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No removals to DR Congo Demo - transport from Birmingham

No Borders Birmingham | 29.11.2005 12:29 | Migration | Birmingham

This is to inform you that our organisation Congolese Community Association West Midlands (COCOA) will provide a mini-bus for those who will like to join the Congolese demonstration in London next Thursday 1st of December 2005.

Any one would like to travel to support the manifestation, is welcome.

The mini bus will leave 8.00am sharp from:
Albert Hall
Witton Road
Aston
Birmingham

Call Congolese Community Association West Midlands (COCOA) on 0121 551 55 99 or 07940 62 99 53 to book a place.
Contact person Mango
Thank you for supporting us.

From: cocoa uk
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No removals to DR Congo

Demonstration
Thursday 1st December
Assemble - 10.00am
Home Office
Peel Building
2 Marsham Street
London
SW1P 4DF

Demonstration Called by SOS Immigration

The BBC World Service has come back from a fact-finding trip to the Democratic Republic of Congo (DRC) last month and will broadcast a programme on Thursday 1st December 2005 revealing evidence of abuse by Congolese authorities towards "failed" asylum seekers returned by EU countries.

"European countries say there is no evidence to suggest that people are singled out because they are asylum seekers. But my source from the secret services said 'we are actually targeting asylum seekers who have been abroad and who we feel have besmirched the name of our country by talking about the Government and our country'". Jenny Cuffe, *BBC World Service

We will be handing the Home Office a Memorandum and details of the BBC World Service programme
We demand Š
1. The Home Office responds to new evidence gathered by BBC World Service, broadcast on the 1st December !

2. UK government produces its evidence of fulfilling its responsibility of monitoring returns of "failed" asylum seekers to the DRC !

What happened to those deported by the UK government to the DRC on the charter flight in March 2002 ? One victim's statement ignored by the Home Office ; "We were beaten on a daily basis by groups of three or five soldiers. They would come into the cell and kick us with their army boots or beat us with their fists. They accused us of being traitors. I was raped by the guards on at least six occasions". He is out of sight, but we have not forgotten. We do not forget his fate, or all the other deportees who suffered after him.

DRC has hardly been out of war and consistent civil unrests; having lost close to 4 million people since the mid-1990s (as reported by Norwegian Refugee Council 29/07/05)" - the highest death toll since World War II - that, its traumatised populations both in and out of their country, are constantly submitted to renewed fears of persecution, war and death. Democracy is still a foreign theme in the mind of most DRC's leaders - to say the least.

UK NGOs have presented evidence of abuse of deportees from European countries to the Home Office who took little action.

The UK does not conduct any monitoring of the safety of "failed" asylum seekers they return to the DRC.

Inquires/further information contact :
SOS Immigration - Didier Matamba
 sosimmigration@yahoo.com / 079 4928 2445

*BBC reporter trails deported asylum seekers to the Congo
 http://www.pressgazette.co.uk/article/241105/bbc_reporter_trails_deported_asylum_seekers_to_the_congo

No Borders Birmingham

Additions

New evidence of abuse, halt all DRC deportations

30.11.2005 13:31

'New evidence of abuse, halt all DRC deportations'
30 Nov 05 - 1 item

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>>>>>>>> New evidence of abuse, halt all DRC deportations:


Campaigners tell Home Office

The Home Office should halt all deportations of failed
asylum seekers to the Democratic Republic of Congo,
following fresh evidence of their abuse by the authorities,
say campaigners.

A BBC World Service investigation, to be broadcast on Thursday, confirms that asylum seekers who are returned to Kinshasa risk being detained without trial in the country's death trap prisons. The NGOs BID, NCADC and JCWI have called an emergency meeting in the Commons on Thursday night to
highlight this new evidence to Home Office officials, MPs, human rights lawyers and activists, and asylum seekers.

Mr Didier Matamba, a Congolese asylum seeker, said:

'A prison sentence in a D.R.C prison is tantamount to a death sentence. This is why this news will send a shiver
down the spine of every Congolese asylum seeker. They do not doubt that they could pay with their lives for the Home Office's drive to meet its deportation targets. 'From the bottom of our hearts, we call upon the Home
Secretary to take note of the BBC evidence and halt the deportations to Kinshasa.'

