Legal Aid, Sentencing and Punishment of Offenders Bill

Source: www.publications.parliament.uk

Memorandum submitted by Refuge Action (LA 22)

About Refugee Action

Refugee Action is an independent, national charity working to enable refugees to build new lives in the UK. We provide practical support for newly arrived asylum seekers as well as a long-term commitment to their settlement. Through our ‘One Stop Service’ (OSS), ‘Gateway Protection Programme’, ‘Refugee Integration and Employment Service’ (RIES) and ‘Choices’ voluntary return service, we give independent, confidential advice and information to asylum seekers and refugees on a breadth of topics. These range from UKBA asylum support, integration and employment following a successful decision, education, health, voluntary return and complex issues such as domestic violence, racial harassment and trafficking.

Read more

BNP’s Nick Griffin could lose European seat

British National Party leader Nick Griffin faces losing his European parliamentary seat as the party fights to avoid bankruptcy.

Read more

Speaker elected in Mogadishu for first time in 20 years

Somali lawmakers have on Friday elected a new parliament speaker in Mogadishu for the first time in nearly 20 years , Radio Garowe reports.

Sharif Hassan Sheikh Aden accumulated a total of 217 votes against his closest rival, Abdi Hashi Abdullahi, who garnered 143 votes. The election was decided on the second round when Abdullahi abandoned his bid.

This is the second term in office for Sharif Hassan, a close associate of President Sheikh Sharif Sheikh Ahmed. He was the speaker of the Somali parliament from 2004 to early 2006 but lost it to Sheikh Adan Mohammed Nur Madobe, who recently earlier this month as Speaker.

Read full story here

Busting the myths about immigration

Read more

New UK immigration fees

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 anti-immigration views and take pride in refusing applications.

Louise Perrett, who worked as a case owner at the Border Agency office in Cardiff for three and a half months last summer, claims staff kept a stuffed gorilla, a “grant monkey”, which was placed as a badge of shame on the desk of any officer who approved an asylum application.

Perrett, 29, also alleges that one official boasted to her that he tested the claims of boys from African countries who said they had been forcibly conscripted as child soldiers by making them lie down on the floor and demonstrate how they shot at people in the bush. One method used to determine the authenticity of an asylum seeker claiming to be from North Korea was to ask whether the person ate chop suey.

Read more

Hundreds flee inter-clan clashes in Somaliland

(IRIN) Hundreds of families in Somalia’s self-declared republic of Somaliland have fled inter-clan fighting in the mid-west Satiile area in Gabiley region, officials said.

The fighting, the second flare-up in three months, started on 7 April after a group of men drove into Satiile settlement area and shot dead a local farmer and wounded his brother.

Ahmed-Bare Sa’id Kibar, a village elder in Satiile, said at least 200 families had fled from Xar-Makahiil, Dacawalay, Laaca, Maslayaha, Jaldhaabta and Satiile farmland settlements to Adado Dhaadheeray, Kalabaid. Some of the families had fled to Gabiley, the region’s capital, he added.

Elabe Mohamoud Hufane, the deputy mayor of Dilla District in Awdal region, said: “We received reports mid-morning yesterday that a man, identified as Ahmed Yasin Kule, had been shot dead on his farm while his brother survived and managed to flee.

“We went there to calm the situation with the district police; we were told the men who shot dead Ahmed Yasin were from Elberdale area in the north, where a land-based conflict had started some time ago.”

In late February, two men were shot dead following inter-clan fighting between the Reer Hared of Gabiley region and the Reer Nour of Awdal region. The conflict dates back to 1998 when the clans confronted each other over the war between the Somali National Movement (Somaliland’s liberation organisation in 1981-1991) and the army, which was loyal to the late Mohamed Siyad Barre, then Somali president. At the time, the Reer Nour supported Barre while Reer Hared supported the liberation movement.

Over the past two decades, attempts to reconcile the two were made and a ceasefire agreed but the issue has since transformed into a land conflict, focusing on a farming development project founded by Sheikh Muhumed Rage in the late 1950s.

After the February clashes, a committee from Somaliland’s upper house of parliament, the Guurti, toured the region. The committee was also in the area when the latest clashes erupted, according to Hufane.

“We met several dozen families fleeing to Dilla District, and we spoke to them urging them not to flee but they went ahead saying they feared for their security,” Hufane said.

All you need to know about Amendment 19

(IRIN) – The future of Zimbabwe hangs on the thread of a power-sharing deal that the opposition parties claim waters down their recent electoral successes and the government interprets as an agreement that allows the opposition – seen as fifth columnists for renewed colonisation – to have a major stake in government and reverse the gains of its revolution.

Whatever their differences, Zimbabwe stands at the last crossroads; the country’s future has never looked bleaker and the adoption of Amendment 19 never more important.

