According to a report received from the Black Women’s Rape Action Project this afternoon – women at Yarl’s Wood detention centre (in Bedfordshire, England) have been beaten by guards and subjected to racist abuse.
The news report marked ‘urgent’ describes the current situation:
“Over fifty women are currently trapped in an airless hallway in Yarl’s Immigration Removal Centre. On Friday 5 February they began a hunger strike. Today they were herded into the hallway were they have been left there for over two hours without access to water or toilets. Four women, including an asthma sufferer, have fainted. Around 1.30 the guards came into the hallway and started to beat women. As we spoke to one woman she told us that someone was bleeding. One of the managers told the women they would regret what they have done; she called the Chinese women monkeys, and the Black women black monkeys. Four other women have been locked in other rooms for three hours, and have been told by room mates that their belongings have been packed. They are worried they face immediate removal even though their cases are still being considered. Fifteen women have been locked up in “Kingfisher”, the punishment wing.
According to women on the other wings all movement has been restricted – even those not on the hunger strike are not getting any food including diabetics who urgently need it.
Hunger strikers want to speak to the press and get the truth out about the protest.
They are protesting at the length of time they have been detained – one woman who cannot speak English, has been held for over two years. Their statement is attached. Their demands include: an end to the “degradation and humiliation of detained/foreign nationals during deportation by detention staff and escorts during flights”; an end to the Fast Track for asylum seekers which denies fair decisions, the restoration of full legal aid and access to independent legal advice for everyone who is being detained.
Cristel Amiss, Black Women’s Rape Action Project which is supporting women on hunger strike said “Over 70% of women in Yarl’s Wood are rape survivors, many are sick and vulnerable. Why are they being punished for raising serious injustices? This “kettling” tactic has been thoroughly discredited, women should be allowed back into their rooms immediately, there should be an immediate investigation into what has happened and any guard found to be responsible for injuring women must be sacked immediately”.(End of Black Women’s Rape Action Project news report)
The hunger striker’s demands as received by email in a handwritten letter today read as follows (unedited copy):
END THE DETENTION OF FOREIGN NATIONALS NOW
The women at Yarl’s Wood IRC, have embarked on an indefinite hunger strike. We demand:
Since the 5th. February 2010 the residents/women at Yarlswood detention centre, started a hunger strike which involves all residents in exception of residents on medication which constitutes less than five per cent of the total residents.
We are now demanding:
- An end to frustration and humiliation of all residents.
-A stop to physical and mental torture of all residents
-To provide detainees enough and reasonable time. With adequate resources needed to fully present their cases before the authorities.
-To end the false allegations and misrepresentations made by UKBA (U.K Border Agency) against the detainees, in order to deny bail of temporary admissions.
-To stop the degrading and humiliation of detainees/foreign nationals during deportation by detention staff and escorts during flight.
-To put an end to forceful removal of foreign national detainees.
- Put into law “practice is” – European Rules governing standards of conditions of detention for migrants/asylum seekers
-Detention should be carried out by a procedure described by law, authorised by a judicial authority and to be subjected to a periodic judicial review.
- Detention must be for the shortest possible time according to Human Rights rules
- To put an end to fast track for asylum seeker applications in order to promote fair decisions.
- To end the detention of mothers and children rape survivors and torture victims.
-To stop the detention of sick, mentally ill, disabled people, pregnant women and children.
-To end the separation of mothers from their children as a result of being detained and children left suffering living with strangers
-To end the detention of all all foreign nationals who have spent time in prison
-Restoration of full legal aid and access to independent legal advice for everyone who is being detained.
-To release every foreign national after one month in detention pending decision from immigration or from the court
-Everyone in detention should have access to proper medical treatment and care as obtainable from the community. Foreign national food, mobile phones with connectivities e.g. cameras and recording facilities on the phones. Good communication systems.
