Skip to content or view mobile version

Home | Mobile | Editorial | Mission | Privacy | About | Contact | Help | Security | Support

A network of individuals, independent and alternative media activists and organisations, offering grassroots, non-corporate, non-commercial coverage of important social and political issues.

Birmingham NoBorders and The Angel Group at Celebrating Sanctuary

IMCista | 20.06.2006 10:21 | Refugee Week 2006 | Migration | Birmingham

Last Saturday, 17th June, saw the main events of Celebrating Sanctuary, Birmingham's version of Refugee Week. Throughout the day, Victoria Square was buzzing with events and activities, although significantly less than previous years. There was also an open-air concert in Chamberlain Square in the afternoon, with live refugee bands from different parts of the world.

Having postponed a guided tour of Birmingham's border regime that was supposed to take place on that same day, Birmingham NoBorders chose to do some leafleting to "tell people the truth about the event," as one of the activists put it. The leaflet, of which hundreds of copies were given away, exposed ‘The Angel Group’ and criticised Celebrating Sanctuary for, among other things, being funded by asylum profiteers.

The Angel Group staff
The Angel Group staff

live craft demonstrations by artists Jafar Dabiri and Mimi Khine
live craft demonstrations by artists Jafar Dabiri and Mimi Khine

photo exhibition by Argentinean photojournalist Justo Casal on life in Kenyan re
photo exhibition by Argentinean photojournalist Justo Casal on life in Kenyan re

The Angel Group's promotional corporate video
The Angel Group's promotional corporate video

leafletting in Victoria Square
leafletting in Victoria Square

listening to music in Chamberlain Square
listening to music in Chamberlain Square

Banner Theatre performing 'Wild Geese'
Banner Theatre performing 'Wild Geese'

entries in The Angel Group's visitor book after leafletting
entries in The Angel Group's visitor book after leafletting

Way to go Angel Group! Cramming 8 Asylum Seekers in one room!
Way to go Angel Group! Cramming 8 Asylum Seekers in one room!


There were 4 tents in Victoria Square: the Children's Tent, where face painting, clowning and badge-making managed to attract curious families and kids; the Umbrella Tent, where participating charities and community organisations celebrated their cultural heritage and work with refugees and asylum seekers and, outside, some live performances and workshops took place; the Little Tent, where information on some refugee- and asylum-related issues was provided to the public; and, of course, the Angel Tent, the housing providers who are the main sponsor of the event.

This last one, The Angel Group's tent, was where NoBorders activists were most interested. Typically, the tent was filled with blue and white balloons bearing the Angel Group's (far from) angelic logo, as well as a "visitor book", where people could leave their messages and "thank Angel for this wonderful event." Besides the usual corporate promotional video presentation, which basically showed happy, smiling refugees filmed at last years celebrating sanctuary and clean, shining houses, there was a photo exhibition by Argentinean photojournalist Justo Casal on life in Kenyan refugee camps and live craft demonstrations by artists Jafar Dabiri and Mimi Khine.

Armed with a video and a photo camera, two NoBorders activists walked in, so innocently, and asked the staff for an interview to explain about the event and the Angel Group. Hearing, however, that it was for Indymedia (revealing that was apparently a mistake!), the staff declined and said they were not allowed to give interviews because of their links to the Home Office. They also claimed they were not allowed to promote their company, which seemed a little contradictory considering their promotional video, branded balloons, and logo plastered all over the Celebrating Sanctuary event. Polite at first, but increasingly uncomfortable with the arguments, they eventually asked the activists to leave the tent and stop filming. Not only that, but one of the staff also took out a camera and attempted to take photos of the two activists!

Having 'failed' in their first mission, the activists took out their leaflets and began handing them to onlookers and passers-by, starting, of course, with the Angel Group staff. A lot of people seemed interested, some indeed shocked, with what they were reading.

Soon afterwards, the activists were approached by Council security guards, instructed by Celebrating Sanctuary officials, and asked to "please stop leafleting" because they were "upsetting some people." Activists responded by pointing out that none of the leaflet's content was offensive and that they were well within their legal rights to distribute the leaflets. One security guard, who also claimed they did not have the right to film him, was now saying that this was not actually a public space but a closed one when there is an event going on. Not getting anywhere fast, however, he eventually went off "to call the police."

A bit later, the "leafleters" were approached by Celebrating Sanctuary's secretary, Shari Brown. Very kindly, she said "they would like them to stop leafleting." After some discussion, however, she went to talk to the Angel Group people. She came back a while later and conceded that the leafleters were practising their legal rights and they could go on doing what they were doing, although she wished they would stop and, instead, write to them formally about their concerns. Although she acknowledged that she was aware of the controversy surrounding the Angel Group, she added that Angel were "hosting the event." She said Celebrating Sanctuary were going to discuss this matter and were ready to formally respond, and even meet with activists. Of course, she, too, was given a leaflet and told that they, Celebrating Sanctuary, should be ashamed of being funded by the Angel Group and how it was at odds with their alleged aims.

It is worth mentioning that other people, apparently with less worrying literature, were also leafleting there but none of them was approached or harassed by 'Angel' or the security.

A BBC reporter was given a copy of the leaflet and asked whether she would be interested in reporting on this important issue (the Angel Group profiteering from asylum seekers, the scandals surrounding the company and the Home Office investigations into them, using the event as a cheap promotional and PR exercise etc.). Quite surprisingly, the reporter seemed to have heard of "this stuff about the Angel group" before. Of course, she said she "would see" and "need to get a balanced account, both sides of the argument" but didn’t really appear to be willing to pursue this.

