scottdisco

rip this joint please
down in Sussex

Anti-detention campaigners are currently holding a protest inside the Arora International Hotel near Heathrow airport against what they described as the hotel company's "cynical, profit-driven opportunism." Armed with a banner and leaflets, they are demanding that Arora drops its plans to turn one of its hotels into an immigration prison.

Driven by what appears to be a decline in business, Arora Management Services Ltd has applied to the Crawley Borough Council for permission to turn its four-star hotel at Gatwick airport, Mercure, into an immigration detention centre. If the planning permission is granted, the hotel will be converted into a secure, prison and the 245 bedrooms into single and family cells.

here

:eek:
 

sufi

lala
yeh i heard about that hotel deal (LGW not LHR?), the Home Office of course have not made any propsal for a new detention centre, this has only come to light because of the planning application

some better news, all credit to the NGOs

France pulls out of deported Afghans' charter flight deal

France on Tuesday night pulled out of a plan to deport hundreds of illegal migrants to Afghanistan in order to prevent them from travelling to Britain.

The Telegraph, 06 Oct 2009
http://tinyurl.com/ycbt9yh

Plans for the first joint Anglo-French flight taking immigrants back to Afghanistan fell apart after Paris withdrew its co-operation at the last minute in the face of protests from refugee groups.

A charter flight leaving Britain on Tuesday night carrying a group of deported Afghans was due to stop in Lille en route to Kabul.

Reports in France said among their number would have been those detained during raids on the Calais "Jungle" last month.

The Home Office refused to comment directly on the details of the flight, but sources confirmed the British side of the deportation would go ahead as planned, with around 25 Afghans originally held in Britain returned to Kabul.

France's last minute withdrawal followed vociferous protests by a coalition of refugee groups.

Frank Supplisson, France's deputy immigration minister, issued a short statement saying there would be "no return flight" on Tuesday.

"To put a stop to certain rumours, I inform you that no return flight designed to repatriate refugees to Afghanistan will take place today," he said.

Paris agreed to the principle of joint return flights during talks at Evian in February between Phil Woolas, a Home Office minister, and his French counterpart, Eric Besson.

But the last minute change of heart by the French raised doubts about future joint arrangements, particularly after a similar Anglo-French scheme was scrapped last November. At the time, opponents argued that, under United Nations conventions, it was illegal to deport a person to a war-torn country like Afghanistan.

Flights returning failed asylum seekers are a routine part of British immigration policy but are much more controversial on the other side of the channel.

In addition to paying for the flight home, Britain meets the cost of travel for the Afghans from Kabul to their home towns and hostel accommodation in the Afghan capital for up to 14 days.

French police took around 100 people into custody two weeks ago after the shanty town known as the Jungle was levelled.

It was used as a base for groups of immigrants trying to avoid detection by border officials and enter the UK in the back of lorries crossing the Channel.
 

sufi

lala
How do we feel about this?
The Anglo French Charter to Kabul was stopped by this french NGO coalition (altho UK send flights often already) UK also send regular flights to Kurdistan but this is the first direct to baghdad- can you imagine how this plane will be, full of chained up, terrified migrants under heavy security, doing the infamous landing plummet to avoid flak ...?

To Detention list: Iraq List:

Urgent: Stop the first charter flight to Baghdad

Demonstration
Wednesday 14th ~ October, 5:00pm

Communications House
Reporting and Enforcement Centre
210 Old Street
London
EC1V 9BR
(nearest tube :Old Street )

This message from: stopdeportation@riseup.net

The Stop Deportation network and other groups and organisations are demanding that the first charter flight to southern Iraq, expected to leave on Wednesday, is suspended and the detainees threatened with forcible removal are released immediately. Over the last week, detainees in various immigration detention centres have been given 'removal directions' clearly stating they will be removed to Iraq, as opposed to the Kurdistan Regional Government-controlled area, which was stated in previous removals.

Deporting people to a war zone like Iraq would put the lives of many deportees at risk. As recently as the 11th October, three car bombs exploded in the western Iraqi city of Ramadi, killing at least 19 people. Violence and bloodshed continue throughout the country, which saw 1,891 civilian deaths in the first six months of this year alone. There are also widespread food shortages, lack of access to clean drinking water and other grave humanitarian crises in many areas.

