No-Deportations - Residence Papers for All

                                                    News & Views - Monday 15th April to to Sunday 21st April 2013

Essential Tools for Anti-Deportation Campaigners

Foreign and Commonwealth Office (FCO) - Human Rights in Countries of Concern 2012

FCO have listed 27 countries in their annual report that have/continue to severely abuse Human Rights.

If you are supporting someone facing deportation to any of the countries below or listed in the report. Check the information contained and use it in your campaign material.

Afghanistan, Belarus, Burma, Chad, China, Colombia , Cuba, Democratic People's Republic of Korea (DPRK) , DR Congo, Eritrea, Fiji, Iran, Iraq, Israel and the Occupied Palestinian Territories, Libya, Pakistan, Russia, Saudi Arabia, Somalia, Sri Lanka, Sudan and South Sudan, Sri Lanka, Syria, Turkmenistan, Uzbekistan, Vietnam, Yemen, Zimbabwe
Download: 2011 FCO report


France Not To Deport Person Suspected Of Collaboration With Darfur Rebels To Chad

In today's Chamber judgment in the case of Mo.M. v. France (application no. 18372/10), which is not final1, the European Court of Human Rights held, unanimously, that there would be:

a violation of Article 3 of the European Convention on Human Rights if Mo.M., who had been denied asylum, were to be sent back to Chad.

The case concerned the complaint of a Chadian national that deporting him to his country of origin would expose him to the risk of ill-treatment by the police there to punish him for allegedly siding with the rebels in Darfur.

After noting that in spite of an improvement in relations between Chad and Sudan, threats to people's safety persisted in Chad, the Court found that the applicant had produced sufficient evidence that in view of his personal situation he would be exposed to a real risk of inhuman and degrading treatment if sent back to Chad.

Full Judgement only available in French


Persecution of Christians
Although my focus is on the persecution of Christians, it is important to acknowledge that Christians are not unique in facing religious persecution. Indeed, I have previously hosted a debate on the persecution of Baha'is in Iran. Nor are Christians the only group affected when they are marginalised in society or excluded from public life. Rather, everyone suffers from the loss of talent and the undermining of the principles of fair treatment, the rule of law and access to justice. The defence of freedom of religious belief, as defined by article 18 of the universal declaration of human rights, is important not only for Christians but for everyone.

In Africa, as a result of the growing influence of Islamic extremism in countries not previously associated with persecution, there has been a marked increase in such activity. That has been most notable in Mali, but it is also increasingly evident in countries such as Tanzania, Kenya, Uganda, Ethiopia and Niger. Persecution manifests itself in many ways, including violent attacks by Islamic extremist groups, radical Muslims infiltrating politics, business and the judiciary to gain influence to be used against other religions, and extremists filling power vacuums in countries in flux, such as Mali.
Read more: House of Commons / 16 Apr 2013 : Column 58WH


Asylum: Pregnant Women

Kerry McCarthy: To ask the Secretary of State for the Home Department (1) what recent discussions she has had with the Secretary of State for Health on the dispersal of pregnant women seeking asylum; and what assessment she has made of whether the policy on dispersal represents an efficient use of NHS resources; [151318]

(2) what recent assessment she has made of the practice of dispersing pregnant women seeking asylum; and what steps she has taken to ensure the welfare of such women. [151321]

Mr Harper: There have been no discussions at ministerial level. Officials have discussed the issue. The policy on providing accommodation to pregnant asylum seekers is regularly reviewed in consultation with refugee and maternity groups that have an interest in the issue. The majority of pregnant asylum seekers who become homeless are placed in an "Initial Accommodation Centre", where there are medical staff on site. An assessment is then made of their individual circumstances and suitable longer term ("dispersal") accommodation identified. The longer term accommodation is generally provided outside London and the south-east of England, but each case is considered individually and exceptions are made where appropriate.

