Migration
Migration and NoBorder news.
No Borders, No Nations
14-05-2007 23:00
Full article | 3 additions | 4 comments
No Border Camp at the UK Border extention beyond the channel
25-06-2009 20:47
A farcical curtain of steel descended on Calais, and the massive campaign of demonisation of the camp by the local authorities continued in the press. The camp gradually grew to around 1000 people from all over Europe. Many local people visited the site, a group of around 100 mostly Kurdish and Afghani migrants participated at a daily basis and a lot of local kids and young adults hanged out in the Camp [Report and Pics]
It run alongside the main motorway from the port out of town and it was just a few minutes from the "Jungle", the makeshift camps where migrants are living. Migrants report that currently the controls at the border are very tight and that no one has been getting through for few weeks, consequently the number of migrants in Calais are at their highest in several years.
On Sunday 21st of July, people from the camp went to the festival in the town centre of Calais, with a sound system, to give out leaflets that explain the aim and nature of the camp, in an attempt to communicate directly with the locals beyond the media lies. After the prohibition to distribute any kind of literature that was issued the following Monday, giving out leaflets became an action in itself where people got arrested. Issues of the daily produced newspaper "Nomad" were also confiscated.
Assisting the migrants seems to be a criminal offence, which granted an arrest on Wednesday 24th June, but people have been thinking about some paractical ideas you can do this summer to help the hundreds of migrants stranded in Calais.
On Friday 26th morning, a man demanded showers for migrants when he glued himself to the entrance of La Mairie de Calais - one died trying to have one in the dangerous place where they are forced to wash themselves. In the afternoon, the local motorway was blocked to highlight the hypocrisy of allowing freedom of movement for goods and animals but not of people. Reports: [1|2] Pictures: 1 [Summary of Friday actions]
On Saturday 27th, the campers left the Camp at 10am to go to the transnational demonstration. Here there are reports and Photos 1 | 2 | 3 | 4 | 5 | Videos 1 | 2.
Back in the UK, a demonstration was called in solidariy with the detainees in hunger strike in Yarl's Wood detention centre [Photos 1 | 2].
People are using alternative and corporate tools for real time reporting.
General info and resources: [ 1 | 2 | 3 | After Calais what's next? | Reflecting on Calais No Border Camp 2009 | Video on S4 Welsh Chanel
Full article | 5 additions | 6 comments
Detention protests met with brutal assaults
18-06-2009 16:08
Update: More than 40 women in Yarl's Wood continue their hunger strike for the 5th day [more].
A mass hunger strike by families detained at Yarl's Wood detention centre in Bedfordshire has been met with violent assaults on men, women and children by Serco security guards who mange the prison on behalf on the UK Border Agency. The detainees started the hunger strike on Monday and staged a sit-in in the corridor over their inhumane conditions.
Meanwhile in Brook House, the newly opened detention centre at Gatwick airport, a 'disturbance' broke out on 12th June and a fire was set by rioting detainees in the exercise area causing some damage.
A solidarity protest outside Serco's offices in London (22 Hand Court, Holborn, WC1V 6JF) has been called by No Borders London in support of the Yarl's Wood hunger strikers on Friday, 19th June, from 12noon. Activists from the Tyneside Community Action for Refugees (TCAR) gathered outside government offices in Newcastle on Wednesday to protest against racism and all immigration prisons.
Links and sources: No Borders UK | NCADC | TCAR
SOAS occupied in protest at cleaners immigration raid
16-06-2009 12:18
Update: Occupation ends with (partial) success.
Students and staff at the University of London's School of Oriental and African Studies (SOAS), along with anti-deportation campaigners, have occupied the School's main building in protest at the management's and immigration authorities' attack on migrant workers at the School. Nine cleaners were detained on Friday, 12th June, in an orchestrated dawn raid in which the management and cleaning contractor ISS reportedly played a 'sickening' role [details].
Five of the nine have already been deported, with the others held in detention pending their deportation. A well-attended rally was held on Monday, 15th June, outside the building [pictures]. Another rally and demonstration were held on Tuesday [pictures | update].
Campaigners believe the raid was the management's 'revenge' against the cleaners' successful campaign, Justice for Cleaners, which saw them winning the London living wage and trade union representation.
