The Daily Telegraph was very keen this week to make hay out of the fact that there are apparently 102 criminals who we can’t deport because of the European Convention on Human Rights. This may well be true, although if the Daily Telegraph told me the sun would rise tomorrow, I would want the fact independently verified by a competent astronomer.
I would be much more likely to believe in the Daily Telegraph if it balanced its relentless bashing of the ECHR with some sort of statement to the effect that in any complex area of jurisprudence there are inevitably going to be times when the result of the process is not what you would expect. On both sides of the ledger.
I reckon, for instance, that – given the resources and the budget of the Daily Telegraph – I could probably find at least 102 instances of people who we have deported who we shouldn’t have done, because by doing so we were condemning them potentially to torture and death at the end of their journey.
Such as the Tamil asylum seekers we deported back to Sri Lanka this week despite clear evidence, which it was left to the likes of Channel 4 to publicise, that there was, potentially, genocide committed by government forces against the Tamil Tigers and those allegedly associated with them. One of the Tamils was so concerned about his potential fate that, rather than risk being deported, he tried to hang himself with his prison duvet. A Labour MP who raised the matter in the House of Commons said – quite truthfully in my opinion – that deporting them was akin to “painting targets on their backs”.
I once read somewhere, I can’t remember where, but I daresay it’s verifiable one way or another, that the standard test for the effectiveness of a particular type of toilet was whether or not it was possible to flush a rolled-up copy of The Daily Telegraph down it. If that is true, I would strongly contend that it remains the most useful thing you can do with it.
Showing posts with label Asylum. Show all posts
Showing posts with label Asylum. Show all posts
Saturday, 18 June 2011
Tuesday, 23 November 2010
All they will call you will be Deportees
On 12th October, 2010, on board BA Flight 77 from the UK to Luanda, Angola, Jimmy Mubenga, a 46-year-old who had been in Britain for 16 years and had lost a long series of appeals, and who was being forcibly detained by Group 4 Security, working on behalf of the UK Borders Agency, died.
Several witness statements speak of him complaining and undergoing breathing difficulties while under restraint.
What surprises me about this is not so much that Mr Mubenga died. The UK Borders Agency is a singularly uncaring and monolithic entity without a shred of decency, compassion, or mercy; capable, for instance, of ordering the deportation of a terminal cancer patient to certain and painful death. Nor am I surprised at the actions of Group 4 Security. In fact, given the "fine carelessness" and disregard they seem customarily to display in such circumstances, I am surprised that apparently this is the first death which has occurred actually during deportation in 17 years.
But what surprises me most of all, is the total lack of public outcry.
Why isn't this front page news? If it was some vulnerable kid, living in a hovel and neglected by social services, the papers would be full of it. You wouldn't be able to move for waving shrouds, bandwagons, and public enquiries. Politicians would be queueing up at the despatch box to wring their hands and spout sanctimonious claptrap. But someone dies, in suspicious circumstances, during deportation, in front of witnesses, and nothing happens! No-one says a dickey-boo!
In fairness to the UK Borders Agency, they did go so far as issuing a statement, saying that Mr Mubenga was taken ill on board the plane and died later in hospital. But what process of enquiry produced this? Have any of the guards in question been suspended or investigated? Have any lessons been learned in the use of restraints? Will anyone ever be prosecuted?
No doubt, the Borders Agency and Group 4 would like to draw a veil over the proceedings as quickly as possible, to put the stone back in place over the slimy practice of forcible deportation before anything else crawls out.
We, however, those of us who care, can do our part to make sure that the case of Jimmy Mubenga does not get brushed aside without due judicial process. As well as using the normal channels such as letters to the press and to your elected representatives, I would also suggest a total boycott of British Airways and Group 4 and all their subsidiary companies and supply chain, at least until some announcement is made about an enquiry to establish what really happened, since all we can definitely say at the moment is there are suspicious circumstances and a major difference of opinion on the subject. I repeat, that alone is normally enough to excite the attention of the police and the DPP.
It won't bring him back, but perhaps 12 October every year could be remembered as Jimmy Mubenga day, until the UK Borders Agency is no more, disbanded for good, and Group 4 once more recognises that its true level of competence is in losing, or occasionally delivering, overnight parcels (or knocking on the door and leaving a card, even though you were in the house at the time). They were crap at that, but at least they didn't kill anyone.
Several witness statements speak of him complaining and undergoing breathing difficulties while under restraint.
