Yearly Archives: 2007

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Dignity not detention – report from march to Lindholme prison in October

Dignity Not Detention!

Full report on Indymedia (follow link for background, more reports and photographs): http://www.indymedia.org.uk/en/2007/10/384688.html

Asylum seekers, refugees, trade unionists and supporters from all over the North marched from the Home Office in Sheffield to Lindholme Detention centre near Doncaster between 26-28th October. The marchers were demanding “The right to work for asylum seekers” and stating that “Seeking asylum is not a crime.” They finished at Lindholme immigration removals centre, the nearest such centre to Nottinghamshire, where asylum seekers are often held without having committed any criminal offence. The demonstration there on Sunday 28th was joined by supporters from Nottingham.

A rally was held at the fence of Lindholme and the marchers could hear detainees inside chanting in response to them. A candlelit vigil for those who’d died in detention centres was held and speakers from many countries, including the Congo, Zimbabwe, Sudan, Iran, Iraq and South Africa spoke. The demonstration is the latest in a series of protests at Lindholme making the demand to “Shut Down Lindholme!”
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No Borders Nottingham at Sumac Centre, Thursday 25 October, 7.00pm

No Borders Nottingham presents an evening to discuss the idea of a world without borders and how we might get there. We hope to make you angry & inspired! We’ll be showing an amazing video about tearing down fences at detention centres around the world. We’ll also give a brief report-back from the recent transnational No Borders camp near Gatwick, which opposed the building of a new detention centre there. You can find out about local campaigns, including against our nearest detention centre, Lindholme, and also The Friends of Amdani Juma, which is opposing the Home Office’s vindictive attempts to deport a local activist. And there’ll be great vegan food provided by the Women’s Group of the Nottingham & Notts Refugee Forum and the Sumac bar will be open too.

Date & time: Thursday 25 October, 7.00pm start.
Venue: The Sumac Centre, 245 Gladstone Street, Forest Fields, Nottingham.
Directions to the venue (with map) can be found in the Sumac Centre events diary.
For any other info please contact us using our web form.
See you there!
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Fatma Navruz deportation flight set for Tues 23rd Oct – URGENT

FATMA NAVRUZ MUST STAY!
Ms Navruz is a 54 year old woman who is suffering from considerable problems of ill health. She has no less than three different appointments scheduled for this week at the Queens Medical Centre in Nottingham – one for an endoscopy, another in the department of Thoracic medicine, and another with her psychiatrist. She has further appointments pending because she is suffering severe pain requiring treatment for pain relief and physiotherapy. Ms Navruz’s consultant states that she is suffering from Post Traumatic Stress Disorder, anxiety and depression, which they say is in keeping with her accounts of torture, rape and imprisonment in her country. She is also suffering from psychosis. The fact that Ms Navruz has not been able to prove torture and rape at the hands of the Turkish authorities for her political actions in support of working people in Turkey and the Kurds in particular is not a surprise to anyone who has worked with survivors of both torture and rape – two of the most heinous and hidden acts of terror to the individual.
Fatma is due to be deported to Turkey
Details of flight:
Flight on Turkish Airways, Flight Number: TK1982
Departure Date: Tuesday 23rd October 2007 06.55 a.m.
Flying from Heathrow Airport ,Terminal 3
Recommended arrival time at Heathrow: 4.30 a.m. Boarding 45 minutes before flight
Recommended vaccinations for travellers to Turkey : Polio and Typhoid ( neither of which Fatma has been given)
**************************************************************************
Please fax the following using the attached letters or in your own words.
Jacqui Smith Fax: 020 7035 3262
Turkish Airlines Fax numbers: Head Office:( UK ) 0207-976 17 38/33
Terminal 3 Turkish Airlines at Heathrow/Fax: ) 0208-759 58 14
UK address of Head Office: 125 Pall Mall, SW1Y 5EA, LONDON
UK office address at Heathrow Airport: Heathrow Airport Office Block Room 226 Hounslow Middlesex TW6 1RW
Turkish Airlines email: info-uk@thy.com LONTZTK E-Mail: info-uk@thy.com
customer concerns and opinions email address: customer@thy.com
Heathrow Airport ( Heathrows own terminal fax number) terminal 3 zone: fax number +44-178-4421726

Please click on Read more for information about Fatma’s case.
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3 demos against asylum seeker detention – Sheffield, Doncaster & at Lindholme Detention Centre, 26-28 October

Join us as we march on Sunday 28th October from the Home Office in Sheffield to the Detention Centre at Lindholme to protest against the treatment of asylum seekers in this country. Additional demonstrations in Sheffield and Doncaster during the weekend.

Friday 26th 12 noon: Demonstrate @ Milton House, Home Office (Charter Row, Sheffield S1 3FZ). Rally: 1.45pm @ Ellesmere Green, Burngreave, Sheffield.

Saturday 27th 9am @ Eastwood Methodist Church, Rotherham. Rally & social in Doncaster town centre from 6.30pm.

Sunday 28th 3pm: Demonstrate @ Lindholme Detention Centre (A614, Doncaster DN7 6EE)

Accommodation in Rotherham and Doncaster & refreshment stops. For info contact: dignitynotdetention [at] yahoo.co.uk or call: 07931 900167. See also: Lindholme Appeal/Close Lindholme group.

