UK Indymedia

Left in the Desert: Hundreds of Refugees Arrested and Deported from Morocco

02-01-2007 18:06

Over 250 Sub-Saharan Africans have been arrested by the Moroccan authorities in raids that took place in different quarters of Rabat on December 23rd, 2006. Among the arrested were women and children refugees and asylum seekers. Six buses, accompanied by the army, then carried them to Oujda on the Algerian borders. At about 11pm, the buses crossed the border at 3 different points and the migrants were left in the middle of nowhere [see below for details]. Blockades by the Special Police prevented supporters from Oujda to reach the deportees and their mobile phones did not work, so they could not be contacted. There are fears that these arrests are only the beginning of a mass deportation campaign to Algeria, or even into the desert, similar to what happened in September-October 2005.

On December 25, two more buses arrived in Oujda, at the police station, with Sub-Saharan Africans from Nador (another town in Morocco). This only confirms that the 'operation' was nation-wide and pre-planned by the authorities, during a time when most of the activists were on holiday.

Reports: en & fr | fr with en summary [pdf] | es | fr | de | it | Attac Morocco statement [fr] | CEAR statement [pdf] | press release by the president of EU Parliament's Human Rights Sub-Committee [fr, pdf]

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Riot in Harmondsworth Immigration Prison.. Again

30-11-2006 16:58

Frustrated at being detained in awful prison-like conditions, often for long periods, the detainees of Harmondsworth detention centre, near Heathrow, have 'gone wild'. Around 10pm on 28 November, 2006, a group of detainees started a riot in Wing B after a guard switched off the TV preventing them from watching a report about Harmondsworth, and it soon spread to all 4 wings. Some detainees have reportedly been beaten up, while others were kept locked in, with fires and smoke all over the place [reports and updates]. 'Specialist officers' from prisons across the south of England were brought in to help the prison and immigration services 'contain the situation'. Everything is 'under control' now, according to the Home Office [John Reid Invokes Riechstag Fire Tactics For Detention Centre Fire]. For further information click at the Full article link above.

Several calls to protest have been made to show solidarity with those struggling inside the detention centres. On Friday, 1st of December No Borders London called for a solidarity demonstration outside London's headquarters of Kalyx, the private company that runs the detention centre. Around 80 people joined the protest [pics]. Barbed Wire Britain also called for a demonstration at Harmondsworth and Colnbrook detention centres near Heathrow airport on Sunday 3rd December, when over 80 people gathered near to the gates of the detention centres [Reports and Pics 1 | 2] London FRFI also staged a protest on Tuesday 5th December outside London's Communications House immigration reporting centre.

Links: NoBorders groups in UK | National Coalition of Anti-Deportation Campaigns | Barbed-Wire Britain

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The Discriminatory Asylum Vouchers

14-10-2006 18:11

Over 5,000 'failed asylum seekers' in the UK receive £35-a-week vouchers instead of cash for their NASS support under Section 4 of the Immigration and Asylum Act 1999, despite concerted efforts by the Home Office to open routes of enforced and 'voluntary' return to get rid of them. The so-called "hard-case support" claimants are stigmatised, demeaned and discriminated against on a daily basis. Yet, the House of Commons have recently debated extending the use of vouchers for more asylum seekers, 4 years after the original Asylum Voucher Scheme was abolished following huge public pressure [1 | 2] and a lot of criticism.

Read: Shaming Destitution: Citizen Advice Bureau's report | the Home Office review of the voucher scheme (pdf) | Token Gestures: the effects of the voucher scheme on asylum seekers (pdf) | Joint parliamentary briefing (pdf)

Links: Birmingham No Borders | other No Borders groups in the UK

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Father of released family still in detention and threatened with deportation

11-10-2006 11:58

Update: (14/10/06) Mr Al-Mugrabhi is still being detained at Dover Detention Centre, his family have been released from Yarls Wood Removal Centre, but it is feared he will still be deported very soon. A new petition has been started to stop his deportation and try to secure his release. Download, print and distribute!

The father of a family from Aspley, Nottingham is still being held in dentention in Dover and threatened with deportation after the rest of the family were released from Yarlswood Removal Centre near Bedford on Tuesday. Local activists jumped into action following a dawn raid by 12 officers last week to secure the release of the family. Officers forced entry into the property and arrested the family including 2 children and a baby. The raid happened at around 5.30am on Wednesday 4th October. Children as well as staff at Roslyn Park School in Aspley were shocked by the news. Two of the families children have been at the school for over 5 years.