ALTERNATIVES TO THE DETENTION OF ALL FOREIGN NATIONALS
According to the Council of Europe’s commissions for human rights and the European Committee as adopted on the 28th. January, 2020 as stated below:
1) Registration and reporting
2) Release on bail/surety
3) Controlled release to individuals, family members, NGOs, religious organisations and others.
4) Hand over of travel and other documents, release combined with appointments of a special worker
List of demands ends.
(See also a previous post which describes how women from the project spoke at the House of Commons on 14th. January, 2010)
Why isn’t the aid getting to Haiti? Realnews.
February 1, 2010
Realnews network. Seeking answers.
The Iraq Inquiry. A whitewash? John Rees.
January 29, 2010
What Tony Blair is thinking…
January 29, 2010
“What Tony Blair will be thinking”. This piece from the Stop The War Coalition is enlightening.
Tony Blair, the war on Iraq and the history books…
January 29, 2010
Tony Blair’s appearance at the Chilcott inquiry is receiving extensive coverage. Acres of newsprint. This blog’s remit is ‘news that doesn’t normally get out’. With that in mind – here are two short videos.
and the second…
And here is Blair defending his position in that Fern Britton interview.
Holocaust Remembrance Day 27th. January. Never Again. For Anyone
January 26, 2010
News from the International Jewish Anti-Zionist network. Together with the Scottish Palestine Solidarity Campaign they have organised a UK & Ireland tour with Hajo Meyer & Haidar Eid (Dr Eid via video link from Gaza) called:
“NEVER AGAIN.FOR ANYONE”. The IJAZ Network say:
“On January 27, Holocaust Remembrance Day, leading politicians from the U.S. and Europe will join in honoring the memory of Jews killed in the Nazi genocide. Yet the immensity of that tragedy is dishonored by the hypocrisy of the ceremonies: those who pay homage to the victims of yesterday’s silence are silent about today’s inhumanity. We say, “Never again!” For anyone. Never again for the people of Gaza. Never again for all those struggling against dehumanization, racism and genocide everywhere, every day”.
Hajo Meyer tells us: “My great lesson from Auschwitz is – whoever wants to dehumanise any other must first be dehumanised himself. The oppressors are no longer really human whatever uniform they wear”.
Dr Hajo G. Meyer was born in 1924 in Bielefeld, Germany. In 1944, after a year in the underground, he was caught and subsequently survived 10 months in Auschwitz. An IJAN member, Dr. Meyer is on the board of the IJAN.
Dr Haidar Eid is a refugee whose parents were expelled from the Zarnouqa village in 1948. Dr. Eid is a member of the PACBI (Palestinian Campaign for the Academic & Cultural Boycott of Israel) Steering Committee and a co-founder of the One Dutch “A Different Jewish Voice”, of European Jews for a Just Peace. He is the author of three books on Judaism, Holocaust and Zionism. Democratic State Group.
He lives in Gaza, where he is an Associate Professor of Cultural Studies at Al-Aqsa University.
Tour Dates
♦ 21 Jan, 7.30pm: Sir Charles Wilson Building, University of Glasgow.
♦ 22 Jan, 7.30pm: D’Arcy Thompson Lecture Theatre, Tower Building, Perth Rd. Dundee
♦ 23 Jan, 2pm: Augustine Church Centre, Edinburgh.
♦ 24 Jan, 7.30pm: The Showroom & Workstation, Paternoster Row. Sheffield
♦ 25 Jan, 7.30pm: Quaker Meeting House, Liverpool.
♦ 26 Jan, 6pm: Richard Hoggart Building, Goldsmiths, University of London.
♦ 27 Jan, 7pm: House of Commons (Portcullis House) Westminster, London.
♦ 29 Jan, 7.30pm: The Grosvenor Hall, Glengall Street, Belfast.
♦ 30 Jan, 6pm: Central Hotel, Exchequer Street, Dublin.