No specific assessment has been made of the impact of the policy on NHS resources. However, part of the overall rationale for the dispersal policy is to relieve the pressure on public services in London and the south-east.
House of Commons / 16 Apr 2013 : Column 302W


Burma: Rohingya Muslims Face Humanitarian Crisis
The Burmese government is systematically restricting humanitarian aid and imposing discriminatory policies on Rohingya Muslims in Arakan State. The government should permit unfettered access to humanitarian agencies to provide assistance to Muslim populations, end segregated areas, and put forward a plan for those displaced to return to their homes.

An ethnic Arakanese campaign of violence and abuses since June 2012 facilitated by and at times involving state security forces and government officials has displaced more than 125,000 Rohingya and Kaman Muslims in western Burma's Arakan State. Tens of thousands of Rohingya still lack adequate humanitarian aid - leading to an unknown number of preventable deaths - in isolated, squalid displacement camps. Government security forces guarding the camps do not permit the residents to leave the camps, which has a devastating effect on their livelihoods.
Read more: <> Refworld 17/04/13


Expulsion to Nigeria Would be a Violation of Article 8
Udeh v. Switzerland (no. 12020/09): The applicants are Kinsley Chike Udeh, a Nigerian national who was born in 1972 and lives in Switzerland, his ex-wife, Michèle Udeh, a Swiss national who was born in 1984, and their children, Naira Johanna Udeh and Uzoma Elisa Udeh, of dual Swiss and Nigerian nationality and born in 2003. Mr Udeh came to Switzerland in 2001 under a false identity, having previously been convicted in Austria of a drug-trafficking offence.

The Swiss authorities rejected his application for asylum. He left Switzerland but returned in September 2003 and married a Swiss national, Michèle Udeh, with whom he had twin daughters the same year. In 2006 he was arrested in Germany for drug trafficking and sentenced to 3 years and 6 months' imprisonment. In 2008 he came back to Switzerland. In the meantime he has divorced his wife, and has had a third child with another Swiss national whom he wishes to marry. He has been subject to an expulsion order by the Swiss authorities since January 2009. Relying in particular on Article 8 (right to respect for private and family life), Mr Udeh claimed that if the decision refusing him a residence permit was enforced it would be impossible for him to have regular contact with his children, thus ruining his family life.

Violation of Article 8 (in the event of the applicants' expulsion to Nigeria)

Just satisfaction: EUR 9 000 to the applicants jointly (costs and expenses)

Judgement only available in French


Average cost to the UK Border Agency of each removal in financial year 2011-2012, £3,281


Khalid Shahzad Death to be Investigated by UKBA

The Home Office has launched an investigation into the case of an asylum seeker who died within hours of being discharged from an immigration removal centre (IRC) where he had been held for three months. The day before Khalid Shahzad, 52, was released he had collapsed and was judged unfit to be detained because of his poor health, but officials at Colnbrook IRC decided to let him travel unaccompanied. He died en route from Euston station to Manchester on 30 March.

The Guardian has learned Shahzad suffered cardiac problems and had an artificial heart valve fitted prior to his arrest. He collapsed twice at the centre and was taken to hospital. Detainees at Colnbrook say he was told he did not have long to live.

On the day of his death he was discharged from custody after being deemed unfit for detention. He was given a travel warrant and travelled alone to Euston station where he boarded a train for Manchester. British transport police were called to the train at Wilmslow, Cheshire, where he was pronounced dead.

Deborah Coles, co-director of the Inquest campaign group said the death of a critically ill man, alone on a train, only hours after being discharged as unfit to be detained, suggested an abdication of Serco's responsibility for his welfare.

"The circumstances of this death and the wider concerns about the quality and standards of healthcare for immigration detainees at Colnbrook – criticised by an inquest jury only last year – must be thoroughly scrutinised, both by the prisons and probation ombudsman and an inquest jury," she said.

The Home Office said: "We will provide specialist support to individuals being released from detention if recommended by healthcare professionals. An investigation into this case is under way and it would be inappropriate to comment further."

Serco said: "Mr Shahzad was discharged on Saturday March 30 from Colnbrook immigration removal centre. Tragically, he was found dead later that day on a train to Manchester and our thoughts are with his family. An investigation is being carried out and there will be an inquest into his death."
<>  Eric Allison, guardian.co.uk, Sunday 14 April 2013


Greece Must Curb Hate Crime And Combat Impunity
"Democracy in Greece is seriously threatened by the upsurge of hate crime and a weak state response. Sustained and concerted action, notably by the police and the courts, is necessary to protect the rule of law and human rights in the country" said today Nils Muiznieks, Council of Europe Commissioner for Human Rights, publishing a report based on the findings of his visit to Greece from 28 January to 1 February 2013.