What surprises me about this is not so much that Mr Mubenga died. The UK Borders Agency is a singularly uncaring and monolithic entity without a shred of decency, compassion, or mercy; capable, for instance, of ordering the deportation of a terminal cancer patient to certain and painful death. Nor am I surprised at the actions of Group 4 Security. In fact, given the "fine carelessness" and disregard they seem customarily to display in such circumstances, I am surprised that apparently this is the first death which has occurred actually during deportation in 17 years.
But what surprises me most of all, is the total lack of public outcry.
Why isn't this front page news? If it was some vulnerable kid, living in a hovel and neglected by social services, the papers would be full of it. You wouldn't be able to move for waving shrouds, bandwagons, and public enquiries. Politicians would be queueing up at the despatch box to wring their hands and spout sanctimonious claptrap. But someone dies, in suspicious circumstances, during deportation, in front of witnesses, and nothing happens! No-one says a dickey-boo!
In fairness to the UK Borders Agency, they did go so far as issuing a statement, saying that Mr Mubenga was taken ill on board the plane and died later in hospital. But what process of enquiry produced this? Have any of the guards in question been suspended or investigated? Have any lessons been learned in the use of restraints? Will anyone ever be prosecuted?
No doubt, the Borders Agency and Group 4 would like to draw a veil over the proceedings as quickly as possible, to put the stone back in place over the slimy practice of forcible deportation before anything else crawls out.
We, however, those of us who care, can do our part to make sure that the case of Jimmy Mubenga does not get brushed aside without due judicial process. As well as using the normal channels such as letters to the press and to your elected representatives, I would also suggest a total boycott of British Airways and Group 4 and all their subsidiary companies and supply chain, at least until some announcement is made about an enquiry to establish what really happened, since all we can definitely say at the moment is there are suspicious circumstances and a major difference of opinion on the subject. I repeat, that alone is normally enough to excite the attention of the police and the DPP.
It won't bring him back, but perhaps 12 October every year could be remembered as Jimmy Mubenga day, until the UK Borders Agency is no more, disbanded for good, and Group 4 once more recognises that its true level of competence is in losing, or occasionally delivering, overnight parcels (or knocking on the door and leaving a card, even though you were in the house at the time). They were crap at that, but at least they didn't kill anyone.
Sunday, 3 May 2009
Will the real Home Secretary please stand up
Could the aliens please give us back the real Jacquie Smith and David Blunkett? The fact that the real Smith and Blunkett have been abducted by little green men from Alpha Proximi and the planet Quargon (and are, presumably, being rectally probed even as I type, so it's not all bad news) is the only explanation I can think of for the astonishing voltes face over the recording of all our emails and phone calls one one mahoosive database (coming soon via data stick to a pub car park near you) and ID cards.
Still, there is more joy in heaven over one sinner that repenteth, etc.
Other evidence that we have fallen through the earth's crust into some strange fourth dimensional parallel universe came in the form of Sir Al Aynsley-Green (crazy name, crazy guy) and his condemnation of the use of the Yarl's Wood Detention Centre by the UK Borders Agency to hold children who are being deported. My only problem with this is his timing. It's a pity he didn't pop up saying this before Assia Souhalia and her husband Athmane, who have been in the UK since 2002. and their 2 year old daughter Nouha, who was born in Brighton in 2006 and had lived here all her life, were grabbed from their beds at 6.30 one morning recently and deported.
Still, better late than never, eh, Sir Al.
You can be my body guard, I can be your long-lost pal.
Still, there is more joy in heaven over one sinner that repenteth, etc.
Other evidence that we have fallen through the earth's crust into some strange fourth dimensional parallel universe came in the form of Sir Al Aynsley-Green (crazy name, crazy guy) and his condemnation of the use of the Yarl's Wood Detention Centre by the UK Borders Agency to hold children who are being deported. My only problem with this is his timing. It's a pity he didn't pop up saying this before Assia Souhalia and her husband Athmane, who have been in the UK since 2002. and their 2 year old daughter Nouha, who was born in Brighton in 2006 and had lived here all her life, were grabbed from their beds at 6.30 one morning recently and deported.
Still, better late than never, eh, Sir Al.
You can be my body guard, I can be your long-lost pal.
Sunday, 1 March 2009
Ashamed to be British
I really was ashamed and disgusted to be British once again, when I heard the news that the Home Office had subsequently succeeded in deporting Assia Souhalia and her husband Athmane, who have been in the UK since 2002. (See previous post)
Their 2 year old daughter Nouha was born in Brighton in 2006 and had lived here all her life. The family had made a life here and has many links in the local community.
