Yearly Archives: 2008

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Emergency support demo called on evening of continued Campsfield hunger strikes

An emergency support demo for Campsfield protesters, where there are currently up to 60 people on hunger strike (nearly a third of all of those inside), has been called by Campaign to Close Campsfield this evening Tuesday 12th August at 6:00 pm.

Location of demo:
Campsfield House IRC
Langford Lane
Kidlington
Oxfordshire
OX5 1RE

No Borders Nottingham sends solidarity greetings and hopes that the action will achieve some change, with the closing of Campsfield as just the start!

Read more info about the hunger strike started by 13 Iraqi Kurdish detainees against their continued detention and threatened deportation to Iraq, which is now supported by many others who are incarcerated in Campsfield, on BBC Oxfordshire website…
Asylum seekers on hunger strike (12 August 2008):
http://news.bbc.co.uk/1/hi/england/oxfordshire/7556290.stm

See also: Campsfield claims ‘unsurprising’ (mistreatment of detainees, 15 July 2008):
http://news.bbc.co.uk/1/hi/england/oxfordshire/7507882.stm
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Ndeh Family Must Stay! Solidarity Gathering (with cookies), 11am-1pm, Sheffield Peace Gardens, Saturday 9th August 2008

Saturday 9th August 2008, 11:00am – 1:00pm
Sheffield Peace Gardens. Sheffield

Claude and Majolie N’Deh, and their children Kirsty, Gael and Jason Cyril are Cameroonian’s Seeking Sanctuary in the UK. A Solidarity demonstration will be held, Saturday 9th August 2008, 11:00am – 1:00pm, Sheffield Peace Gardens, Sheffield. “16-year-old Tilda Swinney and friends want to prove that every child matters – and are campaigning for Claude Ndeh and his young family to be given permission to stay in the UK. They are baking cookies this week and will give one as a thank-you to everyone who signs the petition for the Ndeh family to stay.”

NCADC newszine information about Ndeh family: http://www.ncadc.org.uk/Newszine97/Ndeh%20Family.html
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Appeal for burial funds after death of refused Iraqi Kurd from Doncaster

Mohammad Hussain dies of cancer following 8 years struggling to gain refugee status
by INTERNATIONAL FEDERATION OF IRAQ REFUGEES-IFIR
Appeal for funds to send Mohammad Hussain?s body home to be buried

The International Federation of Iraqi Refugees (IFIR) is sorry to inform you that one of our comrades Mohammad Hussain died of cancer on Sunday 3rd August. Many of you will know Mohammad Hussain from Doncaster. He was a big man with a big heart. Mohammad was originally from Erbil in Northern Iraq. Mohammad has been a political campaigner all of his life. He was forced to leave Erbil and seek refuge in the UK March 2000, following threats from the Kurdish Democratic Party because of his political campaigning.

Unfortunately Mohammed became one of the many Iraqi Kurds caught up in the UK Home Office asylum system. But until the very end of his life, Mohammed never gave up on the fight to gain refugee status. He was arrested and he was moved from Lindholme detention centre to Campsfield detention centre in Oxfordshire, to Tinsley House and then to Haslar. The Home Office tried to deport him on 14th June 2008 to Iraq via Royal Jordanian Airlines but 44 minutes before he was due to be deported his solicitor and the campaign to defend him sucessfully stopped his deportation. While he was in the detention centre at Lindholme he was very stressed and suffered much pain. When he explained that he had a lump in his stomach which was getting bigger and harder he was given a mild painkiller, then sold a headache tablet by the detention centre ?doctor?. Mohammad died but did not get refugee status.”

For the eight years Mohammad was in the UK he was a constant and fierce defender of refugee and human rights. Mohammad worked with many refugee charities and organisations.

Download IFIR full leaflet including appeal: [attachment=15]

See also, Stop Deportations to Iraq news blog: http://www.csdiraq.com/

Mohammad Hussain Mohammad 11th March 1962 ? 3rd August 2008
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Another BA flight leaves for Nigeria without family HO wanted to deport on July 2nd

Yesterday No Borders South Wales reported another successful campaign to stop a deportation flight. Family Kemi Ayinde, Taiwo Salami, and Yasim Salami were not deported as the home office had planned, although they were taken to the airport at 6am on morning of 2nd July and actually boarded the plane bound for Nigeria. Airways staff were talking about ?all the phone calls? before informing the family that they were unable to fly them as they had been advised Kemi was not fit to travel. The family?s case is not over; they are currently imprisoned in Yarlswood detention centre without legal representation and still with the threat of immanent deportation hanging over them.

Supporters were called to a Public Meeting in Butetown, Cardiff this evening (3rd July) to hear first hand accounts of contending with British border controls from local asylum seekers Babakhan ‘Babi’ Badalov and Constance Nzeneu, followed by a discussion and practical advice on resistance to the UK Border regime.

Full article on No Borders South Wales website:
Sanctuary for Kemi Ayinde, Taiwo Salami, and Yasim Salami
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European actions against detention & deportation

With the passing of the EU ‘returns directive’ last week (see also
http://www.outrageousdirective.org/ ), it is encouraging to report on two actions, one in Belgium and one in Denmark that defy state treatment of would-be refugees and migrant workers.

