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UKBA immigration officers were seen carrying out random identity checks on members of the public on Queen Street, Cardiff, on Tuesday 19th April at about 9am.
Three officers, two dressed as Police Officers with body armour and handcuffs, but with ‘UK Border Agency’ identified on the rear of their armour appeared to only be stopping black and asian people on their way to work, asking questions and then phoning through information.
No Borders are calling for people to be vigilant about UKBA officers activities and to email No Borders Wales if they come across officers stopping and questioning people.
Activists intend to gather information and challenge the authority of UKBA officers to act in this way.
Friday’s protest outside the UK Border Agency in Cardiff was the largest one to date with over 200 people, mostly refugees. The demonstration lasted three hours and featured speeches, chanting, dancing and a lot of energy. The demonstration was organised by Refugee Voice Wales with prominent members of Zimbabwean, Congolese, Kurdish and other community groups taking a leading role.
In this media age there was unsurprisingly a number of people tweeting short reports, uploading photos and providing live audio direct from the demonstration. Further full reports have already appeared on local radical blogs Everyone’s Favourite Comrade, Cryptonomicon and Welsh Green Dragon, which includes Read the rest of this entry »
The protest outside the UK Border agency in Cardiff this Friday called by Refugee Voice Wales has been gaining attention.
There has been support for the demonstration on Facebook, Myspace, Twitter, Indymedia, Everyone’s Favourite Comrade, Cryptonomicon, Cardiff Radical Socialist Forum, Urban75 and Permanent Revolution.
The BBC world service also recently aired an episode of Assignment: “Unlawful Detention” (Listen or Download) investigating claims that the government is routinely breaching its own guidelines and detaining vulnerable Read the rest of this entry »
Reactions to the whistle-blowing of Louise Perrett have continued, the Cross Party Group on Human Rights at the Welsh Assembly recently had Louise give a talk on her experiences. This has led to Bethan Jenkins AM to call for an investigation into UKBA racism whilst demanding:
“a halt to any deportations planned as a consequence of the casework completed at the Cardiff office”.
Now Refugee Voice Wales has called a demonstration outside the UK Border Agency offices, 31-33 Newport Road, Cardiff on Friday 26th February between 1pm and 3pm.
In the call out they state:
“We are calling for an immediate stop to consistent racial abuse and harassment of asylum seekers by the UKBA staff. We demand:
- that all cases dealt by unscrupulous officers be reviewed
- immediate suspension of all removals / deportations
- the suspension of all corrupt staff and their supervisors
- an instant independent overhaul of the whole system at Cardiff UKBA
- An independent inquiry into all UKBA offices to uphold the Refugee Convention
Tell everyone you know to come! Come play your part to create freedom. If you have BLACK GLOVES please wear them on the day for the freedom salute! Come let’s have a mass toyi-toyi (African War dance for freedom and equality). This is a mockery to the inclusion and integration policies so encouraged by the Welsh Assembly.”
Despite not agreeing with the implication that the problem is “unscrupulous officers” and “corrupt staff”, we fully support this call out. The role of Read the rest of this entry »
Over forty people braved the wind and rain outside the UK Border Agency on Newport Road on Wednesday to protest against the first Joint EU Charter deportation flight, which went to Nigeria. We gave out 150 copies of a leaflet by Stop Deportations to Nigeria, which were well received by everyone we spoke to.
At the same time as we were holding our demonstration in Cardiff there was a protest outside the Nigeria Embassy in London called by the Campaign Against Immigration Controls and No One Is Illegal. It was good to see plenty of people from other political groups coming together to condemn the UKBA and call for freedom of movement for all. We welcome the involvement of everyone who has a problem with the highly bigoted and discriminatory practises of the border regime.
The profile of the protest was significantly raised by the revelations of former UKBA employee Louise Perrett who’s experiences show the agency to be institutionally racist. Louse will be speaking about her Read the rest of this entry »
An article in today’s Guardian, has added extra meaning to our protest outside the UKBA this afternoon. Louise Perrett worked as a case owner at the UK Border Agency office in Cardiff for three and a half months last summer. Due to her experiences of her time in the agency she has risked breaching the Official Secrets Act to go public with evidence of anti-immigration views and abuse of power by UK Border Agency staff.
“I witnessed general hostility, rudeness and indifference towards clients. It was completely horrific. I highlighted my concerns to senior managers but I was just laughed at. I decided to speak out because nobody else was saying anything and major changes are needed at senior management level.”
Her revelations reveal a culture of bigotry and prejudice in the Cardiff office, where members of staff took pride in refusing applications.