Links: Nottingham Refugee Forum | Convention Relating to the Status of Refugees | Wikipedia on Jordan | Wikipedia on Refugees | UK Indymedia Migration topic page

Recent: Evening Post helps Immigration Service harass East Midlands asylum-seekers

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Worldwide Protests Against Migration Controls

09-10-2006 03:59

October 7 saw many decentralised, coordinated migration-related actions and events across the world. From Warsaw to London, from Hamburg to Nouakchott, thousands of migrants and their supporters protested against the denial of their rights, against the criminalisation and scapegoating of refugees and, above all, against all immigration controls. They were demanding a European unconditional legalisation and equal rights for all migrants; the closure of all detention centres in Europe and everywhere; an end to all deportations and the 'border externalisation' process.

Full article | 2 additions | 2 comments

Oct 7: Transnational Day of Action Against Migration Controls

06-10-2006 12:45

Today, 7 October 2006, marks the Transnational Day of Action Against Migration Controls. The day is the 3rd of its kind [see 1st and 2nd] and was called by a broad network of migration-related initiatives during the European Social Forum in Athens earlier this year. As of 5 Oct, over 250 groups from 23 countries have signed the call, 18 of which are in the UK.

The day will see an unprecedented number of protests throughout the world. In London, there will be a March for Migrants' Rights, followed by a Social Benefit at rampART, and Sunday the 8th there will be a Conference. There will be a similar March in Glasgow organised by the Union of Asylum Seekers in Scotland (UNITY), and D-Tension event with Camcorder Guerrillas. In Birmingham, the Anti-Racist Campaign are organising a Ceremony in the City Centre. Other actions in the UK include a protest at the Communications House in London on Fri the 6th called by the Global Women's Strike, and a "No Deportations To Iraqi Kurdistan" demo in Huddersfield on Saturday the 7th called by the International Federation of Iraqi Refugees and the Kurdish Cultural Community in Kirklees. Elsewhere in the world, tens of events and actions are taking place (see here for details).

For full coverage see the action topic page | list of events

Read: Call and Statement | Organizing group's press release | Crossing Borders newsletter | Migrant tales from The Border

Full article

No One Is Illegal! International Day of Action on Migrant Rights

02-10-2006 22:56

"For Freedom of Movement and the Right to Stay"

Today, Saturday October 7th 2006, a march through London is calling on migrants, asylum seekers and their friends, families and colleagues to act together against the criminalization of migrants and the denial of their rights; with the intention to build a transnational movement to change conditions for the better.

Oct 7th: London Timeline [Pics] | Benefit Night

Background: Organizing group press release. | Institute of Race Relations 'Driven To Desperate Measures' | Inquest points to asylum failures | Yarlswood report

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Nottingham Asylum-Seekers will be Heard

19-09-2006 21:11

The situation faced by Asylum-Seekers in the UK is enough to make you realise we live in an insane society. In the East Midlands a centralised HO reporting building has been set up in the small town of Loughbrough, twenty miles from the towns where most A-Ss actually live.

The new centre is like Fort Knox. Its barred windows and security checkpoints make it clear that if they don’t want you to get out, you won’t. Many from Nottingham have been told to attend Nottingham with no indication of whether they can claim the fare back. Little or no information has been given about how to get to Loughborough, when the switch would be made, and how to get more information about it. One of the first asylum seekers to be transferred to the new office was told to sign on the fifth of every month! What if it’s a weekend? Who would invent such a system except an idiot; or a sadist trying to prevent A-S having any identity except one of dependency on the system.

Full article | 3 comments

Hundreds demonstrate in Leeds against Zimbabwean deportations

15-09-2006 13:39

Zimbabweans from across the UK led a huge demonstration in Leeds on Saturday 16 September against the resumption of deportations of refused asylum seekers back to Mugabe's regime in Zimbabwe [see report]. The protest, called by the Zimbabwe Refugee Community Organisation with the backing of the Refugee Council (Yorkshire and Humberside) and campaign group Leeds No Borders, began outside Leeds Central Library at 12pm. It was addressed by, among others Mafungasei Maikokera, one of the famous Yarls Wood hunger strikers who resisted deportation on a plane bound for Harare. Hundreds of people then spontaneously marched into the main shopping precinct to the sound of samba and song.

