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"Deportation is a death sentence" banner in the city centre.
As part of the European Week of Action against the Deportation Machine; No Borders South Wales dropped some banners in the city of Cardiff. The UKBA in Cardiff has recently been at the heart of an investigation into racism in the Border Agency as a whole. We remind them that deportations and detention are racist and discriminatory and lead to suffering, misery and death.
"Migration is not a Crime - End Detention Now" banner opposite Cardiff Prison
As Europe tightens and co-ordinates its border controls using increasingly intrusive surveillance, violence at the hands of Frontex and deportations, detention and discrimination, activists step up at a local and international level to challenge this system of abuse.
"Stop Deportation" & "Stop Deporting Gay Refugees" banners opposite UK Border Agency offices
No Borders South Wales has suffered its own members being deported in the past and continues to fight for freedom of movement for all.
Mashal Jabari (right) with his older brother who has already gained refugee status
Mashal Jabari has been released, the emergency campaign spearheaded by the Welsh Refugee Council has managed to release a 14-year-old Afghan orphan from detention.
Staff at the Cardiff office of the UK Border Agency had insisted that he was 18 and held him in adult detention ahead of deportation next week. He was released from Campsfield House IRC early yesterday evening following a Judicial Review where the Judge ruled that at present - until another full age assessment is completed – Mashal is to be considered 14 years of age and placed with Read the rest of this entry »
The Welsh Refugee Council is calling on the UK Border Agency to release Mashal Jabari, 14 years of age, from Campsfield detention prison, and to suspend removal directions until a full assessment of his age can be made. It is very unusual for the Welsh Refugee Council to comment on individual cases, which adds extra urgency to the compelling compassionate grounds for why this boy should be allowed to remain.
Zaki Jabar, aged 15, arrived in the UK alone and extremely traumatised in November 2008. He came from Afghanistan and when he left his father was missing presumed dead and his mother was sick. His family had been attacked after his father had given assistance to the American forces, and Zaki had seen his sister killed. He was placed in foster care in Leicester by Rutland Social Services and given Refugee Status. He is currently sitting his GCSEs. He was anxious to trace his younger brother Mashal.
Mashal Jabari arrived in the UK in October last year, and claimed asylum on arrival. By then he knew that both his parents were dead. He was assessed as being over 18 even though he said he was 14. He was sent to Cardiff where he was Read the rest of this entry »
Along with our protest in Cardiff on Wednesday, at the same time there will be a protest outside the Nigerian Embassy in London. The following statement has been published by No Deportations to Nigeria and is signed by ourselves:
Yet another joint mass deportation flight to Nigeria is scheduled for 3rd February, 2010. If it went ahead, the flight will carry to Lagos dozens of refugee women, men and children from a number of EU countries, including the UK. The flight will be operated by the EU external borders agency, Frontex, and funded by the EU directly, as opposed to individual member states, under a new scheme agreed at the EU summit in Brussels last year. Unlike previous flights, which were given code numbers PVT007 and PVT008, the code number given to Wednesday’s flight is ‘JEUC’, which presumably stands for ‘Joint EU Charter’.
Hundreds of Nigerians have been forcibly deported from various EU countries over the past few years. In 2009, there were 17 joint flights to Nigeria operated by Frontex, deporting a total of 849 men and women and their dependants from Austria, Italy, Ireland, the UK and other European countries. The UK took part in four of these flights and organised two of them (one jointly with Ireland).
Many of the deportees are victim of cult and gang violence, torture, rape, female genital mutilation, armed conflict and Read the rest of this entry »
On the morning of 15th October, 39 people who had sought asylum in the UK were deported to Baghdad, Iraq on a chartered flight.
The Air Italy flight left from Stansted Airport, named “Operation Rangat” by the UK Border Agency. This was the first forced mass expulsion of people to southern Iraq from the UK.
An eyewitness told the International Federation for Iraqi Refugees “When my friends started shouting they couldn’t go back these big security guards handcuffed them and strong-armed them out of the bus onto the plane. They were treated like prisoners: it was like watching the footage from Guantanamo“
Violence and bloodshed continue in Iraq, which saw 1,891 civilian deaths in the first six months of this year. There are also widespread food shortages and lack of access to clean drinking water in many areas of Iraq.
Prior to such charter flights, deportees and any legal representatives are not told the date or flight on which they are being deported. This frustrates migrants’ opportunities for legally challenging a deportation and makes it Read the rest of this entry »
Over twenty people gathered in central Cardiff on Wednesday to coincide with the ‘ethnic charter flight‘ that deported Nigerian families at 6pm. There was also protests by Stop Deportation Network in London and Residents Against Racism in Dublin.
We distributed hundreds of copies of a leaflet explaining ’ethnic charter flights’, our opposition to them and deportations in general with specific reference to Nigeria. The was no police presence and the reaction from people passing by was Read the rest of this entry »
There has been news of an ‘Ethnic Charter Flight’ to Nigeria on 29th April 2009 via Ireland. Immigration detainees have received removal directions on flight PVT007 to Dublin at 18:00 connecting with PVT008 to Lagos at 21:00.
Please join us to demonstrate against this mass forced deportation of Nigerian people:
Wednesday 29th April at 5:30pm at the Aneurin Bevan statue (Castle end of Queen Street), Cardiff.
