NCADC Newsletter, 25 Feb 2013
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In this week’s newsletter:
Home Secretary attacks “revolting” judges
UKBA policies under attack -
- dispersal puts pregnant women at risk
- use of force on children - UKBA backs down
- mental health in detention - legal victory against Home Office
- housing profiteering - G4S report
- deportation “reserves” - UKBA defies parliament
Campaign updates
Legal news: update on Zimbabwe country guidance
Youth action for the rights of migrants
Parliament: update on deporting unaccompanied children to Afghanistan
The judges’ revolt and the Home Office’s assault on love
Home Office anti-foreigner propaganda has been unavoidable recently. A particularly nasty Valentine’s Day themed social media campaign was followed by the Home Secretary’s latest attack on Judges who interpret the laws set by parliament rather than carry out her latest populist dictat. Read all about it at the NCADC blog.
Theresa May, immigration judges & media myths
When a Home Secretary starts accusing the judiciary of subverting democracy, we should get nervous, writes Kate Blagojevic of Detention Action. But when new legislation designed to bypass human rights law is announced, we need to actively resist.
UKBA backs down over use of force on children and pregnant women
The Guardian reports that the government has backed down on the use of force on children and pregnant women it seeks to remove from the UK.
Just before a high court challenge was due to start, the UK Border Agency reinstated a policy on its website which says that force must not be used against pregnant women and children except to prevent harm. The judge in the case, Mr Justice Turner, said of the move by the UKBA: “It’s not appropriate in my view that policies of this importance should disappear and reappear.”
The home secretary, Theresa May, faced a legal challenge in the high court from four asylum seekers – a pregnant woman and three children – who face removal from the UK. They argued that the government has no policy in place on use of force against pregnant women and children in detention and does not have the right to use force against them. HM Inspectorate of Prisons and several charities have documented the use of force against detained pregnant women and children.
UKBA dispersal policy ‘puts pregnant asylum seekers at risk’
The health of hundreds of pregnant women and their babies are being put at risk by the UK Border Agency’s policy of dispersing asylum seekers, according to midwives involved in their care, reports the Guardian.
A report published on Monday by the Maternity Action and the Refugee Council says that the immigration authorities are endangering the health of pregnant asylum seeking women and their babies by moving them to accommodation around the country and so removing them from essential healthcare and leaving them isolated.
Read the report at Refugee Council website
Mind and Medical Justice : “Home Secretary backs down in mental health court battle”
The Home Secretary has taken a last minute decision to pull out of her appeal in the case of a Nigerian man (HA) with mental health problems who experienced inhuman and degrading treatment while in immigration detention.
The charities Mind and Medical Justice (represented by Sue Willman of Deighton Pierce Glynn Solicitors), who were given permission to intervene in the appeal, say that, in taking this decision, the UK Border Agency (UKBA) effectively accepts that its policy of detaining people with mental health problems in immigration detention led to a serious breach of HA’s human rights. Read more.
G4S takeover has been a ‘disaster for asylum seekers’
G4S’s takeover of asylum housing under the UK Border Agency’s (UKBA) COMPASS contracts has been a disaster for asylum seekers and their families in Yorkshire and the Humber and the North East, a new report claims.
Compiled for the Independent Chief Inspector of Borders and Immigration, the report also alleges that the allocation of the contracts to an international security company rather than a housing provider suggests that the contracts were allocated for political rather than commercial reasons. Read more.
UK Border Agency defies MPs over deportation ‘reserves’
Extra detainees are still being held at airports before charter flights, a year after MPs and prison inspector demanded an end to the “inhumane” practice.
Corporate Watch and Stop Deportations are working on a joint report examining the various legal aspects of charter flight deportations. Read the Corporate Watch report here, and the Observer article here.
If you have been used as a reserve in this way, or know of anyone who has, please get in touch and we can put you in contact with the researchers.
Campaign news
Odette Sefuko
Facing forced removal on March 4th. Protest vigil in Sheffield, 27 Feb. Odette came to the UK five years ago, to seek safety and live a life free from persecution. She is a fighter for minority rights and women’s rights in DR Congo, and now Odette is fighting for her right to sanctuary in the UK. Read more
Roseline Akhalu
A successful kidney transplant saved Roseline’s life. UKBA want to send her back to Nigeria, where she will not be able to access the immunosuppressant drugs she needs to stay alive. A tribunal ruled against UKBA. Unbelievably, the Home Office has appealed the life-saving court ruling. Read more.
Fozia and Nawaz
A wonderful story of love that has survived against the odds - but now Fozia and Nawaz face yet another ordeal, as UKBA attempt to deport them to Pakistan, where they are at risk of honour killing.Read more
Shahana and Shanzeh
Shahana found temporary sanctuary in the UK after managing to escape her violent husband in Pakistan, but now she and her daughter are facing forced removal on 6 March. GARAS in Gloucester are campaigning for their right of sanctuary. Read more.
Youth action for the rights of migrants - from the US Dreamers to the Glasgow Girls
Meeting Carlos Saavedra, of the United We Dream movement last week, and then catching the musical production ‘Glasgow Girls’ at the Theatre Royale last week was bound to spark off thoughts on what happens when young people get involved in the issue of the rights of migrants. Here are a bunch of reasons why we should feel pretty hopeful as to what the potential is… Read more at MRN Blog
Legal News
Zimbabwe Country Guidance: Bleak future for asylum seekers
Brighton Mutebuka writes at NewZimbabwe.com on the long awaited new country guidance case on Zimbabwe. The conclusions reached by the Upper Tribunal make sombre reading and paints a somewhat bleak picture for Zimbabwean asylum claimants in the UK with no prominent political profiles.
Free Movement blog examines some of the procedural points that arose in the course of reaching the determination. There are three general issues the tribunal addresses, all on the subject of evidence: (i) the extent to which the Secretary of State is under a duty of disclosure, (ii) the practicalities surrounding that duty including Public Interest Immunity certificates and (iii) the admissibility of and weight to be attached to anonymous evidence.
Parliament
Afghanistan: update on plans to forcibly return unaccompanied child refugees
13th February 2012, Asylum: Afghanistan Home Department
Lisa Nandy (Wigan, Labour)- To ask the Secretary of State for the Home Department
(1) what progress she has made under the European Returns Platform for Unaccompanied Minors on the establishment of (a) care centres and (b) reception centres for children in Afghanistan; where each detention centre is; who manages each such centre; whether an agreement has been signed to proceed with forced returns; and when any returns will begin;
(2) how many asylum-seeking children have been returned to reception centres in Kabul under the joint European Returns Platform for Unaccompanied Minors project to date.
Mark Harper (Forest of Dean, Conservative)
The Government is working with Sweden, Norway and the Netherlands in progressing the European Return Platform for Unaccompanied Minors (ERPUM) project, whose aim is to establish arrangements in Afghanistan that make it possible to safely return a limited number of unaccompanied children, who have been refused asylum, to their families or to other suitable care arrangements.
The Government will ensure these care arrangements meet standards published by the UNHCR.
No care centres or reception facilities have yet been established for children returning to Afghanistan and there is no intention to place them in detention centres. No children have yet been returned. Decisions as to whether it is appropriate to return unaccompanied children are always made on a case by case basis, taking into account the child’s best interests.