In the course of her investigation, World Service reporter Jenny Cuffe attempted to track down failed asylum seekers deported by the UK authorities to Kinshasa. She interviewed both representatives of the security services, and dissidents forced 'underground'.

Ms Cuffe said:

'There is a real climate of fear and repression in Kinshasa. A number of interviewees told me that the authorities view failed asylum seekers as opponents, and sometimes detain them without trial in prisons where they receive no food, or access to basic amenities, and are mistreated. 'Once detained, it seems that only those who are able to pay the authorities large bribes stand any chance of being released, and escaping ill-treatment, or death.'

Jeremy Corbyn MP, who will host the Commons meeting, said:

'I am very concerned that with Zimbabwe, Iraq, and now the D.R.C., we are seeing a pattern of asylum seekers being deported even where there are question marks over their personal safety. In order to ensure the integrity of the U.K.'s commitment to the Geneva Convention, I would urge the Home Secretary to cease all deportations to the D.R.C. immediately.'

Notes to editors

· Media contact for BID: Tim Baster: 020 7 247 3590;
NCADC Emma Ginn - 0161 740 6504;

· All reporters and members of the public are welcome
to attend Thursday night's meeting from 6.30pm-8.30pm in
Committee Room 14, House of Commons, London SW1. The
speakers include BBC World Service, Jenny Cuffe; Human
Rights Watch, Anneke Van Woudenberg; Congolese Society,
Didier Matamba; Bail for Immigration Detainees, Tim Baster;
Joint Council for the Welfare of Immigrants, Tauhid Pasha.

· Jenny Cuffe's report on the D.R.C goes out on 1
December at 9.05am on the World Service. For details on how
to listen to it go to
http//www.bbc.co.uk/worldservice/schedules/01011.6_uk.shtml

· BID (Bail for Immigration Detainees) is an
independent charity which works with asylum seekers and
migrants, in removal centre and prisons, to secure their
release from detention. JCWI (Joint Council for the Welfare
of Immigrants) has been challenging discrimination in
immigration law through casework and campaigning since 1967.
NCADC (National Coalition of Anti-Deportation Campaigns) is
a voluntary organisation which supports people facing
deportation to run anti-deportation campaigns

· This year a U.K. immigration and asylum tribunal,
(DRC CG [2005] UKIAT 00118 (heard 25/02/05)) noted that
"failed" asylum seekers returned to the DRC are at risk if
they have a political, military or certain ethnic
background. Also, the fact that returns are "closely
scrutinised" goes to the likelihood of that background
coming to light. But any returnee identified as a "failed"
asylum seeker is risk of "harassment" by officials who are
"motivated for financial reasons using returnees as a
potential source of income". The returnee would be required
to pay a "fine", else face further imprisonment. Yet the
tribunal said it was not satisfied conditions of
imprisonment in the DRC amounts to a breach of article 3
ECHR, Prohibition on Torture: 'No one shall be subjected to
torture, or to inhuman, or degrading, treatment or
punishment.'

· There is no UK or European monitoring mechanism for
systematically tracking the welfare of failed asylum seekers
who are deported.

· The Home Office's own current Country Report on the
D.R.C. describes conditions of imprisonment there as "harsh
and life threatening". 'Malnutrition was widespread"
resulting in deaths, "prison guards frequently required
bribes from family members to visit or provide food",
"detainees were regularly abused, beaten and tortured",
there were "usually no toilets, or mattresses, or medical
care', and "inmates often received insufficient amounts of
light, air and water". (CIPU 2005)

· Human Rights Watch's Submission to the 38th
Ordinary Session of the African Commission on Human and
Peoples' Rights on the Democratic Republic of the Congo,
November, 2005, notes: 'Congolese human rights activists
face serious intimidation and violence, abuses that are
rarely punished. In July 2005, Pascal Kabungulu, a prominent
activist, was assassinated in Bukavu. In June, the national
security service arrested a well-known activist in
Lubumbashi, saying he was linked to a May secession attempt
in Katanga. When other activists protested his arrest, six
were arrested and mistreated while in detention. In January
2005, activists and members of civil society in North Kivu
received anonymous threats and visits by armed men after
they denounced war crimes committed by local troops and the
distribution of weapons to civilians by provincial
authorities. Four felt so threatened that they fled the
country.'

Source:  http://www.jcwi.org.uk

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