All welcome. Bring placards and banners if you can.
‘Ethnic charter flights’ are planes booked by the UK Border Agency specifically to deport large groups of people of a particular nationality. The exact details of the flights, including where Read the rest of this entry »
Titi Nzamba Bolele and her three children were snatched from their home in Adamsdown, Cardiff early in the morning of 26th January by seven immigration officers and taken to Yarl’s Wood Detention Centre, Bedfordshire, where they were detained for 18 days whilst there were unsuccessful attempts to deport them to the Democratic Republic of Congo, a war-zone, before being returned home.
“It was a very painful experience in the prison. We found ourselves in a place where, wherever you come out, they open the door, they lock after you, they open the door, they lock after you. And the children were not okay. They were asking me, ‘We want to go to school’. There were no schools. They were not eating good food. They couldn’t really play. They are being really stressed.”
According to Bail for Immigration Detainees (BID), in “Briefing Paper on Children and Immigration Detention“, every year around 2,000 children (the UK government refuses to release the exact numbers) are detained for the purposes of ‘immigration control’, under exactly the same conditions as adults. The UK government removed its immigration opt-out to the UN Convention on the Rights of the Child in September 2008. The Convention stipulates that detention shall only be used Read the rest of this entry »
Titi Nzamba Bolele, and her three children spent nearly three weeks in Yarl’s Wood detention Centre after a UK Border Agency snatch squad conducted a dawn raid on their home in Adamsdown and unsuccessfully attempted to deport them to the Democratic Republic of Congo (DRC) – universally accepted as a war zone.
Thankfully they are now all Read the rest of this entry »
No Borders South Wales applaud the actions of Cardiff Students Against War who, inspired by actions at other universities across the UK, have occupied the Large Shandon Lecture Theatre in the main building of Cardiff University and issued a set of demands about the University’s complicity in the arms trade and the destruction of Gaza.
As well as demanding that the university make a stand on issues concerning Palestine and the arms trade, the students have also demanded that the university throw it’s considerable weight behind the campaign to Defend Yayha Al-Faifi. In fact Yahya will be giving a talk inside the occupied space at 3.15pm today, highly recommended! Get yourself Read the rest of this entry »
A loud and vibrant demonstration in Whitehall (video) along with a picket outside the UK Border Agency (UKBA) in Cardiff last thursday was part of an international day of action for Yahya Al Faifi. The practice of the UK Border Agency in this case has been of its usual disgusting standard. Yahya, like so many people who seek asylum in Read the rest of this entry »
Today was an international day of action for trade unionist Yahya Al-Faifi, who is under threat of deportation to Saudi Arabia. There were protests outside the offices of the Home Secretary in Whitehall, outside the UK Border Agency in Cardiff, as well as outside the British embassy in Brussels.
Yahya and his family fled Saudi Arabia after threats of fatal attack because of his trade union activity, eventually settling in south Wales. However, Yahya has had his application for asylum refused and he now faces the very real possibility of being deported back to a country with a horrific human rights record where trade unions are illegal.
It is very likely that if deported it will be BMI Airlines who are called on to do the governments dirty work, as they have previously Read the rest of this entry »
Yahya Al Faifi and his family, who live in Cardiff, are now threatened with deportation after their asylum application was refused. The family were forced to flee Saudi Arabia in 2004 after receiving threats for Yahya’s trade union activity. The trade union movement has called for an international day of action on Thursday 19th February.
At 2pm, there will be a lobby of the Home Secretary in Marsham Street, behind Millbank (Pimlico Tube Station – map). All supporters who can be there are urged to attend.
From 12 noon there will be a picket at the UK Border Agency, 31-33 Newport Road, Cardiff (map) in support of this day of action and in solidarity with the demonstration in London.
Elsewhere groups are requested to protest outside British Embassies and Consulates. Please join us to demonstrate your support for this family. Bring Read the rest of this entry »
In August 2007 the home secretary, Jacqui Smith, was ordered by a high court judge to suspend deportations of unsuccessful asylum seekers to the Democratic Republic of Congo, after evidence of the rape and torture of deportees by Congolese officials emerged. However the Home Office has now deemed it safe to deport people to DR Congo, despite the ongoing war, corruption, breakdown of society, and severe lack of health care. Human Rights Watch, in its recent report “We Will Crush You – The Restrictions of Political Space in the Democratic Republic of Congo” states:
“Security forces deliberately killed or summarily executed more than 500 persons in Kinshasa and Bas Congo and arbitrarily arrested and detained about a thousand more, many of whom were tortured or ill-treated.”
Titi Nzamba Bolele, and her three young children, were snatched in a dawn raid by UK Border Agents from their home in Iron Street, Adamsdown, Cardiff at 6am on Monday 1st February. On Friday, they were Read the rest of this entry »
Update on Baghdad charter flight
October 16, 2009 in Anti-Deportation Campaigns, Comment | Tags: deportation, Iraq, UK Border Agency | by No Borders South Wales | 1 comment
The Stop Deportation Network together with The International Federation of Iraqi Refugees have issued a press release with the following statements from those who have been returned to Brook House detention centre, Gatwick:
‘K’, who did get off in Baghdad, said this morning he did not do go voluntarily and did not Read the rest of this entry »