on deportation and recounts John ‘Bosco’ Nyombi’s story of removal from Britain to months of fear and persecution as a gay man in Uganda. Eventually, a British judge ruled his removal illegal and ordered that he be brought back. You can read a part of his interview online, where he recounts the journey back, which had its fair share of hairy moments, and offers his thoughts on what it is like to be gay in Uganda.
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Family of Red Road suicide victims in plea for release of their bodies
Herald Scotland, Deborah Anderson, 14 Jun 2010
The family of the three Russians who plunged to their deaths from a Glasgow tower block claim they have had little help from the authorities to enable them to have a Christian funeral.
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Immigrants’ contribution to entrepreneurialism revealed
Restricting visas to key professions would stifle growth, study shows
Observer, Jamie Doward, 13 June 2010
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Refugees: Go home office
A civilised government must take a civilised stance towards asylum seekers
Guardian, 14 June 2010
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LEGAL
Alternatives to Child Detention
Westminster Hall debates, 17 June 2010
In his opening remarks on the alternatives to detaining children, Immmigration Minister Damian Green includes the separation of children from detained parents as an option, and notes that “in some cases we may still have to have recourse to holding families for a short period before removal”.
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Immigration Law Bulletin – Issue 185 – 14 June 2010
Garden Court Chambers, 14 June, 2010
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Immigration: Frontex
House of Lords
Written answers and statements, 14 June 2010
Lord Corbett of Castle Vale (Labour)
To ask Her Majesty’s Government how the United Kingdom has been involved in naval exercises and airport immigration controls run by the European Union border control agency Frontex in each of the past two years for which figures are available.
Baroness Neville-Jones (Minister of State (Security), Home Office; Conservative)
The United Kingdom has supported Frontex by deploying advisers with expertise in passenger arrival controls and debriefing interviews to a number of air and sea operations run by the agency. The details of the operations we have participated in during 2008 and 2009, along with a description of their purpose, are set out in the attached table.
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EUROPE
ECRE: Can EU Trust Libya With Refugee Protection?
Migrants at Sea blog
ECRE issued a press release last week regarding Libya’s decision to expel the UNHCR:
“Bjarte Vandvik, Secretary General of the European Council on Refugees and Exiles (ECRE) said: ‘UNHCR’s expulsion from Libya will hopefully be temporary but it does reveal the unreliability of this regime, as well as its understanding of refugee protection. How will the EU ensure that Libya keeps its word regarding commitments towards human rights? How can the EU trust such a partner?’”
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How Libya became a dead end for migrants
BBC
Libya, once the gateway for African immigrants seeking to cross the mediterranean to Europe, is increasingly putting up its shutters. The latest sign of this is the government’s decision to close the offices of the UN High Commission for Refugees in Tripoli, saying it was illegal, and thus denying migrants and asylum seekers a lifeline if they run into trouble in their efforts to make the treacherous coastal journey to Europe.
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INTERNATIONAL
UNHCR Report: 2009 Global Refugee Trends & Guardian Data Map
Migrants at Sea blog
The UNHCR released its annual report this week for last year: “2009 Global Trends- Refugees, Asylum-seekers, Returnees, Internally Displaced and Stateless Persons.”
Links to UNHCR report and an interesting graphic with the UNHCR statistics on the Guardian’s Data Blog.
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UN High Commissioner for Refugees,
World: Refugees, Asylum-seekers, Retournees, Internally Displaced and Stateless Persons – End-2009,
15 June 2010
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UN High Commissioner for Refugees
World: Main Countries of Origin of New Asylum-Seekers – 2009, 15 June 2010, available at:
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EVENTS
Women’s Hunger Strike – Louder Than Words
House of Commons meeting
Tues 29 June 2010
Over 40 days – across races & languages – mothers defend families – many released – deportations halted
7-9pm, Tues 29 JUNE 2010, Committee Room 8
Hosted by John McDonnell, MP
House of Commons, London
On 5 February, over 70 women began a hunger strike in Yarl’s Wood IRC. Their demands included an end to:
- the detention of mothers separated from their children and vulnerable people, including rape survivors;
- the Fast Track for asylum seekers which denies people time to present their cases to the authorities;
- violent and humiliating treatment by guards
- denial of legal advice and medical treatment
The official response was to ‘kettle’ women, deny them access to water and toilets, target, assault and imprison particular women and deny there was a hunger strike. The women continued undeterred for six weeks.
Women central to the hunger strike will speak of the huge impact it had and how women
For information and interviews:
All African Women’s Group aawg02@googlemail.com
Black Women’s Rape Action Project bwrap@dircon.co.uk
Tel: 020 7482 2496/07980659831
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Zimbabwe meeting
House of Lords
Tuesday, 29 June 2010
11am – 12pm
Committee Room 1, 1st Floor, House of Lords
A Place in the Sun: A report on the state of the rule of law in Zimbabwe after the Global Peace Agreement September 2008
Following shocking reports of murders, torture, rapes and other serious human rights abuses during the 2008 elections in Zimbabwe, a Global Political Agreement was entered into between the major political parties in Zimbabwe which led to the formation of a Transitional Government in early 2009.
One of the Transitional Government’s main ambitions as expressed in its Short-Term Emergency Recovery Programme was to promote the conditions for economic recovery and provide the environment for the country to take “its place in the sun”. A precondition to any sustainable and credible recovery in Zimbabwe is proper maintenance of and respect for the rule of law. With the attention of the world on this region, this is a timely review to ascertain the progress made to achieve this.
The Bar Council of England and Wales and the Bar Human Rights Committee will launch a report on the findings of a mission to Zimbabwe in late 2009 which evaluated progress in the restoration of the rule of law.
Hosted by:
Lord Steel of Aikwood, Liberal Democrat Peer
Report presented by:
Desmond Browne QC, Chairman of the Bar Council of England and Wales (2009)
Mark Muller QC, Chair of the Bar Human Rights Committee
Please feel free to circulate widely
For further information, please contact Ms Sally Longworth, BHRC Project Coordinator
(Tel: +44 207 993 7755 / Email: bhrc@compuserve.com)
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REPORTS
Review of quality issues in legal advice: measuring and costing quality in asylum work.
Information Centre about Asylum and Refugees, Refugee and Migrant Justice, Asylum Aid and Immigration Advisory SErvice
March 2010,
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Irregular Migration, Migrant Smuggling and Human Rights: Towards Coherence
International Council on Human Rights Policy, 2010
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UK anti-trafficking measures ‘not fit for purpose’ and breach international law
Amnesty International UK – new report
The report, the first major study of the government’s anti-trafficking measures since they launched 14 months ago, found that the government’s flagship “National Referral Mechanism” is “flawed” and possibly discriminatory, and operated by “minimally-trained” UK Border Agency staff who “put more emphasis on the immigration status of the presumed trafficked persons, rather than the alleged crime against them”.
End of Bulletin.
