Birmingham Women 'rescued' by police from massage parlour to be deported
q | 04.10.2005 17:53 | Gender | Migration | Repression | Birmingham
Six of the 10 women 'rescued' by Birmingham police from Cuddles massage parlour last Friday, where they had been held aginst their will and forced into prostitution, are now being held in Yarl's Wood detention centre facing imminent deportation. Please make your opposition to this hypocracy and continued human rights abuse known.
Please send an email to protest against the deportation of the Birmingham women "rescued" from a massage parlour in Birmingham to Harriet Harman Solicitor General . Related messages to Tony McNulty Minister of State for Immigration,
Citizenship and Nationality or fax 020 7219 2417 and to Charles Clarke MP, Home Secretary
charles.clarke@homeoffice.gsi.gov.uk.
(possible model letter below from Prof. Julia O'Connell Davidson University of Nottingham)
Please circulate this to your networks.
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Dear Ms Harman,
I write to express my concern about the planned removal of women picked up by police during a raid on the Cuddles massage parlour, Birmingham,last Friday 30th September. Press coverage of the raid made much of the fact that the police went into the property to execute a warrant in human trafficking, and that they had 'rescued' and 'freed' nineteen women from ten countries who had been held at the premises against their will behind locked doors and an electric fence. It is therefore extremely disturbing to learn that six of these women were almost immediately transferred to Yarlswood Detention Centre, where they are
now once again behind locked doors and an electric fence, and face removal tomorrow. It seems highly improbable that in the space of four days, police and immigration officers have been able to gather sufficient evidence to accurately determine whether or not these women are 'victims of trafficking', and it is clearly impossible for the women to have accessed their internationally recognised rights to recovery, or legal redress and compensation in such a short period of time.
You recently stated that 'Human trafficking is nothing less than modern day slavery' and 'Our starting point must be that those who are trafficked are victims. It is not us who need protecting from them, but they who need protecting from the traffickers.' Recognising your sincere opposition to the exploitation and abuse of victims of trafficking, I would urge you to intervene immediately on behalf of these women and other potential victims to ensure that they have time to access the specialist legal advice and other support services that they undoubtedly require.
I look forward to receiving your assurance that these women will not be removed and will have their fundamental human rights protected here in
the UK.
Yours truly
Citizenship and Nationality or fax 020 7219 2417 and to Charles Clarke MP, Home Secretary
charles.clarke@homeoffice.gsi.gov.uk. (possible model letter below from Prof. Julia O'Connell Davidson University of Nottingham)
Please circulate this to your networks.
---
Dear Ms Harman,
I write to express my concern about the planned removal of women picked up by police during a raid on the Cuddles massage parlour, Birmingham,last Friday 30th September. Press coverage of the raid made much of the fact that the police went into the property to execute a warrant in human trafficking, and that they had 'rescued' and 'freed' nineteen women from ten countries who had been held at the premises against their will behind locked doors and an electric fence. It is therefore extremely disturbing to learn that six of these women were almost immediately transferred to Yarlswood Detention Centre, where they are
now once again behind locked doors and an electric fence, and face removal tomorrow. It seems highly improbable that in the space of four days, police and immigration officers have been able to gather sufficient evidence to accurately determine whether or not these women are 'victims of trafficking', and it is clearly impossible for the women to have accessed their internationally recognised rights to recovery, or legal redress and compensation in such a short period of time.
You recently stated that 'Human trafficking is nothing less than modern day slavery' and 'Our starting point must be that those who are trafficked are victims. It is not us who need protecting from them, but they who need protecting from the traffickers.' Recognising your sincere opposition to the exploitation and abuse of victims of trafficking, I would urge you to intervene immediately on behalf of these women and other potential victims to ensure that they have time to access the specialist legal advice and other support services that they undoubtedly require.
I look forward to receiving your assurance that these women will not be removed and will have their fundamental human rights protected here in
the UK.
Yours truly
q
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