Via Dave which in part is the story in itself, this has not been reported in the media. Only Indymedia and Socialist Worker covered this-
Around 6.30 this morning ( 05.04.2008 ) that ‘riot’ police were at Harmondsworth and detainees were being taken away from the centre in vans. Around 30 detainees have been taken out the centre and to unknown destination, according to the news we got. From previous experience this looks like a typical reply from the authorities to break up the protest by moving detainees to other detention centes around the country and putting people in isolation.
On Saturday 5 April, between 5 and 6 in the morning, around 50 police in riot gear entered Harmondsworth immigration removal centre and took 30 detainees away. The detainees have been involved in a mass food refusal from 1 April. The detainees also occupied the courtyard. Around 120 remained all night prior to the raid.
Some detainees detailing their situation (emphasis added)-
Alimamy Koroma
Former unaccompied minor fleeing torture and violence in Sierra Leone.
”We are tired of inhumane treatement. The protest started yesterday and is going to continue. It is a peaceful protest in the courtyard. Everybody is here, 300 people (he estimates). They are denying asylum to people who needs protection without giving them the opportunity to prove their cases. Legal representation is of bad quality and some legal representatives work for the Home Office, not in the interest of the asylum seekers. In the meantime people are kept in detention, some have been there up to 21 months.
The food is disgusting. The medical facilities are appalling. Some people have mental problems and should not be kept with the others and some are going crazy because they lock them up too long in deteintion. We are not treated like human beings. The fast track system is unjust and unfair, it is not practical becuse it gives decisions in 5 days and two days to appeal. People cannot prepare they cases in such short time. Some people are in fear to go back to their countries where they were persecuted because of their sexuality, political opinion or religion, some are victims of torture, that’s why they are seeking asylum and the UK are sending them back. There are not time limits to detention, some people go crazy.
We wrote a petition and signed it and we sent it to the European Court of Human Rights, John McDonnell MP, mayoral candidate Brian Paddick who promised to take our complints to the shadow Home Secretary and to the Liberal Democrats. In the petition we are saying that the asylum process is not fair; that they are keeping us in detention for too long; that evidence we show including torture marks is not taken in considreation. It is mental torture and people are going mad because of detention.
In Sierra Leon there is civil war and political unrest. I was beaten and tortured by the police because of my political opinions, as a result I got scars all over my body. The immigration judge just said I cut myself, but how could I cut myself all over? It does not make sense. There are other torture survivors in detention, they are not referred to the Medical Foundation for the Care of Victims of Torture and they are denied the treatement they should get.
I am on the fast track. When I arrived in UK I was 17. Now I am 21. I was in the hands of who brought me here so I could not apply for asylum. I applied for asylum in January 2008: they took me to detention straight away and put me on the fast track. They gave me 5 days to prepare my case and two days to appeal. I lost the case. The Refugee Legal Centre sent a psychologist who diagnosed me with Post Traumatic Stress Disorder and said I should not be in detention, but others have worst mental health problems than me: people who have been tortured and go mad because they are detained.
People get beaten at airport and they come back full of injuries. People are deported illegally when they still have cases pending. We are human beings, we want to be treated with dignity we shall stay in the coutyard until our demands are heard”.
C. Edwards
Married with four children, he went to prison and was his first offence: possession of a small quantity (£60 worth) of cocaine with intent to supply. He got a 30 months sentence, done 15 months and now they want to deport him to Jamaica.
”What I really find disturbing is that I cannot leave my children: when I was little my father went off to America for 1 year and that affected me very deeply, so I know what I am talking about. The main problem is that I am a risk to the public, according to Immigration, but before I left prison they gave me a paper with a stamp that shows I am unlikely to break curefew etc: the prison sevices have assesed me as not being a risk to the public. I did a lot of training and education in prison and I was looking forward to get a job once released. The reason for me offending in the first place was that I was unemployed, my wife’s benefit money went missing and I borrowed some money from a ‘friend’ to pay rent and bills: later I got threatened when could not give the money back in time! I left Jamiaca because of problems. When I was in prison my mother was attacked in Jamica. The police signed a statement saying my life will be in danger there. My wife had a nervus breakdown and suffers from depression, she cannot go to Jamaica and it would be dangerous for the children”.
Benjamin Osa-Iduma
From Nigeria, all his family are here.
”They give us food you won’t give to a dog. Some people are here for 18 months or more without having commited a crime, some people want to go back and they are held here
some want to be released. I came at 14 after my grandmaother died to join my famliy: 3 sisters 2 brothers my father and my stepmum. They are all British and I have got a British born son too. I have no family left in Nigeria.
I went to to school and college, now I am at South Bank University studying computer technology and electronic engineering. I have got a partner and we are living together with our little son. She is Nigerian and has Indefinite Leave to Remain. My asylum claim was refused and I have been in detention for 3 months. They say I would abscond if they release me but how could I abscond? I got family! We don’t need better conditions, more facilities or more education, we need out of detention. We forwarded a letter to the MP (Mc Donnell). We have not eaten since 9am, we have been out in courtyard since. We want the press to come here’.”
