News - Archived

[17/12/2008] Unsuccessful Asylum Seekers need support
Click here for more details (Guardian)
[14/12/2008] Ruling frees asylum seekers to work
Click here for more details (Observer)
[21/11/2008] Woolas plans to curb high court role in deportation cases
Alan Travis, home affairs editor, The Guardian, Friday November 21st 2008
[19/11/2008] Big victory for Zimbabwean asylum seekers in UK
A Three-Member panel of the Asylum and Immigration Tribunal haspromulgated a case called RN (Zimbabwe). RN has been designated thelatest Zimbabwean Country Guidance case.

RN arrived in the United Kingdom in January 2006 and claimed asylumthe following day. She held no political beliefs and had engaged in nopolitical activities but had in the past worked as a teacher. Herclaim was that as someone who did not actively support Zanu PF, shewould be assumed to be a supporter of the opposition, particularlybecause she would be returning after spending some time in the United Kingdom. She had also fallen out with her abusive former boyfriendbefore fleeing Zimbabwe.

The appeal was heard over five days, and had to be especiallyre-convened after the agreement between President Robert Mugabe andopposition leader Morgan Tsvangirai on a power sharing arrangement was signed.

The Home Office took the very unusual step of not disputing any of thecountry witnesses' evidence, and indeed, did not cross-examine thosewitnesses at all. This was in part because of the impeccable credentials of the witnesses.

The Home Office's real argument was that this was not a good timefor a new Guidance Case because the situation in Zimbabwe keptchanging. The Tribunal disagreed, and said that there had been asignificant deterioration in country conditions for ordinaryZimbabweans, and sufficient change in those country conditions torequire a departure from existing country guidance. That therecontinues to be change in the country conditions was not a reason forthe Tribunal to avoid giving guidance.

The RN decision acknowledged that country conditions in Zimbabwe arevolatile and extremely fluid and may change significantly shortly. Thedecision, therefore, takes the very latest political developments intoaccount. In summary, RN says the following:
1. The latest country evidence establishes that anyone who is unableto demonstrate support for or loyalty to the regime or Zanu PF will beat risk. This position significantly goes beyond the current riskcategories, and in particular the previous position that one would beat risk on return if identified as a member or supporter of theMovement for Democratic Change (MDC) or as an active critic or otheropponent of the regime. This is because the regime now seeks torepress by violent and discriminatory means anyone who is a seen as apotential supporter of the opposition, not just those identified assupporters of the opposition.
2. Not everyone will be able to meet this requirement (SEE 1). Inother words, not everyone is anti-Zanu PF. Ultimately, this may comedown to a simple assessment of credibility in each case.
3. Anyone who has lived in the United Kingdom for a significant periodof time and has made an unsuccessful asylum claim may be at risk; andthese factors are capable of giving rise to an enhanced risk. Areturnee from the UK and a newcomer to an area would be very likely toencounter enquiries as to his background, history and associationswhich would be likely to expose him.
4. The Zimbabwean regime no longer attempts to identify particularindividuals for persecution; whole communities are being punished forthe recent electoral outcome in an attempt to change the politicallandscape for the future and to eliminate the MDC support base.
5. Teachers have once again become targets for persecution inZimbabwe. The fact of being a teacher or having been a teacher in thepast again is capable of raising an enhanced risk, whether or not aperson was a polling officer, because when encountered, it will not beknown what a particular teacher did or did not do in another area.
6. The evidence shows that the well trained and well resourced CIOremain responsible for monitoring returns to Harare airport. Theevidence confirms the continuation of the two stage interrogationprocess identified in previous case-law whereby the CIO attempt toisolate MDC activists and supporters, or those of adverse interest,for purposes of referring such people for further interrogation atwhich stage they will be at real risk of persecution.
7. The power sharing agreement signed on 15th September 2008 in Hararehas as of now not resulted in the Mugabe regime ceding any real powerto the MDC. In any event, it is too early to say that that will removethe real risk of serious harm identified for anyone now returned toZimbabwe who is not able to demonstrate allegiance to or associationwith the Zimbabwean regime.
8. It is possible that there may be a radical change in Zimbabwe whereby, for example, the MDC may obtain real control of the police.If that happens, and the country evidence supports it, the lowerTribunals may very well depart from this Country Guidance case pendingthe promulgation of a new Guidance case.
9. With respect to claims made on the basis of the terrible conditionsin Zimbabwe, the Tribunal refused to depart from the HS position. Thisis that poor as they are, the country conditions do not establish thatthe generality of those returning to Zimbabwe today would be subjectedto conditions so grave as to breach their human rights, although thisdoes not mean that each such claim must fail. Each case must beconsidered on its own facts.
The Tribunal allowed RN's appeal. The Tribunal underlined herprofile as someone who had previously worked as a teacher, had claimedasylum in the UK and would, therefore, be unable to demonstrate thatshe had voted for or supported the ruling party. The tribunal statedthat it is reasonably likely that her identity would become apparent,whether she remained in her home area or sought to establish her self elsewhere.

