No Borders South Wales

At 11.00am on Tuesday 5^th of July activists attended and disrupted a Group 4 (G4S) consultation in Cardiff. G4S are bidding to run a service called COMPASS ( Commercial and Operational Managers Procuring Asylum Support Services). This is a project aimed at finding an outsourced provider for housing asylum-seekers, as well as associated services and transport.

Activists from No Borders and other groups disrupted the corporate double-speech to give one of their own, highlighting the violent and unaccountable nature of G4S. Questions were asked and activists argued that G4S were not fit to run services such as housing considering their history of abuse towards asylum-seekers. The response was one of denial and dismissal, when one young asylum-seeker spoke up about their fears of living under G4S they were flatly ignored.

Migrant housing is currently run by the UKBA, and their intention is that, by August 2012, asylum accomodation will be run by other organisations. G4S hopes to be that organisation. We argue that G4S should not be given this contract.

-G4S has serious allegations of abuse and unaccountability, most notably:

A 2008 report by Medical Justice details nearly 300 cases of alleged physical assault and racial abuse by private security in the deportation process. G4S is the largest private security company in this field.

In 2010, following a House of Lords report, Baroness O’Loan found that the majority of cases in which complaints were made, previous investigations were inadequate or not done. She said that, ‘on occasion there quite simply had been a failure to deal properly with the complaints’. Companies such as G4S are unaccountable.

In Oct 2010 Jimmy Mubenga died at the hands of G4S staff on a deportation flight. He was suffocated as he tried to complain about being returned against this will.

G4S are not social landlords. They are the worlds largest private army, running prisons, transferring detainees and are concerned with their profit, with a record of brutality and violence.

At around 3.00pm the UKBA decided to raid, in broad daylight, a beauty salon on Clifton St. Despite there being children and customers inside the UKBA shut the doors of the shop and closed the shutters. No Borders activists were present and quickly got support and a banner to highlight the reality that this is an everyday occurrence for people without the correct citizenship. Leaflets were handed out and passers-by stopped to give support or have discussions. Many people were outraged and told us that the shop had been raided before. They left without detaining anyone and carried on into Splott in two unmarked blue people carriers. Some supporters tried to ask a local traffic warden to ticket the illegally parked cars but she told them that she couldn’t because it was a UKBA vehicle.

On Friday 13^th May the Congolese community came together for a lively demonstration against the potential re-election of President Joseph Kabila, a man surrounded by corruption and with his vice-president facing charges of war crimes in the Hague. The demonstration marched from City Hall, along Queen St through the city centre accompanied by songs and chants. Friday shoppers stood aside as the small but colourful demonstration swept past. The demonstration then proceeded by foot to the Bay to hand a signed letter to the Welsh Assembly Government.

The demonstration came just days after the release of a horrific new report in the American Journal of Public Health that 400,000 women were raped between 2006-2007 in the Democratic Republic of Congo. This amounts to 48 women every hour. They stress that this simply reflects better reporting ability for women in the DRC. Michael VanRooyen, Director of the Harvard Humanitarian Institute stated that “Rape in the DRC…has emerged as one of the great human crisis of our times”. There is further information here:

This news demonstrates the relentless violence going on in many parts of the DRC. However, whilst the country continues to be occupied by militias, the Home Office, the UK Border Agency and the EU still feel it appropriate to deport refugees en masse back to the DRC. No Borders has reported previously on expulsion flights leaving the UK for DRC. Most recently on Thursday 28th of April a Frontex charter flight deported people from the UK before leaving for Brussels and ultimately Kinshasa in the Democratic Republic of Congo.

At least 62 people died in the Mediterranean after weeks of attempting to sail to Italy. The ship carrying 72 African migrants contacted a refugee group in Rome by satellite phone and asked them to call the authorities. The Italian coast-guard contacted several ships in the area described as well as alerting Maltese authorities. The survivors tell a harrowing tale:

” Soon a military helicopter marked with the word “army” appeared above the boat. The pilots, who were wearing military uniforms, lowered bottles of water and packets of biscuits and gestured to passengers that they should hold their position until a rescue boat came to help. The helicopter flew off, but no rescue boat arrived”

Soon after an aircraft carrier believed to be the French Charles de Gaulle was spotted, two aircraft took off and flew low over the boat. Despite this they were left to die of starvation and thirst. The UNHCR has demanded an enquiry. They state that over 800 migrants have thought to have died so far in recent attempts of migrants fleeing conflicts in North Africa to reach Europe.