The British government, through its participation in the war on and occupation of Iraq since 2003, is responsible for these crises and the consequent displacement of millions of Iraqis. Instead of helping accommodate refugees fleeing war and violence, it is now is planning to send them back 'en masse' to face their possible death.

Removal charter flights limit refugees' access to due legal process. The UK Border Agency states that "charter flights may be subject to different arrangements where it is considered appropriate because of the complexities, practicalities and costs of arranging an operation." Charter flight deportees are told that "removal will not necessarily be deferred in the event that a Judicial Review is lodged." The emphasis, thus, is on filling the flight rather than ensuring the appropriate legal avenues have been exhausted. Detainees have also lost the right to know the date and time of their removal, making it more difficult for their legal representatives to act properly and leaving deportees in fear and uncertainty for days or weeks.

Iraqi refugees have been forcibly removed to Iraqi Kurdistan (northern Iraq) since November 2005. Mass removal flights to Kurdistan have been removing 50-60 men almost once a month since June 2008, with the Home Office arguing that, unlike the rest of the country, the Kurdistan area is 'safe'. The International Federation of Iraqi Refugees estimate 1,000 people have been removed to Kurdistan from the UK since 2005. Despite these claims of safety, however, several people have died or disappeared following their forcible return, including Hussein Ali who killed himself two days after his arrival in 2008. Many others have been forced into hiding.

The Stop Deportation network calls upon all groups, organisations and individuals opposed to this brutal action by the UK government to stand with us in calling for all deportations to Iraq to be stopped.

Join us on the first public demonstration against mass removals to Iraq this Wednesday, at 5pm, at the local immigration reporting centre, where many deportees are first arrested without prior warning whilst signing on (Communications House, Old Street, London, EC1).

If you would like to add your or your organisation's name to this statement, or for any further information, please email
stopdeportation@riseup.net.

Other things you can do to help stop this flight:

Contact your local MP and ask them to put pressure on the UK Border Agency to cancel the deportation. You can find your local MP at
http://findyourmp.parliament.uk

Contact the UKBA directly to demand the deportation be cancelled:
Privateoffice.external@homeoffice.gsi.gov.uk
UKBApublicenquiries@UKBA.gsi.gov.uk
CITTO@homeoffice.gsi.gov.uk

Contact the minister for borders and immigration Phil Woolas:
House of Commons phone number: 020 7219 1149
House of Commons fax number: 020 7219 0992
Constituency phone number: 0161 624 4248
Constituency fax number: 0161 626 8572

Please copy stopdeportation@riseup.net in your email correspondence.
 

scottdisco

rip this joint please
"If this country and others were to withdraw their troops from Afghanistan and the Taliban were able to take control of Afghanistan our evidence is that the number of asylum seekers coming to the EU would significantly increase," Woolas told the committee.

"An argument that is not aired strongly enough in my view is the benefit of the presence of our armed forces and other countries' is to help us control immigration."

this disgusting individual is beneath contempt.

what a disgraceful, shabby little parochial excuse for a public servant.
 