The steep increase in hate crimes in Greece, primarily targeting migrants, is an issue of grave concern. "A number of the attacks have been linked to members or supporters, including parliamentarians, of the neo-Nazi political party "Golden Dawn". Furthermore, rhetoric stigmatising migrants is widely used in Greek politics. The authorities must firmly condemn all instances of hate speech and hate crime and lead by example in public, migration-related debates."
Read more: <>  Strasbourg, 16/4/2013


Glasgow: No Evictions No Destitution - Defend Refused Refugees

Assemble 9.30am Tuesday 16 April 2012
Glasgow Sheriff Court
1 Carlton Place
Glasgow G5 9DA

The next act in the legal battle to defend refused refugees from eviction and absolute destitution takes place in Glasgow Sheriff Court next Tuesday 16 April. This is shaping up to be the hearing when the legal arguments are finally made. We need a good demonstration outside and a big supportive presence inside the courtroom. The court opens at 10.00am but we need to be there for 9.30 to make our presence visible and to give time to get through security for the start of proceedings.

We know many people can't make it at that time but please get there if you can. We also know there is a very important lobby of the Scottish Parliament at the same time against the bedroom tax which many people will be going to. The eviction of refused refugees and the shameless cutting of housing benefit from people for having a little extra space are linked – both victims of demonisation and scapegoating to divert the blame for the economic crisis from the real culprits. We will be sending a message of solidarity to the parliamentary lobby.

Jock Morris
Chair
Glasgow Campaign to Welcome Refugees

Contacts: Margaret – 07870 286 632
Jock – 07896 877 315

Glasgow Campaign to Welcome Refugees
c/o Fire Brigades Union
52 St Enoch's Square
Glasgow
G1 4AA

From: Glasgow Campaign to Welcome Refugees <glascamref@gmail.com>


 

UKBA: Operational Guidance Note: Bangladesh
This document provides UK Border Agency case owners with guidance on the
nature and handling of the most common types of claims received from
nationals/residents of Bangladesh
http://www.refworld.org/docid/516fb66b4.html


Scale of UK Asylum Decisions Overturned on Appeal
The number of decisions overturned on appeal is testament to on-going problems with the asylum decision-making process, Amnesty International and the Still Human Still Here coalition said today as they published a new report.

The report A question of credibility: Why so many initial asylum decisions are overturned on appeal in the UK (PDF) examines why so many initial decisions to refuse asylum are being overturned by Immigration Judges.

Home Office statistics show 25% of initial decisions to refuse asylum are being overturned on appeal.

For this report, researchers examined a sample of 50 randomly selected cases and found that in the vast majority - over 80% - a flawed credibility assessment resulted in the wrong decision being arrived at in the first instance. Researchers analysed refusal letters and appeal determinations in cases concerning asylum applicants from four countries with particularly high appeal overturn rates; Syria, Sri Lanka, Iran and Zimbabwe.
Read more: <> Amnesty UK, 18/04/13


UKBA Continue To Detain Vulnerable People at Harmondsworth

Indpendent Monitoring Board report on Harmondsworth IRC for 2012

The Board highlights:

- GPs working for UKBA found that 125 detainees were unfit to be detained. Only 12 of these were released. [Currently the case worker can over rule a doctors recommendation to release.]

- The continuing problems of the healthcare service at Harmondsworth IRC.

- The detention of those who are mentally ill for whom there is no appropriate accommodation.

- The 38 people found by the Board to have been detained for more than a year. This includes 2 men detained since 2008 who were ultimately transferred to hospital and a detainee who was held in Segregation Units for 22 months.

- UKBA's lack of information necessary to monitor the detention of those who say that they are under 18 years.

