Waterside is the Leeds/Bradford office of the Immigration and Nationality Directorate (Home Office) where asylum seekers are forced to sign regularly. For some this is followed by drtention and deportation to totally unsafe countries, for all it is a regular experience of humiliation as Home Office staff treat them inhumanly and reinforce their view of asylum seekers as mere numbers, not suffering human beings.

The desperation of asylum seekers facing detention and held in appalling prisons (know as detention centres) was highlighted today as violence broke out at Campsfield (see  http://news.bbc.co.uk/1/hi/england/oxfordshire/6449069.stm), reportedly after a man was dragged from his bed. This follows similar scenes at Harmondsworth late last year (see  http://www.indymedia.org.uk/en/2006/11/357432.html).

Leeds No Borders opposes the UKs inhumane asylum system of detention, deportation, destitution and humiliation and supports individual asylum seekers locally. We meet every second Wednesday (next meetings March 21st, April 4th) at The Common Place in Leeds from 7-9pm, please come along if you are interested, would like some help, would like to help us or just want to know more....