This is a huge outcome. From the attitude of the Home Office at thehearing, it is very unlikely that the Home Office will be challengingthis decision, unless there is a radical development in the politicaldynamics, such as Mugabe capitulating to the MDC. Many people thinkpigs may fly before that happens.

By Taffy Nyawanza, Posted to the web: 17/11/2008
[17/11/2008] Kenyan police units 'murder hundreds'

A damning report containing evidence of a high-level policy to murder suspected criminals and troublemakers in Kenya threatens to undermine the reputation of the government of President Mwai Kibaki.

The report, by the Kenya National Commission on Human Rights, reveals that in the past 18 months about 500 young men have been killed or have disappeared in a police campaign carried out with the apparent connivance of political leaders.

The dead and missing were suspected of being members of the Mungiki, a feared criminal gang that had itself committed gruesome murders.

The Mungiki was outlawed in 2002 following a spate of slum violence. It is a quasi-religious group from the dominant Kikuyu tribe and had become one of Kenya's largest crime and extortion rings.

In a speech on June 1 last year, Kibaki warned gang members they should expect no mercy. Two days later more than 300 Mungiki members were arrested and 20 killed.

John Michuki, the internal security minister, said: "We will pulverise and finish them off. Even those arrested over the recent killings, I cannot tell you where they are today. What you will certainly hear is that so and so's burial is tomorrow."

Since then the commission has compiled the names of at least 300 men who have been killed or have disappeared. It also said there were about 200 victims whose identities could not be established since they were booked into the mortuaries as unknown.

Initially the police shot most suspects but then, the commission said, they turned to strangulation, drowning, mutilation and bludgeoning in an attempt to make the public believe rival gangs were responsible for the killings.

Several witnesses told the commission that police death squads carried machetes, iron bars, ropes and other crude weapons in their cars. Its evidence is being studied by the United Nations committee against torture.

A typical victim's story came from Kagunda wa Mbui, a 45-year-old mason. Arrested on his way to work, he was savagely beaten with iron bars and rifle butts. The police burnt his dread-locks, a mark of Mungiki membership, by pouring paraffin over his hair and setting light to it. Finally they dumped him in the street. His wife took him to hospital but he died at the gate.

The commission believes the police were involved in an extortion racket in which they arrested individuals and then demanded money from relatives to secure their release. "These acts were ordered, directed or coordinated by the top leadership of the Kenya police acting jointly with a common purpose," it stated.

The commission was set up in 2002 by the Kenyan parliament as an independent institution to protect human rights. A thorn in authority's side, it has not always commanded popular support for attacking police rough justice in a country plagued by violent crime.

At the start of the year Kenya was torn apart by violence that erupted after Kibaki's hotly disputed reelection. This led to a dramatic shift in public sympathy away from the police, who were blamed for shooting at least 400 of the 1,133 killed.

Last week as the commission called for a parliamentary inquiry and reform of the police, sources revealed that several of its officials who had worked on the report had fled abroad, fearing that if they stayed any longer they would be killed.

Their fears were heightened by the murder in broad daylight at the end of October of one of the commission's main informants, Bernard Ngirinya, a father of two.

Ngirinya had been the driver for a police death squad that had allegedly carried out many of the killings in and around Nairobi. "He was physically present at many of the murders and was able to provide us with an account of what his unit was doing," said one source.

Fearing for his life, Ngirinya went underground in Nairobi. But he was lured out of his hiding place and shot three times as he collected money from a cash machine.

