Detention centre asylum demo target
steve | 03.02.2004 02:55 | Anti-racism | Migration | Repression | Sheffield
Detention centre asylum demo target
Lindholme Refugee and Detention Centre is focus of day of action against immigration rules
Campaigners are set to gather in force at sites across the UK and throughout Europe this week for the first European day of action against refugee detention and for migrant rights.
A year after the Government passed Section 55 of its Nationality, Immigration and Asylum Bill two days of action is planned on January 30-31 both outside Parliament and at many of the immigration detention centres across the country.
The coordinated campaign was called for at last November's European Social Forum in Paris, which was attended by groups from all over the continent to defend refugees.
At Lindholme Refugee Detention Centre, near Doncaster, a "noise demo" is planned which, say organisers, is about letting the people inside know they have support.
"one of the whole points of detention of asylum seekers is to isolate them and make them feel not welcome; to grind them to such a point as they accept that being deported is a better option to what they've got," Andy James of Lindholme Support Group said. Holding a large demonstration outside which they can hear and possibly see "gives them solidarity," he added.
The removal centre at Lindholme is one of several units operated by nearby prisons. Staff from HMP Lindholme are responsible for asylum seekers held at the adjacent centre which currently holds 112 detainees. A prisons inspectorate report published in April 2003 when the centre's population was 98 found that "Lindholme Removal Centre was not a healthy establishment for detainees." The report criticised the "inadequate" heating and poor quality food and also said "strip searching with out reasonable suspicion, the wearing of prison clothes as standard practice and subjecting them to a prison based incentive scheme" in which detainees money was diverted "were all inappropriate".
"They're treating them exactly the same as they would the prisoners," said James. He pointed out that the majority seeking asylum in the UK were from war-torn countries such a as Iran, Iraq, Bosnia and Somalia.
"Quite a few have suffered torture and they arrive in the UK and are locked up."
Under section 55, if refugees don't apply for asylum immediately on arrival in the UK the state has no obligation to support them. Asylum seekers are denied benefits while their claims are assessed and are not allowed to work for the first six months upon arriving. The Government's latest amendment could see the children of asylum put into care during that process.
"They're pandering to the right-wing, tabloid hysteria campaign about asylum seekers," James argued, adding, "there are a lot of people out there that don't have those views and who are finding the system that they're bringing in abhorrent."
Lindholme Refugee and Detention Centre is focus of day of action against immigration rules
Campaigners are set to gather in force at sites across the UK and throughout Europe this week for the first European day of action against refugee detention and for migrant rights.
A year after the Government passed Section 55 of its Nationality, Immigration and Asylum Bill two days of action is planned on January 30-31 both outside Parliament and at many of the immigration detention centres across the country.
The coordinated campaign was called for at last November's European Social Forum in Paris, which was attended by groups from all over the continent to defend refugees.
At Lindholme Refugee Detention Centre, near Doncaster, a "noise demo" is planned which, say organisers, is about letting the people inside know they have support.
"one of the whole points of detention of asylum seekers is to isolate them and make them feel not welcome; to grind them to such a point as they accept that being deported is a better option to what they've got," Andy James of Lindholme Support Group said. Holding a large demonstration outside which they can hear and possibly see "gives them solidarity," he added.
The removal centre at Lindholme is one of several units operated by nearby prisons. Staff from HMP Lindholme are responsible for asylum seekers held at the adjacent centre which currently holds 112 detainees. A prisons inspectorate report published in April 2003 when the centre's population was 98 found that "Lindholme Removal Centre was not a healthy establishment for detainees." The report criticised the "inadequate" heating and poor quality food and also said "strip searching with out reasonable suspicion, the wearing of prison clothes as standard practice and subjecting them to a prison based incentive scheme" in which detainees money was diverted "were all inappropriate".
"They're treating them exactly the same as they would the prisoners," said James. He pointed out that the majority seeking asylum in the UK were from war-torn countries such a as Iran, Iraq, Bosnia and Somalia.
"Quite a few have suffered torture and they arrive in the UK and are locked up."
Under section 55, if refugees don't apply for asylum immediately on arrival in the UK the state has no obligation to support them. Asylum seekers are denied benefits while their claims are assessed and are not allowed to work for the first six months upon arriving. The Government's latest amendment could see the children of asylum put into care during that process.
"They're pandering to the right-wing, tabloid hysteria campaign about asylum seekers," James argued, adding, "there are a lot of people out there that don't have those views and who are finding the system that they're bringing in abhorrent."
steve
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