On 19 May a successful day of action took place in cities throughout England and Scotland in protest against the British government’s continuing attacks on asylum seekers. The event was called and co-ordinated by Tyneside Community Action for Refugees (TCAR), who organised a 200-strong demonstration in Newcastle city centre on the theme of ‘You will not snatch us silently!’
The demonstration was anything but silent. Participants brought pots, drums and whistles and there was constant chanting. The march culminated in an open mic rally, where speakers included members of the RCG, Palestine Solidarity Campaign, the Zimbabwean opposition group MDC and many more members and supporters of TCAR. At least three speakers were under the age of 14 and young people were the main participants in the street theatre. Young members of TCAR, some of who have witnessed dawn raids themselves, acted out an immigration snatch squad, kicking down a door and dragging out mother and child, to boos and hisses from the audience.
Comrades in TCAR report that the last year has shown a distinct shift in attitudes about asylum seekers with a lot more open support being shown in communities and on the streets. The organisers of the 19 May events were inspired by the support the demonstration received from working class residents of Newcastle, who spoke spontaneously and passionately on the open mic about the racism of the current system and the need for solidarity with asylum seekers.
In Manchester FRFI and the North West Asylum Seekers Defence Group (NWASDG) organised a march, starting from Strangeways prison where asylum seekers are detained. Over 80 people rallied outside the prison, including asylum seekers and refugees from the Congo Support Project (CSP), International Organisation of Iranian Refugees, and Ethiopian, Eritrean and Kurdish communities, as well as by the Sukula Must Stay Campaign, Rhythms of Resistance samba band and local working class people and students. They then marched to the city centre, where CSP speakers highlighted the treatment of asylum seekers in Britain by the racist Labour government, denouncing Britain for supporting Democratic Republic of the Congo (DRC) President Kabila just as it supported the late despot Mobutu. A speaker from Ethiopia spoke about the government’s deliberate policy of using destitution to force asylum seekers to leave this country. A 10-year-old Kurdish girl spoke about how people in her country were being attacked and her family were not allowed to live in peace – ‘that’s why we had to run away’.
In Glasgow, 60 people marched from the immigration courts to the city centre, with banners demanding equal rights for all. Members of Unity handed out leaflets informing the public of the reality of asylum seekers’ lives and the march chanted against dawn raids and detention. At the rally asylum seekers spoke out against criminalisation and vowed to resist deportations back to Turkey, Rwanda, DRC, Algeria and other countries deemed ‘safe’ by the Home Office. An RCG comrade spoke, stating the real criminals are those British politicians who support the brutal occupation of Iraq, the genocidal war in DRC and the fascist state in Turkey. He urged Scottish people to unite with asylum seekers in the struggle against poverty and racism. The demonstration finished with chants of ‘the Home Office is the real criminal!’
In London Fight Racism! Fight Imperialism! held a lively demonstration outside Communications House Immigration Reporting Centre on Friday 18 May, supported by London No Borders, Crossing Borders, Crossroads Women’s Centre, All African Women’s group and the Médécins du Monde London Project. The following day North London FRFI and Nottingham No Borders held street events in support of the day of action, a march took place in Coventry, and Leeds No Borders held an Asylum Solidarity Day at a social centre, attended by about 60 people. FRFI is proud to have participated in this day of action and looks forward to more unity in struggle against Britain’s racist immigration laws.
No detention! No deportation!
Fight Labour’s racist immigration laws!
An injury to one is an injury to all! Together we are stronger!
Protests in detention centres
Early May saw renewed protest in immigration detention centres. On 3 May women in Yarl’s Wood Removal Centre began a protest, following a threat by SERCO (the company which in April won a £87m contract to run Yarl’s Wood) to introduce new measures, including 7pm-7am lock-up, confiscating mobile phones and cutting access to TV news. According to a press release issued by the Black Women’s Rape Action Project (BWRAP) women took to the corridors shouting ‘We won’t be locked up’ and made banners out of bed sheets saying ‘We want freedom’, ‘We demand Human Rights’ and ‘We want justice’.
One woman, Jacklyn Edwards, was then moved to Holloway prison from where she told BWRAP: ‘I am being punished for speaking out about the inhumane conditions we have to suffer in Yarl’s Wood’.
Some of the women involved in this protest went on hunger strike, and three days later over 100 male and female detainees in Yarl’s Wood staged another hunger strike.
At Colnbrook detention centre a peaceful protest was brought to an end by force. On 20 May about 17 men were moved to prisons or other centres. The detainees were protesting at access to the church and library in the immigration prison being reduced. The official explanation is shortage of staff, but it is considered to be a manoeuvre to further limit association and movement within the centre, and particularly association between detainees from different wings.
Nicki Jameson
FRFI 197 June / July 2007