"Dead men tell no tales," said the source. "The police say he was a victim of crime. But we have his testimony on tape and it is the only protection we have, if it is true, that the police were really responsible for silencing him."

The commission has handed its report, The Cry of Blood, to Kibaki and other senior Kenyan government officials, as well as to the UN.

It does not look as if it will be taken seriously by either the government or the police. Instead of acknowledging the gravity of the issue, Major-General Hussein Ali, the police commissioner, responded by calling the commission a meaningless busybody and challenged it to provide any evidence to back up its "rather infantile accusations".

Jon Swain, The Sunday Times, November 16, 2008
[8/11/2008] Manchester Demonstration Against Humanitarian Crisis in the Congo
A demonstration to protest against the absence of international justice and any and all deportations to the Congo was held in Manchester City Centre, from All Saints (Manchester Metropolitan University), to the Peace Gardens. On 18th-19th November, the High Court will hear the appeal in the 'BK' case about deportations to Democratic Republic of the Congo (DRK). Meanwhile anyone can see from the news that DRC is not a safe place to be sent back to.

Organised by: Congolese in Manchester. Supported by: DC-UK, APARECO, BUNDU DIA CONGO, CONGO SUPPORT PROJECT, GREEN PARTY, MANCHESTER COMMITTEE TO DEFEND ASULUM SEEKERS, RAPAR, WAST, RESPECT, MANCHESTER TRADES COUNCIL, NCADC etc.
[6/11/2008] Britain closes door on 80,000 asylum-seekers - Foreign & Commonwealth Human Rights Report 2007

21 countries of concern: Afghanistan, Belarus, Burma, China, Colombia, Cuba, DR Congo, DPR Korea, Iran, Iraq, Israel/Palestine, Nepal, Pakistan, Russia, Saudi Arabia, Sudan, Syria, Turkmenistan, Uzbekistan, Vietnam, Zimbabwe
[6/11/2008] FOLLOWING OBAMA'S ELECTION TO THE US PRESIDENCY, RAPAR MEMBERS RECEIVED THIS TEXT MESSAGE FROM FRIENDS AND FAMILY IN AMERICA - WE SHARE IT WITH YOU:
- Rosa Parks stood up so that King could walk
- King walked so that Obama could run
- Obama ran so that our children could fly
[2/11/2008] Continuing Conflicts that Create Refugees
Click here for more information
[31/10/2008] Franco-British charter flights to deport Afghan refugees
Corporate Watch / Watching the Corporations, Friday 31/10/08

Thousands of Afghan refugees who have been denied asylum in France and the UK could be forcibly deported to the war-devastated country on joint charter flights if a proposed agreement between France and Afghanistan goes ahead. Gérard Gavory, deputy head of the regional government of Calais, France, recently hinted that the deportations could be imminent as a result of "international negotiations" He also said French authorities have been "working effectively with Britain to set up joint [deportation charter] flights."

On 21 October, 2008, 25 Afghani refugees, who had been held in detention for 15 days, were brought before the Coquelles court. A second court hearing, with further 20 Afghan claimants, took place on 22 October. French officials say if the Afghan authorities recognise them as Afghan nationals, they can be sent back to Afghanistan. No diplomatic agreement had been possible with Afghanistan so far as the latter does not recognise 'clandestines', or those without papers.

Although the Afghan detainees have been released since, the recent court hearings are clearly linked to a new Franco-Afghan accord, of which little is known so far. The new attitude of the Afghan government would also provide the French authorities with an 'opportunity' to resolve the 'impossible' situation in the port of Calais, north France, where thousands of people who have been denied asylum sleep rough as they search for ways to smuggle themselves onto lorries heading to the UK.

Last week, French riot police began a mass operation in Calais to 'clear up illegal camps' used by refugees waiting to find a way into Britain. Hundreds of armed officers dismantled the make-shift homes of about 350 of the 1,000 or so stuck in Calais.

John O from the National Coalition of Anti-Deportation Campaigns (NCADC) said: "Everyone is aware that foreign intervention in Afghanistan sent the country down the toilet years ago. All the foreign armies that are in Afghanistan at the moment are on record that they cannot 'bring order' to Afghanistan. The Afghan government itself, whose writ only runs in the capital Kabul, says it cannot bring order. Yet, the French and British governments say Afghanistan is 'safe'. They are either out of touch with reality or unbelievably hypocritical."

