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.

Protest at G4S AGM: Stop Detaining Children and Families Now!

Mia Eskelund | 28.05.2010 18:04 | Anti-racism | Migration | Social Struggles | South Coast | World

Despite the government's pledge to end immigration detention of children and families, G4S continues to lock up innocent children in Tinsley House, near Gatwick Airport. Today students from SOAS Detainee Support protested against this abhorrent practice, and confronted chief executive, Nick Buckles, who earns more than £4000 per day, while continuing to be complicit in harming children's health and well-being, while they are in G4S's 'care.'



When the new government said it would ‘end the detention of children for immigration purposes’ some people proclaimed a great victory. But as the families locked up in Yarl’s Wood reminded everyone in a letter to Nick Clegg (published in last Sunday’s Observer), ‘we are still here in the detention centre’.

That's why we were protesting on Friday 28th May at the annual meeting of G4S, the company that runs Tinsley House where last year a 10 year old girl was so distressed she tried to strangle herself.

And that’s why we’ll keep on protesting until this inhumanity ends.

The trouble is that the new government, which could have immediately halted the dawn raids and detentions that cause children so much harm, and arranged for the release of the families locked up, has chosen instead to launch a wide-ranging review.

Running the review may be the very Home Office officials who have lied and misrepresented the medical evidence of harm in order to defend and sustain the detention policy.

We want all families released now. That’s not a wild or unreasonable point of view. Here’s Malcolm Stevens, a former government adviser, writing in the Daily Telegraph: ‘Children must be removed urgently from wherever their safety and welfare is at risk. As this includes Yarl's Wood, it must be closed at once.’

The medical evidence of harm is ‘incontrovertible’ according to Professor Sir Al Aysnley-Green, writing in The Guardian under the headline: ‘Speedy end to child detention is needed.’ And he should know, being the eminent paediatrician who as first Children’s Commissioner for England personally interviewed distressed children at Yarl’s Wood and, with his team of physicians, studied children’s medical and detention records and were appalled by what they found.
There is no excuse for continuing to detain families. That it’s a profitable business is obscene. Nick Buckles, chief executive of G4S, whose meeting we picketed today, gets paid £4,537 every day. Yes, every single day of the week.

When asked by protester, Marianna Riddle, how G4S explains their commitment to being an 'ethical' company, at the same time as being complicit in locking up innocent children, chief executive, Nick Buckles said that G4S is merely following government orders. But when confronted with the widespread abuse of immigration detainees before and during removals, he said that it is a serious issue, that needs to be looked into.

If you think it’s not right to lock up innocent children for no proper reason in conditions known to harm their mental health, then please join us next week.

We’re going to have a happy day on Saturday 5th June, with fantastic children from Shpresa Programme and circus performers and delicious free food, and a whole bunch of people from all sorts of communities, and speakers as well. We want to remind ourselves that we are all in this world together and together we can end child detention now.
 http://www.shpresaprogramme.com/

We start in Torrington Square at 12noon. And then at 2pm we’re marching on Downing Street. Everyone is welcome. Together we will force the government to end child detention not in a few months’ time, but right away immediately please Mr Cameron. And in case there’s any doubt that means: Now.

 http://releasecarnival.wordpress.com

Sources for this article:
 http://www.guardian.co.uk/theobserver/2010/may/23/letters-elected-police-commissioners
 http://www.guardian.co.uk/uk/2009/oct/21/detained-nigerian-girl-strangle-immigration
 http://www.opendemocracy.net/ourkingdom/clare-sambrook/roll-calls-body-searches-and-sex- games
 http://www.telegraph.co.uk/news/uknews/immigration/7745056/Yarls-Wood-immigration-centre-is-not-fit-for-children-and-families.html
 http://www.guardian.co.uk/commentisfree/libertycentral/2010/may/23/child-detention-review
 http://www.g4s.com/

Mia Eskelund
- e-mail: miaeskelund@gmail.com
- Homepage: http://www.releasecarnival.wordpress.com

Additions

Addition

28.05.2010 20:12

There were also activists from London No Borders and Cambridge Migrant Solidarity who turned up at the picket. The detention of children is a particularly abominable practice but let's not forget that the majority of those in immigration detention are adults, and most are single males. There is no end in sight to their detention.

one of no borders


Comments

Display the following 2 comments

  1. Thank you — redjade
  2. Contacting Nick Buckles, Chief Executive of G4S — the g4s man
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