The demonstration was called in response to a legal ruling in August that 'refused' asylum seekers no longer automatically face persecution if returned to Zimbabwe - despite the UK government's own very public condemnation of human rights abuses by the Mugagbe regime. These Zimbabweans now face the possibility of imminent deportation. Only last Wednesday in Zimbabwe, the country's main trade union leader was arrested by police for attempting to hold a demonstration which the government had earlier banned. Wellington Chibebe was beaten with batons and rifle butts as the police arrested him and 15 others. Zimbabweans are not alone - the Home Office has recently stepped up its efforts to forcibly remove asylum seekers en masse back to Iraq and Afghanistan.

Photos: 1 2

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No Deportations to Iraq

07-09-2006 22:21

32 Iraqi asylum seekers, who had been incarcerated in different detention centres, were deported to Arbil, northern Iraq, on 5 September, 2006, on a specially chartered flight from the RAF Brize Norton military base in Oxfordshire. There was a demonstration at the Home Office in London, called by the Coalition to Stop Deportations to Iraq and the International Federation of Iraqi Refugees, but that did not apparently stop the process, and neither did the warnings from international organisations [1 | 2 | 3] or the legal challenges.

The first forced deportation of Iraqi Kurds from the UK took place on 19 November, 2005. 15 men were taken to an airport at night, handcuffed, beaten and forced onto a military plane headed for Arbil through Cyprus. The move then sparked a lot of anger and protest [1 | 2 | 3 | 4 | 5], and the deportation of Iraqis was halted for a while until resumed this month. Tens of Iraqi Kurds are believed to be interned in UK detention centres, while thousands more have been served notice that they will be 'removed' from the country [latest report].

Read: initial report | call-out for demo | names of deportees | Home Secretary resumes forced removals to Iraq | EU-coordinated deportation of Afghani refugees

Links: Coalition to Stop Deportations to Iraq | International Federation of Iraqi Refugees | National Coalition of Anti-Deportation Campaigns | Noborders UK communication channels

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Protest in solidarity with refugees Sat 09.09.06 Nottingham

01-09-2006 15:28

Nottingham Refugee Campaign Group have organised a protest in solidarity with refugees on Saturday 09th September from 1pm - 2pm at St Peters Gate Nottingham. How would YOU get from here to Loughborough with no money? That is what many asylum seekers are now being forced to do!

From the 4th September, Asylum seekers who receive NO MONEY and are NOT ALLOWED TO WORK are being required to report to a new Immigration Reporting Centre in Loughborough (instead of reporting here at the central police station).

Come and join the protest and show your solidarity

Links: Nottingham & Nottinghamshire Refugee Forum website

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An Alternative Refugee Week

04-07-2006 21:38

In an attempt to rejuvenate the watered-down offical Refugee Week, with the more serious issues regarding asylum and immigration often being muffled or overlooked, many grassrooots groups throughout the country organised alternative events and actions during and around the Week (19-25 June) to bring these issues to the fore.

Links: NoBorders UK communication channels | National Coalition of Anti-Deportation Campaigns |

Full article

Refugee Week: Smile for the week and to hell with you for the rest of the year!

18-06-2006 11:58

At a time when enforced deportations are at their highest rate ever and corporate-run detention centres are packed with thousands of people, whose only crime was to seek refuge in this country; when dawn raids and the weekly reporting are constant nightmares for many asylum seekers and the government is introducing increasingly more restrictive and racist immigration controls every day (asylum quotas, immigration point system etc.); comes Refugee Week (19-25 June) to "promote understanding and to celebrate the cultural contributions of refugees."

While the "nationwide festival" is, indeed, an opportunity for refugees and immigrants to make their voices heard, faced with all the "asylum madness" of mainstream media, there are many reasons to assume that the event is essentially a cheap public-relations exercise, both for the government and for some of the organisations and corporations involved. The events appear to be designed to deliberately hide the real issues surrounding asylum and immigration. Serious political content is systematically suppressed. Besides the Home Office, some events -for example, Birmingham's Celebrating Sanctuary- are partly funded by such dodgy asylum profiteers as the Angel Group. Furthermore, the way in which things are organised mirrors much of Labour's discredited multi-cultural policies in terms of dividing refugees along ethnic lines.

Full article

Campsfield detainees on hunger strike

18-06-2006 11:00

Over 120 people detained at Campsfield removal centre near Oxford have gone on hunger strike in protest at their indefinite detention (without trial) and the conditions they face.