Afghanistan continues to be listed, by Crisis Watch for example, among the top "continuing conflicts that create refugees." According to Home Office statistics, Afghans are among the top nationalities in terms of the number of asylum applicants. In the first quarter of 2008, Afghan nationals accounted for the highest number of applications: 830 out of 6,595, 10% higher than for the same period in 2007. In total, there were 2,570 asylum applicants from Afghanistan in 2007, the highest number from any country. However, Afghan nationals also continue to be the top nationality in the UK subject to forced removals. In the first three months of this year, 270 Afghans were deported out of a total of 3,025 (including dependants). Humanitarian agency the Edmund Rice Centre has recently produced documentary evidence that nine Afghan refugees returned from Australia were killed by Taliban forces, and further 11 are estimated to have also died.

Using commercial flights to deport those who have been denied asylum is becoming increasingly embarrassing, and costly, for the government and the airline companies involved due to successful campaigns and protests. To sustain the deportation regime, the UK government is now resorting more frequently to 'ethnic charter flights'. According to data obtained by NCADC under the Freedom of Information Act, there were 91 charter flights from the UK in the 16 months between February 2006 and May 2007. Of these, 18 flights were to Afghanistan, removing a total of 415 people. The code name given by the immigration authorities to charter flights deporting people to Afghanistan is 'Operation Ravel'. On 11th March, 2008, flight PVT008, operated by Hamburg International Airlines, carried a number of Afghan asylum seekers to Baku, Azerbaijan, for onward transit to Kabul. Some of those deported are known to have been detained in Tinsley House immigration prison at Gatwick airport.

The UK stopped deporting Afghan refugees in 1995 as the country was then regarded "unstable". Failed Afghan asylum seekers were granted Exceptional Leave to Remain in the UK. But the rules of the game changed after the US-led invasion of Afghanistan in 2001. A so-called Voluntary Assisted Return programme was introduced for Afghan refugees in 2003, operated by the International Organisation for Migration (IOM), an inter-governmental agency set up during the Cold War to monitor and manage global migration trends. Single claimants were then offered a £600 inducement (up to £2,500 for families) to leave the country and go back to Afghanistan.

Now it seems both 'voluntary' returns and individual forced removals are deemed to be draining the nation's tax payers - unlike city investment firms and banks. As a remedy, European governments are resorting to joint charter flights, where a plane operated by a contracted charter airline stops at various European cities to pick up deportees and fly them to their possible deaths.

Undertaking deportation charter flights poses a reputational risk for some commercial airlines. Last year, XL Airways withdrew from a £1.5m contract with the Home Office following a number of protests highlighting the airline's involvement in forced deportations to DR Congo. Other airlines that are known to operate deportation charter flights from the UK include Hamburg International, Channel Express and Air Partners.

In June 2005, the interior ministers of the five largest European countries (Germany, France, Spain, Italy and Britain) announced they would be organising "joint charter flights" to increase the number of deportations from their countries, thereby disregarding international and human rights conventions. The first destination was then set to be Afghanistan. Soon after, there was a sharp increase in the number of Afghan refugees arrested and placed in detention centres on both sides of the Channel. A joint French-British deportation charter flight to Kabul took off from Paris in July that year. The following week, another joint flight left from London, stopped in Paris and landed in Kabul, carrying at least 60 young Afghans who had been denied asylum in the UK and France.

Although a number of joint flights had been organised on a bilateral basis, it was the French government who took the lead in July 2002 in "rationalising expulsion measures", in particular by means of "group returns". France opened talks with Germany and the UK on the possibility of "joint European charters". There followed the Afghanistan Return Programme agreed in 2003, which covered both 'voluntary' and forced removals. In another proposal to the European Council, Italy sought to formalise joint EU flights by covering all countries of origin or the last safe third country passed through on a global basis. This would allow, it was said, "group removals" by EU governments to be conducted "as efficiently as possible by sharing removal capacities for rational repatriation operations."

