Anti-deportation campaigns

Campaigns to allow particular individuals, families or groups of people to stay in the UK

Stop deporting Kurdish refugees!

International Federation For Iraqi Refugees (IFIR) and Coalition to stop deportations to Iraq (CSD Iraq) kickstart a campaign of action against deporting Kurdish Iraqi Refugees 22 June - 7 July IFIR in conjunction with CSD Iraq has organised a number of events across Europe to highlight the plight of Kurdish Iraqi Refugees across Europe. Several European countries have declined Kurdish Iraqi refugees’ claim for asylum, on the grounds that Iraqi Kurdistan is safe. Unfortunately this is not true— Iraqi Kurdistan is dominated by lawlessness; administrative and political corruption; oppression and...

Support Samina and her children fighting to stay

From No One is Illegal Immigration controls are racist towards all those wanting to come or remain. They are based on the crudest nationalism. They have a particular, and often hidden, effect on disabled people. For instance it is a myth that NHS services are free at the point of treatment — since 1982 free treatment has been denied those judged not “ordinarily resident” here. All non contributory benefits — including disability living allowance and incapacity benefits — are subject to immigration status tests. This government has ensured that since 1999 care in the community legislation has...

Solidarity with Samina Altaf and her children Aqsa and Sumama

Transport and General Workers Union branch 6/389 offers total support to Samina Altaf and her two children. Samina is a hairdresser is presently studying at Bury College. Samina does not plead for pity. She asks for solidarity. She does not beg to remain here. She demands her right to stay. She fled Pakistan after being subject to domestic violence. She applied for asylum here because of this violence. However like many other women she has been refused by the Home Office. And the Home Office does not act alone. Aqsa her daughter has a severe bone disease and is unable to walk upright. A week...

Stop the deportations to Darfur!

By Amina Saddiq At the end of March, the National Coalition of Anti-Deportation Campaigns reported that, across the country, the Home Office had accelerated its programme of rounding up and deporting Sudanese asylum-seekers, including people from war-ravaged and ethnically-cleansed Darfur. It is not just a question of people returning to Darfur itself. Many Darfuris (as well as other Sudanese) says that they will face death if they are returned to Sudan at all. Mohammed Abdulhadi Ali, a Darfuri asylum-seeker whose deportation was cancelled less than 24 hours before Solidarity went to press...

No One is Illegal conference

Over one hundred socialists, trade unionists and anti-deporation activists attended the No One is Illegal trade union conference in Liverpool on 31 March. The day was spent discussing the politics of the fight against immigration controls and for migrant and refugee rights. This discussion — which was on the day was thoughtful, thorough and comradely — is vitally necessary as these issues are centrally important to the future of the labour movement. It would be a great step forward if a strong left-wing in the anti-deportation/asylum/migrant rights movement could be established. Two issues are...

Don’t let them deport Sadiq Abakar!

By Sofie Buckland, NUS national executive One of the Darfuris faced with deportation is Sadiq Abakar, who has spent over seven years in Britain in Britain awaiting asylum. He fled Sudan in 1999 after he and his brother were jailed for anti-government protests; his brother was later killed in prison, and his father and other family members have also been murdered. He spent 35 days in a cargo container to get here, only to face years of harrassment from immigration officials once he arrived. He now has a young family. Sadiq learnt English at Lambeth College in south London and became a leading...

Trade unions unite to save Nigerian refugee from deportation, torture and death

From the No One is Illegal group For the first time an alliance of General Secretaries of trade unions have come together in support of a refugee in detention and under threat of deportation. This is unprecedented. The refugee is Alphonsus Uche Okafor-Mefor (Home Office reference number M1320887) The General Secretaries are: Paul Mackney of UCU (the University and Colleges Union), Mark Serwotka of the PCS ( Public and Commercial Service Union), Jeremy Dear of the NUJ (National Union of Journalists), Bob Crowe of the RMT (Rail, Maritime and Transport), Tony Woodley of the TGWU (Transport and...

United trade union protest stops deportation

By THE No One Is Illegal campaign For the first time an alliance of trade union General Secretaries have come together in support of a refugee in detention and under threat of deportation. The refugee is Alphonsus Uche Okafor-Mefor. The General Secretaries are: Paul Mackney of UCU (the University and Colleges Union), Mark Serwotka of the PCS (Public and Commercial Service Union), Jeremy Dear of the NUJ (National Union of Journalists), Bob Crow of the RMT (Rail, Maritime and Transport), Tony Woodley of the TGWU (Transport and General Workers). They have all written to the Minister responsible...

Pushed out with a flak jacket

By Karen Johnson The Coalition to Stop Deportations to Iraq was formed in early 2006 following the deportation of 15 Iraqi Kurdish asylum seekers back to Erbil Airport in Iraqi Kurdistan. They were returned on something the Home Office calls a “voluntary return order”. In fact the asylum seekers had been both threatened and bribed to return to Iraq after being held in detention centres for many months. Their detention ended when they were woken up in the middle of the night by Home Office officials who threatened them one minute — saying they would be eventually be sent home forcibly anyway —...

Alphonsus Uche Okafor-Mefor saved from deportation: now stop his detention!

[Posted 2 March, 2007] Alphonsus Uche Okafor-Mefor is a Nigerian asylum seeker. He is also a political activist helping organise refugees in Liverpool. He was due to speak at the conference on immigration controls in Liverpool on March 31st. Organised by the No One Is Illegal coalition, this has attracted wide union sponsorship. At the end of February Adolphus was arrested without warning, imprisoned and told he would be deported in 48 hours. Within this time there was organised trade union activity, co-ordinated by UCU (the University and College Union, a sponsor of the March 31st conference)...

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