[Prisons and Probation Ombudsman, refused to investigate death of a detainee on the 17th November 2012, who had been transferred to hospital. Bizarrely it was only at the point of death that UKBA released him from detention.]

A great deal of distress is suffered by those held by UKBA in immigration detention who are mentally or physically ill, elderly, young or who have been detained for many months. This is the conclusion of the Independent Monitoring Board (IMB) of Harmondsworth Immigration Removal Centre (IRC) in its annual report.

IMB members, who made 188 visits to monitor the Centre in 2012, report that the problems they found related more to the processes of UKBA rather than to the day by day running of the Centre.

Harmondsworth Immigration Removal Centre (IRC) can accommodate up to 615 men and is located near Heathrow airport. It is run, on behalf of the UK Border Agency (UKBA), by GEO, an American-owned company which also runs Dungavel IRC in Scotland.

Many detainees cope, calmly and stoically, with the deprivation of their liberty. Others - especially those with mental and physical health issues, those who have been detained for a long time, and the young and old – suffer a great deal of distress. In our experience the problems relate more to the processes of UKBA rather than to the day by day running of the Centre.

Prisons and Probation Ombudsman investigates deaths in custody but has declined to investigate one death, where a detainee in hospital intensive care had been released from detention by UKBA only a few hours before he died (see Section 5.6.1) .

Healthcare continues to be an issue of major concern and was highlighted in UKBA's own audit of healthcare. There have been improvements but there is a lot of work to do (see section 5.3).

Again this year we highlight the total lack of appropriate accommodation, and therapeutic day care (though weekly counselling sessions were introduced in September), for those who are mentally ill. The most likely location to find the severely mentally ill is the segregation unit (see Sections 5.3.3 and 5.7). As will be seen in those parts of the report, one detainee with mental health or behavioural problems was in the segregation unit at Harmondsworth or other IRCs for a virtually continuous period of 22 months.

Currently it is very unlikely for a UKBA non-DFT case-owner to meet the detainee who is their responsibility.

Continue to be concerned about healthcare. Our concerns often relate more to the difficulty of providing healthcare in detention, where the duration and outcome of detention are unknown, rather than to the quality of the actual service provided which has improved through 2012. Detainees lose the power to manage their own health, and rely on others to make judgements for them. If you are living in the community and feel unwell you have various routes for action if unwell – you can visit the retail pharmacy, go to see the GP or visit A&E. If you are detained there is only one route for assistance which is to see a nurse, generally by appointment.

In relation to above, Medical Justice, where it has the resources, delivers a valued service of providing detainees with a second opinion.

Remain convinced that an independent review of the application of Rule 35 (is the person fit to be detained) of The Detention Centre Rules is required. Currently the case worker can over rule a doctors recommendation to release


Religion/Culture Cannot Justify Discrimination Against LGBT
Pledging that "we must right these wrongs," Secretary-General Ban Ki-moon today denounced discrimination against lesbian, gay, bisexual and transgender (LGBT) people, and declared that religion, culture and tradition can never be a justification for denying them their basic rights. "Governments have a legal duty to protect everyone," he said in a video message to the Oslo Conference on Human Rights, Sexual Orientation and Gender Identity, voicing outrage at the assault, imprisonment and murder of. LGBTs. "Some will oppose change. They may invoke culture, tradition or religion to defend the status quo. Such arguments have been used to try to justify slavery, child marriage, rape in marriage and female genital mutilation. I respect culture, tradition and religion – but they can never justify the denial of basic rights."

Mr. Ban, who has frequently condemned violence and discrimination based on gender identity and sexual orientation, said the world should be outraged when people suffer discrimination because of who they love or how they look.  <>Read more: UN News Centre, 15/04/13


Garden Court Chambers - Immigration Law Bulletin - Issue 320


Raul Ally back in detention on Hunger Strike- Removal 17/04/13

[ Emergency Protest for Raul Ally - Today Monday 15th April, 12:00pm, Grey's Monument, Newcastle city centre. Called to draw attention to Raul's hunger strike and impending deportation on Wednesday. Come down to show your opposition to Britain's racist immigration system and to call upon the UKBA to release Raul. Please spread the word.]