Download leaflet [attachment=7] produced by South Yorkshire Migrant and Asylum Action Group (SYMAAG). SYMAAG unites refugee, asylum and migrant organisations with campaign groups, trade unions, charities, political parties and supportive individuals. SYMAAG campaigns both for the rights of those seeking asylum and of those coming to work in this country. Contact via 0114 241 2780.

The detention centre is adjacent to Lindholme prison and was formerly part of RAF Lindholme. It has been used to incarcerate immigration detainees since 2000.

Read reports and see photos of previous action at Lindholme: Aug 2007 & Jan 2004.
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Campaigners strike blow against deportation flights – XL Airways pull out

After sustained pressure by anti-deportation campaigners, one of the airline carriers XL Airways has announced its pull out from further deportation flights. XL was identified for its carrying out of a deportation from UK to the Democratic Republic of Congo in February 2007. It was later subject to a direct action during the Camp for Climate Action at Heathrow when it seemed likely that XL would be the carrier for a further deportation to DR Congo in August. This action was followed by demonstrations across Britain by the Congolese community and its supporters. XL Airways was at pains to convince opponents it would not be the carrier for the latter deportation (which was in any case halted in the courts), pending a Country Guidance Tribunal for DR Congo. Now it has been forced to announce its pull out altogether.

Other airlines are now facing direct action for their involvement in deportations including British Airways and Virgin Airlines.This follows a recent expose (in the Independent newpaper) of racism and assault at asylum seeker removal centres, especially by private prison ‘escort teams’ who are paid to take people back to their home countries.

Sustained pressure is needed to get these flights stopped and to against detention of asylum seekers altogether.

It’s not just DR Congo either… read more.
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Support Amdani Juma’s right to remain in the UK

A support group has been launched by the Friends of Amdani Juma to support his appeal against a Home Office ruling to terminate his right to remain. Amdani came to the UK in March 2003 from Burundi and applied for asylum. Within a month he was given Humanitarian Leave to Remain because of his experience as a torture survivor and political dissident, having escaped death on more than one occasion because of ethnic conflict and as a result of his involvement with the Democratic Front of Burundi. The DFB aims to disarm the Burundian army as a means to peace in opposition to the military government. Like most of its leading activists, Amdani has been forced into exile in recent years. Many of his family & friends have faced torture and been murdered. Please download and distribute the attached petition and read on to find out more about the case……
[attachment=6]
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UN warns of thousands of victims of DR Congo fighting

From Goma, DR Congo, Oct 9, 2007 (AFP)
http://www.monuc.org/news.aspx?newsID=15669

UN officials warned here Tuesday that fighting between rebels and army troops in eastern Democratic Republic of Congo had displaced up to 500,000 people and left many in an “appalling” situation. The warning came as heavy fighting between forces loyal to renegade general Laurent Nkunda and the army continued in the Nord-Kivu region Tuesday, the day after the rebels launched an “active offensive” against army troops. A spokesman for the UN Office for Coordination of Humanitarian Affairs in the provincial capital Goma told AFP Tuesday that it had recorded 371,000 people as internally displaced in the region since December 2006.
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Reports, pictures and video from Gatwick ‘No Borders Camp’

The Gatwick No Border Camp, September 19th to 24th.
Find reports, pictures and videos on Indymedia UK.
The camp was really inspiring with workshops, demonstrations and actions taking place during the period of the camp. No Borders Nottingham held a workshop on the link between introduction of ID cards/databases and border control. Biometric ID will play a big part in the government’s UK Borders Bill, following on from the ID Cards Act passed in March 2006.
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Video of interviews outside DR Congo ‘country guidance tribunal’ Sept 21

No deportations to DRCongo.
From Indymedia UK
DRC IS NOT SAFE | 25.09.2007 16:07 | Anti-racism | Migration
These are links to interviews done by Friction TV at the demonstration on 21 September outside the Country Guidance Tribunal into DRC.
[Video interview 1] [Video interview 2] [Video interview 3] [Video interview 4]
Continue reading Video of interviews outside DR Congo ‘country guidance tribunal’ Sept 21 →

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Two major demonstrations at Croydon & Gatwick – part of No Borders Camp

FRIDAY 21 SEPTEMBER- LUNAR HOUSE REPORTING CENTRE & IMMIGRATION HQ, CROYDON

The No Borders network is organising an event outside Lunar House in Croydon on Fri 21 Sept, as part of the first UK No Border Camp, building resistance to the new detention centre planned for Gatwick. Whoever arrives at East Croydon train station will recognize Lunar House, a massive twenty-storey office block on the East side of Wellesley Road. Please join us in front of Lunar House, Borders and Immigration Agency, 40 Wellesley Road, East Croydon, at 10am-2pm Fri 21 Sep.

SATURDAY 22 SEPTEMBER – DAY OF ACTION, MARCH FROM CRAWLEY TO GATWICK DETENTION CENTRE

Also join No Borders on the international demonstration and day of action against immigration prisons: Sat 22 Sept, meet up 12 pm at Memorial Gardens, Crawley, and march together to Tinsley House Detention Centre, Gatwick. Transport is available form London.
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