sufi

lala
> From The Mid Sussex Times
> [http://www.midsussextimes.co.uk/latest-south-east-news/Unmanned-drone
> s-plan-in-immigrants.5861687.jp]
>
>
> Unmanned drones plan in immigrants crackdown
>
> 27 November 2009
>
> Unmanned military-style drones could be used by Kent and Essex police
> to help combat illegal immigration and drug smugglers along Britain's
> coastlines, it has been disclosed.
>
> The pilotless aircraft, known as Unmanned Autonomous Systems (UAS),
> have been used by British troops in Afghanistan to pinpoint dangers
> and monitor enemy actions.
>
> But a customised version could be used by UK police by 2012 to boost
> maritime surveillance and border controls under a partnership led by
> the Kent and Essex forces and BAE Systems.
>
> The UAS could be programmed to operate at up to 20,000ft to detect a
> particular ship and relay high resolution images to police in control
> rooms.
>
> Unlike manned police helicopters, which can fly for a maximum of a few
> hours, the UAS have the capability to stay in the air for up to 15 hours.
>
> BAE Systems confirmed today it was working with the two police forces
> as part of the South Coast Partnership, which also includes the UK
> Border Agency, the Maritime and Coastguard Agency and the Marine and
> Fisheries Agency.
>
> Chief Inspector Richard Watson, of Kent Police, said: "This
> partnership is exploring new approaches in terms of police aviation.
>
> "UAS have the potential to perform a significant role and it is
> important to work alongside authorities such as the Civil Aviation
> Authority and companies like BAE Systems to make sure any introduction
> of these systems are done safely and responsibly.
>
> "It makes good sense for us all to contribute to it and share the
> costs and benefits."
>
> UAS are not designed to remove the need for manned police flight but
> to support it, BAE Systems said. They can be programmed with specific
> missions and can take off, fly and land at the click of a mouse.
truly bonkers
 

sufi

lala
presumably such drastic and cost ineffective measures are justified by the need to to combat this type of terrifying threat
'Illegal migrant' jumps from ferry in wetsuit
Ross Lydall http://www.thisislondon.co.uk/stand...llegal-migrant-jumps-from-ferry-in-wetsuit.do 25.11.09

A search and rescue operation was launched off the south coast today over fears that illegal immigrants had jumped from a cross-Channel ferry.

Three lifeboats and a helicopter were dispatched in gale force winds at about 1am after a man wearing a wetsuit under soaking clothes was found on the shore near Poole two hours earlier.

The man was believed to have jumped from the Cherbourg to Poole ferry. Anne-Marie Clark, of the RNLI, said: "He didn't speak English, he was indicating he was with three other people so the lifeboats were launched."

The search was called off at about 5am when it was discovered that a second man had made it ashore safely but was missing and two women were on the ferry. Police said the first man, thought to be Russian, was arrested on suspicion of being an illegal immigrant.
 

hucks

Your Message Here
The EURO and the recession

I know this probably doesn't go here, and apols to sufi for hijacking a really good thread, but it is about the Euro, if not the EU necessarily.

http://www.guardian.co.uk/commentisfree/2010/jan/03/peter-oborne-end-of-eurozone

Really interesting piece, even if he does write for the Mail. Actually, his book, the Rise of the Political Class, is largely very good. It's weird to me that the Graun in general hasn't looked at the Euro dimension of the crisis before, if indeed it exists. Could be argued that being in the Euro is what saved Ireland from turning into Iceland.

Seems to me that in the UK the broadly liberal left view would be pro EU, pro Euro. I have no idea why this should be the case. From what I can gather, this goes back to Delors promising the Labour party in the UK that any social democratic goals they held could be achieved through the European Union. The EU is massively undemocratic and centralises power even further away from the population. The Euro might make business easier but makes setting national economic policies harder. And who gives a shit about changing money when you go overseas?

So it's weird to me that Euroscepticism is such a huge part of right wing politics in the UK and such a small part on the left. But that might be because my concept of "left" is a bit outdated, and I have in mind the Centre left.
 

crackerjack

Well-known member
Seems to me that in the UK the broadly liberal left view would be pro EU, pro Euro. I have no idea why this should be the case. From what I can gather, this goes back to Delors promising the Labour party in the UK that any social democratic goals they held could be achieved through the European Union. The EU is massively undemocratic and centralises power even further away from the population. The Euro might make business easier but makes setting national economic policies harder. And who gives a shit about changing money when you go overseas?

So it's weird to me that Euroscepticism is such a huge part of right wing politics in the UK and such a small part on the left. But that might be because my concept of "left" is a bit outdated, and I have in mind the Centre left.

It's because the EU, with its relatively generous Social Chapter, is now seen as the last bastion of worker protection against rampant neo-liberalism.

And de-centralisation is something most parties favour in opposition without doing much about in govt, but it isn't a particularly left-wing trait, quite the opposite if anything (at least among that part of the left with experience/expectation of govt).
 
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