Assia Souhalia fled Algeria in fear for her life in 2002 after her family had suffered years of violence. Two of her brothers, Rachid and Brahim, both policemen, were murdered in two separate and premeditated shootings in 1993 and 1994, respectively. Neither brother was involved in political action. Upon hearing of the death of Assia’s eldest brother Rachid, their mother, Cherifa, suffered a heart attack and died. Since then Assia’s family have repeatedly received death threats and in 1994 Assia’s brother, Brahim, was murdered. Two of Assia’s remaining brothers and sisters both fled Algiers.
Well done, Home Office, I mean really well done. A two year old child, for God's sake, snatched from her bed at 6.30AM and driven to a detention centre, probably with armed guards. Cells, bars, deportations, kangaroo-court decisions with lack of due process and no respect for the individual human experience. Deported to a place where she is quite likely to see one or both parents gunned down, sooner or later.
This is the sort of thing we went to war over, in 1939, to stop it happening to the Jews. This is the sort of thing we used to deride the so-called "Communist" regimes of the Eastern Bloc for. This is the sort of thing Saddam Hussein's goon squads used to do, to those who dared defy the leader's whim. And now we're doing it. Here in Britain. In the year of our Lord 2009.
Well, that's official. We're no longer the good guys. And until the Souhalia family is granted a pardon and invited to return, until those responsible for this travesty of justice are set to work in a quarry breaking stones until they see the error of their ways and repent, we never will be the good guys again. A two-year old child.
I hope the bastard at the Home Office who took the decision has sleepless nights for the rest of his or her miserable days on earth, but I doubt it. Like those at Nuremburg, he or she was probably "only obeying orders. "
Thank you, the Government, for taking away my nationality. Thanks to you, the Union Jack is not worth jack shit. Thanks to you, the Trooping of the Colour, Remembrance Day, Brass Bands, Warm Beer, Steam Trains, The Common Law, Cathedrals, Morris Dancing, Village Cricket and Spinsters cycling to Matins are all about as appealing as the Hitler Youth. Thanks to you, even the very country lanes, the dry stone walls, the mills, the hills, and the valleys dotted with distant sheep all across our green and pleasant land, are now tainted, because they have been touched by you, touched by this.
And from now on, I think I'll just pretend to be Dutch, if anyone asks. Till the hurt and the shame goes away. If ever.
Their 2 year old daughter Nouha was born in Brighton in 2006 and had lived here all her life. The family had made a life here and has many links in the local community.
Assia Souhalia fled Algeria in fear for her life in 2002 after her family had suffered years of violence. Two of her brothers, Rachid and Brahim, both policemen, were murdered in two separate and premeditated shootings in 1993 and 1994, respectively. Neither brother was involved in political action. Upon hearing of the death of Assia’s eldest brother Rachid, their mother, Cherifa, suffered a heart attack and died. Since then Assia’s family have repeatedly received death threats and in 1994 Assia’s brother, Brahim, was murdered. Two of Assia’s remaining brothers and sisters both fled Algiers.
Well done, Home Office, I mean really well done. A two year old child, for God's sake, snatched from her bed at 6.30AM and driven to a detention centre, probably with armed guards. Cells, bars, deportations, kangaroo-court decisions with lack of due process and no respect for the individual human experience. Deported to a place where she is quite likely to see one or both parents gunned down, sooner or later.
This is the sort of thing we went to war over, in 1939, to stop it happening to the Jews. This is the sort of thing we used to deride the so-called "Communist" regimes of the Eastern Bloc for. This is the sort of thing Saddam Hussein's goon squads used to do, to those who dared defy the leader's whim. And now we're doing it. Here in Britain. In the year of our Lord 2009.
Well, that's official. We're no longer the good guys. And until the Souhalia family is granted a pardon and invited to return, until those responsible for this travesty of justice are set to work in a quarry breaking stones until they see the error of their ways and repent, we never will be the good guys again. A two-year old child.
I hope the bastard at the Home Office who took the decision has sleepless nights for the rest of his or her miserable days on earth, but I doubt it. Like those at Nuremburg, he or she was probably "only obeying orders. "
Thank you, the Government, for taking away my nationality. Thanks to you, the Union Jack is not worth jack shit. Thanks to you, the Trooping of the Colour, Remembrance Day, Brass Bands, Warm Beer, Steam Trains, The Common Law, Cathedrals, Morris Dancing, Village Cricket and Spinsters cycling to Matins are all about as appealing as the Hitler Youth. Thanks to you, even the very country lanes, the dry stone walls, the mills, the hills, and the valleys dotted with distant sheep all across our green and pleasant land, are now tainted, because they have been touched by you, touched by this.