For the full schedule go to International Jewish Anti-Zionist Network. Never Again or the Scottish Palestine Solidarity Campaign for more information or to sponsor one of these events, please contact: uk@ijsn.net or campaign@scottishpsc.org.uk
The IJAN say: “We are urgently looking for sponsors for the tour. If you haven’t already, please consider endorsing/sponsoring the tour now! And we are also looking for representatives form communities that have faced genocide to participate in the planning of the tour and to respond to the main speakers“.
‘Then they came for me – and there was no one left to speak out for me’ – Pastor Martin Niemöller
Not a crime to seek asylum. Can you hear us? Women’s uncensored experiences of detention and deportation.
January 18, 2010
House of Commons Meeting. January, 2009
On the 14th. January, a meeting took place at the House of Commons, London which gave voice to women’s uncensored experiences of detention and deportation.
See also The World to Win blog: Not a crime to seek asylum Public Event: Can You Hear Us?
A spokesperson said:
“While the brutal detention of children has been finally condemned, little has been said about the detention of mothers and its impact on families, including children, and other vulnerable people…
…Over 70% of women seeking asylum are rape survivors [1]. Many are detained in prison-like conditions throughout Britain, including in Yarl’s Wood Removal Centre which holds over 400 women and their families. This is in breach of national guidelines and international agreements”.
The following information is sourced from LAW (Legal Action for Women):
At the meeting women testified about their struggles against an increasingly punitive immigration system, and their demands for change.
They included rape survivors, mothers separated from their children, lesbian women, and several women who were recently released from Yarl’s Wood. Some have been involved in hunger strikes and protests against the brutal, profit-orientated regime run by SERCO [2] and against violent deportations by privatised security companies.
Ms Idri Jawara was one of the speakers. Ms Idri Jawara was married in Gambia in October 1991 and her husband insisted she adopt his family’s tradition of carrying out female genital mutilation. As a victim of this practice herself, Ms Jawara refused to inflict it on her daughters and other girls.
As her marriage began to deteriorate, Ms Jawara began a lesbian relationship with a close friend. When her husband found out he raped and beat her daily and eventually took her to a Sharia court where he accused her of having a forbidden relationship. The court found her guilty and sentenced her to death by stoning on 11 May 2009. On 13 May, Ms Jawara fled to Britain. She was entitled to claim asylum under the Refugee Convention because of the persecution she suffered and because she couldn’t rely on the Gambian government to protect her.
In June, when she submitted her claim, she was detained in Yarl’s Wood IRC. Despite having explained she was a victim of rape, her case was put into the fast-track process which allows only two days for an asylum application to be made and a further six days to appeal a refusal. This leaves no time for people to gather the medical and other expert reports essential to corroborate a claim of persecution.
Like 98% of other applicants considered under the fast track, Ms Jawara was refused. Like hundreds of other women, Ms Jawara was then left without legal representation as her lawyer concluded, without having gathered any of the key evidence, that her case had no merit. She tried to represent herself at her appeal hearing but was too embarrassed to speak about her sexuality and her appeal was rejected.
Faced with imminent removal, she found a new lawyer who put in a Judicial Review and commissioned an expert report from Black Women’s Rape Action Project. Her removal was suspended after the Gambian authorities refused to issue a travel document.
She was finally released shortly before Christmas. What makes people angry is the lack of money to help the vulnerable.
There are 42 million displaced people worldwide [3]. Women and children are 80% of the casualties of wars [4]. The role of the British government in fermenting and supporting many of these wars remains hidden. Instead we are bombarded with political and religious ‘leaders’ claiming, without any concrete evidence, that people blame immigration for a scarcity of resources. Yet recent research confirms the positive contribution immigrant people make to society. [5] Over six years ago women seeking asylum in the UK founded the All African Women’s Group. They describe that when people hear directly about the suffering and injustice they have experienced, both in their countries of origin and since their arrival in the UK, there is often an outpouring of sympathy, compassion and outrage. “What we see that makes people angry is the lack of money to help the vulnerable.
