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Big noise to hit Britain's immigration reporting centres this Thursday

Tyneside Community Action for Refugees | 20.06.2006 20:10 | Refugee Week 2006 | Anti-racism | Migration | Social Struggles | Birmingham

Newcastle based group Tyneside Community Action for Refugees (TCAR) is coordinating a National Day of Action against Home Office reporting centres and detention camps in Britain on Thursday, 22nd June.

The last BIG NOISE demo
The last BIG NOISE demo

The last BIG NOISE demo
The last BIG NOISE demo


TCAR will be staging a lively noise demonstration outside the reporting centre in North Shields which asylum rights groups in London, Leeds and Manchester will join by demonstrating outside their local reporting centres.

Hundreds of participants will bring pots, pans, drums and musical instruments and local asylum seekers will share their stories and experiences of the immigration system. At the end of the day TCAR will present a list of demands to the Home Office calling for an end to the criminalization of asylum seekers. These demands include an end to the detention of children, forced deportation, tagging, and the indefinite detention of people without bail. There will then be a march to North Shields town centre.

The importance of this demonstration has been highlighted by the start of a new hunger strike by 120 detainees on Wednesday 14th June at Campsfield Immigration Removal Centre in Oxfordshire.

It's not too late to stage a small picket outside the other reporting centres around the country. Or if you are interested in getting involved in the future then get in touch! Lets break the silence about deportation!

CONTACTS
Newcastle:
Demonstration at Northumbria House, Norfolk St., North Shields, Newcastle-upon-Tyne 11am-1pm.
Contact: Annie 0795 5517681 or Rita 0772 2469585

London:
Demonstration at Communications House,Old Street, London (exit 6), 1-2pm.
Contact: Nicki 0796 0758856

Manchester:
Demonstration at Dallas Court Reporting Centre, South Langworthy Road, Salford Quays, Manchester, 12pm onwards.
Contact: Charles 0777 9189794

Leeds:
Demonstration at Waterside Reporting Centre, Waterside Court, Kirkstall Road, LS4 2QB, 10am-4pm
Contact: Natasha on 0791 3518699

Tyneside Community Action for Refugees
- e-mail: tynesidecarn@yahoo.co.uk


Additions

Shut down Waterside in Leeds - news

21.06.2006 08:09

Demonstration at Waterside Reporting centre, Kirstall road as part of a National day of action against reporting centres (as part of refugee week) Thurs June 22nd 10am – 4pm

From 10am to 4pm there will be a demonstration outside Waterside reporting centre to mark our opposition to the inhumane treatment received in the reporting centres. This will include information on what really happens in reporting centres and a stall to welcome asylum seekers with free food, a free shop, and music. This is one of many events taking place on Thurs 22nd June around the UK outside reporting centres to let the Immigration and Nationality Directorate at the Home Office know that the war on asylum seekers must
stop.

Waterside Court in Kirkstall is the home of the regional office of NASS – the National Asylum Support Service – and the Immigration Nationality Directorate. Asylum seekers must report here with their identity card and papers every month, fortnight, week and even
every day, or risk imprisonment and deportation.

The reporting system is a form of mental torture. For some it’s a 25 mile trip and many have no transport. Asylum seekers and their children are forced to queue outside the building come rain or snow for up to an hour. Guards and immigration officials routinely humiliate asylum seekers, shouting at them for being 5 minutes late, calling them liars, speaking down at them and making racist comments. Their bags, wallets, even the inside of their mobile phones are searched. All this just to show your ID and confirm your address!

But it gets worse. Every time they report, asylum seekers face the prospect of being suddenly detained and deported, ripped from their families and friends and returned to face possible persecution and death. Such fear and stress has tragic consequences as the
recent suicide of a young man in Leeds proves.

Judith, a Nigerian asylum seeker living in Leeds says:

“One time, an official told me that someone would come and talk to me about changing my reporting time, so I sat down. Then 6 officials came and took me to a special room. They told me I had to leave the country and that my flight was tomorrow. They detained me from
midday until 7.30pm with no food or water, secretly took my picture in this room to use for travel documents and then escorted me like a prisoner to Yarls Wood. The guards stank of drugs; the van stank of urine as people before me had been forced to relieve themselves because the driver refused to stop. The next day, they forced me on to the plane but I could not go back to Africa, so I screamed and screamed and they kicked me so hard in the stomach I nearly died.”

In the evening of 23rd June from 6pm, there will be an evening of film, food and music at the Common Place social centre in Wharf Street, including the premiere of “Tears and Fears” a film made by a destitute asylum seeker from Leeds. This is a benefit event to raise money to help support destitute asylum seekers and those fighting the Home Office’s unjust decisions to refuse asylum.

Leeds No Borders works in solidarity with refugees, migrants, asylum seekers and other
campaign groups in Leeds and beyond. We are committed to practical solidarity, mutual aid and direct action in the fight against deportations, detentions, poverty and racism. We are part of a growing network rooted in the belief that all immigration controls are racist and divisive, and should be opposed and ultimately abolished.

There are over 2000 asylum seekers currently imprisoned in UK ‘detention centres’ and some 30,000 will experience detention every year. More than 2,000 children of asylum-seekers are locked up every year, leaving them suffering depression, nightmares and eating problems. They have committed no crime and many are subject to beatings and racist abuse.

Leeds No Borders
mail e-mail: leedsnoborders@lists.riseup.net


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