And from now on, I think I'll just pretend to be Dutch, if anyone asks. Till the hurt and the shame goes away. If ever.
Sunday, 22 February 2009
Joined-Up Government
This was a much-vaunted phrase in government circles a while ago. Personally, I suspect that it was probably a product of the Blair spin machine, and therefore suspect even then, and its current parlous state is yet another indicator, if one were needed, of how far off track Broon and his cohorts have been blown by the hurricanes of economic mayhem. Not that there was ever much mileage in the idea anyway.
It was always possible, if you looked carefully, to find examples of the type of mismatch between two conflicting areas of government policy, although these used to be relatively minor, and more amusing than harmful.
These days, there are so many examples of huge gaping yawning chasms between the aims of conflicting parts of government, or sometimes within the same department, that it’s hard to find a single example of coordinated action.
Take the car industry. Everyone agrees (with the possible exception of Jeremy Clarkson) that it can only be a good thing, from the point of view of the planet as a whole and the fight against climate change, that we use our cars less, and generally that public transport should be joined up, integrated and more freely available.
Yet at the same time we are dishing out money like a drunk in a casino to the motor industry, which is apparently teetering on the brink of collapse. To make more cars that no one can afford to buy, while there are already unsold acres of them parked up on every available airfield and storage space up and down the land. Oh, and they have also given the go ahead to Heathrow’s new runway. Yet a genuinely useful public transport project such as Crossrail still languishes in the doldrums.
It would be a start of course, if Broon and his band of merry men acknowledged that this largesse to the British motor industry ("British" in name only by virtue of it being located here, yet owned by multinationals) was the result of the unhappy coincidence whereby most of these plants which are threatened with closure, with catastrophic unemployment levels resulting, are situated in Labour constituencies.
I am editing this posting to record my complete flabbergastedness, if that is a word, at the news this morning (23 Feb 09) that LDV is now going to the government asking for a loan of several millions. While I have every sympathy for the LDV workforce and suppliers, the company is owned by a Russian gas billionaire. Can I just say, as someone who has been paying extraordinarily high gas bills for the last winter, as a result of proifteering by the likes of LDV's owner, that I already gave on this one. No, you cannot take it out of my taxes. Let Mr Gasovitch put his roubles in, since he appears to have gazillions of them. It's what I would have to do if my company got into difficulties.
Take home ownership. Another example. The government announced packages of help for people struggling with their mortgages, back in November, but omitted to mention that it won’t start until April. While my own experience of dealing with government does tend to confirm Andy Burnham’s recent comment that getting something like this up and running in six months counts as fast-tracking it, in government terms, this will not be much comfort to those whose homes are repossessed in March. And again, have they thought it through? What counts as “struggling”? And this bountiful gift is brought to you by the same government that wants to means-test disabled people to try and get them off incapacity benefit and into (non-existent) work! The same government that encourages people to phone the DWP hotline and shop a benefit cheat, while its senior members are indulging in questionable practices with second home allowances.
And now, two hours since I posted this originally, Broon has popped up on Channel 4 news calling for an end to 100% mortgages - and Northern Rock has started lending again, using taxpayer's money: you could not make it up.
Take justice. We stand up there at the UN, supporting the ideas of international justice (what's left of it anyway, post GW Bush) and we freely participate in allowing a relatively harmless hacker from London to be extradited to the USA, because he managed to penetrate the computer system of the Department of Defense, looking for stuff on UFOs, whereas we allow the US administration to meddle in British Justice by telling our law lords what they can and can't say about the treatment of a British subject at Guantanamo, and when the USA refuses to allow two of its pilots to appear in front of a properly convened coroners' court in Oxfordshire, in the case of Lance Corporal of Horse Matty Hull, we roll over and let them stick two fingers up (well, one finger, since they are American) to the English legal system.
It is the fundamental dishonesty of it that really sticks in my craw. When Gordon Broon said “British Jobs for British Workers” he knew that there was no way he could deliver on that statement without the UK withdrawing from the EU. Which of course is about as likely as the devil going past the window on a skateboard. At least that particular piece of doublethink came back to bite him on the bum in the form of the actions of the Lindsey Oil Refinery pickets. But of course what they meant when they parroted the phrase back at him, was British jobs for white British workers.
And it is on that issue, free movement between countries and who we do and don’t allow in and out of the UK, that we’ve just seen the most breathtaking recent examples of facing both ways at once.
I am taking this from the Indymedia web site, though it was brought to my attention independently of them. It is just that their account provides a ready-made background to the case and saves me acres of re-typing...
A family of Algerian asylum seekers were taken from their home in Hove to Yarl’s Wood detention centre at 6.30am on the morning of Wednesday 11th February pending deportation. The Home Office plan to remove them to Algeria.
Assia Souhalia and her husband Athmane have been in the UK since 2002. Their 2 year old daughter Nouha was born in Brighton in 2006 and has lived here all her life. The family has made a life here and has many links in the local community. Assia Souhalia fled Algeria in fear for her life in 2002 after her family had suffered years of violence. Two of her brothers, Rachid and Brahim, both policemen, were murdered in two separate and premeditated shootings in 1993 and 1994, respectively. Neither brother was involved in political action. Upon hearing of the death of Assia’s eldest brother Rachid, their mother, Cherifa, suffered a heart attack and died. Since then Assia’s family have repeatedly received death threats and in 1994 Assia’s brother, Brahim, was murdered. Two of Assia’s remaining brothers and sisters both fled Algiers.
In 2002 Assia travelled to the UK with the help of members of her family. Since Assia arrived in the UK only one man has been arrested in relation to the murders of her family members. In 2007 Assia’s sister was badly wounded in a bomb attack. Assia is afraid for her safety should she be deported to Algeria.
The latest on this case is that Assia passed a message from Heathrow last Tuesday that they were not flying that day because there was a 'problem with the ticket'. From 5.30am that morning, campaigners had been talking to BA flight crew and passengers on BA 894 to Algiers (the flight Assia, Athmane and Nouha were scheduled to fly on). The staff and passengers had been told of the Souhalia family's situation, that they feared for their lives if deported to Algeria and that the deportation was depriving Nouha of the right to live in the country where she was born. The passengers were asked not to stand by and let the family be forcibly deported. They were asked to speak to the pilot of BA 895 and request that the plane did not fly with the Souhalia family on board.
Indymedia believes that the real reason that the Souhalia family were not deported on BA 895 was because of pressure from the staff and passengers. The Souhalia family are currently in transit back to Yarl's Wood.
Contrast this with the sanctimonious twaddle coming from all sides of the political spectrum over the case of Abu Quatada. Personally, I don’t think it’s a disgrace that the European Court of Human Rights awarded him compensation. I think that human rights are universal, even for the likes of people who probably don’t deserve them, and you have to apply the law universally without fear nor favour, for justice to be done, and if someone has been wrongfully detained under the law, they are entitled to compensation, whoever they are. That is what makes us the good guys.
But I do contrast the effort being put into deporting Assia Souhalia and her family with the fact that Abu Quatada has been going through the deportation process since 2002. How come we are doing dawn raids and bundling innocent children onto planes to send them to God knows what uncertain fate, yet this man, who was apparently such a threat to our national security that he had to be illegally detained without trial, is still languishing in Belmarsh. If he’s that bad, put him on trial, and stop pissing about.
Another week dawns tomorrow. Is it too much to hope that sometime soon we might see someone come along in Government who can recognise these glaring mismatches and put them right in a just and statesmanlike manner?
Did I just hear a skateboard go past the window?
It was always possible, if you looked carefully, to find examples of the type of mismatch between two conflicting areas of government policy, although these used to be relatively minor, and more amusing than harmful.
These days, there are so many examples of huge gaping yawning chasms between the aims of conflicting parts of government, or sometimes within the same department, that it’s hard to find a single example of coordinated action.
Take the car industry. Everyone agrees (with the possible exception of Jeremy Clarkson) that it can only be a good thing, from the point of view of the planet as a whole and the fight against climate change, that we use our cars less, and generally that public transport should be joined up, integrated and more freely available.
Yet at the same time we are dishing out money like a drunk in a casino to the motor industry, which is apparently teetering on the brink of collapse. To make more cars that no one can afford to buy, while there are already unsold acres of them parked up on every available airfield and storage space up and down the land. Oh, and they have also given the go ahead to Heathrow’s new runway. Yet a genuinely useful public transport project such as Crossrail still languishes in the doldrums.
It would be a start of course, if Broon and his band of merry men acknowledged that this largesse to the British motor industry ("British" in name only by virtue of it being located here, yet owned by multinationals) was the result of the unhappy coincidence whereby most of these plants which are threatened with closure, with catastrophic unemployment levels resulting, are situated in Labour constituencies.