Women and children are left destitute by government policies while billions are squandered on war. We never hear from government that there’s no money for these wars which kill and maim, force us to flee our countries and drain the vital services everyone needs to survive. Of course, we also experience hostility and discrimination from some people, especially those in authority.
But racist attacks increase every time the government launches another witch-hunt against us as ‘bogus’ or ‘scroungers’ – we are held up as scapegoats for people’s frustration at political and economic priorities which undermine most of us, whether we were born here or not.” But despite being isolated, denied access to dependable lawyers, subjected to slave labour and negligent healthcare, abused and assaulted during deportations, and terrorised by the threat of being sent back . . . women continue to organise creatively in their own defence.
References:
[1] A Bleak House in Our Times: An investigation into women’s rights violations at Yarl’s Wood Removal Centre, Legal Action for Women
[2] SERCO Group plc won an £85 million contract to run Yarl’s Wood initially for three years, with optional extensions up to eight years.
[3] UNHCR annual report, June 2009 [4] UNHCR Refugees Magazine Issue 126, April 2002
[4] UNHCR Refugees Magazine Issue 126, April 2002
[5] Can Migrants Save the Global Economy? Counterpunch article.
(Source of references, press release and photograph: LAW)
Holocaust Remembrance Day January 27th. Never again. For anyone.
January 11, 2010
News from the International Jewish Anti-Zionist network. Together with the Scottish Palestine Solidarity Campaign they have organised a UK & Ireland tour with Hajo Meyer & Haidar Eid (Dr Eid via video link from Gaza) called:
“NEVER AGAIN.FOR ANYONE”. The IJAZ Network say:
“On January 27, Holocaust Remembrance Day, leading politicians from the U.S. and Europe will join in honoring the memory of Jews killed in the Nazi genocide. Yet the immensity of that tragedy is dishonored by the hypocrisy of the ceremonies: those who pay homage to the victims of yesterday’s silence are silent about today’s inhumanity. We say, “Never again!” For anyone. Never again for the people of Gaza. Never again for all those struggling against dehumanization, racism and genocide everywhere, every day”.
Hajo Meyer tells us: “My great lesson from Auschwitz is – whoever wants to dehumanise any other must first be dehumanised himself. The oppressors are no longer really human whatever uniform they wear”.
Dr Hajo G. Meyer was born in 1924 in Bielefeld, Germany. In 1944, after a year in the underground, he was caught and subsequently survived 10 months in Auschwitz. An IJAN member, Dr. Meyer is on the board of the IJAN.
Dr Haidar Eid is a refugee whose parents were expelled from the Zarnouqa village in 1948. Dr. Eid is a member of the PACBI (Palestinian Campaign for the Academic & Cultural Boycott of Israel) Steering Committee and a co-founder of the One Dutch “A Different Jewish Voice”, of European Jews for a Just Peace. He is the author of three books on Judaism, Holocaust and Zionism. Democratic State Group.
He lives in Gaza, where he is an Associate Professor of Cultural Studies at Al-Aqsa University.
Tour Dates
♦ 21 Jan, 7.30pm: Sir Charles Wilson Building, University of Glasgow.
♦ 22 Jan, 7.30pm: D’Arcy Thompson Lecture Theatre, Tower Building, Perth Rd. Dundee
♦ 23 Jan, 2pm: Augustine Church Centre, Edinburgh.
♦ 24 Jan, 7.30pm: The Showroom & Workstation, Paternoster Row. Sheffield
♦ 25 Jan, 7.30pm: Quaker Meeting House, Liverpool.
♦ 26 Jan, 6pm: Richard Hoggart Building, Goldsmiths, University of London.
♦ 27 Jan, 7pm: House of Commons (Portcullis House) Westminster, London.
♦ 29 Jan, 7.30pm: The Grosvenor Hall, Glengall Street, Belfast.
