Protest: Red Road Glasgow
Saturday 13 March, 11:00am

Starting at Red Road flats
63 Petershill Drive, Glasgow G21
Marching to a rally in George Square

The march, organised by Red Road Residents, Glasgow Campaign to Welcome Refugees and the Unity Centre, will begin at the exact spot of grass where a family of three asylum seekers, t he Serykh family, fell to their deaths on Sunday 7 March.

Red Road pic ©Duncan Brown

The tragic deaths in the Red Road must be the last.  The scapegoating and persecution of asylum seekers must stop.  Please raise the event in your organisations and add their names to the list of supporters.  The residents of the Red Road and all other asylum seekers and refugees need and deserve our support.  Make this march huge so that the politicians and the media get the message loud and clear – refugees are welcome here!

The purpose of the march and rally is to:

1. Remember the Serykh family and call for an immediate end to any further enforced removals of refugee families in the Red road area by the UK Borders Agency (UKBA) ; and

2. Call for the immediate return of Stephanie Ovranah and her twin six year old sons, Joshua and Joel, to their friends, neighbours and local church in Glasgow’s Cranhill where they have lived for past five five years. (The family were detained at Brand Street reporting centre last Friday with the children still in their school uniforms. They are currently in Yarl’s Wood Detention Centre and the children are understood to be terrified of being returned to Nigeria which they do not know or remember).

Demonstrate outside Harmondsworth immigration prison, Heathrow

Saturday 13th March 2010
12:00 - 1:00 pm
Harmondsworth IRC
Colnbrook by Pass
Harmondsworth
West Drayton
UB7 0FX

From: "London NoBorders"
<noborderslondon@riseup.net>

Detainee Solidarity London is calling for a demo this Saturday at Harmondsworth in solidarity with the 55 detainees on hunger strike since last week.

At any one time, over 2500 people are in immigration detention in the UK. Some have been detained for months, others for years. We call for the immediate closure of all detention centres and stand in solidarity with all those in Harmondsworth, Yarl's Wood and elsewhere resisting this barbaric practice.

Meeting points:
(1) 10am at Boots, corner of Piccadilly/Berkeley St (by Green Park Tube), or
(2) 11.30am at Heathrow Bus Station (catch the U3 to Harmondsworth), or
(3) 12 noon outside Harmondsworth, on the A4 (Colnbrook By-Pass), Heathrow

Please bring banners and instruments.

More info: http://london.noborders.org.uk

Mothers Day Solidarity Demonstration @ Yarl's wood

Yarl's Wood Migrant Solidarity are calling a demonstration at 12:00 pm on Sunday, 14th March 2010 in solidarity with the women on hunger strike in Yarl's Wood Immigration Removal Centre.

Yarl's Wood IRC
Twinwoods Road
Clapham
Bedfordshire
MK41 6HL

We join these women in their protest against the detention of migrants. We support their bravery and we oppose immigration laws that restrict the freedom of movement of those in need.

We have chosen to act on Mother's Day to highlight the cruel way that migrant women, many of whom have come to the UK to seek respite from violence and torture, have been separated from their families for no good reason and at little notice. They have since been subjected to further violence and humiliation within the immigration centre.

We support the hunger strikers at Yarl's Wood in all of the demands that they have issued. We support the hunger strikers at Harmondsworth Immigration Removal Centre and in immigration centres in Italy. We are acting to express our disgust at immigration laws and to re-affirm the belief that freedom of movement is a human right. We are outraged by the fact that Serco are controlling the Yarl's Wood Immigration Centre in the interest of private profit. We oppose the idea of national borders and nation-states as a whole and we do not believe that there is any such thing as an illegal human being.

We invite those who share in our beliefs, and anyone who opposes the detention of migrants, the abuse of women and the separation of families, to join us at 12 pm on Sunday, 14 March. Bring voices, whistles, drums and anything else that makes a noise: we want the hunger strikers to know that we are with them, and that they are not alone on Mother's Day.

Hope to see you there...

Yarl's Wood Migrant Solidarity
yarlswoodsolidarity@hushmail.com

Release Anthony and Arben from Detention

Anthony Suntharesh has been detained for 18 months. He was a Tamil activist in Sri Lanka, and was tortured for four years in prison there. He was granted refugee status in Britain in 2001, and has a 5 year old son who is British. He was detained in September 2008 after finishing a short sentence for criminal damage, for which he was initially given a suspended sentence. He won his case against deportation in September 2009, but has been refused bail 16 times.

Arben Draga has been detained for a total of three years. Arben came to Britain in 2001 when he was aged 16, fleeing persecution as an ethnic minority in Kosovo. His claim for asylum was accepted, and he was granted refugee status. After he finished serving half of an 18 month prison sentence he was detained for 9 months and released. He was detained for a second time in November 2007. He is still waiting for his appeal against deportation to be heard.

Read two personal stories about the effect of indefinite detention, and find out what you can do to help >>>