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.

Harmondsworth: solidarity needed

solidarity with the detainees! | 09.04.2008 13:48 | No Border Camp 2007 | Anti-racism | Migration | Repression

Please write urgently to the Home Secretary and ask others to do the same.

A model letter with contact details is attached. Please feel free to copy, amend, write your own.

Please notify of any letter sent to:
 detaineesupport@riseup.net

solidarity with the detainees!
- e-mail: detaineesupport@riseup.net

Additions

Attachment problem

09.04.2008 14:43

The file you are trying to upload, Harmondsworth_Home_Secretary has no file extension so it it not being accepted, please rename it to Harmondsworth_Home_Secretary.doc or Harmondsworth_Home_Secretary.rtf or whatever and try to attach it as a comment to your original article and then we can promote it.

IMC'er


The correct fax number

09.04.2008 14:53

fax 0208 603132

solidarity wiht the detainees


text of the model letter

09.04.2008 17:24

Please write/fax/e-mail the Home Secretary.
Can use the model letter below or write your own.

Please notify of anything sent to:
 detaineesupport@riseup.net
Detainee Support Group c/o LARC
62 Fieldgate Street
London E1 1ES

model letter:


The Right Hon Jacqui Smith MP
Secretary Of State for The Home Office Fax: 0208 603132
3rd Floor Peel Building
2 Marsham Street E-mail:  privateoffice.external@homeoffice.gsi.uk
London SW1P 4DF


Dear Home Secretary,
I am writing to you concerning a hunger strike that is currently taking place at Harmondsworth IRC.

Detainees say their peaceful protest has been violently repressed.

The detainees were protesting against unjust deportations, without having their cases properly heard due to time restrictions regarding the fast track procedure and bad legal representation. They feel they are being arbitrarily detained without having committed any crime and are subjected to abuse while detained . The detainees believe their human rights are being violated.

The Harmondworth detainees' protest began the 1st April. There are reports that the majority of detainees refused food from 9am, that the courtyard was occupied and that about 120 detainees remained in the courtyard all night.

On the 2nd of April detainees said they resumed eating later in the day, after meeting with Immigration. However, as they felt that no results came from the talks, they said that detainees resumed the hunger strike on Friday.

Detainees reported that on Saturday 5th April between 5pm and 6am, around 50 police in riot gear stormed the center to break the detainees' hunger strike . Detainees say that the police took 30 detainees away and most of them were put in solitary confinement or taken into main-stream prisons, preventing them from communicating with each other and with the outside world.

One detainee, who managed to contact supporters, said he is bruised all over his body, had injuries from handcuffs and a damaged ankle and possibly a broken wrist. He also reported that he saw another detainee being violently 'manhandled' by police.

The whereabouts of most of the detainees who were moved are still unknown. Although the majority of detainees in Harmondsworth have resumed eating after the repression, some are still refusing to eat.

Detainees said they wrote and signed a petition (116 signatures) and sent it to the European Court of Human Rights, the local MP John McDonnell and others.

Some of the hunger strikers say they are torture survivors and that most of them never had a medical examination from a specialist. It is the Home Office's own policy that detainees who allege torture must be referred to a specialist for a visit and that torture survivors should not be detained "except in very exceptional circumstances’".

I am alarmed that a perfectly peaceful protest by people demanding their human rights can be so brutally repressed in a supposedly democratic country, that has signed all human rights international agreements.

I am asking that the detainees whereabouts are made public; that nobody is removed until allegations of assaults are thoroughly investigated; that allegations of abuse in detention are also investigated; that those detainees who have no access to adequate legal representation are given the time to find a legal representative of their choice; that those who have made allegations of torture are taken off the fast-track and referred to a specialist, and are not removed before they have a visit from a specialist and a medical-legal report.

Earlier this month a report by the Independent Asylum Commission found the UK's treatment of asylum seekers was "shameful" and falls "seriously below" the standards of a civilized society.

Sign:
Address:


Name: Date:


one of no borders london
mail e-mail: detaineesupport@riseup.net
- Homepage: http://noborderslondon.blogspot.com/


the attachment

09.04.2008 19:40

with the right fax number.

sol


Contacts for Home Secretary

09.04.2008 20:16

Rt Hon Jacqui Smith, MP
Secretary of State for the Home Department
3rd Floor, Peel Buildings
2 Marsham Street
London, SW1P 4DF
Fax: 020 8760 3132 (00 44 20 8760 3132 if you are faxing from outside UK)
E-mail:  jacqui.smith@homeoffice.gov.uk

Try these.

one of no borders


Comments

Display the following 3 comments

  1. Please paste it here — City Worker
  2. Model letter — solidarity with the detainees!
  3. email bouncing — vg
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