Later, the activists had a chat with the Argentinean photojournalist, Justo N. Casal, who had lived in Kenya for 5 years and worked with refugees and on human rights issues in its refugee camps. The photos were quite moving, with no less emotional captions, capturing some intimate human instants of the experience of living in a refugee camp. It turned out that he didn’t know anything about the Angel Group’s role in exploiting vulnerable refugees and had not been paid for showing his work because, as he put it, he was "doing it for refugees, not for Angel" and would have never thought of "making money out of it."

Some more leaflets were distributed among the concert's audience later in the afternoon and the day came to an end with the tents being packed and the two “Noborderers”, now joined by other fellow activists, going for a drink to fight off the day’s sweltering heat.

IMCista

Upcoming Coverage
View and post events
Upcoming Events UK
24th October, London: 2015 London Anarchist Bookfair
2nd - 8th November: Wrexham, Wales, UK & Everywhere: Week of Action Against the North Wales Prison & the Prison Industrial Complex. Cymraeg: Wythnos o Weithredu yn Erbyn Carchar Gogledd Cymru

Ongoing UK
Every Tuesday 6pm-8pm, Yorkshire: Demo/vigil at NSA/NRO Menwith Hill US Spy Base More info: CAAB.

Every Tuesday, UK & worldwide: Counter Terror Tuesdays. Call the US Embassy nearest to you to protest Obama's Terror Tuesdays. More info here

Every day, London: Vigil for Julian Assange outside Ecuadorian Embassy

Parliament Sq Protest: see topic page
Ongoing Global
Rossport, Ireland: see topic page
Israel-Palestine: Israel Indymedia | Palestine Indymedia
Oaxaca: Chiapas Indymedia
Regions
All Regions
Birmingham
Cambridge
Liverpool
London
Oxford
Sheffield
South Coast
Wales
World
Other Local IMCs
Bristol/South West
Nottingham
Scotland
Social Media
You can follow @ukindymedia on indy.im and Twitter. We are working on a Twitter policy. We do not use Facebook, and advise you not to either.
Support Us
We need help paying the bills for hosting this site, please consider supporting us financially.
Other Media Projects
Schnews
Dissident Island Radio
Corporate Watch
Media Lens
VisionOnTV
Earth First! Action Update
Earth First! Action Reports
Topics
All Topics
Afghanistan
Analysis
Animal Liberation
Anti-Nuclear
Anti-militarism
Anti-racism
Bio-technology
Climate Chaos
Culture
Ecology
Education
Energy Crisis
Fracking
Free Spaces
Gender
Globalisation
Health
History
Indymedia
Iraq
Migration
Ocean Defence
Other Press
Palestine
Policing
Public sector cuts
Repression
Social Struggles
Technology
Terror War
Workers' Movements
Zapatista
Major Reports
NATO 2014
G8 2013
Workfare
2011 Census Resistance
Occupy Everywhere
August Riots
Dale Farm
J30 Strike
Flotilla to Gaza
Mayday 2010
Tar Sands
G20 London Summit
University Occupations for Gaza
Guantanamo
Indymedia Server Seizure
COP15 Climate Summit 2009
Carmel Agrexco
G8 Japan 2008
SHAC
Stop Sequani
Stop RWB
Climate Camp 2008
Oaxaca Uprising
Rossport Solidarity
Smash EDO
SOCPA
Past Major Reports
Encrypted Page
You are viewing this page using an encrypted connection. If you bookmark this page or send its address in an email you might want to use the un-encrypted address of this page.
If you recieved a warning about an untrusted root certificate please install the CAcert root certificate, for more information see the security page.

Global IMC Network


www.indymedia.org

Projects
print
radio
satellite tv
video

Africa

Europe
antwerpen
armenia
athens
austria
barcelona
belarus
belgium
belgrade
brussels
bulgaria
calabria
croatia
cyprus
emilia-romagna
estrecho / madiaq
galiza
germany
grenoble
hungary
ireland
istanbul
italy
la plana
liege
liguria
lille
linksunten
lombardia
madrid
malta
marseille
nantes
napoli
netherlands
northern england
nottingham imc
paris/île-de-france
patras
piemonte
poland
portugal
roma
romania
russia
sardegna
scotland
sverige
switzerland
torun
toscana
ukraine
united kingdom
valencia

Latin America
argentina
bolivia
chiapas
chile
chile sur
cmi brasil
cmi sucre
colombia
ecuador
mexico
peru
puerto rico
qollasuyu
rosario
santiago
tijuana
uruguay
valparaiso
venezuela

Oceania
aotearoa
brisbane
burma
darwin
jakarta
manila
melbourne
perth
qc
sydney

South Asia
india


United States
arizona
arkansas
asheville
atlanta
Austin
binghamton
boston
buffalo
chicago
cleveland
colorado
columbus
dc
hawaii
houston
hudson mohawk
kansas city
la
madison
maine
miami
michigan
milwaukee
minneapolis/st. paul
new hampshire
new jersey
new mexico
new orleans
north carolina
north texas
nyc
oklahoma
philadelphia
pittsburgh
portland
richmond
rochester
rogue valley
saint louis
san diego
san francisco
san francisco bay area
santa barbara
santa cruz, ca
sarasota
seattle
tampa bay
united states
urbana-champaign
vermont
western mass
worcester

West Asia
Armenia
Beirut
Israel
Palestine

Topics
biotech

Process
fbi/legal updates
mailing lists
process & imc docs
tech