♦ 30 Jan, 6pm: Central Hotel, Exchequer Street, Dublin.
For the full schedule go to International Jewish Anti-Zionist Network. Never Again or the Scottish Palestine Solidarity Campaign for more information or to sponsor one of these events, please contact: uk@ijsn.net or campaign@scottishpsc.org.uk
The IJAN say: “We are urgently looking for sponsors for the tour. If you haven’t already, please consider endorsing/sponsoring the tour now! And we are also looking for representatives form communities that have faced genocide to participate in the planning of the tour and to respond to the main speakers“.
‘Then they came for me – and there was no one left to speak out for me’ – Pastor Martin Niemöller
MP George Galloway in Egyptian police riot. Sky News
January 6, 2010
See this link. Sky news two hours ago.
Gaza one year on
January 1, 2010
First of January. Janus the god of gates, doors, doorways, beginnings and endings. Looking backwards and forwards at the same time.
In December last year anti-war protestors stood together on the streets protesting against the Gaza massacre. After closing and controlling its borders, we heard news of Israel brutally bombing and then invading Gaza.
This week an email from the International Jewish Anti-Zionist Network reminds me of the 1,417 Palestinians dead including 313 children and youth:
“ Since the attack, which destroyed houses, wells, factories, schools, hospitals, police stations and other public buildings, the blockade has created conditions of genocide through contamination of water supplies due to white phosphorous, raw sewage pouring into the sea, and the prevention of food, medical and other humanitarian supplies from entering Gaza. People living in Gaza are already feeling the terrible long-term effects including a huge increase in birth defects and in cancers, especially in children”.
Over the past year many of us made trips to Palestine in solidarity. To bear witness. To bring food. To film and to write the reality.
I would have wanted to be there too. For the present - and this time - family circumstances did not and do not allow me to go the distance. I had to travel to Palestinians online instead.
Travelled in my head each day to the month-long protest that took place at the Rafah border organised by the International Movement to Open the Border. To speak to the women who sent me messages and photographs. Posted twice, three times a day – learning there were some things that would never see the light of the mainstream press. Began to understand why no-one would pay a writer to write about it. Followed the story anyway. Days and days and months of it.
Travelled to the Palestine Trade Union solidarity conference in Liverpool. Heard the writer Sameh Habeeb speak for the first time. He’s helping us to understand Obama, Afghanistan and Palestine:
“ Obama’s failure will only increase over time. The troops in Afghanistan will be doubled, as well as the loss of lives of Americans due to this careless policy. The American-made Iraq will never exist. Palestinians will continue to be denied their inalienable rights granted by International law and a Palestinian state will not be realized in the near future.
Gazans will remain suffering under the internationally endorsed siege, with its children continuing to be killed and starved. All of this is due to American foreign policy, which is concerned with economic and material self-interest rather than humanitarian concerns. Indeed, neither Barack Obama nor the American government will solve such problems as they remain bias and supporters of the victimizers against the victims”.
Last year I started out thinking I had the freedom to write the truth as I saw and heard it. A late night phone call from a government office shook me out of this particular day-dream. It wasn’t that simple.
This month I read: “the Gaza Freedom March coalition mobilised an international contingent of over 1,300 international delegates for a non-violent march alongside the people of Gaza which was planned to take place yesterday”.
I read: “The Egyptian Foreign Ministry informed the organisers on December 20 that the Rafah border will be closed over the coming weeks into January, and that they will not be able to enter Gaza. Egyptian embassies and missions heard a clear message from supporters of the march by phone, fax and email. Let the delegation enter Gaza and let the Gaza Freedom March proceed”.
I’m thinking: This place is familiar. The author of the blog GHAZAWIYYA has the following to say (see this link for the source – quote unedited).
“The Viva Palestina convoy should not have accepted to leave to Lathqiyyeh in Syria based on what Egypt demanded they do. This is not resistance. The convoy should have held on their demands despite the Egyptian regimes refusal to allow them to pass through Nweiba’.
