No-Deportations - Residence Papers for All

                                                    News & Views - Monday 6th August to Sunday 12th August 2012

Are Kenya Airways, refusing to fly with UKBA escorts?
Unconfirmed reports are saying that Kenya Airways have refused to allow UKBA escorts accompanying detainees to board their flights, resulting in Removal Directions being cancelled.

If you are in contact with anyone who has been refused embarkation on any Kenya Airways flight because of accompanying UKBA escorts, please get back with details, SAP.


ARC: COI for LGBT Asylum Claims from Russian Federation
ARC's new publication, commissioned by UNHCR on 'Country-of-origin information to support the adjudication of asylum claims from Lesbian, Gay, Bisexual, Transgender and Intersex ('LGBTI') asylum-seekers in the Russian Federation' is now available on their website. http://www.asylumresearchconsultancy.com/


Miscarriages of Justice Against Asylum Seekers/Trafficked Persons

Criminal Cases Review Commission (CCRC) is concerned that potentially, hundreds of asylum seekers and refugees convicted of immigration-related offences such as failure to produce a passport may have been the victims of miscarriages of justice, same with trafficked persons, convicted of criminal offences, they may have been forced to commit.

[There are two articles at the end of message, the first which explain in more detail the issues involved and more importantly the second article explains the actual circumstances of the cases which the CCRC sent back for appeal, all convictions sent back so far have been quashed.]

Are You An Asylum Seeker Or Refugee?

1) If you are an asylum seeker or refugee and have been convicted of one of the offences below:

* Having or using a false passport or identification documents.

* Not having a passport or travel document.

* Trying to get on a plane using deception.

* Using deception to enter the UK, for example, with a false passport or visa.

Did you plead guilty or lose your appeal?

The Criminal Cases Review Commission (CCRC) are willing to review your case.

It does not matter if you have been removed/deported/left the UK voluntary, you can still apply from your country of residence.

2) Are you a Victim of Human trafficking?

Were you convicted of an offence?

Did someone make you commit the offence? Or did you feel forced to commit the offence?

The Criminal Cases Review Commission (CCRC) are willing to review your case.

It does not matter if you have been removed/deported/left the UK voluntary, you can still apply from your country of residence.

3) The Criminal Cases Review Commission (CCRC) can look into a case when someone thinks they have been wrongly convicted. If the CCRC thinks a conviction is unsafe they have the power to send the case to an appeal court.

Apply to the CCRC if you would like them to look at your case.

It costs nothing to apply to the CCRC

Your sentence cannot be increased if you apply

You do not need a solicitor to apply to the CCRC

4) Contacting the Criminal Cases Review Commission

You can ask for an application form or find out more about us by writing to us at:

CCRC
5 St Philip's Place
Birmingham
B32PW
Or by calling us on 0121 233 1473
Or e-mailing: info@ccrc.gov.uk
http://www.justice.gov.uk/contacts/ccrc

'Hundreds' of Miscarriage Of Justice Claims Over Legal Advice Failings
Hundreds of asylum seekers and refugees convicted of immigration-related offences such as failure to produce a passport may have been the victims of miscarriages of justice, the Gazette can reveal.

Failings in legal advice are central to each case. The Criminal Cases Review Commission (CCRC), which reviews cases where a wrongful conviction is possible, has written to the Crown Prosecution Service expressing concerns after identifying common elements in 11 cases including four recently referred to the appeal courts, one of which has yet to be heard.
Read more: Law Society Gazette

CCRC Concern Over Advice Given To Refugees
The Criminal Cases Review Commission (CCRC) is concerned that potentially hundreds of asylum seekers and refugees have been wrongly convicted after being advised to plead guilty to offences relating to their entry to the UK.

In the last 12 months, the CCRC, the statutory body responsible for reviewing alleged miscarriages of justice, has referred four cases for appeal where people were prosecuted and imprisoned when, the CCRC believes, they had a defence available to them. The CCRC is warning that there may be many more people caught up in what it is calling 'a significant and potentially widespread misunderstanding or abuse of the law'.
Read more: Law Society Gazzette

Source for this Message CCRC

 

 

Freda Nsumba, Still Here, Refused to Leave Yarl's Wood
When the escorts came for Freda, last Saturday she refused to leave her room. If you resist, you live to fight another day, and Freda with you all helping, will have another day; that is, if UKBA don't do the right thing and release her from detention and seriously review her claim for refugee status.

Freda wants to thank everyone who wrote, faxed, phoned and emailed on her behalf.

