More Questions for UK Home Office

I don’t want to know the answers to these questions, I want to know why I’m having to ask these questions in the first place.

How can it be okay to put a young mother and 8 month old baby in the back of a prison transport, have the private contractors smoke during an 8 hour journey from one prison to another. Via Mc D’s drive through, for the drivers to sit around for an hour eating and smoking with the heaters turned off. And then bitch about whether they could get the baby some milk at one of the drop offs/pick ups?
(a complaint was lodged, a “we’ll look into it” reply received – what are the odds the complainant will be long gone deported by then?)

Why can a private prison keep families with children locked up, snatched from their homes in intimidating pre dawn raids (?!?). Toddlers for fifty odd days in ill health, almost six months after being told by her maj’s Inspectorate of Prisons that kids can only be imprisoned for a few days and in exceptional circumstances?
www.andywatts.com/Lina&Miguel/reports/oakington_inspection_report.doc
www.andywatts.com/Lina&Miguel/reports/oakington_inspection_report.pdf
(Cambridge IndyMedia - Arora family)
(Bristol IndyMedia – Lina&Miguel)

Why can the government put 600 people in prison because they made a new law that says it’s criminal to destroy your documents before coming to the UK. When it’s already against the rules to have false papers which are often essential when fleeing your country?
damned if you do, damned if you don’t.

How can the Immigration Service get away with putting every logistical and legal hurdle in the way of people claiming asylum on this island?
A government that says you’ve got to register your claim in Liverpool, Solihull, or Croydon within 5 days of arriving on the island, or you’re ‘illegal’. An application where you’ll be pretty much guaranteed a ‘no’ decision so you can be shifted onto the appeal process.

Why can families, children and individuals be subjected to racist, inhumane and bullying behaviour at the hands of government goons employed to deal with ‘undesirables’ in their ‘ever so profitable’ secure facilities?
Imprisoning people is a nasty business, these people are not interned because they are criminals or dangerous, they are there for days, months and sometimes years because they’re not welcome here, according to the bleedin’ heart bigots who apparently live somewhere called ‘middle england’.

Why can government guards refuse to receive visitor bookings by phone for days on end because they’re “too busy” or “short staffed”, refusing to mention that email bookings can be taken? Why can guards refuse to allow a Middle Eastern bloke to take his phonebook with him into a visit, despite previously allowing him to. Then turn and wink at me when I ask if the same rules will apply to me, letting me know that I was welcome to take in as many papers I liked?
Being a whitey probably helped me there, as it did when getting information by phone.

Why can the same guard refuse to let in a visitor with a full face hijab/burkha type thing, despite the fact that his female colleague had already photographed and ID’d the visitor without her veil. Vociferously arguing that under his rules, in his country, he had to see the woman’s face regardless of her religious customs. Then, after getting told by management that his female colleague (stood next to him), was quite able to make the ID instead, he still suggests that when the female visitor came out of the visit he might not be able to guarantee she wouldn’t be forced to reveal her face to a male guard, and anyway, as he could see her picture on the computer screen why did it matter?
I don’t know what revealing her face to this man would have meant to the young woman, and I bet the guard didn’t know either. It was enough for the young woman to cancel her visit though.

Why can an 8 year old prisoner be moved into a secure facility whilst visitors are still advised not to bring children. And when the child contracts the virus, starts vomiting and shitting through the night, the prison tells his mother her son can’t see a doctor but might be able to the next day. And visiting doctors tell a mother of a two year old who has been sick for weeks and lost about 2 kilos, that if she weren’t a prisoner he’d insist she went to a hospital to see a paediatrician, but because she’s a prisoner she is not entitled to this care?
How can the prison repeatedly get a mum with an 8 month old to pack her bags at 4 a.m. ready for immediate deportation, only to keep returning her to prison because her paperwork hasn’t been sorted or the prison transportation is late for the flight. Repeatedly putting the mother and child through the anxiety and uncertainty associated with being booted out of the country?

How can prison guards routinely frisk an 8 year old boy, who’s so well mannered and well behaved that he thinks the word ‘arse’ is proper swearing?

Why does the Immigration Service’s Oakington prison only allow prisoners to use the few telephones provided with their own ‘prison issue’ phone cards that’ll give you 4 minutes to a mobile for a fiver (£5)? Why are the only refreshments available in the cramped visiting room a cold drinks vending machine and a chocolate machine, both of which go for days with the ‘sold out’ lights flashing? Why do they only allow the secure family unit to have one TV and one remote control (at least as a criminal prisoner you don’t have to fight over what channel you watch)? Why do prisoners ask visitors to bring in fresh vegetables and fruit because the chips & chicken nugget diet are not up to scratch?

I could carry on with such questions endlessly, but as I mentioned, I don’t want the answers. I don’t want to be told the government will ensure a healthier diet for these prisoners, I don’t want to be told the contractors will be held accountable and prisoners will be given more comfortable surroundings and treated with some respect, I don’t want to be told that administration will be hurried up so that prison terms are shortened. I want to be told that we won’t lock innocent people and children up in shabbily run prisons en masse.

Prison is prison. Depriving people of liberty is an inhumane process at the best of times as many prison service professionals, psychologists and ex-cons will tell you. Asylum seekers and other immigrants can count on underhand, rude, illegal, racist and depraved treatment at the hands of the Immigration Service and private prisons all through their application process. This isn’t because of ‘bad apples’ within the system, it is a result of the mood set by a media and a government that panders to the baser side of our nature, constantly demonising foreigners and shuffling their lives around so that they can publicise the latest statistics on how many people we’ve managed to expel from our shores this quarter.

Hopefully, that’s all I’ve got to say on the matter and I can stop clogging up IndyMedia with my extended diatribes. Realistically, and sadly, there’s probably more to come in the New Year.

There are a couple more related reports on the following site:

 http://www.andywatts.com/Lina&Miguel/