Links: Occupation's blog | the Justice for Cleaners campaign | London Indymedia feature | Shouldn't the SOAS raid be the beggining of a campaign against subcontracting?
Preparations for Calais No Border Camp taking shape
04-06-2009 23:31
Initiatives from the UK, France, Belgium and Germany are currently preparing a protest camp against border controls in Calais, France. The camp, which will take place between 23th and 29th June, will include a transnational demonstration on Saturday, 27th June. The callout describes the aims of the camp as "highlighting the realities of the situation of migrants in Calais" and "challenging the authorities on the ground, to protest against increased repression of migrants and local activists alike." The camp mobilisation in the UK is carried by the No Borders UK network, which calls for the freedom of movement for all and an end to all migration controls.
Resources: Callout for the camp | Transnational demonstration | Red Pepper article | Schnews article | Mobilisation video | London No Borders page about Calais | Travel to demo from London
The Colnbrook blockade
18-05-2009 10:40
For the second time in less than two months, anti-deportation campaigners blockaded a detention centre to try and prevent a mass deportation flight to Iraqi Kurdistan. Six activists from the Stop Deportation network locked themselves together on 12th May, using glass and plastic arm tubes attached to heavy concrete barrels, blocking the entrance to Colnbrook detention centre near Heathrow, where some 45 of the deportees were being held. The blockade lasted for over four hours, after which three coaches carrying the deportees left for an undisclosed airport. All six were arrested (two quite violently) for obstruction of the highway.
Colnbrook IRC under Blockade | Blockade of Colnbrook detention centre | Colnbrook blockade ends with 6 arrests | Pictures | Video
Related: Anti-deportation campaigners blockade Tinsley House immigration prison
Zimbabwe ‘Death of Democracy’ Gathering in Hyson Green
22-04-2009 22:38
On Saturday 18th April, the ex-patriate Zimbabwe Community from around the UK, came together to discuss the ‘Death of Democracy’ in their country. The gathering was held in Nottingham at the Hyson Green Youth Centre.
The NZCN (Nottingham Zimbabwe Community Network) organized and hosted the event. Most attendees dressed in black to remember and honour the hundreds of Zimbabweans who have been murdered during the MDC’s struggle for democracy. Guest speakers included MDC activists still working and striving towards a new, free and safe Zimbabwe.
Event Photos: ‘Death of Democracy’ Gathering
Previous articles: NZCN mourns the death of democracy in Zimbabwe | Zimbabwean Community Show The Film Flame at Sumac Centre | Zimbabwean Asylum Rights Demo @ Speakers Corner, Nottingham
Links: No Borders Nottingham | Nottingham Zimbabwean Community Network | Zimbabwe Civic Action Support Group | Association of Zimbabwean Journalists in the UK (AZJ-UK) | Zimbabwe Association Ltd | Operation Mavhoterapapi (how did you vote) - Post-election violence [pdf 5.2M]
Audio: Zimbabwe - [Speeches and Interviews] - mp3 16M [64kbps]
Full article | 1 addition | 1 comment
Anti-deportation campaigners blockade Tinsley House immigration prison
20-03-2009 00:00
Early in the morning of 17th March, about 20 anti-deportation campaigners blockaded Tinsley House detention centre at Gatwick airport, where some Iraqi refugees due for deportation were being held. Using D-locks and superglue, the aim of the protest was to try and prevent the deportees being taken from the detention centre to Stanstead airport, where a special charter flight to Iraqi Kurdistan was scheduled that afternoon. The blockade was violently removed by police after about 6 hours and Tinsley deportees, along with some 50 others brought from Campsfield and Dover detention centres, were put on the flight, which landed in Sulaimaniyya around 10pm. Nine protesters, including the six locked and glued to the gate, were arrested under Section 69 of the Criminal Justice and Public Order Act 1994 (failure to leave land after a warning) and taken to Crawley police station. They were released on conditional bail later that night and are due in court on 30th March.
Tinsley House IRC blockaded by protesters | Tinsley House blockade ends with arrests and deportees taken to airport | pix | video
Update: Seven of those arrested pleaded guilty to the charge of 'aggravated trespass' on 30 March 2009. The other two pleaded not guilty and are due in court again soon.
