Month: September 2014

29 September 2014

(We asked our friend, Detention Forum Scotland, to tell us their hope for the detention inquiry in light of the ‘NO’ vote for the Scottish Referendum.)

Many organisations working within the field of migration, and the individuals whose lives are affected daily by UK immigration policy, waited with baited breath for the result of the recent Scottish Referendum. Emotions ran high, the air was tense, everywhere you turned there was talk and arguments laid out for one side or the other. A Scotland with a new and progressive immigration system seemed possible.

For the Detention Forum Scotland and the people held in Dungavel Immigration Removal Centre (Scotland’s only detention centre) the promise that, ‘In an independent Scotland, we will close Dungavel’ (Scotland’s Future, p271) was encouraging. Like every other policy change and promise the Scottish National Party (SNP) put forward in the run up to the referendum, there was scepticism and unanswered questions regarding what closing Dungavel actually meant for the people held there. What would the future hold for people whom Scotland still planned to remove? Nonetheless, it was a hugely progressive promise. A promise that moved Scotland’s potential immigration policy far from the attitude that prevails in Westminster. A promise that could show what more humane attitude towards immigration policy throughout the UK would look like.

As Scotland voted to remain part of the UK with a majority of 55%, this promise must not be left to fade away into a distant memory. The organisations and individuals who were waiting hopefully for change must keep hoping, talking, and raising awareness of immigration detention. The parliamentary inquiry has thus come at an opportune time. We see that this Inquiry is the place where these memories can be kept alive.

Detention Forum Scotland has held two meetings to discuss some of the submission of evidence from Scotland. From these meetings organisations including; Bridging the Gap (a community organisation in Glasgow), Scottish Detainee Visitors (SDV), Glasgow Refugee, Asylum and Migration Network (GRAMNet), Scottish Refugee Council, and the Refugee Women’s Strategy Group will be submitting written evidence. There have also been individuals who feel strongly about detention involved, including an immigration solicitor, community members and former detainees.

Some of these organisations have also supported individuals who are currently held in Dungavel to tell their stories. For SDV, supporting current detainees to get their voices heard was more problematic than was first expected. For some detainees the task of giving evidence was too emotionally draining. The detainees who wished to submit evidence faced a number of barriers in getting their voice out. Language barriers prevented them from writing submissions, poor phone reception prevented visitors from being able to talk over the phone to detainees and record their evidence. This left the detainees having to give evidence to an SDV visitor in the centre’s visit room. A room in which there is no privacy, officers are present at all times. It is deemed neither a safe space nor a confidential one in which detainees are able to give a full account of their experiences.

It is crucial to acknowledge these issues both in relation to the barriers that immigration detention creates in allowing the voices of detainees to be heard, but also as elements of immigration detainees’ daily, lived experiences. These conditions will be familiar, wherever people are detained in the UK. But for a while, we in Scotland were able to experience those conditions in the hope that they might come to an end. For some of us, this referendum was not about nationalism, but about something more hopeful and inclusive. This Inquiry now carries forward that hope.

One of the most exciting aspects of the Detention Forum is an opportunity to work with many groups and organisations who are not traditional “detention” organisations.  We believe that a wide variety of organisations that come together at the Detention Forum demonstrates the strength of the civil society’s opposition to immigration detention.  The Quaker Asylum and Refugee Network (QARN) is a member of the Detention Forum, and is active in our Indefinite Detention Working Group.

We have asked Bridget Walker from QARN to tell us about the detention session they ran at Yearly Meeting.

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‘They’re all criminal, rapists and paedophiles’ shouted a man seeing this banner at a stall during Refugee Week.

‘What is Campsfield House?’ asked another passerby.

A couple approached the stall hesitantly :  ‘It is good what you say.  We are not criminals – behind every refugee there is a big story’.

This was the introduction to a session about immigration detention organised by the Quaker Asylum and Refugee Network (QARN) at the week long gathering of Quakers at the University of Bath in August this year.

We reflected on where the first speaker had picked up this view of asylum seekers and migrants.  Although his language might be more abusive it was not so different in tone from much of the popular media coverage of asylum and migration issues.

The second passerby was a long term resident of Oxford but knew nothing about Campsfield House Immigration Removal Centre just a few miles outside the city.  In this she is not alone.

The third speaker was a man from one of the Gulf States. His wife was Palestinian.   It meant a lot to them to be affirmed rather than demonised.

In the discussion Friends shared their own experiences of the detention system.  There was concern about the establishment of HMP the Verne as an IRC and the expansion of the detention estate.  Friends spoke of the arbitrary nature of the decision to detain. Examples were given of the damage to mental health.  The process of applying for bail had been ‘horrific’ in the experience of one witness.   There was concern about the impact of the legal aid cuts.

We looked at ways of challenging the myths, of raising awareness, supporting those in detention and working for change.   Friends are active throughout the country in visiting detention centres, providing advice, acting as sureties for bail, as well as supporting asylum seekers and refugees in the community.

QARN is co-ordinating two particular activities.  The first is a submission of evidence to the current Parliamentary Inquiry into detention.  Friends may also be involved in the hearings being held around the country.  Secondly QARN is encouraging Friends to take up the Detention Forum’s ‘time for a time limit’ campaign to introduce a 28 day time limit on immigration detention.  A template letter to MPs was drafted and about 100 copies were taken during the yearly meeting gathering.

The Quaker Asylum and Refugee Network held its inaugural meeting in  December 2006 .  We aim to work to change the way that refugees and asylum seekers are treated, whether recognized under the UN Convention of not, and for justice and compassion in our asylum and immigration system.  In our experience this is frequently lacking – there is a culture of disbelief, encouraged by the language of politicians and the tabloid press. This needs to be challenged and we are convinced that a principled critique of current asylum policy should be part of our corporate Quaker witness.

August 31^st 2014