What is Amendment 19 of the Zimbabwe Constitution?

Amendment 19 will bring into law a power-sharing deal signed between President Robert Mugabe, leader of the ZANU-PF party, Morgan Tsvangirai, leader of the opposition Movement for Democratic Change (MDC), and Arthur Mutambara, an MDC breakaway party, on 15 September 2008.

Why is it important?

There is no “Plan B” for a political settlement in Zimbabwe and the country is staring into the void of a failed state. The once prosperous southern African country endures the highest inflation rate in history, estimated at 89.7 sextillion percent, or 89,700,000,000,000,000,000,000 percent, by the Cato Institute, a non-profit public policy research foundation based in Washington, in the US.

Photo: IRIN

Next step p

The collapse of services like health, sanitation and water has been the catalyst for a widespread cholera outbreak that has claimed the lives of nearly 1,000 people since August, with few signs of the disease abating.

About 5.1 million people, or nearly half the population, require food aid, and little respite is expected from the March 2009 harvest. Soldiers, one of the last redoubts of Mugabe’s 28-year rule, have rioted, and abductions of political activists, allegedly by government security agents, continue.

The migration of citizens to neighbouring states remains one-way traffic. More than 3 million people, or a quarter of the population, are thought to have left Zimbabwe in the last decade for neighbouring states like South Africa and Botswana, or further afield for Britain, Australia and the US. There is fear that Mugabe will declare a state of emergency in a final showdown with the opposition and other political dissidents before Amendment 19 is promulgated.

When will the amendment be passed?

Amendment 19 was printed in the government gazette on 13 December 2008. The soonest the amendment could be on the statute books, should it have a smooth passage through Zimbabwe’s rough political waters, is mid-January 2009. Its adoption requires a two-thirds majority in parliament.

What are the major pitfalls?

The MDC are demanding that a legal basis for the National Security Council (NSC) – which will replace the Joint Operations Command (JOC), comprised of the army, police and intelligence chiefs loyal to Mugabe – be nailed down before the amendment is tabled in parliament. Such an agreement will give the MDC a major stake in the NSC, enabling it to thwart “unlawful” activities, whereas previously it played no role in the JOC.

Other concerns that the MDC has are the apportioning of ministerial portfolios between the parties, which hit a wall over who controls Home Affairs, and through it the police; the reappointment of provincial governors to reflect the party holding the majority of MPs in each province; and the return of all diplomats, and their replacement in terms of the power-sharing agreement.

How will the 19 Amendment affect the balance of power?

The amendment not only imposes checks and balances, but Mugabe will have to cooperate with Tsvangirai in running the country. There is no love lost between the two men.

Executive powers will be divided between an office of the president, held by Mugabe, and a newly created prime ministerial position, held by Tsvangirai.

The president will be invested with such powers as declaring war, making peace, proclaiming and terminating martial law, granting pardons, chairing the cabinet and NSC, appointing independent constitutional commissions and, in consultation with the prime minister, making key appointments “under and in terms of the Constitution or any Act of Parliament”.

The president will head cabinet, which will be responsible for formulating policy. The prime minister will chair the Council of Ministers, comprised of all ministers, and responsible for implementation. He will be deputy chair of the cabinet, a member of the NSC, and report regularly to both the president and parliament.

The creation of a prime minister’s office is designed to establish both a counterbalance to Mugabe’s rule and give the MDC a major stake in government, although it is feared this could easily lead to two centres of power and even less cohesion.

The nuts and bolts of the power-sharing deal

Mugabe will appoint two vice-presidents, while Tsvangirai will appoint two deputy prime ministers, one of which will be Mutambara, leader of the MDC breakaway party.

There will be 31 cabinet ministers, 15 nominated by ZANU-PF, 13 appointed by Tsvangirai’s MDC and three by Mutambara’s MDC. Each party may also appoint a maximum of three ministers from outside parliament, who will have the right to engage in parliamentary debates but will not be entitled to vote. The parties will agree on the equitable distribution of ministerial portfolios.

What happens in by-elections?

For 12 months from the promulgation of Amendment 19, and in consideration of election violence, any vacancies arising in local government or parliament can only be contested by the party that previously held the seat. In the March 2008 elections, the opposition parties won 111 seats in the 210-seat parliament, while ZANU-PF took 99.

Has the deal engendered greater trust?

The straight answer is ‘no’. The state-run daily newspaper, The Herald, continues to routinely insult and attack the MDC as stooges of the West (US and Britain) who are bent on re-colonising the country, and Mugabe’s public speeches maintain the same theme. MDC activists and civil society continue to bear the brunt of state repression.

What is the best-case scenario?

