Anti-deportation campaigns

“On 17 June we, the detainees in the Family Unit (Crane) at Yarl’s Wood Immigration Removal Centre, were attacked at around 2 pm by SERCO officers from Immigration. [SERCO is the contractor that runs Yarl’s Wood]. This is due to the fact that we decided to do a hunger protest, which is peaceful. Our children are sick. There are a lot of people here that are sick. There is a woman with epilepsy who is not been taken care of properly. On 17 June we are all sitting in the corridor when suddenly we saw lots of hefty men coming towards us. They pounced on the men they found in the corridor, who...

Two weeks after nine cleaners at SOAS were taken into detention, campaigners are calling for action for justice for the SOAS 9. They are also appealing for solidarity with detainees in Yarl’s Wood detention centre who are on hunger strike for demand including freeing children who are detained, adequate access to health care, quality food and real privacy. • Day of action, 27 June: info on www.caic.org.uk and freesoascleaners.blogspot.com. • Send messages of solidarity for the hunger strikers to: londoncoalitionagainstpoverty@gmail.com • Contact SERCO (who run Yarl’s Wood) and demand that the...

From Education Not for Sale Activists are occupying the director’s office at SOAS in response to an immigration raid that saw nine cleaners shipped off to a detention centre to be deported. Their demands include: * That the three cleaners who have not yet been deported are given the right to remain. * That SOAS brings its cleaning services back in house. (For their statement with the full list of 11 demands see below). More at www.freesoascleaners.blogspot.com Please take a few moments to send messages of solidarity to freesoascleaners@gmail.com and protests to SOAS director Paul Webley at pw2...

Students and allies at the University of London’s School of School of Oriental and African Studies (SOAS) have occupied the university today to protest against managers’ attacks on migrant workers. Nine cleaners from the university were taken into detention after a dawn raid by immigration police on Friday. Five have already been deported, and the others could face deportation within days. One has had a suspected heart attack and was denied access to medical assistance and even water. One was over 6 months pregnant. Many have families who have no idea of their whereabouts. The cleaners won the...

Fighting migration controls is grinding, a daily and often terrible battle, mostly fought by individuals and small groups of people. Often it is inspiring. But there is a lot going on. On Thursday 7 May Ayodeji Omotade was acquitted by Brent Magistrates Court of threatening and abusive behaviour. That is of shaming British Airways and exposing the reality. In March 2008, Campaign Against Immigrant Controls activists leafleted a BA flight on which Biafran Independence activist Augustine was being deported. We asked people to speak up, to show solidarity. Ayodeji did, in response to screaming...

Campaigners from the Stop Deportation Network and the International Federation of Iraqi Refugees are now (12 May) blockading Colnbrook detention centre, near Heathrow airport, to stop 45 Iraqi refugees being forcibly deported to Iraqi Kurdistan on a specially chartered flight. Six protesters have encased their arms in glass and plastic tubes and concrete blocks, blocking the entrance to Colnbrook and Harmondsworth detention centres. The coaches to carry deportees to the airport have not been able to leave. One of the deportees has been on hunger strike for 10 days in protest at his forced...

12 May: Campaigners from the Stop Deportation Network and the International Federation of Iraqi Refugees are now blockading Colnbrook detention centre, near Heathrow airport, to stop 45 Iraqi refugees being forcibly deported to Iraqi Kurdistan on a specially chartered flight. Six protesters have encased their arms in glass and plastic tubes and concrete blocks, blocking the entrance to Colnbrook and Harmondsworth detention centres. The coaches to carry deportees to the airport have not been able to leave. One of the deportees has been on hunger strike for 10 days in protest at his forced...

Naomi Izevbekhai, aged seven, and her sister Jemima, aged six, are at threat of being deported from Ireland to Nigeria, where their mother Pamela says that her busband's family is likely to force them to submit to genital mutilation. Pamela Izevbekhai has said she left Nigeria in January 2005 due to her husband's family's practice of genital mutilation. The High Court in Dublin is due to give a decision on her appeal on Tuesday 18 November. Her first daughter Elizabeth died at 17 months from blood loss, which the attending doctor described as being possibly the result of female circumcision...

Refugee rights and anti racist campaigners took to the streets of Sheffield on Saturday 3 October to protest against the inhuman treatment of asylum seekers by the authorities in Britain. In particular they wanted to highlight the policy of locking up asylum seekers, sometimes for long periods, in detention centres — in some cases along with their young children. Over 100 people marched from Sheffield City Hall to the Peace Gardens to call for asylum seekers to be given the right to work and for an end to deportations to war zones. Amongst those on the protest were: • Iraqi Kurds who have been...

Refugee rights and anti racist campaigners took to the streets of Sheffield on Saturday 3 October to protest against the inhuman treatment of asylum seekers by the authorities in Britain. In particular they wanted to highlight the policy of locking up asylum seekers, sometimes for long periods, in detention centres — in some cases along with their young children. Over 100 people marched from Sheffield City Hall to the Peace Gardens to call for asylum seekers to be given the right to work and for an end to deportations to war zones. Amongst those on the protest were: • Iraqi Kurds who have been...