"...Most of us have been here for a long while now. There are people who have been detained for up to two years and down to three months. We are cramped in here like animals. We are treated like animals and moved around different detention centres like animals. The immigration service have taken husbands from their families and taken people who ran away from persecution in their various countries, and dumped everyone in here."
-letter from hunger strikers

The latest unrest follows the desperate actions of a Somalian man who went onto the roof and threatened to kill himself, and the takeover of Campsfield by GEO (the company formally known as Wackenhut) who are eager to cut costs at the expense of detainee and staff conditions. However, the detainees have made it clear this is not a specific protest against the new management but against detention in general.

On Thursday night a candlelit vigil by supporters encountered an enthusiastic and noisy response from detainees, and a group of inmates carried out a yard occupation until 5am Friday morning. Meanwhile GEO have been bribing detainees with vouchers to try and break the strike.

More support demos will take place soon. For further details contact: 01865 558145 (Bill MacKeith), 07791 744260 (Robert Robinson), or 01865 726804/07968 292499 (Teresa Hayter and Bob Hughes), Meanwhile a national day of action has been called for 22nd June.

Related: latest letter from detainees | update | call for vigil | original report | national day of action
Links: Close Campsfield campaign | Background on Wackenhut/Group 4/GEO

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Asylum is not a Crime

27-05-2006 23:03

In what has become a regular, monthly event, Birmingham No Borders and the Birmingham Anti-Racist Campaign (ARC) jointly staged a demonstration on Friday, 26 May, 2006, outside the immigration reporting centre in Solihull. They were there to protest against the inhumane treatment of asylum seekers throughout the Border Regime. Although initially small in numbers, the protesters generated a lot of noise, using pots, pans and megaphones. In an attempt to stifle the protest, Sandford House's management contacted the police. The police, however, were duly satisfied that demonstrators were exercising their legal right to protest and left the protest without intervening. Many asylum seekers, who were there to 'sign on', also joined the protest.

Last month, a similar demonstration was held in solidarity with the unprecedented mass hunger strikes in detention centres across the UK. In November last year, Iraqi Kurds, in conjunction with ARC, staged a demonstration outside Sandford House to protest against the Home Office moves to deport Iraqis to their unsafe, occupied country. Next month's demo will take place on the last Friday of the month, June 30th.

Full article | 4 comments

Leeds, City of Asylum Shame

17-05-2006 23:40

Leeds No Borders, a group of campaigners working to support refugees, asylum seekers and migrants in Leeds, including those who are detained and destitute, conducted an 'alternative' guided tour of the city on Saturday 6 May entitled 'Leeds, City of Asylum Shame'. The purpose of the tour was to educate local people about key Leeds institutions involved in the appalling treatment, destitution, detention and deportation of asylum seekers and to dispel the myths pedalled in the media about housing, employment and other issues.

Full article | 6 comments

Manchester - City of Destitution, Detention and Deportation

18-04-2006 19:52

On Saturday April 15th around 300 people marched through Manchester as part of international protests against immigration detention [ call out and more details] People came from Leeds, Newcastle and elsewhere to join the protest and included many asylum seekers and refugees.

The March started outside Strangeways Prison where asylum seekers are being detained for working illegally. The demo went along Deansgate, past British Airways who deport asylum seekers, and then stopped outside the registry office where people from Brides Without Borders spoke about their campaigns and experiences. The March continued on to China Town where the cockle picker s who died at Morcambe Bay were remembered and it ended in a rally at the Peace Gardens.

Reports: 1 | 2 | 3
Audio : chants | more chants | Suzanne Foreman from Brides Without Borders talks about setting up Brides Without Borders and how the Campaign is growing | Lisa Gordon from Brides Without Borders talks about living with her husband being under constant threat of deportation | Farhat Khan from Women Asylum Seekers Together (WAST) talks about facing deportation with your children and how people should have the right to choose who to marry | Sheka Tarawalie an NUJ member talks about his anti-deportation campaign.

This demo follows a demonstartion at Colnbrook and Heathrow Detention centres last weekend and over 100 detainees on hunger strike.

Links: National Coalition of Anti-Deportation Campaigns | Noone is Illegal

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Hunger Strike in Colnbrook Detention Centre

10-04-2006 06:11

Updates: 27th April: Some remain on hunger strike.
24th April: The hunger strike in Colnbrook seems to have ended [Timeline | Solidarity Page]. Meanwhile, around 20 Turkish Kurdish detainees in Harmondsworth began a hunger strike on 20 April.
17 April: About 25 detainees in Haslar have staged a peaceful protest in the courtyard early this afernoon and are still there, refusing to re-enter the building. There are also news that the hunger strike have spread to Tinsley House.
15 April: More than 120 detainees in Haslar detention centre, Protsmoth, have gone on hunger strike in protest againts arbitrary detention and in solidariety with the detainees in Colnbrook.