Links: Stop Deportation Network
Related: Flying people to torture and death | Hunger strike in Campsfield as deportee takes his own life in Iraq | Dozens of Iraqi Kurds deported.. again | No Deportations to Unsafe Iraq
Abolish All Immigration Prisons
17-03-2009 21:17
On Tuesday morning, 20 anti-deportation campaigners blocked access to the Tinsley House immigration detention centre near Gatwick airport. Activists used d-locks and superglue to blockade the entrance gate for several hours. The action aimed to prevent the forced deportation on a charter flight of approximately 50 Iraqi refugees from the UK.
Groups affiliated to the UK No Borders network are now calling for demonstrations against immigration detention on Saturday 21st March. A protest march will lead from Bedford to the Yarl’s Wood detention centre, which was half destroyed by fire in 2002, following an uprising ignited by the ill-treatment of a sick woman by guards. Transport is available from London. Solidarity demonstrations are planned in Manchester and Edinburgh. The demonstration in Manchester will be going to the newly-expanded ‘Pennine House’ detention facility at the airport. The campaign to close this prison has achieved a high profile recently after the invasion of Phil Woolas’s offices and an intervention during a speech by Manchester City Council leader Richard Leese. In Edinburgh, campaigners will picket the private security company G4S. G4S profits from running immigration prisons in the UK, including Brook House, Dungavel near Glasgow and Pennine House.
Links: Tinsley House blockade | Photos 1 | Phil Woolas Detention | Custard Pie
From weapons to wars to refugees
02-12-2008 16:34
On Saturday, a lively and well attended demonstration and die in in the centre of Nottingham brought two successful local campaigns together. Shut Down H&K, campaigners against Nottingham's arms dealers joined hands with No Borders Nottingham, who fight for migrant rights, to come 'full circle'. The demonstration emphasised the links between guns sold in the UK, armed conflicts abroad and the refugees that flee these wars to come to Britain looking for asylum.
The demonstrators gave out 2000 fliers to Christmas shoppers making them aware of the whereabouts of Heckler & Koch's premises in Lenton and the death and destruction their merchandise causes. Refugees and asylum seekers from many countries ravaged by the effects of small arms were there to support the demo. Protesters held a die in on the cold pavements, undeterred by the over the top police surveillance. Many members of the public were shocked to hear about the arms dealers in their neighbourhood.
Newswire: Full Circle Demo: From weapons to wars to refugees. Market Sq. Nottingham | Next Small Word Cinema @ Sumac 10th December | FULL CIRCLE - from weapons to wars to refugees | Demos continue at Heckler & Koch weapons HQ in Nottingham
Previous Features: The Arms Trade: From Nottingham to Georgia | Protests in Nottingham as Zimbabwe Goes to the Polls | Protesters Return to Nottingham Weapons Manufacturer | Campaign Victories As Hich And Amdani Are Released On Bail
Links: Notts Antimilitarism: Heckler & Koch | No Borders Nottingham
Full article | 2 additions | 8 comments
ID Card rollout meets resistance
25-11-2008 20:10
On Tuesday 25th November, the British state began its rollout of biometric ID cards by imposing them first on migrants. From this date foreign spouses and nationals from outside Fortress Europe who apply for, or renew, study visas will be required to attend a UK Border Agency Centre for interrogation and fingerprinting. They will then be issued with cards which will hold their name, photograph, nationality and immigration status, along with a biometric chip that will hold their finderprints and digital image. The details will be held indefintely on the UK Identity Service database. Over the next three years, other groups of non-EU nationals will be forced to undergo the process.
On Monday evening, NO2ID activists in Leeds expressed their resistance to the scheme with a public burning of a mock ID card. A Liverpool action followed on Tuesday, with a picket, leafletting and a samba band. A No Borders banner drop on one of Newcastle's busiest inner motorways on Tuesday morning alerted commuters to the rollout, whilst Lunar house in Croydon was picketed by No Borders London. Meanwhile in Birmingham a picket of the UK Border Agency in Solihull was met by a disproportionate police presence and in Cardiff there was a picket of over 60 people. Noborders Manchester joined forces with Merseyside activists to protest outside Reliance House in Liverpool.
Actions: Liverpool: 1 | 2 | Leeds 1 [video] | Newcastle: 1 | 2 | London: 1 | 2 | Birmingham | Cardiff [video] |
External Links: Defy ID | NO2ID | No Borders UK
