NCADC news round-up, 9 May
Daily round-up from NCADC
Today’s top stories:
- Young People Seeking Safety campaign: Bristol conference
- Dying to leave Libya – Four ways the EU can stop migrants drowning
- Virginity tests for immigrants ‘reflected dark age prejudices’ of 1970s Britain
- Will the Scottish Parliamentary election results increase impetus for an independent immigration policy north of the border?
CAMPAIGNS
Young People Seeking Safety campaign
Bristol conference, Saturday 14 May
from 11.30pm onwards at Easton Community Centre
Download a leaflet for the event from our website at www.ncadc.org.uk
On Saturday 14 May, YPSS comes to Bristol for an afternoon of discussion, drama, music and poetry. The conference, organised by Bristol Defend the Asylum Seekers, Bristol Refugee Rights and South West TUC will bring together campaigners, refugees and community and support groups, for an opportunity to share experiences and information.
The opening session starts at 12.30pm and will be introduced by Liz Fekete of the Institute of Race Relations, whose publications include ‘The Deportation Machine’ and ‘They Are Children Too’ and Jo Wilding, human rights activist, author and barrister specialising in immigration and asylum cases, who frequently represents unaccompanied child asylum seekers.
Young People Seeking Safety is a network of individuals and organisations who have joined together to promote the rights and safety of unaccompanied young people seeking asylum in the UK.
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MEDIA
Arabic exodus likely to lead to tighter border controls in Europe
Guardian, Ian Traynor, 8 May 2011
Whatever the outcome of the Arab Spring, one early casualty is already evident – Europe’s fabled system of border-free travel spanning 25 countries from the Balkans to the Baltic. Roman tantrums over an alleged “human tsunami”, a “biblical exodus” across the Mediterranean from North Africa to the heel of Italy as well as Gallic truculence in asserting control of France’s national borders have forced a radical rethink.
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Iranians on hunger strike protest against deportation
Guardian, Matthew Taylor & Saeed Kamali Dehghan, 6 May 2011
Six Iranians who have been on hunger strike for 32 days in protest at plans to send them back to Tehran have held a demonstration outside the Home Office amid growing concern over their health. Medics say the men, four of who have sewn their lips together, are becoming increasingly weak, and they were taken in wheelchairs by supporters to protest.
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Migration Museum Project
Free Movement, 7 May 2011
I’ve been asked to give a mention to the Migration Museum Project and am delighted to do so. I enjoyed my visit to the Museum of Immigration in Melbourne and the 19 Princelet Street project in Spitalfields is excellent but can necessarily only open a few times per year because of the condition of the building. The United Kingdom, with its long history of immigration, needs a migration museum of its own.
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Virginity tests for immigrants ‘reflected dark age prejudices’ of 1970s Britain
Guardian, Alan Travis, 8 May 2011
When a 35-year-old teacher arrived at Heathrow on 24 January 1979, she planned to marry her fiance, a British resident of Indian descent. Instead she found herself at the centre of a “virginity testing” row that led to headlines in Britain and India, and an immediate debate over whether her experience was an isolated incident or general immigration practice.
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Stephen Castles speaks on climate refugees
University of Oxford, 9 May 2011
‘More or Less’ is a BBC Radio 4 programme that investigates numbers in the news. On Sunday 8 May, the programme included an exploration of some figures relating to projected climate refugees. Stephen Castles was invited to give his opinion.
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BLOG
Will the Scottish Parliamentary election results increase impetus for an independent immigration policy north of the border?
MRN Blog, Donn Flynn, 8 May 2011
The striking advance of the vote for Scottish nationalism in last week’s elections to Holyrood has encouraged First Minister Alex Salmond to demand full legislative authority for the Scottish Parliament. That would include the ending of current Westminster control over the country’s immigration policy. But what might a Scottish immigration policy actually look like?
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The elections are out the way – any clearer on what is to be done about immigration?
MRN Blog, Don Flynn, 6 May 2011
We can expect elections to bring a flurry of interest in immigration during the course of elections, and the round of devolved, regional and local polls just finished was no exception. But have any of the issues which really need to be discussed and debated become any clearer over the last few weeks?
