The Nottingham STAR (Student Action for Refugees) Group is holding a party Creating Harmony at The Square Centre, Alfred Street North, this Saturday 6th December, from 4pm to 11pm. The party will feature drums, dance, poetry and food. If coming please bring some food to share. All welcome.
Then, on Wednesday 10th December, the next Small World Cinema event will take place at The Sumac Centre, 245 Gladstone Street, Forest Fields, Nottingham, starting at 7pm. The film night will be hosted by Adam and Ayman from NNRF’s Food Group and this month’s film will be about Darfur (Sudan). The film will be followed by a discussion on the current situation in Darfur.
The next Small World Cinema at the Sumac Centre is on the 12th November, starting 7pm. This month the films are from Palestine / Lebanon including films from A-films, an autonomous anarchist film collective who do video workshops and short film production: http://a-films.blogspot.com
Chairman of the Equalities and Human Rights Commission Trevor Phillips’ speech at the Confederation of British Industry yesterday has resulted in a lot of media attention about the disproportionate effect of economic crisis on the white working class who are after all a majority in UK. And it’s quite right that the right-wing may use simple statistics to scapegoat migrants workers as poverty and employment strikes.
Not only do we find that 100,000’s of EU nationals in the UK have already left due to losing jobs or deciding it’s not worth staying anymore, but even though many are eligible to claim benefits including Job Seekers’ Allowance, government figures show there have been only 4,647 successful JSA applications from eastern Europeans since 2004. So any idea of migrants scrounging of the state is nonsense. If any finger is to be pointed, it’s at the capitalist system that cares little about working people whereever they are from, as long as we work and don’t cause trouble.
No Borders / Small World Kitchen will hold the now regular event at the Sumac Centre in Forest Fields, with discussion on a topic relevant to migration or asylum seeker issues, followed by traditional African vegan food provided by the Women’s Group of the Nottingham & Notts Refugee Forum. Starts 7pm. The discussion will be about the relationship of small arms (and the not so small arms) trade to the reasons why so many people are forced to relocate or flee from violence, and what can be done about it here in Nottingham.There will also be another Small World Cinema event on Wednesday 12th November. Continue reading No Borders & Small World Kitchen @ Sumac on Halloween night – 31st October at 7pm→
Since Jane Mary Mutetsi, who was born in Rwanda but had found sanctuary in Britain after growing up in Uganda, was forcibly removed from Nottingham to Uganda by this government on 16th October. Since returning she has not left the house. She has got no money. She has got no work. She is ill. She spent the first two days at one house, the next at another. How can it be different? After a lifetime in Uganda, taken there by her parents with the rest of the family when just a child, all of her own children born in Uganda, Jane Mary must attend an Immigration interview next Tuesday. The Ugandan authorities don’t understand why she has been returned to Uganda and not Rwanda. At the moment they are saying that she should go to Rwanda. If she wants to apply to enter Uganda, she should do so from Rwanda. It isn’t a surprise, it’s just so clear that the Home Office couldn’t care less where people are returned to as long as they bring the numbers down here. Continue reading Unwanted refugee bumped from pillar to post by nation states→
We are angry to convey the news that after the brave stopping of a charter plane before it was able to leave on 15th September, 52 Iraqi Kurdish asylum seekers (including those assaulted and injured in the earlier revolt) were forcibly removed from British immigration detention centres to Erbil International Airport, Northern Iraq, on 17/18th September. They were met by two hundred Kurdish Regional Government (KRG) troops. From a report to the International Federation of Iraqi Refugees-IFIR & Coalition to Stop Deportation to Iraq-CSDIRAQ by one of those removed, at least one was separated off from the other asylum seekers and escorted away by the troops. Iraq is safe, our warmongering politicians lie, yet again. We lost this one, but resistance has worked before, and will no doubt continue. Continue reading 52 Iraqi Kurdish asylum seekers removed 17/18th September following brave airline revolt of the 15th.→
At last, some recognition of the crazy way the British state treats asylum seekers, whilst allowing the populist press and racist troublemakers to call them scroungers. Even though he’d had to obtain fake documents to work and earn a living, Nottingham Evening Post reported that, Judge Dudley Bennett described a Zimbawean man Weldone Javangwe as a “perfectly respectable man” who has contributed to the Nottingham community. “You have been paying your taxes and you have not been a drain on our society in any way.” […] The decision was welcomed by Regis Manyanya, chairman of the Nottingham Zimbabwean Community Network, which campaigns for Zimbabweans refused asylum to be given the right to work. He said: “There are a lot of people in the same situation. Because they are living in destitution some of them feel they have no option but to work illegally. Some are being pushed into prostitution. “They are hard-working and want to make a living, but because of the system they are forced into committing these types of crime.”
Until the day when people are able to escape war and torture freely without borders, all asylum seekers should be able to work so they can try and avoid destitution while they concentrate on their cases and appeals, without this unnecessary additional hassle from vehicle licensing snoopers, immigration officials, police and the so-called justice system. Continue reading Judge describes Nottingham ‘illegal’ worker “a perfectly respectable man who fled from Zimbabwe.”→
For freedom of movement, Against nationhood and prevention of migration by nation states, Welcoming asylum seekers and migrant workers, Against capitalist exploitation
No Borders / Small World Kitchen will hold the now regular event at the 
