There should be dancing in the streets.
A message from the National Coalition of Anti-Deportation Campaigns (NCADC)
Charles Clarke - NCADC are not sorry to see you go. However not for your failure to deport foreign nationals as NCADC have always opposed the Double punishment of sentence followed by deportation. We are glad to see you go because of your . . . . .
Crass and Cumulative abuse of Asylum Seekers
Since your appointment as Home Secretary in December 2004 you have been responsible for:
The abuse of tens of thousands of asylum seekers who came to the UK seeking refuge. Upon arrival in the UK you dispersed them to remote corners of the UK far from their established community/ethnic groups (that is the ones you didn't immediately put into detention). Put them in to poor accommodation and gave them a miserable pittance to try and feed and clothe themselves. When and if you refused their claims for asylum you kicked them out of their accommodation and onto the streets with out a penny to their names.
Your utter disbelief of asylum seekers stories of torture and detention even when they broke down in front of your immigration officers or the courts.
Imposition of restrictions on the amount of legal aid they could obtain to plead their asylum claims. This resulted in many asylum seekers who appealed against a negative decision having to represent themselves, which is a recipe for failure. The Legal Services Commission is proposing to end the contracts of practitioners who fail to reach a 40 per cent success rate in immigration and asylum appeals - the Law Society predicts this move could deter advisers from taking on immigration work and exacerbate advice deserts.
Bringing in Section 9 of the Asylum & Immigration (Treatment of Claimants, etc) Act 2004 that gave you the power to withdraw support from families whose asylum application has been refused and who are not co-operating with efforts to remove them. Further, that you could separate the children of these families from their parents and take them into care. OK you never did it - you failed because local authority professionals refused to support you - but the intent was there.
Since September 2005, 5148 Iraqi's were kicked off Section 4 support into complete and utter destitution, just because they did not volunteer to go back to an extremely unstable situation in Iraq.
Bereket Yohannes, Manuel Bravo, Ramazan Kumluca killed themselves, driven to despair by your 'Inhumane and Unjust' immigration policies. You good-as branded them "bogus" yet how could that be when rather than be deported back to where they sought refuge from, and they took their own lives in detention centres.
Nusrat Raza and Babak Ahadi both died after setting themselves alight. Edmore Ngwenya drowned himself in a canal. Limbaya Ndinga hung herself. All were deeply depressed by your refusal to let them settle in the UK.
In October 2005, your "Fast-Track" asylum determination process in Harmondsworth Removal Centre refused 99.6% of cases, including those from Myanmar (Burma), Iran and DR Congo. Probably at the time the 3 worst countries in the world for human rights abuses.
In the detention centres you manage, you have failed to provide good medical care. A number of detainees lost their minds and ended up in psychiatric care after long detention, rough and unresponsive management and racist abuse.
Detention of refugees and asylum seekers rose by 24% under your tenure as Home Secretary. There were many, many hunger strikes across the detention estate all of which you ignored and, often as not, when asked if people were on hunger strike, you said they weren't.
Anne Owers, Chief Inspector of your Immigration removal/holding centres, whilst you were in office, issued a number of damning reports on conditions in these places of arbitrary confinement.
Numerous detainees have been assaulted by escorts/staff. Not one arrest has been made that we know of, even though some of the victims of these assaults have received compensation for injuries by escorts/staff. The police did however charge a number of detainees with assaults on guards and escorts.
Recent British Medical Association criticism of asylum detention's effect on mental health by doctors, dismissed with platitudes by you and your officials.
You brought in legislation that allows the Home Office to employ detainees in detention centres to work for less than the minimum wage.
Professor Al Aynsley-Green, The Children's Commissioner, condemned your practice of rounding up and detaining children. Did you stop the practice? No, you did not.
You terrified hundreds of families with your "dawn raids".
A deportation law too far, your last speech as Home Secretary was to propose new legislation that would mean the automatic deportation of any foreign national convicted of a criminal offence, was offensive in it self. You intended to punish foreign nationals for your own perceived shortcomings in not deporting 1,000 of them.
All in all, there is nothing good that can be said about your 16 months as Home Secretary, your departure from office should be good cause for dancing in the streets.
NCADC really are glad to see you go!