- One manager said of the asylum-seeker clients: “If it was up to me I’d take them all outside and shoot them.”
- If a case was difficult, she was simply advised to refuse it and “let a tribunal sort it out”.
- Any officer who approved an asylum application had a stuffed toy “grant monkey” placed on their desk by other members of staff as a badge of shame.
- One official tested the claims of boys Read the rest of this entry »
On Wednesday, 3rd February at 5.30pm, there will be a specially chartered deportation flight to Nigeria. At 4.30pm we will be holding a protest against this outside the UK Border Agency, General Buildings, 31-33 Newport Road, Cardiff, CF24 0AB (map).
There have been previous deportation flights to Nigeria from the UK, (we’ve protested against them before) but ‘Flight PVT-JEUC’ will be the first Joint European Union Charter, a new scheme agreed at the EU summit in Brussels last year. It will be operated by Frontex and funded by the EU, as opposed to individual member states. In December BMI organised a flight to Afghanistan and Read the rest of this entry »
12 activists picketed the Cardiff offices of the UK Border Agency for an hour between 4-5pm today, catching a lot of post-work traffic along a busy Newport Road.
The picket was held in response to a call out for protests outside UKBA offices in solidarity with activists and migrants in Calais, where French authorities have been attempting to make the port town a “migrant free zone” by subjecting migrants there to intimidation and violence and by destroying their living spaces and belongings.
Solidarity actions were also Read the rest of this entry »
On Wednesday 27th May a group of No Borders activists braved the lousy weather to picket the Border Agency offices on 31-33 Newport Road. We distributed leaflets to those passing by and entering the building, which were well received. Despite the weather, the police deemed a presence necessary at this peaceful protest, as those who arrived were suprised to be awaited by two CSPO’s standing in the rain!
The next picket of the UKBA at 31-33 Newport Road will be held on 17th June 2009, 12 noon. We will be Read the rest of this entry »
At midday this Wednesday 27th May, we will be holding a picket outside the UK Borders Agency at 31-33 Newport Road, Cardiff (map) to protest against the systematic de-humanisation of migrants in the UK via enforced destitution, detention and deportation. The picket will also be in solidarity with the repressed migrants in Calais, looking toward the Calais No Border Camp in a month’s time. The demonstration will be from 12noon until 1pm, so come and join us, we will have a selection of banners and placards, but feel free to bring your own too!
The situation for migrants in Calais is nothing short of a major humanitarian crisis, which has been created by Read the rest of this entry »
At 1pm today people gathered outside the UK Border Agency (UKBA) on Newport Road in Cardiff to protest in solidarity with the International Federation of Iraqi Refugees who have been holding a two day protest outside the United Nations office in Geneva, there was Read the rest of this entry »
With the IFIR demonstration in Geneva scheduled for two days, as well as our protest outside the UK Border Agency on Friday, which has the support of Cardiff Stop the War, there will also be a demonstration in London on Thursday. We encourage everyone who is able to attend any one of these to do so.
With over 3 million Iraqis having been forced to flee their homes since the British and American military invasion in 2003, this displacement of people is Read the rest of this entry »
On the 16th – 17th April the International Federation of Iraqi Refugees has called a demonstration outside the UN office in Geneva against policies that victimise Iraqi asylum seekers in Europe.
We will be holding a demonstration in solidarity with the IFIR outside the UK Border Agency, 31-33 Newport Road, Cardiff on Friday 17th April at 1pm. We call on all opponents of the illegal invasion of Iraq to join us. Showing solidarity Read the rest of this entry »
On Thursday at midday, a group of 15 people picketed the Cardiff branch of the UK Border Agency, protesting against the dehumanising migration controls enacted by the government. The offices on Newport Road are housed within a non-descript building and one of the aims of the picket is to highlight what goes on here. This includes the fact that this is where asylum applicants are required to sign on a regular basis, risking being grabbed and detained in the process, and is also from where ‘snatch squads’ of immigration officers leave from to conduct dawn raids on unsuspecting families to take them into detention prior to forced deportation.
Unusually for one of our regular pickets, there was Read the rest of this entry »
The next regular picket of the UK Border Agency Office at 31-33 Newport Road, Cardiff (map) will be held on Thursday 26th March at 12 noon. Please join us to show solidarity with people forced to sign here.
It wasn’t until the 1905 Aliens Act that we saw the first law aimed at controlling migration into Britain. Now we have a brutal and dehumanising system where people, including children are imprisoned Read the rest of this entry »
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