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EUROPE
The Uses of Xenophobia
Open Democracy, Ash Amin, 9 May 2011
Our Guest Editor this week, Professor Ash Amin, works at Durham University and is currently Fellow at the Swedish Collegium for Advanced Study in Uppsala. A founder member of the Forum of Concerned Citizens of Europe (www.livingindiversity.org), Ash writes about the dislocations of the unequal society. His next books include The Freight of Social Ties (Polity Press, 2012), which examines the political economy of the response to strangers in the west, and with Nigel Thrift, (Political Openings: An Essay on Left Futures, Duke University Press, 2012), which argues that without recovering a world-making capability, one that taps deep into unrepresented injuries and desires, the Left will never return as a mass political force.
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Italy rescues 500 Libya refugees from shipwreck
EU Observer, Valentina Pop, 9 May 2011
More than 500 refugees who travelled from Libya, mostly sub-Saharan Africans, were rescued in the early hours of Saturday morning (8 May) after their overloaded boat sank a dozen miles from the Italian coast of Lampedusa.
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Pope calls on Italians to welcome immigrants
The Telegraph, 9 May 2011
“The churches created by Aquileia are called today to renew that ancient spiritual unity, in particular in light of the phenomenon of immigration and the new geopolitical circumstances,” he said during his homily to more than 300,000 worshippers gathered in a vast park on the Venetian mainland.
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Nato units left 61 African migrants to die of hunger and thirst
Guardian, Jack Shenker, 8 May 2011
Dozens of African migrants were left to die in the Mediterranean after a number of European and Nato military units apparently ignored their cries for help, the Guardian has learned. A boat carrying 72 passengers, including several women, young children and political refugees, ran into trouble in late March after leaving Tripoli for the Italian island of Lampedusa. Despite alarms being raised with the Italian coastguard and the boat making contact with a military helicopter and a Nato warship, no rescue effort was attempted.
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An escape from the Arab Spring: one migrant’s voyage to Europe
Guardian, Jack Shenker, 9 May 2011
Everybody on the boat smoked. There was nothing else to do, except when the storms came and waves battered the vessel, as water sloshed across the deck and passengers frantically bailed it out. For 22-year-old Mohamed Munadi, the storms were a respite. They gave him something else to focus on.
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First case from Georgia to the European Court of Human Rights concerning police homophobia
LGBT Asylum News, INTERIGHTS, 8 May 2011
Blogger Gay Armenia notes that this is the first LGBT case from the South Caucasus. He adds that, “unfortunately, the Inclusive Foundation is no longer active.” The International Centre for the Legal Protection of Human Rights (INTERIGHTS), together with Article 42 of the Constitution, a Georgian human rights NGO, has submitted an application to the European Court of Human Rights in the case of Aghdgomelashvili and Japaridze v Georgia (Application no. 7224/11).
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INTERNATIONAL
Uganda ‘kill the gays’ bill “will be passed”; plea from Uganda to international supporters
LGBT Asylum News, Paul Canning, 6 May 2011
A week ago the world was hearing from Uganda the ‘news’ that the death penalty was being dropped from the infamous ‘kill the gays’ Anti-Homosexuality bill. Previous to that the world’s media gave the impression following some statement’s from the government that the fight was over, the bill had been killed, kicked into the long grass. The word from Kampala was that it wouldn’t even be discussed in Parliament – there were more important bills waiting for a vote.
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RESEARCH & REPORTS
The new IOM Glossary on migration
MRN News, 9 May 2011
The International Organization for Migration (IOM) published recently the second edition of the Glossary on migration. This tool, presented for the first time in 2004, continues to be a valuable source for governments, practitioners, NGOs and students working in the field of migration.
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EVENTS
Report launch: Detention Action’s ‘Fast Track to Despair’
London, 12 May 2011 – 19:00 – 20:30
Where: Amnesty International Human Rights Action Centre, 17-25 New Inn Yard, London EC2A 3EA
Detention Action (formerly London Detainee Support Group) is launching its new name and a new report “Fast Track to Despair” on Thursday 12 May 2011 at Amnesty International Human Rights Action Centre.