In protest at their inhumane treatment by security guards during the No Borders demonstration last Saturday (8th April, 2006), over 150 detainees in Colnbrook detention centre went on hunger strike. According to the latest updates, nearly 100 of them are still on indefinite hunger strike. A delegation from the Home Office is supposed to pay them a visit to hear their demands for release. [Strike update 17/04]

The hunger strikers have been subject to repression from Colnbrook’s management, with one detainee, deemed to be the "organiser" of the protest, having been locked in an isolation cell on Saturday night, then later removed to another detention centre.

Many of the people inside Colnbrook have been there for over 6 months, with some being detained for up to 3 years. There is no automatic bail review process for immigrants who are being detained. Last January, a detainee at Harmondsworth Detention Centre took his own life out of despair. Fellow detainees responded with a one-day hunger strike and a written statement about their conditions and treatment in detention.

On Thursday 13, a solidarity protest took place outside the Home Office building in central London [Report and Pics]. This had been urgently called by London No Borders and The Square Social Centre. On Satuday 15 No Borders fundraiser also took place in London. And on Thursday 20 Cardiff saw another solidarity demonstration called by the No Borders South Wales group.

Read: initial reports [1] [2] | press release | detainee tells of beatings in Colnbrook (video)

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Noborders Demo at Harmondsworth Detention Centre

08-04-2006 11:58

Harmondsworth, 8 April 2006. Around 300 people from London, Birmingham, Bristol, Leeds, Brighton, Reading and Cardiff demonstrated at the Harmondsworth and Colnbrook detention centres near Heathrow to ensure that "those inside will hear our voices and know that they are not alone." The call out for the demonstration was made by London No Borders, the Campaign to Close Heathrow Detention Centres, London Against Detention, and The Square Occupied Social Centre in solidarity with the Noborder actions in Australia [see the NCADC report].

There was a large police presence and they prevented detainees and demonstrators from establishing a line of sight: the demo was not allowed to take place in the field where detainees could see it from their windows. Security guards also prevented detainees from accessing the centre's exercise yard and didn't even allow them to approach the windows. Some detainees were reportedly beaten up when they protested against these restrictions. In response, some 150 detainees in Colnbrook have gone on hunger strike [Read press release on updated situation in Colnbrook].

Many phone calls from detainees were passed on to the demonstrators via a small sound system. Former detainees also gave live testimonies of their own experience in detention [Sekindi's speech]. Meanwhile, about 40 people managed to make their way around the side of Colnbrook where detainees could see and hear them from the windows, and they spent a long time communicating with people inside, before being moved on by the police.

See the full timeline of events
Reports and Pics: 1 | 2 | 3 | 4 | 5 | Audio reports
Videos: 1 | 2 | 3 | 4 | 5 | 6 | 7

In Glasgow, around 300 asylum seekers, refugees, sans-papiers, Unity activists, and their supporters marched from the Home Office Reporting Centre in Ibrox to a rally in the Carnival Arts Centre in town calling for the right to work and an end to deportations. On Monday, 10th April, the All African Women's Group and other organisations protested outside Communications House in London in solidarity with international actions for immigration and asylum rights, and against detention.

In Manchester, a demo and rally [more] were held on 15 April under the slogan "Manchester: city of detention, destitution and deportation". On the same day, the offices of Ethiopian Airlines in London were targetted by anti-deportation activists. Their locks were glued and anti-deportation slogans were painted over their office and in the surrounding area.

Full article | 1 addition | 9 comments

UK No Borders Activists Join Forces

06-03-2006 23:52

With the government's boasting that they "have made significant progress towards our target of removing failed asylum seekers," many activists from all around the country have joined the struggle against the border regime under the banner "No Borders". They will be gathering in London on the 11th and 12th of March for practical workshops about supporting refugees and migrants as well as strategic discussions.

Proposed actions so far include a campaign to close Heathrow detention centres, a day of action on 8 April in solidarity with a worldwide call from Australian No Border activists, and actions against the IOM.

Examples of ongoing campaigns include Ali Noori and others, who are presently struggling to stay in the UK. Recently Mohammed Arrian was granted indefinite leave to remain in the UK only after strong pressure from his local community. Bereket Yohannes was one of twelve people who took their own lives in UK detention centers in recent years.