Law Lords: Oakington Ruling Disappointing
by: Cambridgeshire Against Refugee Detention (CARD)
The Law Lords have backed the government's policy of detaining refugees
at Oakington for "administrative convenience". This category of detention
had been found to violate Article 5 of the European Convention on Human
Rights in September 2001, but the judgement was overturned on appeal in
October 2001 and the appeal judgement upheld in the House of Lords today.
The Lords said that deprivation of liberty is justified because of the
number of asylum seekers waiting for decisions - a backlog largely created
by the Home Office's inefficiency. This decision seems bizarre to CARD
but again we stress that, whatever the result of this judicial review,
there would still have been hundreds of people unjustly imprisoned and
it would take a change in the law and government policy to free them.
Cambridgeshire Against Refugee Detention is disappointed but not surprised
by the House of Lords' ruling in favour of the imprisonment of refugees
at Oakington in Cambridgeshire, and reiterates that the detention of refugees
is a national disgrace which must be ended by a change in the law and
in the government's attitude.
Andy Smith of CARD said: "No nation that claims to respect human rights
should be imprisoning people arbitarily and indefinitely when they have
not been convicted or even accused of any crime. Thousands of people every
year are imprisoned for nothing more than exercising their right to claim
asylum after fleeing persecution and war. The government claims that the
men, women and children at Oakington must be held against their will simply
so that they attend interviews and fill in forms more quickly. We do not
agree with the Law Lords' decision that this is justified under the European
Convention on Human Rights by the sheer number of asylum seekers awaiting
decisions due to the Home Office's inefficiency. However we do not think
that the government's other excuses - when they give any reason at all
- justify extrajudicial detention, and we believe that a change in the
law is required to end the scandal of immigration detention."
But perhaps more importantly the government's attitude needs to change
if we are to be a caring, tolerant society that respects the rights of
refugees and members of ethnic minorities. Andy Smith said: "The government's
asylum and immigration policies at the moment are driven by scaremongering
in the right-wing press, ultimately rooted in racism and xenophobia. Rather
than refute false claims about 'bogus' asylum seekers, the government's
response is to make the asylum system ever harsher to try to deter people
from coming to Britain. The Nationality, Immigration and Asylum Bill will
see even more refugees deported without having their claims considered,
and increase the segregation of refugees from the rest of society by forcing
them to stay in remote 'accommodation centres'."
The government sometimes claims to be sympathetic to "genuine" refugees
yet its latest plans for Oakington show this to be no more than empty
rhetoric. Asylum seekers from a list of supposedly "safe" countries -
many with widespread and well-documented human rights violations - will
be sent to Oakington while their applications are automatically rejected,
and then deported with no right of appeal in the UK. Andy Smith said:
"The Home Secretary justifies the abuse of refugees' rights by saying
that a fair and humane asylum system would increase support for the far
right. I believe the opposite is true: the government's behaviour legitimises
the far right's claims and helps move racism against migrants from the
fringes into mainstream politics."
Download the full decision: Oakington.doc
Notes
1. Cambridgeshire Against Refugee Detention (CARD) was formed in 1999
to campaign against the imprisonment of asylum seekers at Oakington and
nationwide. Oakington detention centre opened in 2000 and is a prison
for up to 400 men, women and children who have not been convicted or accused
of any crime.
2. The judicial review was brought by Zhenar Maged, Rizgan Mohammed,
Dilshad Osman and Dr Shayan Saadi, who had been detained at Oakington.
The High Court ruled in September 2001 that the detention of asylum seekers
for "administrative convenience" at Oakington is a violation of Article
5 of the European Convention on Human Rights. The decision was overturned
in the Court of Appeal in October 2001.
3. More background information on the judicial review is available on
the CARD website at:
4. Over 1500 people are detained in the UK at any time under asylum and
immigration legislation. Detention is arbitrary, with no time limit, no
automatic right to a bail hearing, and little judicial oversight. Children,
babies and pregnant women are among those detained. Detainees are not
suspected of any crime. Most detainees are held for poorly-defined and
often unspecified reasons other than "administrative convenience", which
was the category of detention challenged in the judicial review. CARD
believes that the immigration detention system is racist and a gross violation
of human rights, and calls for an immediate end to detention.
For more information contact:
Andy Smith: (07812) 242927 / andy@zambezi.org.uk
Mike Lewis: (07712) 655130 / mhl24@cam.ac.uk
Background information is on the CARD website:
