Brand Street Blockades: 14, 15, 16 December 05

For three days running, no Immigration Service snatch squads have been able to leave the Scottish Enforcement Unit at Brand Street to carry out dawn raids. The gates have been chained and blockaded from 5am til after dawn.

These blockades are part of an escalating campaign of protest and direct action to resist migration controls and defend our communities.

The Home Office building at "Festival Court" on Brand Street in Ibrox is the place where asylum seekers are forced to sign on weekly with their family to receive a pitiful living allowance. Each time they enter the building and meet with officials (no legal or other support to ensure fair treatment is allowed to be present) they don't know whether they will be coming out the front door or the back door. If it's the front they have to make the same journey next week and the week after that and every week until they are allowed to stay in the country or until they exit by the back door.

If they go out the back door it's into an unmarked blue van on a journey to Dungavel or Yarl's Wood in Bedfordshire, then back on to the tender mercies of the state they fled from. Or anywhere they stopped in before reaching Britain. It doesn't matter to the Home Office.

Outrage over cases like that of the Vucaj family and countless others who haven't made the news has spread across Scottish society, reflected in an extraordinary alliance of protesters. Around 30 Anarchists, Christians, Communists, Clowns, liberals, Muslims, pagans, refugee support workers, socialists and people of no particular allegiance have been descending on Brand St at 5am with the aim of preventing a dawn raid for one day at least.

On Wednesday 14th, they found a number of police stood in the road preventing access to the gates and an informal candlelit vigil was held outside. Placards proclaiming "Jesus Christ was an Asylum Seeker" and "Scar on Scotland's Conscience" contrasted with the Orwellian "Building a Safe, Just and Tolerant Society" of the Home Office.

After an hour of quiet vigil-ing some especially keen child-snatchers began arriving for work. Moved from the road, protesters wondered aloud at the spectacle of police ("building safer communities") facilitating the abduction and terrorising of children. After a while, a distraction of clowns arrived and the mood lightened a little. They declared themselves to be from Elsewhere and attempted to turn themselves in for deportation to any country more sane than this one. Around 8.30 the protesters left, satisfied that no raids would or could take place that day but determined to continue and grow resistance to this inhuman practice.

The following morning, Thursday 15th, they were back. This time No Borders blockaders snuck behind sleepy cops and locked the gates with a massive chain, making the blockade more effective. Again, the blockade was joined by a candlelit vigil until a reasonable hour.

And then, just for good measure, it seems that some activists decided to go for the hat-trick, and the gates were chained once more in the wee small hours of Friday 16th. A message to the Home Office: This is serious. We are not going away.

Judging by the unprecedented alliances this campaign is generating, it's very unlikely that those responsible (or pretending no responsibility) will be having a Merry Xmas or a Happy New Year. And quite right too.

If you want to get involved in defending our communities and supporting refugees and migrants, there are many ways you can help. Not all of them involve confrontation or chains and padlocks. Some, though not all, involve early starts. To find out more, send an email to No Borders Glasgow at:
noborders-glasgow@riseup.net

The next mass protest at Brand Street takes place this Saturday (17th December) at 10am, complementing the weekly vigil there. The venue is easily reached by the Underground or any bus via Paisley Road West.

Mass protest at Brand St: Sat 17 Dec

Saturday 17 December,
from 10am
Protest at Brand Street:
Surround the centre of "administrative removals"

Saturday 17th December will see the latest, and probably biggest protest at the gates of the immigration reporting centre at Brand Street, Govan.

On Saturday 3rd December a securicor van forced it's way through the weekly peaceful vigil at the gates. Inside was Pastor Makielokele Nzelengi Daly* and his family, detained again. The Daly family was incarcerated at Yarls Wood, but once again a campaign sprung into action and the family was released.

Saturday 10th December saw a larger vigil than usual, about 20 people turned up to make sure no families were abducted without resistance. Banners and placards were hung around the gates. No vans left the building that day.

On the 17th, people are coming from far and wide to call for an end to dawn raids, an end to disappearances from Brand Street, and an end to all "administrative removals". Come and join the protest. Keep up the pressure.
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*For a report on the Daly family's legal fight, see: http://www.theherald.co.uk/news/52277.html
The Daly family were detained almost exactly a year ago, but a massive grassroots campaign succeeded in gaining their release on bail. For background to the family's struggle to remain in their community, see: NCADC

21/11/05: Brand St locked down - 3 detained

Once again the Home Office Immigration offices in Glasgow have been closed down by protesters. At around 4:45am, 40 people gathered outside the building and padlocked two of the gates. The protest ended at 11am with 3 protestors detained by Police.

11:30am 21 Nov 05
Three protestors, including Tommy Sheridan MSP for the Scottish Socialist Party, have been arrested/detained following an action at the Immigration reporting Centre at Brand Street, Govan, in Glasgow. Those arrested/detained have been taken to Helen Street police station, and protestors are heading that way too.

Today’s action follows the recent occupation of the centre, and a series of demonstrations and pickets, including a picket on Saturday, called by No Borders Glasgow (see below for report) part of a national day of action against deportations of children and students.

It is thought that at least one dawn raid has been prevented today. Brand Street is the base for the Immigration snatch squads who leave, in unmarked dark blue vans with blacked-out windows, to carry out their raids on families and individuals living in Glasgow. At 5:30am a team arrived for duty, but were prevented from entering the centre. Security cut through one of the chains at about 10am, allowing access, but as at 10:45 are still not letting in any staff, or asylum seekers who have turned up to sign on.

Today’s dawn raid by protestors is the latest in the campaign against the inhumane practices of the UK immigration and asylum policy which are terrorising Glasgow communities. Brand Street, at the Orwellian-named Festival Court, is the Home Office hub in Scotland where families (there are very few single asylum seekers in Glasgow at present) have to sign on every week, as part of a system of control and intimidation.

Some people turn up to sign on, and are never seen again, joining the ranks of disappeared, spirited away to immigrant detention centres like Dungavel, then deported back to war zones, oppressive regimes, or abject poverty. Others have to endure the bullying of Immigration Officers who every week threaten imprisonment of asylum seekers and their children if they do not agree to try and return to their home countries.

On Saturday (19th November) around 100 people from across Glasgow and across the world, joined the regular picket of the Reporting Centre, in solidarity with the lone protestor who has been standing at the gates every Saturday between 10am- 12 noon for the past 6 weeks. His one-man picket has become the target of increasing racist abuse and intimidation from Group 4 Security Guards (and the builders of Campbell Construction on the building site opposite).

It was freezing cold at 10am when the first protestors arrived, and it didn’t get any warmer. The friendly police came by and moved the early arrivals down the road from the main gates, but as more people turned up, the picket moved back to the gates. The stated reason for the police request to move away was that the many children on the picket might be in danger of cars on the road. There was danger from vehicles alright – from Immigration snatch squad vans. At about 11:30 the main gates were suddenly thrown open and an unmarked car left at high speed, followed by two sinister looking vans, dark blue, unmarked, with opaque windows. Some of the people on the picket have seen the inside of those vans. The vehicles were travelling too fast for anyone to do anything about them (and too fast for safety on a small street crowded with protesting families and their children). But people promised that no vans will leave that centre during future pickets.

The solidarity picket was part of a national day of action, with demonstrations in central Manchester and London. In Children in Need week, the demonstrations called for an end to deportations of children and students. At Brand Street, young people from Drumchapel Secondary school spoke of their campaigns against the deportations of their friends, most recently for 13 year old Saida Vucaj and her family.

Last week, the “Glasgow Girls” as they have been dubbed by the media, won the Scottish Campaign of the Year Award at the annual Scottish politician of the year ceremony in Edinburgh (other nominations included the make Poverty History campaign). At the ceremony, the girls warned that they don’t see the award as a pat on the head and a time to rest, but that they would keep up the fight for the right of all young people to stay in Scotland, and against all deportations. In front of the gathered media, they also eyeballed Jack McConnell and demanded to know just what had happened to the “protocol” he promised between social services, education services and the Immigration police. A clearly embarrassed First Minister could only waffle about ongoing talks with his bosses down south.

Saturday’s picket was a success. Those working in the centre know that the campaign against what goes on in there is growing. People on the picket talked about keeping up the pressure, picketing the place every Saturday between 10am and 12 noon, bringing music and drums and food and hot drinks to keep up spirits. And people also left muttering about the vans that left while we stood by, and what kind of direct action could stop them. And some folk returned today, in the wee small hours, and for another day no vans left to carry out their dawn raids.

Sat 19 Nov: Picket Brand St, Glasgow

Saturday 19th November: National Day of Action against deportation of children

This Saturday is a national day of action against deportations of children and young people, with demonstrations in London and Manchester, and a picket of the Immigration Reporting Centre in Glasgow

http://www.standup4children.org

National Coalition of Anti-Deportation Campaigns

Glasgow: Picket Brand Street, Saturday 19 Nov, 10am – 12 noon
Brand Street in Govan is one of the centres from which families are disappeared. People go in to sign on, and some leave handcuffed in a van, taken to one of Britain's immigrant prisons like Dungavel, before being deported.

Support requested
Come along to Brand Street this Saturday to support the regular picket, to show solidarity with the many asylum seekers who are forced to sign on at the reporting Centre every week, with the demonstrations in Manchester and London, and with all people in Britain living in fear of deportation. This small weekly picket has seen increased intimidation from security guards and police in recent weeks, and support has been requested.

Please lend your support for a couple of hours this Saturday, between 10am – 12 noon.

Stop deportations
Between 1 April and 30 September 2005, the Immigration Service carried out 112 dawn raids in Glasgow. That’s more than 4 every week. And it doesn’t include those disappeared from Brand Street. Resistance is building.

Keep up the pressure, come to the picket, spread the word.

For more information, contact noborders-glasgow@riseup.net

Directions to Brand St (nearest underground, Cessnock): http://snipurl.com/brand_street_map

16/11/05: Zimbabwean women on hunger strike

Zimbabwean Women on Hunger Strike in Yarl's Wood Removal Centre

"This strike is the only thing we can do. It's better to die than to go back and be detained. I can't go back there because I am a lesbian and I am not allowed there by the government - they call us 'pigs' and 'dogs' - and those with political cases can't go back because they would be imprisoned and tortured or killed. I have proved I am from Zimbabwe, but I am still being held here when I should be released." Thando Dube

Five Zimbabwean women have been on hunger strike for 16 days in Yarl's Wood Immigration Removal Centre protesting their threatened deportation to South Africa a country that they are not nationals of.

52 Deaths at Lindela Repatriation Camp this year

Please help these women. Do not let them be deported, do not let them die. The women face grave danger if they are deported to South Africa. Recent evidence found that Zimbabweans removed to South Africa were detained in the Lindela repatriation camp, notorious for its poor conditions, before being sent to Zimbabwe. South Africa Home Affairs Director-General Jeffrey Maqetuka on October the 28th of this year said: "Since the beginning of the year, at least nine people died in the holding facility and 43 others in the nearby Leratong hospital after referral."

For more information see www.ncadc.org.uk

What you can do to help
Legal Action for Women are campaigning for the women to be released from detention. You can fax/write to the Minister for Immigration Tony McNulty requesting the release/temporary admission of the 5 women.

Fax No: 020 7035 4745 from outside the UK + 20 7035 4745

Write to:
Tony McNulty
Immigration Minister
Home Office
3rd Floor, Peel Building
2 Marsham Street
London SW1P 4DF

Please notify LAW of any faxes/letters sent:
law@crossroadswomen.net

Legal Action for Women
Crossroads Women's Centre
PO Box 287
London, NW6 5QU
Tel: 020 7482 2496 Fax: 020 7209 4761
law@crossroadswomen.net

'I would rather die than be sent home'
http://www.ncadc.org.uk/newszine%2064/i%20would%20rather%20die.htm
"Home Office accused of ignoring Zimbabwe deportation ban"

http://www.guardian.co.uk/guardianpolitics/story/0,3605,1599326,00.html

14 Nov 05 - Ahmed family - another abduction

Another family has been abducted from their Glasgow home and deported, this time leaving behind a 16 year old boy who was away from home at the time.

The Ahmed family from Royston were taken from their home on Friday, and were forced onto a plane and deported to Pakistan last night, Sunday 13th November. Farhad Ahmed, 16, is believed to be still unaware that his mother, sister and older brother have been deported.Positive Action In Housing reported today:
At 9.21 pm, Farhat Ahmed called her neighbour Farina from the airport to say that her son Faheem, 19, had been beaten by security guards for refusing to board the plane without his younger brother. According to Farhat, the security guards then threw Faheem into a side-room and began beating him and pushing him by the neck into the floor in full view of his mother and sister, telling him he was going back ‘no matter what’.

Farhat Ahmed begged them not to beat her son and to deport her with her daughter but let her son at least stay behind to find her other son, and then they could deport the brothers together. A woman officer was screaming repeatedly at Farhat in her face to ‘Shut up! Shut up!’ and that if she did not tell him to go quietly they would make sure he went to jail “forever” and “you'll never see him again”.
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Where's McConnell's "protocol"?
"From public bodies to children's organisations to school friends, there is recognition that these scandalous immigration practices are causing trauma and distress, and blatantly disregard children's rights. When Scottish society expresses such profound concern, it is right to expect the Scottish Parliament to do likewise." Jack McConnell, First Minister, 23 September 2005

Wee Jack claimed back in September that he would establish a protocol between Imigration and Social and Education Services, to bring some kind of protection for children and families. Speaking at First Minister's Question Time, Jack McConnell defended deportations ordered from Westminster, but added:
“…it is also very important given our child welfare responsibilities and education responsibilities here in Scotland that such a system is handled appropriately. That's why we want to have a protocol for the Home Office that involves Scottish education and social services in advance of decisions on the implementation of any orders for removal."

Nearly two months later, no protocol to protect the children, and the Immigration snatch squads continue to terrorise our communities. McConnell hides behind the old "immigration is a Westminster reserved issue" excuse, but when it comes to matters that he has responsibility for as First Minister - children's welfare, education, housing, communities - he has no excuses: he is failing to act to protect those communities and the children and families and everyone in Scotland who is rightly outraged by these attacks.

It's about time the people of Scotland let McConnell and his cronies and his bosses in Westminster know exactly how we feel about their racist policies and their violent attacks on our communities. And since McConnell has proved yet again his impotence, it's about time we took matters into our own hands to put a stop to these abductions. It's not that difficult. During the Poll Tax rebellion we stopped the Bailiffs and eventually forced the government to ditch the tax, through a mass campaign of direct action. We can do it again. We can stop deportations.
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Some info on the Ahmed family from NCADC
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From Positive Action in Housing, 11 November 2005
Please find below urgent action points regarding the treatment of the Ahmed Family who were removed in a dawn raid from their Royston flat on Friday 11 November 2005. In particular, please note the following testimonies reported to us – calculated, barbaric inhumanity being carried out on Scottish soil under the guise of a ‘reserved asylum policy’.

These points may help you write a letter yourself, letting MConnell know what you think.

16 year old Fahad Ahmed was not in flat at time of raid and unaware that his family is gone from the flat or that his family is deported to Pakistan.

Despite family’s pleas immigration officers refused to let the family trace their brother and be deported together.

Dawn raid carried out without warning causing the family fear and alarm.

13 year old Zoha dragged from her bed mid-sleep alongside her mother and brother, less than two hours after the family closed their fast as part of Muslim tradition.

Mrs Farhat Ahmed and son Faheem, 19, forced to use the toilet in full view of immigration officers.

Family endured a 17 hour gruelling journey in a caged van from 7 am Friday 11 November to 1 am Saturday 12 November. Worried neighbours, friends and even the lawyer not aware of the family’s whereabouts until the next day when the family contacted them via phone card from Tinsley house removal centre.

Mrs Ahmed calls neighbour from airport to look after her 16 year old son because immigration is refusing to let her trace him.

19 year old Faheem beaten be security guards for refusing to board the plane without his brother.

Mrs Ahmed told to ‘shut up’ by screaming female security guards when she begged security guards not to beat her 19 year old son but to let him remain behind to trace the 16 year old brother first.

URGENT ACTION ALERT
We urge you to:
1. Write to the First minister, sending copies to robina@paih.org calling for an end to the raids on innocent families as well as the criminalisation of asylum seekers at Brand street immigration office.

2. Write to your MP/MEP/MSP and ask them what they are doing to speak out against the inhumanities of UK asylum policy on Scottish soil.

3. Sign the online petition (using internet explorer browser) at
http://www.petitiononline.com/amn2005/petition-sign.html and add your comment.

Update: Friday 11 Nov 05

Friday 11 Nov 05
Weekly update from No Borders Glasgow.
to subscribe to No Borders Glasgow email announcements, go to:
https://lists.riseup.net/www/info/noborders-glasgow

Join the web forum for information exchange, discussion and local, national and international No Borders news at
http://glasgow_noborders.clearerchannel.org/forum

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NEWS
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1. Immigration Minister bars official from meeting between protestors
Following the occupation of the Immigration Reporting Centre in Govan last week, Immigration Minister Tony McNulty barred a senior officer in Scotland from meeting delegates from the occupation. It is extremely doubtful that anything would have come out of the meeting anyway, but McNulty’s intervention perhaps reveals growing worries in Westminster about the campaign against dawn raids in Scotland.
More: http://snipurl.com/temperate_mcnulty

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2. Grassroots resistance in Glasgow
Meanwhile, local people refuse McNulty’s advice to show self restraint and use temperate language, organising action-planning meetings to resist deportation snatch squads. Phone trees are being set up in Glasgow to raise the alarm when dawn raids are happening, to get as many people as possible to the location in solidarity. Details of local meetings where you can sign up to a phone tree will be posted soon on the weblog.

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3. Kupeli family released on Bail
On Wednesday 9th November the Kupeli family from the Gorbals were released on bail from Yarls Wood detention centre, and are living with friends in London. However, according to Positive Action in Housing, it seems unlikely they will be returning to their home in Glasgow.
Suna Kupeli, 9, said:
"I'm not very happy, I want to go back to school with my friends in Blackfriars. I miss them and my teachers and my mum wants to visit my baby sister. She's in Linn Cemetery and we go there every week with flowers".
background on Kupeli abduction http://snipurl.com/kupeli_story
Positive Action in Housing http://www.paih.org
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4. Visit Dungavel...Monster of the Glen
New Camcorder Guerillas film was premiered at Glasgow Film Theatre on Saturday 5th November. A packed house (over 200 people) watched the funny, sad, moving, angry, inspiring movie, with discussion after calling for action to stop dawn raids, prevent deportations and end detention. If you haven’t got one, get a copy of the DVD and show it to everyone you know, or give it to strangers in the street if you don’t know anyone.
http://www.camcorderguerillas.net

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5. France: State of emergency, deportations…
"Those who sow misery will reap anger"
Effectively, martial law has been declared in France, in reaction to the uprisings of dispossessed youth. Interior Minister Sarkozy fans the flames by describing rioters as scum, declares a state of emergency and has now declared that all “foreigners” arrested during the uprising are to be deported.

Statement opposing the state of emergency: http://www.statewatch.org/news/2005/nov/02france-emergency.htm
Statement by the immigrant movement MIB on the situation in France: http://www.statewatch.org/news/2005/nov/02france-emergency-2.htm
Reports at: http://www.indymedia.org.uk

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6. Netherlands: Fire at deportation centre kills 11. State attacks solidarity actions.
On the 27th of October, a fire broke out in the deportation centre at Schiphol near Amsterdam, Netherlands. 11 people died there as a result. On the same day, a wake was held for the victims, and in many cities solidarity actions were instigated. In Amsterdam this was done by means of a banner action. Since the 1st of November, banners have been hung from a score of houses. Then the police attacked.
http://www.indymedia.org/en/2005/11/827311.shtml

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UPCOMING EVENTS
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Saturday 26th November
“No Place for Racism” STUC’s annual St Andrew’s Day March & Celebration March against Racism and Fascism assembles 10.30am Blythswood Square, Glasgow to a St Andrew’s Day Celebration at the Trades Hall, Glassford Street, 12noon - 3.30pm. Children’s games and activities, music and art exhibitions, food, hot and cold drinks, licensed bar, solidarity and craft stalls, entertainment for all. Supported by the STUC and Glasgow Anti Racist Alliance.
For further information contact Helen Carson @ STUC tel: 0141 337 8100, email hcarson@stuc.org.uk website: www.stuc.org.uk

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Tuesday 29th November
Benefit gig
Glasgow Campaign to Welcome Refugees and The Arches presents Mogwai and The Hugh Reed Explosion 2005 .Tickets £10.00 in advance Available from the Arches ticket office and website.

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Saturday / Sunday 17th + 18th December
International “days of action, days of outrage, days of rights for sans papiers”
Called by No One Is Illegal. 18th Dec. the launch of the International Convention of the Protection of All Migrant Workers and Their Families (New York 1990). The Mediterranean Social Forum has called a day of action. Local campaigns could look at events that reach out to trades unions. Tell us what events your group is organising.
Contact - Email: info@noii.org.uk / www.noii.org.uk . No One Is Illegal, Bolton Socialist Club, 16 Wood Street, Bolton, BL1 1DY.

Temperate McNulty and grassroots resistance

“Temperate” Tony McNulty bars officials from speaking.
Grassroots resistance grows in Glasgow.

Assistant Director of the UK Immigration Service, Rolf Toolin, agreed to meet this Monday with delegates from last week’s occupation of the Reporting Centre at Brand Street, Glasgow, to hear concerns at the criminalisation of people forced to sign on at the centre every week, and of communities living in fear of dawn raids.

However, at the last minute, Immigration Minister Tony McNulty pulled the plug, banning Toolin from meeting the delegation which included MSPs Tommy Sheridan and Sandra White, representatives of the Church of Scotland and Robina Qureshi of Positive Action in Housing.

This latest order from down south follows McNulty’s recent condemnation of the growing anger in Scotland at the increase of violent deportations and the damage they are doing to our communities. It seems that Westminster is anxious to ensure that officials in Scotland do not listen to people’s concerns, and certainly do not speak about it.

The Children’s Commissioner, Kathleen Marshall has been listening to the children of communities like Knightswood in Glasgow, where dawn raids on “wee quiet families” are common. She said these deportations were “completely inhumane, I think we’re terrorising these children and families”, and has called for a public outcry in Scotland.

This has been echoed by Scottish Communities Minister, Malcolm Chisholm, who described the Vucaj family’s treatment as "totally unnecessary, heavy-handed and over the top". First Minister, wee Jack McConnell, even mumbled something about a protocol involving informing social workers that weans are getting their door kicked down before first light and carted off to prison.

“Intemperate Language”
On the BBC Politics Show, McNulty responded to criticism of dawn raids in classic New Labour doublespeak. He denied that they happen, but vowed they will continue, and condemned anyone who raises concerns. The denial was to do with timing and clothing: "We are not knocking down doors at four in the morning with people suited and booted in riot gear”, he said, adding that most of the removals took place between 0530 and 0700 BST, and that officials wore stab-vests and restrained people when they needed to. And he criticised the “intemperate language” of people like the Children’s Commissioner.

The day before that interview, before the sun rose at 7:46 am, Sinan and Songul Kupeli, Glasgow residents of five years, were dragged from their beds and handcuffed in front of their daughters Suna, aged 9, and Yagmur, aged 6. The family were bundled into a van and driven overnight to Yarls Wood detention centre in Bedfordshire. Suna and Yagmur will never see their schoolmates at Blackfriars Primary School again. Songul will never again tend the grave of her baby daughter, born and died in Glasgow. And we are told to exercise self-restraint.

Haud me back…
My dictionary defines intemperate is being the opposite of temperate, which is an adjective meaning “exercising moderation and self-restraint”. It comes from the verb, temper, which means to harden or strengthen. An example is “to strengthen through experience or hardship; toughen: soldiers had been tempered by combat”.

So I suppose what McNulty is saying is that we should be used to this by now, we should be tempered, toughened, by these continual attacks on our communities, and that we should restrain ourselves (lest we need to be restrained by his officers?)

Well, it doesn’t quite work that way. The more the people of Scotland hear about families like the Vucaj and Kupeli families being torn from their homes and communities in such violent abductions, the more intemperate our language will become, and the more we will unite to resist the racist attacks of the Labour Government. People don’t become immune to this. The more it happens, the angrier people get. Does McNulty understand that, I wonder? Surely a top New Labour politician can’t be that thick?

And as for self restraint? As we say in Glasgow, haud me back… Local action groups are springing up all over Glasgow. Glaswegians old and new are coming together to organise to resist deportations. In the next month, action planning meetings are scheduled for the Gorbals, Knightswood and Sighthill. These meetings are for planning action, by the way, not just listening to speeches. Check www.openborders.org.uk for details of these and other action meetings as they are confirmed.
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Links:
reports on cancelled meeting with immigration high heid yin:
Scottish Housing News: http://www.scottishhousingnews.com/dailynews.asp#H46098
BBC report: http://news.bbc.co.uk/2/hi/uk_news/scotland/4415966.stm
For info on Temperate McNulty and his voting record (strongly for war in Iraq, strongly for “anti-terrorism” laws, strongly for ID cards, etc etc) see:
http://www.theyworkforyou.com/mp/tony_mcnulty/harrow_east

4/11/05: No Borders Glasgow Update

No Borders Glasgow update Friday 4 Nov 05

Occupation.
The campaign against dawn raid abductions of Glasgow families continues to grow. On Wednesday the Immigration Reporting Centre in Govan was locked-down and occupied, preventing, at least for one day, any families being disappeared from Brand Street.
click for Link
click for BBC report
photo:gareth harper - http://www.photecosse.net/

“Authoritarian scumbag” resigns.
Meanwhile, authoritarian scumbag David Blunkett – former Home Secretary responsible for implementing the most racist asylum policies ever in the UK – resigned for the second time in 12 months, after being caught abusing his position of power for personal gain. Again.
click for link: “Shed no tears for Blunkett” - an article by Mark Barnsley from December 2004, last time Blunkett resigned.

Gorbals public meeting.
On Thursday evening a meeting was held in the Gorbals in support of the Kupeli family, snatched at dawn on October 14^th, currently in detention facing deportation. Around 250 people packed the St Francis Centre to hear speeches from activists and politicians, and testimony from the very many refugee families there, who discussed tactics for physically preventing future dawn raids.
The meeting called for:
* The return of the Kupeli and Vucaj families to Glasgow;
* An immediate halt to Home Office raids on Scottish asylum families
* An amnesty for all Scottish asylum families resident here for over a year.
click for Link

Destitution.
Earlier on Thursday the highest court in the land declared Section 55 of the 2002 Nationality Immigration and Asylum Act amounted to inhumane and degrading treatment, and as such was a breach of human rights under law. Section 55, brought in by David Blunkett (remember him?) left tens of thousands of people homeless and destitute as they had not claimed for asylum the minute they entered the country. The Law Lords have thrown out the government appeal.
(NB This does not affect people refused asylum who are unable or unwilling to leave the country. They remain destitute with no entitlement to housing, work or benefits)
click for link: Refugee Council:
click for link: Liberty

Dungavel film, 5^th November
“Visit Dungavel…Monster of the Glen”, a new film from Camcorder Guerillas, will be premiered on Saturday 5^th November, 2pm, at the Glasgow Film Theatre, Rose Street. Entry is free, and DVDs will be available to take home to show your friends, family, workmates etc. The film will be followed by an open discussion.
click for Link

Manchester Solidarity appeal
Samina Altaf, a disabled woman in Manchester facing deportation, has asked for help. Samina and her two children , Aqsa, and Sumama, fled Pakistan after domestic abuse. All three suffer from severe rickets and are receiving medical support in this country. Nonetheless the Home Office want to deport the family.

Samina does not beg to stay here. Instead she demands her right to remain. She will not be blackmailed into leaving the country by threats of eviction from her home. She does not appeal for support because of her condition. Rather she asks for solidarity because she is fighting back against the racism of immigration controls.

Please take the time to write a short letter in support of her case. Write to Samina’s MP – Hazel Blear, House of Commons, London SW1. Quote reference A1233290 and Ask your letter be sent on to the Home Secretary. Click for link for more info on case and how you can help.

Meanwhile at the border…
Jumping the walls that separate Morocco from the colonial enclaves of Ceuta and Melilla has long been a way to enter Europe from Africa. Security forces have begun firing upon migrants attempting to cross. In response, the European Caravan against the Fence of Death will protest at Ceuta, the southernmost border of Fortress Europe (on the African continent), on the 4th, 5th and 6th of November.
click for link indymedia:
click fo link indymedia estrecho (lots more info, various languages)

to subscribe to the No Borders Glasgow email list, go to:
https://lists.riseup.net/www/info/noborders-glasgow

Camcorder Guerillas Film

Visit Dungavel...
Monster of the Glen
Imagine escaping persecution in your own country, only to be locked up without trial in Dungavel. According to Amnesty International, the UK detains an estimated 25,000 asylum seekers every year: men, women and children. Camcorder Guerillas believes that asylum is a right, not a crime.

Using documentary, testimony, animation, original music and drama, Visit Dungavel: Monster of the Glen (25 mins), is a shocking, funny, informative and moving series of short films about detention - and, since this is a Camcorder Guerilla film - what to do about it!

Featuring guest appearances by screen stars Gary Lewis (Yes, Ae Fond Kiss, Billy Elliot) and Cora Bisset (High Times, Rebus), and guest directing by BAFTA-winning actor/director Alison Peebles (Afterlife, Sex Traffic, Taggart) this film lifts the lid on Dungavel, detention and deportation.

Using documentary, testimony, animation, original music and drama, Visit Dungavel: Monster of the Glen (25 mins), is a shocking, funny, informative and moving series of short films about detention - and, since this is a Camcorder Guerilla film - what to do about it!

The DVD is split into 9 shorts which can be viewed/used on their own:

The Removed (2:46 mins)
How does it feel when the snacth squad comes to your door?

Dungavelland (0:30 mins)
Enter the world of Dungavel and find out how the turreted castle came to be a prison for asylum seekers

Born in Dungavel (2:00 mins)
Meet the Scottish Conservative politician who was born in Dungavel

Even Children? (4:00 mins)
The UK locks up over 25,000 asylum seekers every year. Men, women, and, yes, even children.

Suicide Watch (3:40 mins)
Many asylum seekers have been left utterly desperate. Why aren't we listening?

Escape (1:30 mins)
So how do you get out of Dungavel, Scotland's only detention centre? Meet someone who has.

Sums for beginners (3:50 mins)
How much are you paying to keep men women and children behind barbed wire? And who makes the profit?

Get on the plane (1:40)
Scotland: a thousand welcomes, a thousand farewells - this is how we send asylum seekers home.

Things to do in Scotland (1:15 mins)
Take action now! Famous Scots, past and present, show you how it's done.

Camcorder Guerilla dungavel short 'The Removed' is now on-line to view on the SuperShorts website at http://supershorts.org.uk/view.html?id=509

Camcorder Guerillas is a Glasgow-based voluntary collective of independent, radical filmmakers, activists and artists. The collective make and showcase films and documentaries that raise awareness of the social justice issues facing our local communities.
http://www.camcorderguerillas.net

3/11/05 Public meeting, Gorbals

Public Meeting, Thurs 3rd Nov, Gorbals - details below.
Dawn Raids continue in Glasgow. Resistance grows.
"I couldn't see my mum, only her crying in the other room. My dad was saying please don't put the handcuffs on my wife she is too ill and my mum is so crying because they put handcuffs on my mum and dad. I said I want my mum but the lady said no. They took me and my little sister separate from my mum and dad, my sister is only 6½ and she's in primary two, and I holded her hand because she was shaking. I was crying as well. My mum and dad were in the van. They took us in another one."

Suna Kupeli, Aged 9, removed in a home office dawn raid on 14 October 2005 with her family from her community in high rise Gorbals and her school at Blackfriars Primary School, two days before Tony McNulty immigration minister denied this was inhumane or caused psychological terror.

Yet another Scottish asylum family has been disappeared in a Home Office Dawn Raid from their community in the Gorbals, where they have lived for the past five years.
more info on Kupeli family abduction
photo: demo in support of Vucaj family and against deportations, Oct 05
Gareth Harper www.photoecosse.net
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PUBLIC MEETING - 3RD NOVEMBER
6.45 pm - 8.00 pm, Thurs. 3 November 2005
St Francis Centre, 405 Cumberland Street
Gorbals, Glasgow G5 OSE
click for map
click for pdf flier

They belong to Glasgow
Stop Home Office raids on asylum families
Stop children being dragged from their beds at dawn

Come to a public meeting and call for:
O The return of the Kupeli and Vucaj families to Glasgow.
O An immediate halt to Home Office raids on Scottish asylum families and the communities they leave behind;
O An amnesty for all Scottish asylum families resident here for over a year.

Speakers: Aamer Anwar, Bridging the Gap, Jamie O'Neill,
John McAllion, Margaret Woods (GCWR), Mohammad Asif
Naveen, Paddy Hill, Peter Mullan, Robina Qureshi, Sandra
White MSP, Tommy Sheridan MSP, and other invited MSPs.

Plus see film footage of the Vucaj family in Northern Albania with an introduction by Peter Mullan, actor/writer/director setting out the compassionate and humanitarian grounds for their return

for pdf dossier of Vucaj campaign click here

2/11/05 Occupation of Home Office building

Occupation at Home Office Reporting Centre, 02/11/05

Just after opening its doors this morning Wednesday 2nd November the Immigration Office in Brand Street, Ibrox, Glasgow was taken over by protestors and brought to a complete standstill in what is understood to be an all day occupation and effective shut down. It is understood that *Paddy Joe Hill, Tommy Sheridan MSP, church ministers and Sandra White MSP are amongst those occupying the building.

Brand Street immigration office is where asylum seekers go to report weekly with their children and where dawn raid victims are taken to be finger printed, photographed before being transferred to removal centres such as Yarl's Wood and Dungavel.

At the same time protesters were occupying the building. Another group of protesters went round to the back of the building where the entrance to the 'enforcement Unit' vehicle compound for the 'snatch squads' is and chained and padlocked the gates

Stop deporting children - actions

19th Nov 05: Day of Action -
Stop Deporting Children and Students!
"My name is Daniel. I'm 15.
Me and my family face deportation to the Congo. There is a war there and my life would be finished. One of my mum's friends was deported and killed in a prison in Congo.

If we go back, we might also end up in prison, so please help us. I am scared that I would be forced to become a soldier. I don't want to be a child soldier. I want to be a football player. I play for a local team - when I'm older, I want to play for England" - Daniel Sukula.

Stop All Deportations ! Scrap Section 9!

click for more info and details of demos in Manchester and London:

29 October: European day of action

Call for a coordinated day of action against the brutality at European borders
21.Oct.05 - The collective attempts by more than four thousand migrants to cross the borders between Africa and Europe have shown the brutality of the European border regime. In the last two weeks ten people were shot dead by border police. Since then, Moroccan authorities have rounded up and "deported" more than 2,500 people, and abandoned them without food and water in the Sahara Desert. More than 36 people have died there so far.

The news of the past two weeks shows only a small part of the brutality at Europe’s borders, where hundreds of migrants drown every year crossing the Straights of Gibraltar, suffocate in trucks, or are blown up by landmines in the fields between Greece and Turkey.

The reaction of the Spanish Government and the European Commission is military reinforcement of the borders and externalising the “management” of migrants. European colonialism and economic policies created the situations that are forcing people to flee.

Now, being pushed by the German government and others, refugees are being made invisible to Europe; caught way before the borders and held in “transit” prisons far away. Third countries, such as Morocco are made to handle the situation in exchange for economic aid. The EU has given 40 million Euro to Morocco to build up border defences. The Moroccan government uses these deals to systematically violate human rights, torturing, deporting and murdering migrants.

Across Europe groups are organising acts to reject this brutality at the borders. We are calling for a coordinated day of action on 29th October 2005.

No more deaths at the Border.No one is Illegal.

European No Border Network:
www.noborder.org

20/10/05 Public meeting: Vucaj family

VUCAJ FAMILY Public Meeting 20 Oct
6.45 PM Thursday 20 October 2005

STUC BUILDING, 333 Woodlands Road, Glasgow G3

Film footage of the Vucaj children in Northern Albania.
Speakers include: Peter Mullan, Robina Qureshi. Contributions from politicians, supporters and friends of the Vucaj family. To be followed by audience questions.

Peter Mullan, Glasgow’s award winning actor and director, will lead the launch of a new campaign designed to return the recently deported Vucaj family back to Glasgow and Scotland.

Called “They belong to Glasgow”, Mullan will introduce a film and speak about his recent trip to Albania to meet the Vucaj family. Footage of the trip and an interview with 13 year old Saida Vucaj will be shown and Peter will be joined by politicians from across the political spectrum and young friends of Saida, Elvis and Nimet from Drumchapel, Glasgow. The campaign objective is the safe return of the Vucaj family by any legal means possible

“These children have lived in Glasgow for five years. Saida was only seven when she arrived. She is now 13 and her and her two brothers, Elvis (18) and Nimet (16) consider themselves Glaswegian and Scottish. We are determined to organise their safe return to our city where they were welcomed and educated. I plead to First Minister Jack McConnell and Scotland’s Parliament to help them to return. This is their home, not Albania. Saida, in particular, is in danger. Child trafficking for prostitution is rife in Northern Albania where they have been returned to. We need them back now before it’s too late.”
- Robina Qureshi, Positive Action in Housing

“Saida, Nimet and Elvis Vucaj belong to Glasgow. They think like Glaswegians, they talk like Glaswegians. They have been forcibly kidnapped from us and transplanted into a country that can best be described as pre-industrial. Their new home is an empty hovel on a Northern Albanian mountain that was ransacked in their absence and is the direct line of a major sex trafficking route leaving them unspeakably vulnerable. These young Glaswegian kids have been taken from us and abandoned to a life of unimaginable despair. One of the few men who remain of the village stepped forwards to the kids when we were with them and asked what they were doing there. The kids said they didn’t know - they were Scottish. He opened up a weird toothless smile and said “You must go. Stay here and you die”. All we ask is that these children are brought back to the only home that they know, Glasgow!”
- Peter Mullan

more info at html://www.paih.org

14/10/05 Kupeli family abducted

14 Oct 05: Kupeli Family - another dawn raid in Glasgow


On Monday 14, October 2005, a 12 strong immigration snatch squad carried out a dawn raid in Norfolk Court, Gorbals, the home of the Kupeli family - Mr Sinan Kupeli (38), wife Songul (37) and daughters Suna (9) and Yagmur (6½) - from their home and community in the Gorbals, where they have lived for the past 5 years.

Immigration officers forced Mr & Mrs Kupeli into the living room, handcuffed Mr Kupeli, and dragged their sleeping children from their beds. Mrs Kupeli is still grieving for her four month old baby Helin who is buried at Linn Cemetery, Glasgow. She begged immigration officers to let her mak e a final visit to her daughter's burial site. The officers refused and instead handcuffed her. Her daughters Suna and Yagmur were kept in their bedroom by other officers and could only hear their mother's cries. It was left to a tearful Suna to comfort her terrified 6½ year old sister. They said they wanted their mum and dad but the immigration officers said no.

The parents and children were then taken in separate vans to Brand Street immigration office. At 9 am, the family were taken to Yarls Wood Removal Centre, Bedfordshire for removal to Turkey. Blackfriars primary school pupils were shocked when they realised that the two sisters were not off sick but had disappeared overnight. Likewise the staff and volunteers at Bridging the Gap who provided constant support.

The Kupeli family's treatment echoes that of the Vucaj family when they were dragged from their beds at dawn on September 13, 2005. Despite the First Minister's assurances on September 23, dawn raids have not stopped. The criminalisation and dehumanisation of Scottish asylum families continues.

We are calling for an end to Scotland's shame and a restoration of dignity.

Whats wrong with the IOM?

The IOM arranges the "voluntary" return of people to warzones, dictatorships and areas of famine. The opening of their Glasgow office and the "incentivising" scam coincides with a push by the city council to evict hundreds of people refused asylum from their homes prior to the handover of asylum accommodation to private companies in February. The stark choice they are faced with is: take your chances on the winter streets of Glasgow, or gamble on a dubious bribe from the IOM to return home.

In recent years the IOM has moved from managing the movement of economic migrants to assisting states to control forced migration, that is, keeping out or sending back people seeking political asylum, fleeing wars, persecution, famine. Unlike the United Nations High Commission for Refugees (UNHCR), the IOM has no humanitarian remit, and it's move into controlling the movement of people seeking asylum has raised alarm amongst human rights, refugee and aid agencies. The UNHCR has condemned the return of people to war-torn countries such as Iraq and Somalia, but the IOM is only too willing ignore humanitarian concerns and do the dirty deeds of governments eager to appear tough on immigrants.

Amnesty International has criticised the role of the IOM as an "alternative agency for states where they prefer to avoid their human rights obligations", and in May 2003 they released a joint statement with Human Rights Watch, reported in Statewatch Bulletin:"Given that IOM does not have a protection mandate for its work with refugees and displaced persons, Amnesty International and Human Rights Watch recommend that IOM should refrain from taking a lead role in situations which fall squarely under the protection mandate of other international organizations, such as UNHCR".

For more info on the IOM, the above report and references, and information on global migration control and resistance, see: http://www.noborder.org/iom/display.php?id=243 and for text of leaflet against IOM, see:http://wiki.makebordershistory.org/index.php/Arguments_Against_IOM

Click here for article from Forced Migration Review - "IOM: Trespassing on others' humanitarian space?"

IOM: Trespassing on others' humanitarian space

IOM: trespassing on others’ humanitarian space?
compiled by Tim Morris, editor, Forced Migration Review, January 2005

“The International Organisation for Migration is playing an increasingly prominent role in the reception, assistance, and return not only of migrants, but also of asylum seekers, refugees and the forcibly displaced. Given that IOM does not have a protection mandate for its work with refugees and displaced persons, Amnesty International and Human Rights Watch recommend that IOM should refrain from taking a lead role in situations which fall squarely under the protection mandate of other international organizations, such as UNHCR.”

“What is an IDP?” a staff member of the International Organisation for Migration was overheard asking at a training session in Darfur. Allowance must be made for the ignorance of recently-recruited staff but this was a query from a representative of the agency just tasked with overseeing the return of Internally Displaced Persons in Darfur. As IOM expands its role in conflict-affected states and diversifies its activities worldwide, many in the humanitarian community are echoing the question recently posed by the International Council for Voluntary Organisations (ICVA): “is IOM an agency that will do anything as long as there’s money with which to do it?”

Like UNHCR, IOM was established in 1951. Initially named the Inter-Governmental Committee on Migration in Europe, it was based on economic priorities, not humanitarian principles. Unlike UNHCR, which derives its mandate from international law and agreements, the ICME/IOM is a membership organisation, not an agency of the UN, and is not accountable to any democratically-elected body.

According to ICVA the manner in which a memorandum of understanding was drawn up to entrust IOM with overseeing IDP return in Darfur constitutes “a flagrant disregard for the collaborative approach” to the problem of internal displacement. The recently created Inter-Agency Internal Displacement Division was not consulted for advice before it was signed.

Many of IOM’s other operations are equally controversial:

The Jesuit Refugee Service has criticised IOM’s role in dealing with the 2.5 million Burmese migrant workers in Thailand. True to its mandate to ensure ‘orderly migration’, IOM has helped the Thai authorities set up a registration process which has led to the monthly deportation of 66,000 people. JRS notes that once they have crossed the border, IOM is unable to maintain contact with the returnees.

The Roma National Congress has expressed grave concerns about the IOM’s role in involuntary removals of Roma migrants.

On the island of Nauru and in Papua New Guinea, IOM is contracted by the Australian government – as part of its ‘Pacific Solution’ to discourage asylum seekers from making onshore applications – to run detention facilities.

During the 2003 Gulf War IOM, which facilitated the repatriation of long-term foreign residents who had fled from Iraq to Jordan, may have violated the principle of non-refoulement by giving nationals of Sudan and Somalia inadequate time to be made aware of their rights and to make an informed decision about returning to their home countries.

In Iraq it has been assigned responsibility for return of IDPs and establishment of property restitution mechanisms but seems to lack the means or expertise to do so.

Human Rights Watch has been monitoring IOM field operations since drawing attention in 1993 to IOM’s role in the asylum determination system imposed on Haitian asylum seekers by the USA. HRW notes that while IOM has recently adopted rights-based language it does not automatically observe international human rights and refugee protection norms.

“The IOM plays an increasingly prominent role in the return of migrants, asylum seekers, refugees, and IDPs to their countries of origin, to other countries that have agreed to accept them, or to other regions within their own countries. The organization claims that it returns migrants in safety and dignity and only on a voluntary basis. The IOM, however, has no mechanism – either internal or external – to evaluate whether decisions to return are, in fact, made under duress or under circumstances that are directly or indirectly coercive, or to assess that conditions in certain countries are safe enough to allow for returns."

For info on the IOM in Glasgow, click here.

Click here for full Forced Migration magazine pdf or here for article in MS word doc or here for Forced Migration review website