UNITY! info@unitycentreglasgow.org)

Background: Urgent: Please help Freda Nsumba



19 Killed in Attack on Christian Church in Nigeria
Gunmen have shot dead at least 19 people in a Christian church in central Nigeria, according to an army official. Lieutenant Colonel Gabriel Olorunyomi said the gunmen stormed a church building where worshippers had gathered to pray late on Monday in the town of Otite, near the city of Okene. He said the pastor was killed and "many" were injured but he could not immediately say how many because they had been taken to different hospitals. Authorities are searching for more victims who may have run into nearby bushes. He declined to say who was suspected of the attack and there has been no claim of responsibility.
Independent, 07/08/12


DR Congo: New Depths of Suffering as Militias take Control
Killing, kidnapping, rape and displacement increases dramatically across two provinces. Millions of people in eastern Democratic Republic of Congo are now at the mercy of militias as the country's long-running conflict descends into widespread lawlessness with killing, kidnapping and abuse against the population at alarming levels, Oxfam warned today.

Rebel groups have taken control of vast swathes of the east, Oxfam said today, leaving a terrifying absence of state authority and security. Close to half a million people have fled their homes in the past four months and a humanitarian crisis has descended into "catastrophe".
Read more: Reliefweb, 07/08/12


Garden Court Chambers - Immigration Law Bulletin - Issue 286


Sudan: Police Fatally Shoot 12 Darfur Protesters
The Sudanese government should forcefully condemn the killing of 12 peaceful student protesters in South Darfur by police and other security forces on July 31, 2012, and investigate and prosecute those responsible.

In Nyala, South Darfur, high school students started protesting on July 30 against transportation price increases. The following morning, police and national security forces dispersed the protests by shooting tear gas, rubber bullets, and live ammunition at protesters. As of August 2, at least 12 protesters had died, according to Sudanese nongovernmental groups monitoring the situation. A 16-year-old boy, a 17-year-old girl, and four other teenagers were among those killed.
Human Rights Watch, 03/08/12


USA: Immigrants Prove Big Business For Prison Companies
There is a mutually beneficial and evidently legal relationship between those who make corrections and immigration policy and a few prison companies. Some of those companies were struggling to survive before toughened immigrant detention laws took effect.

Locking up illegal immigrants has grown profoundly lucrative for the private prisons industry, a reliable pot of revenue that helped keep some of the biggest companies in business. And while nearly half of the 400,000 immigrants held annually are housed in private facilities, the federal government — which spends $2 billion a year on keeping those people in custody — says it isn't necessarily cheaper to outsource the work, a central argument used for privatization in the first place.

A decade ago, just 10 percent of the beds in the nation's civil detention system were in private facilities with little federal oversight. Now, about half the beds are part of a sprawling, private system, largely controlled by just three companies: Corrections Corporation of America, The GEO Group, and Management and Training Corp.
Garance Burke/Laura Wides-Munoz, Associated Press, 02/08/12

GEO Group manage, Dungavel and Harmondsworth IRCs


Dutch Cannot Send Back Westernized Somali Asylum-Seeker
The Netherlands' highest legal body has ruled that the Dutch government must take into consideration how Westernized asylum-seekers are when evaluating their asylum requests. It follows thus that if asylum-seekers are unable to readjust to their country of origin, they must be allowed to stay in the Netherlands.

The Dutch Council of State made this decision in a case involving a Somali woman. The Dutch authorities had rejected her asylum request, which meant that she would have to return to Somalia. But the council ruled that Somali refugees have adopted too many Western norms and values to be able to return to Somalia, where they would have to live under the strict Islamic rule of the al-Shabaab movement.

The ruling follows a judgement by the European Court of Human Rights (ECHR) in June 2011. The court found that Somalis who were Westernized and forced to return to their country had a greater chance of facing serious problems.
Source: Radio Netherlands, 01/08/12


14 Children entered Cedars Accommodation in June 2012

18 Children entered Cedars Accommodation in May 2012
Child detention continues unabated, this is the highest number of children detained since Cedars began accepting children in October 2011.


Prisoner transfer agreement with Albania
A new agreement seeing a greater number of Albanian prisoners transferred from the UK to complete their sentences in Albania has been signed. The agreement, signed by Prisons Minister Crispin Blunt and the Albanian Deputy Justice Minister, Brikena Kasmi , is the first to be signed with a country with a large number of foreign national offenders in UK prisons. It will see the compulsory transfer of Albanian national prisoners currently serving sentences in the United Kingdom, to prisons in Albania. The agreement also means that British citizens who are serving prison sentences in Albania may also be compulsorily transferred.


 

Last updated 11 August, 2012