“Fast Track to Despair” is an analysis of the Detained Fast Track process, under which asylum seekers are detained throughout the asylum process. The extreme step of detaining people for administrative convenience was justified by Home Office and the courts over a decade ago in the light of the large numbers of asylum claims, the short period of detention and the low security conditions.
We hope that you can join us for an evening of discussion, artwork and mingling, with food and drink. Please RSVP to Kate Blagojevic at kate@detentionaction.org.uk , and forward to friends or colleagues who may be interested.
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Young People Seeking Safety campaign
Bristol conference, Saturday 14 May
from 11.30pm onwards at Easton Community Centre
Download a leaflet for the event from our website at www.ncadc.org.uk
On Saturday 14 May, YPSS comes to Bristol for an afternoon of discussion, drama, music and poetry. The conference, organised by Bristol Defend the Asylum Seekers, Bristol Refugee Rights and South West TUC will bring together campaigners, refugees and community and support groups, for an opportunity to share experiences and information.
The opening session starts at 12.30pm and will be introduced by Liz Fekete of the Institute of Race Relations, whose publications include ‘The Deportation Machine’ and ‘They Are Children Too’ and Jo Wilding, human rights activist, author and barrister specialising in immigration and asylum cases, who frequently represents unaccompanied child asylum seekers.
Young People Seeking Safety is a network of individuals and organisations who have joined together to promote the rights and safety of unaccompanied young people seeking asylum in the UK.
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UNITY Cinema returns to Glasgow
Glasgow Saturday 14 May
at CCA, 1pm
showing ‘Cul de Sac’
FREE (ticketed)
Kiana Firouz, an Iranian lesbian who had left Iran to avoid getting arrested, meets Sayeh, a journalist and activist focused on Iranian human rights issues in the United Kingdom.
Sayeh tries to collect some information about the controversial subject of Iranian homosexuals’ lives from Kiana, who had formerly tried to make an underground documentary about the suffering of lesbians in Iran. The story develops the relationship between Kiana and Sayeh against the background of recent uprisings in Iran and the series of incidents that led Kiana to collaborate with the opposition, eventually resulting in her claim of asylum in the United Kingdom.
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No Borders North East Film & Workshop
Glasgow Saturday 14 May
At the Free Hetherington (occupied university)
The Noborders northeast group are travelling up from Newcastle to the Free Hetherington with a thought provoking and engaging day of events.
Film Screening:
Si Nos Dejan (If they let us)
Ana Torres, Spain 2004, 80 mins
Made by people who have migrated, this fast paced documentary is based on interviews with undocumented people living in Barcelona and coming from around the world. It provides a powerful insight into the diverse experiences of a wide range of people living without a legal status.
Seminar:
Workshop & Discussion on contemporary issues of migration through the film and Noborders perspective. Exploring the concept of the nation state & it’s internal and external borders.
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Beyond Borders dayschool
Bristol, Saturday 21 May
11.30am – 6.30pm
All around the world a global crisis (i.e. capitalism) is being blamed on ordinary people.
Some people take more blame than others. Across Europe and North America a whole range of people are being classed as illegal. Migrant workers, that are so useful to booming economies, are increasingly criminalised in a recession.
The national borders that divide us exist in our minds, but the impacts of migration controls are very real both in terms of human suffering and corporate profits. Migration controls and resistance to them are one of the big issues in these times of global economy.
Come to a day of talks and discussions at Easton Community Centre on Saturday 21st May in Bristol, 11.30-6.30pm
Confirmed speakers:
-Bridget Anderson(Justice For Domestic Migrant Workers,Oxford University) :“Why No Borders?”
-Clara Osagiede (RMT Cleaners Rep, Living Wage Campaign)
“Migrant Worker Struggle”
-Ann Singleton:(Statewatch)
“The Changing Meaning of Borders in the EU”
More details at Bristol No Borders
All Welcome, lunch available, £5 suggested donation or free to asylum seekers/refugees/unemployed
Please RSVP to bristolnoborders@riseup.net