DENMARK: Stop the Deportations ( http://www.stopudvisningerne.blogspot.com/ ) is a network that has emerged in Copenhagen as an answer to the unacceptable practise of sending people back to the turmoil in Iraq. Stop the Deportations has lately, on several occasions protested and made blockades in Kastrup airport in order to stop the deportations. We have succeeded in raising awareness and public debate about the issue and we are – with inspiration from the campaigning all over Europe, planning future actions. One day in the third week of July week 30 we will act specifically against Lufthansa. See previous action against deportation at Copehagen. Airport. May 28th 2008: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Pnbbk4-4wBQ

BELGIUM: On Saturday 28th of march, 22 refugee-activists blockaded the gates of the closed detention centre in Merksplas (Belgium). The group, Mindy’s Mega Blockade, locked the two gates where mini-vans transport the refugees in and out of the centre. The gate for the staff and visitors wasn’t blocked. From seven o’clock in the morning ten activists used tubes to link their arms trough the two gates, while one activist, dressed up as Mega Mindy (a very popular female superhero in a dutch television series) climbed up the wall of the closed detention centre. Encouraged by the detained refugees they kept up the blockade until 2 o’clock in the afternoon. Not a single van could bring refugees to the airport or inside the detention centre. The action group informed the police of the blockade, but the police didn’t arrest the activists. The action was broadcasted through all the media in Flandres (the dutch-speaking part of Belgium) on Saturday. The activists said they wanted to shut down the deportation machinery, raise awareness about the detention of children and strengthen the debate about closed dention centres. See photos on : http://ovl.indymedia.org/news/2008/06/23371.php

Note that UK, which implements an indefinite detention period, did not opt-in to the Returns Directive which lays down a maximum period of custody of six months & can be extended by a further 12 months in certain cases. The detention of human beings for any period is of course unacceptable to No Borders.
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Independent video of demonstration in support of Hicham Yezza and Academic Freedom

A moving video which speaks for more action: Independent video of the demo – interviews, speechs, march in the rain, support from students & co-workers, phone call with Hich in detention centre, etc.

Hich on mobile phone: “thank you … and hopefully we can all join in another demonstration to celebrate my release … you are a credit to Nottingham, a credit to Nottingham University, and a credit to students and student activism, and community activism”.

Free Hicham Yezza!

http://www.frictiontv.com/ftv_debate.php%5C?debate_id=3206
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NOTTINGHAM REFUGEE WEEK UPCOMING EVENTS

*THURSDAY 19 JUNE – PUBLIC MEETING: Refugees in a Global Era. Speaker: Phil Marfleet.
Venue: The Square Centre, Alfred Street North. Time: 7pm. ALL WELCOME.
*SATURDAY 21ST JUNE – FUNDRAISING EVENT: International food tasting event
Venue: The Vine Community Centre, Bobbersmill Rd, Hyson Green. Time: 7-10pm. Tickets: £20
*SUNDAY 22 JUNE: ?They Don?t Want to Learn English?. Come and celebrate and learn more about the issues faced by refugees and people seeking asylum who are English learners.
Venue: Sneinton. Time: 6.15 ? 8pm. FREE EVENT. Contact: 07905 298137
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SUCCESSFUL Immigration bail hearings for Hich and Amdani on 16th June 2008 – but campaigning continues

By coincidence the bail hearings of two high-profile Nottingham detainees both took place today via video links from Dover citadel (for Hicham Yezza) and Campsfield in Oxfordshire (for Amdani Juma). These hearings were to allow them to be released from detention while they fight their respective immigration cases. Latest news – after 31 days inside and one deportation flight cancelled, Hich is bailed! (although Home Office tried to make out he should be kept locked up because he has no ‘absence of close ties’ to the UK – clearly nonsense). Amdani’s hearing finished a couple of hours later and he is also bailed (in spite of HO opposition) after 18 days and two cancelled deportation flights. Hoorah!!

See also: Land of no return. Article in Guardian newspaper on Jun 13th 2008 about community anti-deportation campaigns.
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No deportations to Zimbabwe – protest in Nottingham Fri 27th June

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No deportations to Zimbabwe - protest in Nottingham Fri 27th JuneA protest NO DEPORTATIONS TO ZIMBABWE has been called by the Nottingham Zimbabwe Community Network on Friday 27th June at 4pm in Nottingham Old Market Square. Come and join it!

Read an Indymedia report following the showing of Zimbabwe film FLAME at the Sumac Centre on 18th June. Also find more NZCN news on the new blog-site:
http://nzcn.wordpress.com

Refugee Week 2008 events listing (14th ? 22nd June):
http://www.indymedia.org.uk/en/2008/06/400846.html
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Another riot at Campsfield (Oxfordshire) detention centre – 14th June 2008 (& escapes a few days later)

LATEST NEWS 19 June (BBC Oxfordshire):
7 detainees escape from Campsfield overnight.

Information about the most recent riot on June 14th by those who are sick of being detained, can be found on Indymedia (Migration section):
http://www.indymedia.org.uk/en/2008/06/401100.html

Those of us on the outside show our solidarity with those who are locked up for no other reason than their being born on other soil. More of these centres are being built in Britain and elsewhere, whilst the EU (through the ‘returns directive’) considers that 18 months detention should be considered normal. The fight to close these centres must be stepped up. See Migreurop website for a map of immigration prisons and ‘camps’ across Europe. Also read (in their own sickening words) how GEO group, the company who run Campsfield, see incarceration of human beings in terms of profit for their shareholders and are so proud of their listing on the New York Stock Exchange.
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