I am editing this posting to record my complete flabbergastedness, if that is a word, at the news this morning (23 Feb 09) that LDV is now going to the government asking for a loan of several millions. While I have every sympathy for the LDV workforce and suppliers, the company is owned by a Russian gas billionaire. Can I just say, as someone who has been paying extraordinarily high gas bills for the last winter, as a result of proifteering by the likes of LDV's owner, that I already gave on this one. No, you cannot take it out of my taxes. Let Mr Gasovitch put his roubles in, since he appears to have gazillions of them. It's what I would have to do if my company got into difficulties.
Take home ownership. Another example. The government announced packages of help for people struggling with their mortgages, back in November, but omitted to mention that it won’t start until April. While my own experience of dealing with government does tend to confirm Andy Burnham’s recent comment that getting something like this up and running in six months counts as fast-tracking it, in government terms, this will not be much comfort to those whose homes are repossessed in March. And again, have they thought it through? What counts as “struggling”? And this bountiful gift is brought to you by the same government that wants to means-test disabled people to try and get them off incapacity benefit and into (non-existent) work! The same government that encourages people to phone the DWP hotline and shop a benefit cheat, while its senior members are indulging in questionable practices with second home allowances.
And now, two hours since I posted this originally, Broon has popped up on Channel 4 news calling for an end to 100% mortgages - and Northern Rock has started lending again, using taxpayer's money: you could not make it up.
Take justice. We stand up there at the UN, supporting the ideas of international justice (what's left of it anyway, post GW Bush) and we freely participate in allowing a relatively harmless hacker from London to be extradited to the USA, because he managed to penetrate the computer system of the Department of Defense, looking for stuff on UFOs, whereas we allow the US administration to meddle in British Justice by telling our law lords what they can and can't say about the treatment of a British subject at Guantanamo, and when the USA refuses to allow two of its pilots to appear in front of a properly convened coroners' court in Oxfordshire, in the case of Lance Corporal of Horse Matty Hull, we roll over and let them stick two fingers up (well, one finger, since they are American) to the English legal system.
It is the fundamental dishonesty of it that really sticks in my craw. When Gordon Broon said “British Jobs for British Workers” he knew that there was no way he could deliver on that statement without the UK withdrawing from the EU. Which of course is about as likely as the devil going past the window on a skateboard. At least that particular piece of doublethink came back to bite him on the bum in the form of the actions of the Lindsey Oil Refinery pickets. But of course what they meant when they parroted the phrase back at him, was British jobs for white British workers.
And it is on that issue, free movement between countries and who we do and don’t allow in and out of the UK, that we’ve just seen the most breathtaking recent examples of facing both ways at once.
I am taking this from the Indymedia web site, though it was brought to my attention independently of them. It is just that their account provides a ready-made background to the case and saves me acres of re-typing...
A family of Algerian asylum seekers were taken from their home in Hove to Yarl’s Wood detention centre at 6.30am on the morning of Wednesday 11th February pending deportation. The Home Office plan to remove them to Algeria.
Assia Souhalia and her husband Athmane have been in the UK since 2002. Their 2 year old daughter Nouha was born in Brighton in 2006 and has lived here all her life. The family has made a life here and has many links in the local community. Assia Souhalia fled Algeria in fear for her life in 2002 after her family had suffered years of violence. Two of her brothers, Rachid and Brahim, both policemen, were murdered in two separate and premeditated shootings in 1993 and 1994, respectively. Neither brother was involved in political action. Upon hearing of the death of Assia’s eldest brother Rachid, their mother, Cherifa, suffered a heart attack and died. Since then Assia’s family have repeatedly received death threats and in 1994 Assia’s brother, Brahim, was murdered. Two of Assia’s remaining brothers and sisters both fled Algiers.
In 2002 Assia travelled to the UK with the help of members of her family. Since Assia arrived in the UK only one man has been arrested in relation to the murders of her family members. In 2007 Assia’s sister was badly wounded in a bomb attack. Assia is afraid for her safety should she be deported to Algeria.
The latest on this case is that Assia passed a message from Heathrow last Tuesday that they were not flying that day because there was a 'problem with the ticket'. From 5.30am that morning, campaigners had been talking to BA flight crew and passengers on BA 894 to Algiers (the flight Assia, Athmane and Nouha were scheduled to fly on). The staff and passengers had been told of the Souhalia family's situation, that they feared for their lives if deported to Algeria and that the deportation was depriving Nouha of the right to live in the country where she was born. The passengers were asked not to stand by and let the family be forcibly deported. They were asked to speak to the pilot of BA 895 and request that the plane did not fly with the Souhalia family on board.