Campaigners argue that such joint flights amount to collective expulsion, which is prohibited under Protocol 4 to the European Convention on Human Rights, the International Covenant on Civil and Political Rights and the EU Charter of Fundamental Rights.
[30/10/2008] EDM 2359: Home office treatment of Darfur asylum seekers

That this House believes recent events in Sudan, including the Justice for Equality Movement attack of 10th May 2008 on Khartoum, have led to a drastic change in circumstances and have reinforced the need for Darfuris to be protected from persecution; notes the September 2008 report by the UN Special Rapporteur on Sudan, Sima Samar, in which she warns that at least 500 civilians are still in National Intelligence and Security Services detention and that most are thought to have been arrested on grounds of their Darfurian ethnicity; further notes concerns raised by human rights group Waging Peace regarding severe breaches of law and procedure which occurred during re-documentation interviews of Darfuri asylum seekers by a Sudanese official in Home Office facilities in March and April 2007; expresses concern at the one-year delay for a Home Office response to the report; expresses concern at reports that Home Office officials have recently encouraged Darfuri asylum seekers to sign voluntary return forms without the presence of interpreters; welcomes the upcoming guidance case in November in which returns to Khartoum of individuals of Darfurian origin will be reassessed; urges the Home Office to acknowledge the growing evidence of targeting and persecution of Darfuris in Khartoum; and requests that the Home Office engage as a matter of urgency with the Home Affairs Select Committee and Waging Peace in order to address remaining questions regarding the re-documentation interviews of Darfuri asylum seekers.

Tabled by David Drew: 28/10/2008

Signatures( 9)
- Drew, David
- Bercow, John
- Teather, Sarah
- Mullin, Chris
- Winterton, Nicholas
- Barrett, John
- Russell, Bob
- Durkan, Mark
- Battle, John
[30/10/2008] RAPAR matrons/patrons meet together with chair and vice chair

Three of RAPAR's matrons/patrons : Dr Rhetta Moran, Cannon Professor Nicholas Sagovsky and Mr Gary McIndoe met Mr Jethro Nyanjowa (Vice Chair) and Ms Zeinab Mohamed (Chair) this week to reflect upon RAPAR's work.

They shared their thoughts about what future directions the organisation might take. Their views will be brought forward inside of the Officer's Report to be presented at the AGM that will take place on November 12th at 6pm at RAPAR'S offices in Friends Meeting House in Manchester.

After the meeting, Canon Nicholas Sagovsky reflected:
"RAPAR is doing excellent work responding to need - and people's needs do not fit into neat boxes...[the way RAPAR works] promotes self-advocacy, empowerment and affirmation."
[29/10/2008] Somalia: Human Rights / House of Commons / 27 Oct 2008

Mr. Keith Simpson: To ask the Secretary of State for Foreign and Commonwealth Affairs what reports he has received of progress towards the establishment of independent human rights institutions in Somalia; and if he will make a statement. [226077] Gillian Merron: The human rights situation in Somalia remains of serious concern. On-going violence and insecurity make it very difficult to gather and verify information, including on human rights. International human rights organisations are unable to operate in much of Somalia due to the security situation. We have no information that any new independent human rights institutions have been established in Somalia.
[29/10/2008] Fifty Iraqi Kurds forcibly deported to Iraq

Yadga, an Iraqi Kurd detained in Tinsley House, reported to International Federation of Iraqi Refugees (IFIR) that a number of Iraqi Kurdish refused asylum seekers were taken from Tinsley and Dover House to Stansted Airport on Monday 27th October.

Yadga told the Home Office escorts that he was due to be released that day.The escorts however ignored him. Yadga was forced onto a coach with the other Kurdish refused asylum seekers. Yadga reported there was a convoy of four coaches travelling to the airport. Each asylum seeker as before was accompanied by two escorts. Following phone calls from Yadga's solicitors, he was taken from the holding area at Stansted airport and returned to Tinsley House at 6pm Monday evening.

Dashty Jamal IFIR Secretary called Awat from Sulaymania. Awat said he and five other Kurdish asylum seekers refused to board the plane and were beaten very badly by their escorts prior to being forced to board the International Hamburg airplane. The flight arrived at Arbil airport at approximately 4:00am the morning of the 28 October. Awat reported that they waited in Arbil for 30 minutes until they were diverted to Sulaymania airport.

