Coronavirus doesn’t take a break and neither do we! Nottingham United Against Racism, which Nottingham RCG helped to found, once again took to the streets on Saturday 2 January to protest against the racism of the British state. We are still organising in the midst of a pandemic because the British state continues to keep migrants in detention centres during a global health crisis. The monthly demonstration in Market Square focused on the inherent racism of this country’s immigration system and the deplorable conditions in which asylum seekers, refugees and immigrants are expected to live in – even during a pandemic. As the deadly coronavirus spreads across the UK, this exploited section of the working class is disproportionately likely to live in cramped, unsanitary conditions with limited access to health care or protection.
While appalling conditions in immigration removal centres like Yarl’s Wood and Brook House are nothing new, the added danger of coronavirus and the Government’s complete lack of care towards protecting the people inside has made them even more apparent. In Brook House alone, at least 17 cases of coronavirus have been recorded, with detainees forced to stay isolated in their rooms leaving them terrified and alone. Only three weeks ago, one of the 13 people deported from the UK to Jamaica on the Jamaica 50 flight tested positive for Covid. This was after spending several hours on a crowded plane. We know how fatal Covid-19 infections have been. The state is knowingly placing people in life-threatening conditions as part of a brutal, racist attack against migrants.
Speaking on the open mic in the city centre, campaigners talked about the crisis in immigration detention and supposed “housing” facilities across the UK. The management of these facilities is outsourced to private companies like Serco, which has been accused of historic, serious abuses against the people it its care. Despite its history, Serco and other outsourcing companies like it are awarded multi-million pound contracts to run immigration removal centres. They profit from the human misery caused by the British immigration system, designed to tailor the movement of people based purely on their usefulness to British imperialism. In a clear message to the authorities, protesters wrote a powerful message in chalk on the slabs in front of the council house: “Stop Racism! Shut Down Detention Centres! Save Lives!” No human being should be forced to live in disgraceful conditions during a pandemic, or ever, and no matter where they are from.
As protesters chalked the message, two Police Community Support Officers interrupted the action and attempted to claim it was graffiti (a prosecutable offence). Council cleaning teams were eventually called to wash the chalk away, as campaigners stood around them chanting anti-racist messages. The eery process mirrored the state’s attempts to hide away the reality of the brutal conditions that migrants and refugees face in the British immigration system, and the systematic racism it does not acknowledge.
NUAR demands an end to all deportations, an end to racist stop and search, joint enterprise, the release of all IPP prisoners and the shutdown of detention centres. No human is illegal!
Join us for our next online event; an action planning meeting in which we will be organising a protest and solidarity march to HMP Nottingham to demonstrate against racist prison and policing systems. Come along and take a stand against all forms of state racism: tinyurl.com/NUARPlanningMeeting.