Indymedia believes that the real reason that the Souhalia family were not deported on BA 895 was because of pressure from the staff and passengers. The Souhalia family are currently in transit back to Yarl's Wood.
Contrast this with the sanctimonious twaddle coming from all sides of the political spectrum over the case of Abu Quatada. Personally, I don’t think it’s a disgrace that the European Court of Human Rights awarded him compensation. I think that human rights are universal, even for the likes of people who probably don’t deserve them, and you have to apply the law universally without fear nor favour, for justice to be done, and if someone has been wrongfully detained under the law, they are entitled to compensation, whoever they are. That is what makes us the good guys.
But I do contrast the effort being put into deporting Assia Souhalia and her family with the fact that Abu Quatada has been going through the deportation process since 2002. How come we are doing dawn raids and bundling innocent children onto planes to send them to God knows what uncertain fate, yet this man, who was apparently such a threat to our national security that he had to be illegally detained without trial, is still languishing in Belmarsh. If he’s that bad, put him on trial, and stop pissing about.
Another week dawns tomorrow. Is it too much to hope that sometime soon we might see someone come along in Government who can recognise these glaring mismatches and put them right in a just and statesmanlike manner?
Did I just hear a skateboard go past the window?
Sunday, 30 November 2008
Sense, Sentamu and Sensibility
I was pleased to see an outbreak of common sense from one of my favourite clerics, John Sentamu, last week. He attacked Phil Woolas MP, who had said that many asylum seekers were "just economic migrants" and that their lawyers and advocates were just "playing the system".
Mr Woolas seems to have the function in the government of being the mouthpiece for any unpleasant right wing dog whistle policies on immigration which they might want to float just to send an inaudible message to Daily Mail and Sun readers and also to gauge public reaction generally.
Sentamu quite rightly pointed out such instances of "working the system" as the example of a seriously ill Ghanaian mother-of-two who was deported from the UK in January because her visa had expired. She died two months after returning to Ghana because she could not afford the treatment she was receiving on the NHS.
He could just as equally have pointed out cases of asylum seekers being shipped back to face arrest and torture in Zimbabwe.
Or what about the case of failed asylum seeker Ekrem Ovunc (41) who was seized in a terrifying dawn raid from his home in Brighton and taken away for deportation striking terror into Ibrahim, Ekrem’s 17-year-old son. While Ekrem awaited deportation at Colnbrook Detention Centre at Heathrow Airport. Ibrahim, a conscientious A level student at a local Sixth Form College, disappeared. His friends and teachers were deeply concerned for his safety. Ekrem was reported to be deeply depressed. He was in no doubt that he would be tortured or killed if he was sent back. He was put on suicide watch.
Yes, sure, on the planet Woolas, all these people are only "working the system". Snap out of it, Ekrem! Here to steal our jobs, send em all back, and put a cap on immigration to prevent any more!
For a start, a cap on immigration per se is unworkable because you can't apply it to the EU, where there is free movement within member states. So what Mr Woolas is really talking about is a cap on swarthy people, which would be racist if he actually came out and said as much.
I have never felt so ashamed to be British as I did on that day when that Ghanaian woman was bundled onto a plane and shipped out of the UK. I could not believe that our country, which stood for fairness and tolerance and has given refuge over the centuries to the Lollards, the Huguenots, and the Jews fleeing Hitler, has now turned into such a hard faced edifice of hate.
And as far as the economic migrants argument is concerned, if the Poles are all giving up and going back to Poland, and despite record UK unemployment (for which Mr Woolas - or at least the government he represents, are in part responsible) British people are still unwilling to do foul low paid jobs, I don't see the problem with letting Asylum seekers work, if they want to. Give them some sort of temporary permit, make them pay tax on what they earn, and let them work while their cases are sorted out. Bish bash bosh, end of problem, they are no longer a drag on the state (if they ever were, I'd be interested to see which costs more, Asylum seekers or government IT cockups) they are in the system, you know where they are, and if at the end of it they have to go back, then at least they have been able to provide for themselves and their family in the interim. I'm sure they'd rather flip burgers than be under effective house arrest with the threat of being tortured, I know I would, if that was the only choice.
