Skip to content or view mobile version

Home | Mobile | Editorial | Mission | Privacy | About | Contact | Help | Security | Support

A network of individuals, independent and alternative media activists and organisations, offering grassroots, non-corporate, non-commercial coverage of important social and political issues.

Protest against the slave labour of failed asylum seekers

Merseyside ARC | 25.05.2005 23:21 | Anti-racism | Migration | Social Struggles | Birmingham | Liverpool

Merseyside Asylum Rights Campaign got together with other activists outside Millennium House, Liverpool on Tuesday 24th May, to protest about the Home Office and YMCA negotiations and plans for a forced labour scheme for failed asylum seekers.

The Home Office and YMCA are pledging that this scheme will be under section 10 of the Asylum & Immigration Act 1999.

The demonstration was small but effective. The 8 protestors stood their ground outside Millennium House (Liverpool City Council building) and were joined in solidarity by those invited to the meeting on their way in and out of the meeting and by those few who ’gate crashed’ - Councillors!





It was clear that 99% of the groups and individuals attending the meeting, which included the Transport & General Workers union representative, local Councillors, Faith group representatives, voluntary sector groups and the statutory sector, were totally opposed to the scheme.

After the meeting we were informed that people in the meeting had made their feelings clear and a united ‘protest’ to involvement in the scheme was strongly conveyed to the Home Office and YMCA.

Liverpool City Council stated that they would not work with anyone who enters such a contract and the T & G Union stated that they would pull workers from the Liverpool YMCA with possible strike action if the scheme goes ahead. Strong statements of opposition were made and angry heads emerged from the meeting.

During the demo, considering we were a small team, lots of noise was made and passers by were very interested to find out about the scheme. Most people were horrified when informed about the plans for the forced labour of asylum seekers and had serious concerns over Liverpool becoming a slave city once more.

Over 50 signatures were collected through the course of the action. This was handed to the YMCA representative, who came out to the demo after the meeting. The representative wanted to have a ‘chat’ about Merseyside Asylum Rights Campaigns feelings towards the contract. WASN’T IT CLEAR FROM OUR BANNERS AND PROTESTING PRESENCE! So, he was informed that any ‘chat’ would only happen in a public space, outside the entrance to Millennium House, and not behind closed doors and that it would be a filmed meeting.

Strangely enough when we were approached after the meeting he didn’t seem to want to have a meeting to talk about our feelings towards the scheme’. Instead he stated “I think we have got a clear message from your demonstration and through the comments from within the meeting that there are some serious concerns over this proposed work scheme for asylum seekers, and we assure you that we will take these issues and concerns back to our trustees to deliberate”.

At this point the Petition of signatures was handed to the YMCA representative.
The YMCA representative looked very stressed when he came out of the meeting as though he had had a good grilling and was ready to run. GOOD.

We also made the YMCA representative aware of the Birmingham action on Tuesday morning where Birmingham & Liverpool protestors dressed as slaves visited the Arch Bishop of Birmingham’s house in Harborne, Birmingham.

He seemed to be fully aware of that aspect of this protest and unnerved by it.
These protesters took to cleaning the Arch Bishop’s house and literally acted out what asylum seekers will be doing if the contract is implemented - slave labour, skivvies for the YMCA.

An assurance was made by the Chaplaincy to the Arch Bishop during the Birmingham protest that a response to the No One Is Illegal letter will be made in the near future. This letter has been sent several times without response and asks pertinent questions about why the YMCA is involved in this contract of slave labour. We’ll see if they actually do respond this time!

So there was a three pronged approach - a protest at the Arch Bishops home in Harborne Birmingham, a demonstration outside the ‘consultation’ meeting in Liverpool, and a ‘protest’ by those inside the meeting.

We think it was very successful but we will have to wait until we hear the result. BUT that doesn’t mean that we stop now. Keep up the campaign. Write to your local MP, visit the Arch Bishop’s house yourself, write to the YMCA, demonstrate outside your local YMCA.

STOP THIS CONTRACT, STOP SLAVE LABOUR FOR FAILED ASYLUM SEEKERS!

Merseyside ARC

Upcoming Coverage
View and post events
Upcoming Events UK
24th October, London: 2015 London Anarchist Bookfair
2nd - 8th November: Wrexham, Wales, UK & Everywhere: Week of Action Against the North Wales Prison & the Prison Industrial Complex. Cymraeg: Wythnos o Weithredu yn Erbyn Carchar Gogledd Cymru

Ongoing UK
Every Tuesday 6pm-8pm, Yorkshire: Demo/vigil at NSA/NRO Menwith Hill US Spy Base More info: CAAB.