Put simply is this what Britain represents now? A concentration camp kept out of the media where people are treated in the same ways we protest at China for? Where is their protest? I have already said the Border & Immigration Agency is not fit for the purpose, a wide ranging report agreed. Yet has anything happened? The fact this went unreported demonstrates a sick determination to deny these people’s humanity. So here it is, plenty of copy for newspapers to glean and print, hey they have money they could investigate it themselves, consider the gauntlet thrown down. You feel me?
More at Indymedia- Harmondsworth hunger strike broken violently & Detained Mothers on Hunger Strike in Yarl’s Wood.
17 April, 2008 at 2:46 pm
To be quite frank; I have, more than once, been shocked out of wits by watching on the colossal racism exercised by ordinary citizens. I took a cab (not a black cab though; which are as far as I have experienced driven by white drivers!) once and my driver was African. The amount of “fingers” that were shown to him on the road (and he was not driving poorly at all) made me ask him “are London drivers always aggressive?” He said that that was because of the color of his skin (I hid my shock and pretended i didn’t hear). He continued how the economic problems are blamed on Africans, as they are accused of stealing jobs and etc.
Another time, I saw a woman at a ticket booth pushing an Indian customer out of way, because he was breaking in line; yet she was accommodating a white man who had broken in line, ahead of other “colorful’ people who were waiting! (Waiting in train stations for a long time is something I can do as anthropological pastime!)
I thought in North America, the tone used by the ticket seller was CRIMINAL, let alone her actions.
But, with the queen as the official racist head of the state it’s hard to expect better from ordinary citizens! (In fact in any country that holds a royalty on the basis of blood line, racism IS to be expected!)
17 April, 2008 at 9:14 pm
Yes this is what drives me mad about royalty, to have a royal family makes a cultural acceptance of supremacy of- class, race, eugenics. Your average Brit who likes the Royals (and there are a lot of them) argue that-
1. it’s only a ceremonial role so what’s the problem?
2. what would you replace them with?
3. they bring in tourists.
These are the basic tropes of royalism among the population to which it is easy to say to them-
Well 2 is answered by 1 you thick royalist imbecile, they do nothing hence no need to replace them, they are a constitutional redundancy.
And as to 3. So does Disneyland but it doesn’t implicitly justify the ruling class by existing you submissive wage slave dolt!
“(Waiting in train stations for a long time is something I can do as anthropological pastime!)”
Yes that’s true, much to be enjoyed and learned watching life go on. I find cities very focussed enclaves of capitalism which sets all the inhabitants against each other, thusly racial differences are co-opted into the turmoil (multiplied by stress in traffic, a study found people driving in London were often at a fight or flight level of arousal). Yep black cabs are an elite ‘club’ and they are commonly perceived as right wing blowhards and dullards (apologies to leftist anti-racist cabbies, I know there are some) so it will be a while yet until they are representative. We still have openly racist parties contesting elections (BNP) and really I think some of the racism is very obviously a result of our imperial & colonial past which at times has been reviled but at the moment I would say there is a revisionist chauvinism (bolstered by the occupations) denying we should feel guilty and pushing the ‘we civilised them’ meme. Another major reason is the neoliberal scam that hijacked the country from the 80′s onwards. Overall I would say we are in a regressive phase but lot’s of people are growing out of previous generations prejudices even if the institutions they have to deal with remain moribund. Islamophobia though is a means for a whole lot of old school prejudice to reassert itself.
So I would be prepared to be disgusted/shocked quite often if you end up in London but there may yet be hope…perhaps. Although if Boris Johnson becomes Mayor, it might be best avoided!
18 April, 2008 at 4:20 am
Well guess what, my Nazi boss convinced the other German dude who was to receive me in London that I was not a “team player”. Germans like robots I guess, and as I am not the kind of gal to bow to boss, I lost the job opportunity in London. Better! I have quite frankly had enough of working with these people!
Oh I am prepared for London’s roughness; for someone who has lived in Tehran, London cannot be overpowering. At least the buses are civilized.
Anyways, I need to move to London; and if people are racist, so what? It is not any different than the Canadian racism against their aborigine! Or The Quebecios racism against the English and the non-French speakers, or the Albertan’s racism against “brownies”. Racism is a self-protective mechanism that takes over at times of hardship; it is animal. I don’t condone it, but I can laugh at it!
Canadians are skilled in being politically correct! Yes. But, no where in my life have I been subject to racist attitude except in Quebec and Nova Scotia!!
18 April, 2008 at 9:33 pm
Damn those Nazi’s for thwarting your plans, well as you say better off without them!
As you are determined I’m sure another avenue will present itself and Britain will be honoured with your presence. If you like our buses you should try a nightbus, that’s a walk on the wild side!
Well damn those rude Canucks all that hockey and maple syrup must rot their brains, I was reading about an indigenous community that has been continually suppressed by the Canadian government so developers could have the land they called Douglas Creek Estates. Capitalism & racism always going hand in hand to ‘open up new markets’. On the plus side Kids in the Hall are Canadian, so even with that neocon dolt Harper there is some consolation.
19 April, 2008 at 12:27 am
I have taken night buses, just to try my courage! And then I decided London “IS” civilized
19 April, 2008 at 12:37 am
You go girl!
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