Recently, four families of beavers were brought in via Heathrow. They will live in the beaver equivalent of luxury for six months before being released in the Scottish Highlands in an attempt to reintroduce beavers into the wild in Scotland. While I am all for seeing animals well treated (it's Bolshy Party Policy, more of that anon) and while I welcome the news that Scottish Natural Heritage has weaned itself off killing hedgehogs, in favour of promoting beavers, and while John Sentamu could undoubtedly provide me with chapter and verse for the biblical reference that says there is more joy in heaven over one sinner that repenteth... I can't help but contrast the treatment of the beavers with the treatment of asylum seekers.
It seems we have an establishment that values the humanity of asylum seekers below the welfare of rodents. As Lord Longford once chided the Hindley lynch mob (under different circumstances, but the quotation is apposite) "Where is your humanity?"
And, if so, they should hang their heads in shame. Another reason why I will be voting to cause them maximum damage in the marginal Holme Valley in the next election, unless they buck their ideas up.
Mr Woolas seems to have the function in the government of being the mouthpiece for any unpleasant right wing dog whistle policies on immigration which they might want to float just to send an inaudible message to Daily Mail and Sun readers and also to gauge public reaction generally.
Sentamu quite rightly pointed out such instances of "working the system" as the example of a seriously ill Ghanaian mother-of-two who was deported from the UK in January because her visa had expired. She died two months after returning to Ghana because she could not afford the treatment she was receiving on the NHS.
He could just as equally have pointed out cases of asylum seekers being shipped back to face arrest and torture in Zimbabwe.
Or what about the case of failed asylum seeker Ekrem Ovunc (41) who was seized in a terrifying dawn raid from his home in Brighton and taken away for deportation striking terror into Ibrahim, Ekrem’s 17-year-old son. While Ekrem awaited deportation at Colnbrook Detention Centre at Heathrow Airport. Ibrahim, a conscientious A level student at a local Sixth Form College, disappeared. His friends and teachers were deeply concerned for his safety. Ekrem was reported to be deeply depressed. He was in no doubt that he would be tortured or killed if he was sent back. He was put on suicide watch.
Yes, sure, on the planet Woolas, all these people are only "working the system". Snap out of it, Ekrem! Here to steal our jobs, send em all back, and put a cap on immigration to prevent any more!
For a start, a cap on immigration per se is unworkable because you can't apply it to the EU, where there is free movement within member states. So what Mr Woolas is really talking about is a cap on swarthy people, which would be racist if he actually came out and said as much.
I have never felt so ashamed to be British as I did on that day when that Ghanaian woman was bundled onto a plane and shipped out of the UK. I could not believe that our country, which stood for fairness and tolerance and has given refuge over the centuries to the Lollards, the Huguenots, and the Jews fleeing Hitler, has now turned into such a hard faced edifice of hate.
And as far as the economic migrants argument is concerned, if the Poles are all giving up and going back to Poland, and despite record UK unemployment (for which Mr Woolas - or at least the government he represents, are in part responsible) British people are still unwilling to do foul low paid jobs, I don't see the problem with letting Asylum seekers work, if they want to. Give them some sort of temporary permit, make them pay tax on what they earn, and let them work while their cases are sorted out. Bish bash bosh, end of problem, they are no longer a drag on the state (if they ever were, I'd be interested to see which costs more, Asylum seekers or government IT cockups) they are in the system, you know where they are, and if at the end of it they have to go back, then at least they have been able to provide for themselves and their family in the interim. I'm sure they'd rather flip burgers than be under effective house arrest with the threat of being tortured, I know I would, if that was the only choice.
Recently, four families of beavers were brought in via Heathrow. They will live in the beaver equivalent of luxury for six months before being released in the Scottish Highlands in an attempt to reintroduce beavers into the wild in Scotland. While I am all for seeing animals well treated (it's Bolshy Party Policy, more of that anon) and while I welcome the news that Scottish Natural Heritage has weaned itself off killing hedgehogs, in favour of promoting beavers, and while John Sentamu could undoubtedly provide me with chapter and verse for the biblical reference that says there is more joy in heaven over one sinner that repenteth... I can't help but contrast the treatment of the beavers with the treatment of asylum seekers.
It seems we have an establishment that values the humanity of asylum seekers below the welfare of rodents. As Lord Longford once chided the Hindley lynch mob (under different circumstances, but the quotation is apposite) "Where is your humanity?"
And, if so, they should hang their heads in shame. Another reason why I will be voting to cause them maximum damage in the marginal Holme Valley in the next election, unless they buck their ideas up.
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