This is the sixth time that Iraqi Kurds have been forcibly removed in such large numbers. Generally the UK deports Iraqi Kurds using Royal Jordanian airlines. All of these removals are in contravention of the Geneva Convention which states that asylum seekers should not be returned to a war zone.

IFIR asks all Human and refugee rights organisations, Trade Unions and Trade Councils to write letters of protest condemning this flight to the Home Secretary:
Phil Woolas,
2 Marsham St,
London SW1P
Fax:00442070354745
For more information please contact:
Dashty Jamal 078 5603 2991 d.jamal@ntlworld.com
Karen Johnson 078 0489 1082 Karen.Johnson@btinternet.com
Samera Ahmad 078 2842 4164 sarahp107@hotmail.com
Landmark Case on Children / EM (Lebanon) v SSHD
- child in question was permitted to intervene in the proceedings
- the rights of children need to be separately considered
- may be appropriate for children to be separately represented in some immigration proceedings
See Free movement article for more
[14/10/2008] CHILD M MUST STAY - and you can be a part of making that happen. Please follow this link to find out more
[13/10/2008] Sylvester Thomas

RAPAR is delighted and proud to announce that its volunteer, Sylvester Thomas, has been certificated by the Independent Asylum Commisssion for his completion of the Campaigner and Community Leadership Training.

In Sierra Leone, after the end of the war during 2002, Sylvester was involved in the Child Soldier Campaign where children who had become soldiers were supported by Sylvester and other peers to give their guns in to the disarmamant units and begin to transform themselves from being warriors in the bush into young citizens. In this way, it became possible for their local communities to accept the young people back: not as threats but as the future.

Sylvester had to leave Sierra Leone because of religious persecution and, with his family, is currently seeking sanctuary here: Sierra Leone's loss is the UK's gain...
[6/10/2008] Condition of Detainees at the Campsfield House immigration prison

RAPAR BELIEVES that the British Immigration and Asylum Nationality Act 2006 fundamentally breaches the human rights of people seeking asylum in the UK in a number of ways, including continuing to deny them the right to work.

It now emerges that, with the knowledge of the Home Office's Border and Immigration Agency (BIA), people who are being detained at Campsfield Detention Centre (the overwhelming majority of whom are either seeking asylum or have been failed by the asylum system and are being held prior to deportation) are working for 83 pence an hour, in the camp itself.

Why is the British State allowing Global Expertise in Outsourcing (GEO), the private company that runs Campsfield, to pay people slave wages?

The hypocrisy is breathtaking.

The Right to Work Campaign – and all its affiliates – must take this issue on.

Click here for more details
May Day 2008

May Day 2008 march in Manchester: Report from Manchester Trades Council Defending asylum seekers and their right to access the National Health Service was the central theme of this year's May Day march in Manchester.

Manchester has become a city in which thousands of rejected asylum seekers are destitute, they are not allowed to work, and refused all benefits. Now access to primary health care is under threat despite a recent judicial ruling. Abubakr, a 60 year old Eritraen man who has been refused asylum told the marchers how he now faced the complete loss of his sight due to health care charges he can not afford.

Karen Reissman, the nurse sacked for speaking out over the privatisation of our NHS, was applauded when she explained how 'it is not only asylum seekers who are being denied treatment, cuts and privatisation mean less provision for all of us.'

Manchester Trades Council along with groups supporting refugees organised this years march, now an annual event. Journalists from the NUJ, council workers and health workers from UNISON, joined trades unionists from UNITE in a show of international solidarity.

After the rally, over one hundred and fifty joined in the May Day celebration in the Friends Meeting House. They ate a meal prepared by a group of men from Iraq who are members of the human rights organisation, RAPAR, and took part in a discussion titled "From Peterloo to the Pearl River Delta" led by Paul Mason, BBC Newsnight journalist. This was followed by launch of the new book on the 1972 building strike and the Shrewsbury trials , 'The Flying Pickets' with all five co-authors taking part. The celebration finished with Will Kaufman talking about and singing the songs of the great US singer and working class activist Woody Guthrie.
[28/3/2008] Living in fear: my week with the hidden asylum seekers
[22/3/2008] A cold shoulder for Saddam's victims
[20/3/2008] From Baghdad to Britain
[28/3/2004] Living in fear: my week with the hidden asylum seekers, Guardian

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