Every Tuesday, UK & worldwide: Counter Terror Tuesdays. Call the US Embassy nearest to you to protest Obama's Terror Tuesdays. More info here

Every day, London: Vigil for Julian Assange outside Ecuadorian Embassy

Parliament Sq Protest: see topic page
Ongoing Global
Rossport, Ireland: see topic page
Israel-Palestine: Israel Indymedia | Palestine Indymedia
Oaxaca: Chiapas Indymedia
Regions
All Regions
Birmingham
Cambridge
Liverpool
London
Oxford
Sheffield
South Coast
Wales
World
Other Local IMCs
Bristol/South West
Nottingham
Scotland
Social Media
You can follow @ukindymedia on indy.im and Twitter. We are working on a Twitter policy. We do not use Facebook, and advise you not to either.
Support Us
We need help paying the bills for hosting this site, please consider supporting us financially.
Other Media Projects
Schnews
Dissident Island Radio
Corporate Watch
Media Lens
VisionOnTV
Earth First! Action Update
Earth First! Action Reports
Topics
All Topics
Afghanistan
Analysis
Animal Liberation
Anti-Nuclear
Anti-militarism
Anti-racism
Bio-technology
Climate Chaos
Culture
Ecology
Education
Energy Crisis
Fracking
Free Spaces
Gender
Globalisation
Health
History
Indymedia
Iraq
Migration
Ocean Defence
Other Press
Palestine
Policing
Public sector cuts
Repression
Social Struggles
Technology
Terror War
Workers' Movements
Zapatista
Major Reports
NATO 2014
G8 2013
Workfare
2011 Census Resistance
Occupy Everywhere
August Riots
Dale Farm
J30 Strike
Flotilla to Gaza
Mayday 2010
Tar Sands
G20 London Summit
University Occupations for Gaza
Guantanamo
Indymedia Server Seizure
COP15 Climate Summit 2009
Carmel Agrexco
G8 Japan 2008
SHAC
Stop Sequani
Stop RWB
Climate Camp 2008
Oaxaca Uprising
Rossport Solidarity
Smash EDO
SOCPA
Past Major Reports
Encrypted Page
You are viewing this page using an encrypted connection. If you bookmark this page or send its address in an email you might want to use the un-encrypted address of this page.
If you recieved a warning about an untrusted root certificate please install the CAcert root certificate, for more information see the security page.

Global IMC Network


www.indymedia.org

Projects
print
radio
satellite tv
video

Africa

Europe
antwerpen
armenia
athens
austria
barcelona
belarus
belgium
belgrade
brussels
bulgaria
calabria
croatia
cyprus
emilia-romagna
estrecho / madiaq
galiza
germany
grenoble
hungary
ireland
istanbul
italy
la plana
liege
liguria
lille
linksunten
lombardia
madrid
malta
marseille
nantes
napoli
netherlands
northern england
nottingham imc
paris/île-de-france
patras
piemonte
poland
portugal
roma
romania
russia
sardegna
scotland
sverige
switzerland
torun
toscana
ukraine
united kingdom
valencia

Latin America
argentina
bolivia
chiapas
chile
chile sur
cmi brasil
cmi sucre
colombia
ecuador
mexico
peru
puerto rico
qollasuyu
rosario
santiago
tijuana
uruguay
valparaiso
venezuela

Oceania
aotearoa
brisbane
burma
darwin
jakarta
manila
melbourne
perth
qc
sydney

South Asia
india


United States
arizona
arkansas
asheville
atlanta
Austin
binghamton
boston
buffalo
chicago
cleveland
colorado
columbus
dc
hawaii
houston
hudson mohawk
kansas city
la
madison
maine
miami
michigan
milwaukee
minneapolis/st. paul
new hampshire
new jersey
new mexico
new orleans
north carolina
north texas
nyc
oklahoma
philadelphia
pittsburgh
portland
richmond
rochester
rogue valley
saint louis
san diego
san francisco
san francisco bay area
santa barbara
santa cruz, ca
sarasota
seattle
tampa bay
united states
urbana-champaign
vermont
western mass
worcester

West Asia
Armenia
Beirut
Israel
Palestine

Topics
biotech

Process
fbi/legal updates
mailing lists
process & imc docs
tech