This show of indifference from the authorities underlines the reality of European attitudes to migrants when out of sight of the public. The border agency Frontex has been documented ignoring and turning boats over in the Aegean and Mediterranean.

This news comes as the latest from the horrific tragedies of people dying to reach safety yet again. Despite NATO bombing Libya in the name of peace they show their true colours when leaving the same intended protected people to drown.

Read further stories here and here.

Women Seeking Sanctuary Advocacy Group (WSSAG) Wales is a growing self help group run by and for asylum seeking and refugee women in South Wales.

“We offer moral, emotional, social and practical support to one another. WSSAG is a platform where we all share our experiences, difficulties, as a problem shared is a problem halved. We feel that together we make a better stand.

Even though we do not give immigration advice, we signpost our ladies to where to get help, we encourage and promote social cohesion within the community. We are committed to promoting a positive image of people seeking sanctuary.”

In partnership with the Cardiff Ethnic Minority Communities team the group launched a book called “Seeking Sanctuary: Journeys of Despair and Hope” on Tuesday 19th April 2011 at the Wales Millennium Centre, which is now available via their website. The book contains six real life experiences of women who have fled human rights abuse, persecution, and all sorts of other abuses but still have decided to speak out about their ordeals and hope to rebuild their lives.

On Thursday 28th of April there will be a Frontex* charter flight from Brussels to Kinshasa in the Democratic Republic of Congo. Our fellow activists in Belgium tell us that it will be taking 60 people, 15 from Belgium and another 45 from the UK, Holland, Ireland and Sweden. On the flight will be the Belgium federal police and possibly some private security.

Despite that speed of the operation it appears that No Borders activists in Belgium are putting up a struggle against this flight. Here’s hoping that the flight is stopped and people can return to their families and friends.

UPDATE: This morning (28/05/2011), around 20 activists blockaded entrance to the 127 bis detention centre in Steenokkerzeel, near the main airport of Brussels. Using lock-ons from around 4.30am they intend to prevent this charter flight from leaving. Indymedia article here: http://www.indymedia.org.uk/en/2011/04/478368.html

* Frontex is the European agency concerned with protecting the external borders of Europe. Amongst other things it co-ordinates European wide charter flights with member states.

In a desperate attempt to highlight and put pressure on the UK Governments border regime, several Iranian asylum seekers have been on hunger strike, some of them have sewed their lips shut. They have camped outside the Home Office in Croydon and the headquarters of Amnesty Int in London. They face deportation to Iran and possible torture, violence or execution on arrival. They fled due to their opposition to the Iranian regime during the 2009 demonstrations in Tehran. On arrival to the UK they claimed political asylum but had their cases turned down despite overwhelming evidence including physical evidence of torture.

The police took them to hospital where they refused to have their stitches taken out, one of them is only 17 years old, demonstrating for his right to remain in the UK. No Borders activists have visited them in London and are calling for support. They have a petition here. Their demonstration follows the death of another Iranian asylum seeker in Amsterdam, who set himself on fire on the 16th of April after his claim to stay failed.

A less well known hunger striker is Solomon Kumar Guntupalli, an Indian asylum-seeker. He is also camped out, in Parliament Square. He faces deportation to India after 6 years in a UK prison for possession of drugs, which he claims is untrue. This record would cause him further persecution in India.

Some media surrounding the hunger strikes: Youtube video of the Iranian hunger strikers.

Guardian articles can be found here and here.

Indymedia link to report and pictures can be found here.

These protests highlight the urgent need to abolish this regime that can so callously deport people back to violence and death, we must show our support to these brave men. Get angry, write something, go to London and visit them. Don’t let them get deported.