National Coalition of Anti-Deportation Campaigns facing closure.Peter Gitau Gichura, is right now walking the streets of London after being released from Harmondsworth just 45 minutes ago. Well done to 'Payday' and all who faxed/emailed McNulty on Wednesday and Thursday. "I want to thank all my friends and supporters and particularly those who campaigned on my behalf -- Payday, numerous organisations and individuals -- without whom I would have been deported to persecution, worsening disability and most likely death." Peter Gitau Gichura
http://www.ncadc.org.uk/newszin67/peter.html
Hussein Kasujja, who spent 15 months in Harmondsworth Removal Centre in 1998/99 and started his campaign to stay in the UK in 1990, has finally after 15 years campaigning been given leave to remain in the UK, he to is walking the streets of London today.
Hussein Kasujja's campaign for the right to stay:
http://www.ncadc.org.uk/archives/filed%20newszines/oldnewszines/newszine35/hussein.html
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Getting rid of the last resort
By Harmit Athwal, Institute of Race Relations
At the beginning of February, the National Coalition of Anti-Deportation Campaigns (NCADC) announced a desperate cash crisis and imminent closure - very, very bad news for those desperate asylum seekers who rely on the organisation for support and guidance.
NCADC is unique, in that it is the only national organisation with a 'mandate' to campaign against deportations and empower those facing deportations to establish campaigns for the right to stay. The NCADC has, for the past ten years, provided a back-bone of support fofor all anti-deportation campaigns across the UK, linking campaigns together, helping to foster 'communities of resistance'. It also provides a huge amount of information (to other campaigners, activists, solicitors, doctors, journalists and parliamentarians) on the daily struggles faced by asylum seekers, both in detention and in the community.
The problems faced by NCADC and its users comes at a time when legal aid for asylum seekers fighting asylum cases has been restricted and many asylum seekers are left to represent themselves. Furthermore, access to competent legal advice is even harder as law firms pull out of asylum and immigration work as a result of new qualification requirements for immigration practitioners. NCADC is often a last resort for desperate asylum seekers.
For the last six years, the NCADC has been funded by the Community Fund (now the Big Lottery Fund) but this funding has now come to an end. The organisation is in a dire position with many of its funding avenues blocked. NCADC is not constituted as a charity (which would preclude campaigning) and as such cannot apply to the charitable trusts that charities might approach for support.
And its fraught history of funding has no doubt scared off potential funders. In 2002, the Community Fund suspended NCADC's grant and ordered an investigation into the organisation's 'political activities' after it was vilified in the Daily Mail. Generous donations from individuals and other supporters carried the organisation through until the Community Fund monies were unfrozen. But following the Daily Mail attack and the resumption of the Lottery Fund money, NCADC has been placed in a position where its activities have been minutely scrutinised. And in today's harsh political climate, it becomes harder and harder for anyone in this sector to distinguish between bona fide charitable welfare work and political campaigning.
Now NCADC has its freedom to fight as politically as it wants but it is the asylum seekers who go to NCADC for help and advice, that will now pay the price - its demise.
To read the full article and a series of comments of support, go to http://www.irr.org.uk/2006/february/ha000025.html
Download a standing order form (http://www.irr.org.uk/pdf/NCADCstandingorder.doc ) (word file, 32kb)
Download a donation form (http://www.irr.org.uk/pdf/NCADCdonation.doc ) (word file, 32kb)