The amendment is adopted in January 2009. A provision in it allows for a new constitution to be drafted to replace the current constitution, and leads to elections in two years, in an environment conducive to free and fair elections.

What is the worst-case scenario?

The amendment is not adopted. The Zimbabwe failed state manifests itself in yet more political violence, widespread disease and hunger, accelerated migration and the destabilisation of the region.

Sources: Institute of Security Studies, Sokwanele, The Herald, MDC, IRIN

Zimbabwe rivals sign draft amendment Bill

Zimbabwe’s rival political parties on Thursday signed a draft constitutional amendment Bill that – once passed by Parliament – will allow President Robert Mugabe to form a new unity government outlined under a September power-sharing deal.

But sources, who were involved in the inter-party talks, were quick to point out that agreement on Constitution of Zimbabwe Amendment Bill No. 19 did not mean a power-sharing government will be in place soon, especially because a host of issues that the Morgan Tsvangirai-led opposition MDC formation had raised were not addressed.

Analysts see a unity government as best placed to tackle a severe economic crisis ravaging Zimbabwe and seen in the world’s highest inflation rate of 231 million percent, acute shortages of food and basic commodities.

“The night is still very young on this thing (unity government),” said a source from the Tsvangirai MDC, who did not want to be named because he did not have permission from the party to discuss the matter with the Press.

“We signed the draft bill but that does not mean we gave commitment to join the unity government before all these other equally important issues are resolved,” the opposition official added.

Tsvangirai’s party, which holds the most seats in Parliament and could very easily block passage of Amendment 19, had wanted the talks to also discuss equitable sharing of key ministerial posts, distribution of gubernatorial posts, ambassadorships and other top government posts.

But negotiators from Mugabe’s ruling ZANU PF party and the other MDC formation led by Arthur Mutambara declined to discuss these issues saying they had instructions from their principals to only discuss the draft constitutional Bill.

In addition, ZANU PF and the smaller MDC formation noted that the contentious issue of control of the home affairs ministry that Tsvangirai’s party wanted discussed had already been resolved by the Southern African Development Community (SADC) and therefore could not be reopened.

“Issues that SADC has dealt with already like the ministry of home affairs should be left to be resolved by the regional body,” said a source from the Mutambara-led MDC formation, who spoke on condition he was not named.

The SADC, which tasked former South African President Thabo Mbeki to mediate in Zimbabwe and is the guarantor to the power-sharing deal, three weeks ago ruled that MDC Tsvangirai and ZANU PF jointly control the ministry of home affairs and ordered the rivals to immediately form a unity government.

But the MDC – which insists it should control the home affairs ministry that oversees the police after ZANU PF retained control of the army – rejected the ruling and accused the SADC of siding with Mugabe.

Tsvangirai on Wednesday called for Mbeki’s recusal as mediator, accusing the ex-South African leader of incompetence as a mediator and of bias in favour of Mugabe.

The opposition leader said in statement that his party would no longer participate in the negotiations officially until Mbeki was removed by SADC as mediator, adding his MDC’s negotiator was remaining in talks on an “without prejudice basis”.

Tsvangirai was travelling to north Africa last night and could not be reached for comment on Amendment 19. But his representative in the negotiations signed up all the agreed details of the constitutional amendment yesterday.

However Tsvangirai, Mugabe or Mutambara can still reject the signed Bill or seek changes to or deletion of some of its clauses despite the fact that they authorised their representatives to sign up on Thursday.

According to our sources, agreement on Amendment 19 was only possible after negotiators agreed to stick to the principles outlined in the September 15 political agreement and to exclude all clauses and provisions that were not in the accord but were contained in two conflicting drafts that had been submitted by ZANU PF and MDC-T.

For example, ZANU PF’s proposal that Mugabe be given powers to dissolve the unity government in the constitutional amendment was thrown away on the basis that it was not part of the September 15 unity agreement.

Also rejected were proposals by MDC-T to give more powers to the office of prime minister that will be held by its leader and to make the proposed council of ministers more powerful than Cabinet.

Negotiators, who began leaving South Africa after concluding talks yesterday, also agreed to reinstate the original agreement that was signed privately by their principals on September 11 and to throw away a version of the agreement that was fraudulently altered by ZANU PF and given to political leaders to sign on September 15.

“We were able to reconcile many of the differences between MDC-T and ZANU PF on the details of the constitutional amendment very easily because we agreed to just stick to the outline of the actual unity agreement,” said one negotiator.

Meanwhile Mugabe is expected to proceed with gazetting the constitutional amendment after which it will be tabled in Parliament for approval to give legal force to an historic power-sharing agreement that has however looked likely to collapse as parties wrangle over its implementation. – ZimOnline

Christian protest camp asylum seeker supporters meet with MPs

Next Page »