11:30am 21 Nov 05 - article on imc scotland

Three protestors, including Tommy Sheridan MSP for the Scottish Socialist Party, have been arrested following an action at the Immigration reporting Centre at Brand Street, Govan, in Glasgow. Those arrested have been taken to helen Street police station, and protestors are heading that way too.

Today’s action follows the recent occupation of the centre and a series of demonstrations and pickets, including a picket on Saturday, called by No Borders Glasgow and part of a national day of action against deportations of children and students.

It is thought that at least one dawn raid has been prevented today. Brand Street is the base for the Immigration snatch squads who leave, in unmarked dark blue vans with blacked-out windows, to carry out their raids on families and individuals living in Glasgow. At 5:30am a team arrived for duty, but were prevented from entering the centre. Security cut through one of the chains at about 10am, allowing access, but as at 10:45 are still not letting in any staff, or asylum seekers who have turned up to sign on.

Centre of misery and fear

Today’s dawn raid by protestors is the latest in the campaign against the inhumane practices of the UK immigration and asylum policy which are terrorising Glasgow communities. Brand Street, at the Orwellian-named Festival Court, is the Home Office hub in Scotland where families (there are very few single asylum seekers in Glasgow at present) have to sign on every week, as part of a system of control and intimidation.

Some people turn up to sign on, and are never seen again, joining the ranks of disappeared, spirited away to immigrant detention centres like Dungavel, then deported back to war zones, oppressive regimes, or abject poverty. Others have to endure the bullying of Immigration Officers who every week threaten imprisonment of asylum seekers and their children if they do not agree to try and return to their home countries.

Solidarity

On Saturday (19th November) around 100 people from across Glasgow and across the world, joined the regular picket of the Reporting Centre, in solidarity with the lone protestor who has been standing at the gates every Saturday between 10am- 12 noon for the past 6 weeks. His one-man picket has become the target of increasing racist abuse and intimidation from Group 4 Security Guards (and the builders of Campbell Construction on the building site opposite).

It was freezing cold at 10am when the first protestors arrived, and it didn’t get any warmer. The friendly police came by and moved the early arrivals down the road from the main gates, but as more people turned up, the picket moved back to the gates. The stated reason for the police request to move away was that the many children on the picket might be in danger of cars on the road. There was danger from vehicles alright – from Immigration snatch squad vans. At about 11:30 the main gates were suddenly thrown open and an unmarked car left at high speed, followed by two sinister looking vans, dark blue, unmarked, with opaque windows. Some of the people on the picket have seen the inside of those vans. The vehicles were travelling too fast for anyone to do anything about them (and too fast for safety on a small street crowded with protesting families and their children). But people promised that no vans will leave that centre during future pickets.

Children in need

The solidarity picket was part of a national day of action, with demonstrations in central Manchester and London. In Children in Need week, the demonstrations called for an end to deportations of children and students. At Brand Street, young people from Drumchapel Secondary school spoke of their campaigns against the deportations of their friends, most recently for 13 year old Saida Vucaj and her family.

Last week, the “Glasgow Girls” as they have been dubbed by the media, won the Scottish Campaign of the Year Award at the annual Scottish politician of the year ceremony in Edinburgh (other nominations included the make Poverty History campaign). At the ceremony, the girls warned that they don’t see the award as a pat on the head and a time to rest, but that they would keep up the fight for the right of all young people to stay in Scotland, and against all deportations. In front of the gathered media, they also eyeballed Jack McConnell and demanded to know just what had happened to the “protocol” he promised between social services, education services and the Immigration police. A clearly embarrassed First Minister could only waffle about ongoing talks with his bosses down south.

Keeping up the pressure

Saturday’s picket was a success. Those working in the centre know that the campaign against what goes on in there is growing. People on the picket talked about keeping up the pressure, picketing the place every Saturday between 10am and 12 noon, bringing music and drums and food and hot drinks to keep up spirits. And people also left muttering about the vans that left while we stood by, and what kind of direct action could stop them. And some folk returned today, in the wee small hours, and for another day no vans left to carry out their dawn raids.

 http://www.openborders.org.uk