MIGRANT CENTRE EVICTED BY FRENCH RIOT POLICE IN CALAIS
No Borders Brighton – Under instructioMigrantsn from the town authorities, the elite French CRS riot police today forcibly evicted the new Calais migrant centre – called Kronstadt Hangar – by smashing down the front doors, less than 24 hours after migrants and No Borders activists pushed through police lines to occupy the building, which has been legally rented by No Borders [1] and SoS Soutien aux Sans Papiers. [2] Marie Chautemps said: “The Kronstadt Hangar was opened as a direct intervention into a winter of repression... [Read more...]
Home Secretary Announces Crackdown on Student Visas
The Guardian – The number of student visas could be cut by tens of thousands under new rules making it harder for people to enter the UK, the home secretary, Alan Johnson, announced today. Those seeking to study in the country will have to speak passable English, while students enrolling on short courses are banned from bringing dependants. The new rules, which do not require legislation, come into effect immediately. The changes follow criticism of the government’s point-based system, that was introduced last year. Prospective... [Read more...]
Jobless Migrants Offered free Flights Home
The Guardian – Homeless east European migrants are being offered free flights back to their home country by a government-funded scheme set up to combat the rise of shanty towns in rural Britain. The scheme, known as the National Reconnection Service, is expected to cost about £150,000 and is being trialled in Boston, Lincolnshire, and Peterborough, Cambridgeshire, two towns that have experienced a large influx of migrants seeking work. In 2008, the government said that a quarter of Boston’s population was made up of... [Read more...]
The detention of asylum seekers and irregular migrants in Europe
1. The detention of asylum seekers and irregular migrants in Council of Europe member states has increased substantially in recent years. Whilst the cause of this increase is in part due to the growing number of arrivals of irregular migrants and asylum seekers in certain parts of Europe, it is also to a large extent due to policy and political decisions resulting from a hardening attitude towards irregular migrants and asylum seekers. 2. Overcrowding in detention centres is a serious problem. As population... [Read more...]
Biometrics and surveillance will make life difficult for Immigrants
IRR – Biometrics and surveillance are set to make life virtually impossible for those without legal status here. On 6 January 2010, skilled workers from outside the EU became the latest group to need a biometric identity card in order to extend their stay in the UK. This involves attending one of the dozen or so ‘biometric enrolment centres’ in the UK to have a digital photograph and ten digital finger scans taken. By 2011, the government aims that all foreign nationals over the age of 6, legally in the UK... [Read more...]
Iranian Asylum Seeker on Hunger Strike
By Sarah Cosgrove The Times – A DESPERATE refugee has been on hunger strike for nearly two weeks because she is terrified of being tortured and killed if she is forced to return to Iran. Bita Ghaedi, of High Road, Whetstone, was refused asylum by the British Government and told she would be deported within a fortnight. But the 34-year-old, who said she has endured two decades of beatings and mental torture at the hands of her family and her former lover, claims there is no doubt she will be hunted down and killed by her father,... [Read more...]
Zimbabwe Association Alleviates Exiles’ Suffering in UK
The Zimbabwean – As Zimbabwe has lurched from crisis to crisis, over the past eight years a small London-based charity has worked tirelessly to (alleviate the fallout among members of the Diaspora in the UK. Sitting in a shoebox of an east London office, on a day when the cold outside cuts through even the thickest layers of clothing, Zimbabwe Association (ZA) co-ordinator Sarah Harland is speaking passionately about the depth of need she encounters every day among the exiled community. “There is any amount of despair still... [Read more...]
Fresh Power Struggle Rocks Zim Coalition
ZimOnline – Zimbabwean President Robert Mugabe and Prime Minister (PM) Morgan Tsvangirai are locked in a fresh power struggle after the former instructed government ministers to report to his two vice-presidents by-passing the Premier – a clear breach of the former foes’ power-sharing agreement. The global political agreement (GPA) that gave birth to the Harare coalition government splits powers between Mugabe and Tsvangirai. The GPA – itself a source of incessant squabbling between the two rivals over its implementation... [Read more...]
Solidarity and Support for Calais Seekers of Sanctuary
By Rahila Gupta The Guardian - For all those who have been depressed by increasingly harsh measures against asylum seekers by Britain, France and other European countries, here is a glimmer of hope. The transnational No Borders network and SôS Soutien aux Sans Papiers in France have come together to open a centre in Calais, a “self-organising” space to provide practical support, solidarity and information sharing for asylum seekers. Last summer we were subjected to pictures of people being chased like animals in brutal... [Read more...]
UKBA Staff Humiliate and Trick Asylum Seekers – Whistleblower
By Diane Taylor and Hugh Muir The Guardian - Louise Perrett says she was advised at the Border Agency office in Cardiff to refuse difficult asylum claims. Claims that asylum seekers are mistreated, tricked and humiliated by staff working for the UK Border Agency are to be investigated in parliament. The home affairs select committee chairman, Keith Vaz, has called for an investigation following allegations that officials at one of the government’s major centres for processing asylum seekers’ claims express fiercely... [Read more...]
Featured Video
Live Radio
Hatnews Radio Program, Fridays' only 12 - 4pm
