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Refugee Week 2006 |
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Solihull's Sandford House Reporting centre picket (June)
NoBorders-ARC Picket at Solihull Immigration Centre
Birmingham NoBorders and Birmingham Anti-Racist Campaign held their monthly picket today (30 June) at the Immigration Reporting Centre in Solihull. Once again, they were there to protest against the inhumane treatment of asylum seekers throughout the border regime, from the weekly reporting, snatch squads and dawn raids, to deportation and detention centres. Besides the usual banners and placards, chanting, noise-making and leafleting, there was also a visual consisting of hand-made 'grave stones', from the ARC vigil last week, bearing the details and stories of asylum seekers who took their own lives while awaiting the Home Office's decision or incarcerated in detention centres. Their names were read out and the stories of some were told. Just before 2pm, two asylum seekers, handcuffed and accompanied by two police officers, arrived and were 'delivered' to Sandford House, in a live demonstration of what this place is all about. They were dressed in white jump suits and the police were carrying their clothes and stuff in clear plastic bags, presumably because they had been nicked whilst working in a factory or something. Obviously the protesters couldn't do more than angrily shout "Let them go" and "Asylum is not a crime". Previous pickets: May | April | November 2005
Asylum seekers are welcome here
Last week Leeds No Borders marked Refugee Week by demonstrating against the UK's inhumane reporting and detention system, holding a wonderful evening of film and food and leafleting hundres in the city centre to dispel the myths about asylum seekers pedalled in the press.
Free the Barcelona 59!
Saturday 23 of june, one hundred of activists from Spain and many other european countries entered, in a peaceful but determined way, the detention centres being built for immigrants in the neighbourhood of Zona Franca, Barcelona. This centre will a racist jail into which will be rounded up the immigrant citizen “guilty” of not having the “right” papers.
Close Down Sandford House Reporting Centre!
Noise Demonstration in Support of Asylum Seekers 22nd June
"Remember the Dead, Justice for the Living" Vigil
On 20th June, 2006, the Birmingham Anti-Racist Campaign (ARC) staged a vigil in the grounds of St. Philip's Cathedral in Birmingham to "commemorate those asylum seekers who took their own lives while awaiting the Home Office's decision or incarcerated in detention centres, and to pledge our determination to campaign for justice for the living." Using 34 hand-made "stone graves", which bore the details and stories of asylum seekers who have died recently, the vigil managed to eloquently tell of the shameful asylum system that sometimes drives its victims to such depth of despair that they take their own lives, many of them because they would rather be dead than be sent back to the countries they had fled. Related: call-out and flyer | list of documented refugee deaths throughout Fortress Europe | previous sleep-outs: 2005 | 2004
Big noise to hit Britain's immigration reporting centres this Thursday
Birmingham NoBorders and The Angel Group at Celebrating Sanctuary
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.
Letter to Press From Campsfield Hungerstrikers
120 migrants detainees on hungerstrike in Campdfield Immigration Removal Center, near Oxford, went on hungerstrike last week to protest against conditions. Here is a letter some of the hungerstrikers wrote for the press.
Rahimi Family Must Stay! - Public Meeting
Refugee Week: Smile for the week and to hell with you for the rest of the year!
At a time when enforced deportations are at their highest rate ever and corporate-run detention centres are packed with thousands of people, whose only crime was to seek refuge in this country; when dawn raids and the weekly reporting are constant nightmares for many asylum seekers and the government is introducing increasingly more restrictive and racist immigration controls every day (asylum quotas, immigration point system etc.); comes Refugee Week (19-25 June) to "promote understanding and to celebrate the cultural contributions of refugees." While the "nationwide festival" is, indeed, an opportunity for refugees and immigrants to make their voices heard, faced with all the "asylum madness" of mainstream media, there are many reasons to assume that the event is essentially a cheap public-relations exercise, both for the government and for some of the organisations and corporations involved. The events appear to be designed to deliberately hide the real issues surrounding asylum and immigration. Serious political content is systematically suppressed. Besides the Home Office, some events -for example, Birmingham's Celebrating Sanctuary- are partly funded by such dodgy asylum profiteers as the Angel Group. Furthermore, the way in which things are organised mirrors much of Labour's discredited multi-cultural policies in terms of dividing refugees along ethnic lines.
NATIONWIDE NOISE DEMONSTRATIONS IN SUPPORT OF ASYLUM SEEKERS
Newcastle based group Tyneside Community Action for Refugees (TCAR) is coordinating a National Day of Action against Home Office reporting centres and detention camps in Britain on Thursday, 22nd June. TCAR will be staging a lively noise demonstration outside the reporting centre in North Shields which asylum rights groups in London, Leeds and Manchester will join by demonstrating outside their local reporting centres.
Vigil: Remember the dead, Justice for the living
REFUGEES, THEY'RE WELCOME HERE! - BRIGHTON EVENT MONDAY 19TH JUNE
6.30pm-9pm Monday 19th June 2006 @ Community Base, 113 Queens Road, Brighton
Close Down Tinsley House Immigration Removal Centre
Days of Action in Support of Asylum Seekers in Manchester!
The North West Asylum Seekers Defence Group is holding a day of action against all deportations on Market St, Manchester.
Leeds No Borders announces its plans for Refugee Week
Refugee Week is happening between 19-25 June this year. Asylum seekers and support campaigns are preparing to bring the issues of detention, destitution and deportation to the fore. Leeds No Borders has put out the following call for action in support of these initiatives.
Immigration Reporting Centres: National Update and Call-out
DETC Fundraising Meal
The DETC campaign will be having a social evening of Nigerian food and music at the end of Refugee Week on Sunday 25 June to raise money for the campaign to keep Nigerian refugees Eucharia and Timeyi in Britain. The venue will be The Basement, 24 Lever Street, Manchester, at 6pm. Prices are from £5 to £10 to £15 depending on income. other asylum seekers can eat for free
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A report in words and pictures of the ongoing monthly picket by Birmingham NoBorders and Birmingham Anti-Racist Campaign's at the Immigration Reporting Centre in Solihull
The following audio file is an interview with a Zimbabwean woman (who unsurprisingly wishes to remain anonymous) who tells us about her experiences of being detained whilst signing at Sandford House Home Office Reporting Centre in Solihull and taken to Yarlswood detention centre. 
Tyneside Community Action for Refugees (TCAR) organised a demo outside North Shields Reporting Centre. There were also demos outside reporting centres in Leeds, London and Manchester. 
Newcastle based group Tyneside Community Action for Refugees (TCAR) is coordinating a National Day of Action against Home Office reporting centres and detention camps in Britain on Thursday, 22nd June.
How small a cage is for a bird! 
Birmingham Anti-Racist Campaign is organising a vigil during Refugee Week, a week which traditionally celebrates the positive contribution of refugees to the UK. At the same time, ARC wishes to draw the attention of local people to the more shameful aspects of asylum: the horrors and injustices of Britain's asylum system and the shameful persecution of refugees and asylum seekers by the popular press. 
As the twice-monthly pickets of the Immigration Reporting Centre at North Shields on Tyneside enter their sixth month, Tyneside Community Action for Refugees (TCAR) has called for a national day of action against reporting centres for the 22nd June, as part of Refugee Week.
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