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 deportation at Communications House reporting centre, London

Stop Deportation | 01.06.2010 20:07 | Migration

As part of the Week of Action Against the Deportation Machine, and despite the bad weather conditions, a picket was today held at Communications House, one of London's two main immigration reporting centres on Old Street. The demo was called by Fight Racism! Fight Imperialism! and supported by other groups, including No Borders London and Stop Deportation. A similar demo was held later in the day at Becket House, London's other main reporting centre near London Bridge (see here).

Protest against deportation at Communications House, 01-06-2010
Protest against deportation at Communications House, 01-06-2010

leafleting passers-by
leafleting passers-by

'stop deportation, stop detention'
'stop deportation, stop detention'

banners and placards
banners and placards

the demo was part of the Week of Action Against the Deportation Machine
the demo was part of the Week of Action Against the Deportation Machine

banner and passer-by
banner and passer-by

Close (mis)Communications House
Close (mis)Communications House


Reporting centres?

Most asylum seekers in the UK are forced to 'sign on' at a nearby immigration reporting centre on a regular basis (daily, weekly or monthly). This involves finger-printing and re-activating their biometric ID cards. Many have to travel long distances and spend a significant amount of the already little money they are given on bus fares. There is no justification for all this hardship and humiliation other than the immigration authorities' wish to make life more miserable for refugees and migrants so that they give up and leave, as well as deterring others from coming here.

Many people have disappeared from these centres without warning. Most reporting centres are provided with so-called short-term holding facilities (STH), which consist of one or more secure cells. Most people detained in these 'holding rooms' are arrested without warrant in the adjacent reporting centre while signing on. A significant proportion are also brought in by snatch squads in prison vans, who are often based at these centres and operate in the surrounding area carrying out dawn raids.

Those detained are held in the STHs for lengthy periods of time, before being transferred to immigration detention centres around the country. The rooms often have no facilities to hold people overnight but this happens all the time. There are about 25 non-residential SHTs around the country, located at ports and airports as well as reporting centres, and 4 residential ones, which can hold people for up to 7 days.

The first time short-term detention facilities were exposed to independent scrutiny was in the summer of 2004, when an inspection programme for these centre was started by the Chief Inspector of Prisons. The first set of reports, which covered Communications House (London), Lunar House (Croydon), Electric House (Croydon) and Dallas Court (Manchester), found that "there is little external supervision or regular monitoring of these centres." In August 2005, Anne Owers said: "Though [short-term detention facilities] hold detainees only for short periods, they do so at a time of maximum anxiety and uncertainty, outside the public gaze."

The "systemic deficiencies" common to most, if not all, of these centres have become all too familiar: prolonged detention (due to over-crowdedness in 'normal' detention centres) despite the facilities' not being fit for holding people overnight; the use of force and segregation; lack of information and healthcare; inadequate facilities; untrained or inadequate staff (especially in dealing with children and self-harm); women and children being kept in the same room as single men and so forth.

All reporting centres in the UK are run on behalf of the UK Border Agency by private security company G4S, which also runs a number of privatised detention centres across the country and is the UKBA's main contractor for detainee escort services. G4S has been repeatedly criticised by the Chief Inspector of Prisons for “settled misery” in their detention centres, the lack of information provided to detainees about the availability of legal aid and such like.

Communications House

Located just off Old Street roundabout, Communications House is one of London's two main immigration reporting centres. It is open five days a week (used to be seven) and sees up to 500 people a day, mostly asylum seekers from across north and east London, who are forced to report there on a regular basis.

Communications House is provided with a 'short-term holding facility', which consists of one secure room that has no facilities to hold people overnight. The holding room is normally staffed between 9am and 5:30pm by up to four G4S 'detainee custody officers' (DCOs), or longer if an escort is awaited to remove detainees. There are usually three DCOs and a supervisor on duty but they share duties with other G4S staff at other short-term detention facilities in the London area (Becket House in south London and City Airport in east London). There are at least two G4S detainee escort vans based at Communications House, which has a secure vehicle compound.

Most people detained in the holding room arrive from the adjoining reporting centre. Some are also brought by the snatch squads who are based there and operate in the surrounding area. Other detainees are occasionally held there briefly, for a 'comfort break' or change of vehicle, while being transferred from one detention centre to another or to a London court. On average, the short-term detention facility at Communications House sees five detainees a day.

Stop Deportation
- Homepage: http://stopdeportation.net

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