On Wednesday April 10th, Raul Ally was taken by the UK Border Agency (UKBA) and interned in Morton Hall Immigration Removal Centre (IRC) for the second time. Despite having a pending judicial review of his case, he is due to be deported to Tanzania next Wednesday 17th April at 8:00pm. He has declared a hunger strike to halt this and draw attention to his plight and that of other refugees. Raul is an active member of Tyneside Community Action against Racism (TCAR) and Somali refugee who has lived in the north east of England, since he was 12.

Raul went to sign at North Shields reporting centre at 11:45 as he has done every week since his release from Morton Hall IRC in November. This time however, he was detained and taken to a cell in North Shields Police Station. He was locked up until 1:00am, when he was transported back to Morton Hall, arriving at 4:00am. He has since been transferred to Colnbrook IRC in Middlesex.

Due to the instability of Somalia, caused in no small part by the actions of the British state and the hunger for resources and profits of its rapacious corporations, Raul is due to be sent to Tanzania, a country in which he has no links or family. First they destroy his country forcing refugees to flee, and then they deny his identity, rip him from his roots and send him to a country he does not even know. The British state has adopted this 'policy' precisely as a means to keep refugees from making a claim to a state and to ensure that they are stripped of the rights enshrined in the Convention for Human Rights and the 1967 Protocol.

TCAR has been in contact with Raul and he explained: ' I am very angry and not happy being held the second time, being sent back to a country I have never lived in. I am on hunger strike until I am listened to. We need to continue fighting.'

It is essential that we show the British state and its racist institutions that they cannot snatch refugees away from their communities without resistance. We must organise and put pressure on all those involved in this barbaric process and expose this far and wide.

Below, we have reposted the speech Raul gave at TCAR's public meeting in January. He movingly talks of the conditions inside Morton Hall, and the psychological torture these places, and the wider immigration system inflict upon refugees in Britain. It is a call to action, to resist the racist immigration system and to close down immigration prisons. Freedom for Raul Ally!

Take Action!

Contact Theresa May to urge her to use her powers as Home Secretary to stop the deportation and give Raul indefinite leave to remain.

Telephone: 020 7035 4848
Fax: 020 7035 4745

Emails:
Privateoffice.external@homeoffice.gsi.gov.uk
pscorrespondence@cabinet-office.x.gsi.gov.uk
"CIT - Treat Official" <CITTO@homeoffice.gsi.gov.uk>
Write letters of support to Raul Ally and contact Colnbrook to enquire about Raul's health and demand his release:

(Raul Ally, Home Office ref: A1359895)
Colnbrook immigration removal centre
Colnbrook Bypass
Harmondsworth
West Drayton
Middlesex
UB7 0FX

Tel: 020 8607 5200
Fax: 020 8759 7996

Full statement from Raul Ally following his release from Morton Hall in November:

'I'm glad I'm out but the two months I had inside were the worst experience I've had in Britain, I want to say the worst in my life, but the situation in Somalia is so bad too. Now I am out but I am still unsure about my situation. I am still under threat of being deported; I have to sign on at the Immigration Reporting Centre in North Shields every week. I am scared of what they will say, if they will try and take me again.

I had very, very threatening and stressful experiences. There are people who are locked up who end up in a bad mental state because of all of the stress and not knowing what is going to happen to them. I feel a lot of sympathy for the people still inside and what the government is doing to them. Everyone is worried about getting deported. There are a lot of people still locked up, people being held for 5 years, blind people, people with diseases, missing limbs and illnesses. The nurses lie and say people are in good health. There is one man who cannot walk, he has to get his meals brought to him and the nurses say he is fine and fit to travel. When they come for you if you refuse to move the guards cuff your hands behind your back, they put their hands around your throat and pull your head up and two more pull you forward, people are treated like animals.

My situation is still uncertain, I could still get deported, there are many more people still locked up and they have mistreated me and others and continue to do so even though we have done nothing wrong. I am asking you to come to our meetings and protests. We need to continue fighting; we can't let them get away with this.'

Please let the campaign know of any actions taken:
Tyneside Community Action Against Racism (TCAR)
<tynesidecarn@yahoo.co.uk>