What the Egyptian authorities are doing is to put off people, and they are succeeding in doing that as long as their is no persistence and resistance. Now, one other thing I would like to criticise Viva Palestina’s Alberawy for is his statement that the convoy is “humanitarian and in solidarity” that does not wish to pressure the Egyptian government! Not that I am for the humanitarian discourse, but, I mean isn’t it humanitarian enough for Mr. Alberawy to uncover the Egyptian regime’s injustice and corruption?
Couldn’t Viva Palestina have took advantage of this refusal by Egypt to defy this wicked and torturous regime? They should have kept the half a million dollars to support the solidarity workers in Aqaba and work on a movement to Jordan in support of a civil disobedience”. (Quote source: the blogger Natalie Abou Shakra at GHAZAWIYYA)
Chester Stop the War Coalition. Free Joe Glenton. Troops Home.
December 18, 2009
Chester Stop the War Coalition Stall. Bring the Troops home from Afghanistan. Free Joe Glenton. Thursday 17th. December, 2009 Chester City Centre
At five o’clock yesterday evening, as Christmas shoppers crowded into Chester City Centre for late-night shopping members of Chester Stop the War Coalition held a stall at their traditional pitch on the Cross. It was the second stall held this month.
Petition signatures were collected and Christmas cards had been sent to Joe Glenton in prison. (see this link)
Petitions calling for the troops to be brought home from Afghanistan are to be handed over to Downing Street by members of the organisation Military Families Against the War on the 21st. December, 2009.
To sign the petition online follow this link.
Climate Change and the Royal Mail
December 18, 2009
Blogs seem to join up different issues. Climate Change. Working conditions. I’ve got various tags, categories and trends on this one now. The future of the Royal Mail and it’s staff is something I keep coming back to. Things have quietened down on the news front as far as the postal strike is concerned, but that doesn’t mean the issues go away.
The blogger Roy Mayall is featured on Radio 4’s Book of the Week “Dear Granny Smith” this week. Catch up with it in the Radio 4 archive. Billy Hayes (General Secretary of the Communication Workers Union) is discussing some of the issues Roy raises on the BBC Radio 4 consumer affairs programme “You and Yours”.
As for me, on this last day of the Climate Change talks in Copenhagen – I’m thinking – if they scrapped the Royal Mail’s current transport infrastructure altogether (including all it’s bicycles) – surely that would mean increasing carbon counts all round?
For some of my previous blog posts on this subject click on the categories Royal Mail and Postal Strike.
Update:
I’ve just listened to the You and Yours BBC Radio 4 programme I mentioned earlier. The following points occurred to me. Firstly, I think the speakers underestimated the cultural (and political) impact of Roy Mayall’s work. From what I know of the postal service (having worked there myself) and from conversations with postal workers Roy is not simply presenting a sentimental view of what is happening, but he is also analysing current problems, some of which are hugely relevant to the recent postal strike and the current negotiations taking place.
Roy writes about walk-sequencing machines. He actually says they help the workload ‘a bit’ but not very much. This is a really, really important point, which none of the speakers picked up on, I felt. It echoes what other postal workers have told me about the ways in which machines are being used (or not) and how effective (or ineffective) they actually are. See this post which I wrote during the strike. It includes a quote from a CWU union rep. Surely the question we need to be asking is: “How useful are they?”.
If you listen to this programme carefully you will hear one of the speakers say that the closure of mail centres will be a part of the ‘modernisation’ process. I’d like to hear what postal workers have to say about that one.
Final Day of Copenagen Climate Change talks
December 18, 2009
We approach the final day of the Copenhagen Climate Change talks and today’s timetable looks like this.
Citizen Journalist reports from the Copenhagen Climate Change Summit
December 16, 2009
To access citizen journalist reports at the Climate Change Summit – live coverage at this link.
