Mass Deportation to DRC tomorrow - press release from the Bishop of Durham
posted by mouse | 25.02.2007 19:47
The Government has just set back the date for a review of the 'Country Guidance' given in relation to the Congo, i.e. the guidance on the advisability of sending people back there. The case was to have been heard on March 7, but it has now been postponed. It is strange that almost at once the Home Office has begun rounding up Congolese in order to deport them. Are these two events perhaps connected? Is the government keen to get rid of Congolese people while it still can?
Charter Flight to DR Congo
Urgent Press Release from the Bishop of Durham
We note with alarm that the Home Office is planning to deport a plane-load of asylum-seekers to the Democratic Republic of Congo. The plane is scheduled to leave next Monday, February 26, and its cargo - one can hardly call them 'passengers', since they are being shipped off against their will - are mostly women and children. Some of these families have been living in the Diocese of Durham, particularly in Stockton-on-Tees, where the churches have a fine record of work with, and care for, asylum seekers.
The families in question were seized in dawn raids and taken to Detention Centres. This itself is alarming. It is also heavily ironic: at a time when the Home Office has shown itself embarrassingly incapable of dealing with real criminals, whether our own or those from abroad, it chooses to make an apparent show of strength by picking on people who are already vulnerable and disorientated. The normal word for this is 'bullying'.
The current evidence for conditions in the Congo (including a recent UN report) reveals that the government has increasingly been using violence against opposition groups, not least among the churches, where some leaders have stood out bravely against human rights abuses and have suffered for their stance. There is strong and recent evidence of soldiers and police raping and executing civilians with complete impunity.
The Government has just set back the date for a review of the 'Country Guidance' given in relation to the Congo, i.e. the guidance on the advisability of sending people back there. The case was to have been heard on March 7, but it has now been postponed. It is strange that almost at once the Home Office has begun rounding up Congolese in order to deport them. Are these two events perhaps connected? Is the government keen to get rid of Congolese people while it still can?
Rudi Vis, MP for Finchley and Golders Green, has put down an Early Day Motion calling for deportations to the Congo to be suspended and in particular for next Monday's flight to be stopped. We in the church are fully behind this effort and call on our own Government, particularly the Minister for Immigration and Nationality, to reverse the present policy and save these deeply vulnerable people, already in shock after being treated like criminals, from the far worse fate that might well await them on arrival. For any of them to be deported is almost certainly extremely dangerous. If a large group arrives all together back in the Congo they will be unable to escape attention, and that attention is likely to be extremely unwelcome.
Tom Wright, Bishop of Durham
Urgent Press Release from the Bishop of Durham
We note with alarm that the Home Office is planning to deport a plane-load of asylum-seekers to the Democratic Republic of Congo. The plane is scheduled to leave next Monday, February 26, and its cargo - one can hardly call them 'passengers', since they are being shipped off against their will - are mostly women and children. Some of these families have been living in the Diocese of Durham, particularly in Stockton-on-Tees, where the churches have a fine record of work with, and care for, asylum seekers.
The families in question were seized in dawn raids and taken to Detention Centres. This itself is alarming. It is also heavily ironic: at a time when the Home Office has shown itself embarrassingly incapable of dealing with real criminals, whether our own or those from abroad, it chooses to make an apparent show of strength by picking on people who are already vulnerable and disorientated. The normal word for this is 'bullying'.
The current evidence for conditions in the Congo (including a recent UN report) reveals that the government has increasingly been using violence against opposition groups, not least among the churches, where some leaders have stood out bravely against human rights abuses and have suffered for their stance. There is strong and recent evidence of soldiers and police raping and executing civilians with complete impunity.
The Government has just set back the date for a review of the 'Country Guidance' given in relation to the Congo, i.e. the guidance on the advisability of sending people back there. The case was to have been heard on March 7, but it has now been postponed. It is strange that almost at once the Home Office has begun rounding up Congolese in order to deport them. Are these two events perhaps connected? Is the government keen to get rid of Congolese people while it still can?
Rudi Vis, MP for Finchley and Golders Green, has put down an Early Day Motion calling for deportations to the Congo to be suspended and in particular for next Monday's flight to be stopped. We in the church are fully behind this effort and call on our own Government, particularly the Minister for Immigration and Nationality, to reverse the present policy and save these deeply vulnerable people, already in shock after being treated like criminals, from the far worse fate that might well await them on arrival. For any of them to be deported is almost certainly extremely dangerous. If a large group arrives all together back in the Congo they will be unable to escape attention, and that attention is likely to be extremely unwelcome.
Tom Wright, Bishop of Durham
posted by mouse
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