Month: January 2015

THIS EVENT IS NOW FULLY BOOKED.  WE HAVE NO MORE TICKETS AVAILABLE.

#Time4aTimeLimit Strategy Day, 20th February 2015, 11am to 4:30pm

Amnesty International, 25 New Inn Yard, London EC2A 3EA

PROGRAMME – HERE

The Detention Forum members have been campaigning for a time limit on immigration detention together since 2012.  Strategy Day is for the Detention Forum members and other groups campaigning to end indefinite detention of migrants in the UK to network, share intelligence and good practice to make #Time4aTimeLimit reality.

BOOK YOUR PLACE HERE 

On the day, we will cover the following topics;

• Quick review of progress so far
• Looking ahead – the General Election and the report of the parliamentary inquiry into immigration detention
• Steps we want to take to make sure indefinite detention ends
• Showcasing the actions taking place across the UK
• How will we communicate indefinite detention – social media and tips

We will also have short practical sessions that help groups to improve their campaigning skills.

We hope to end the day with each of us pledging to take three small actions to end indefinite detention in the UK.

We will send out the final programme nearer the day.  For more information, please contact detentionforum@gmail.com

If you are not able to join us on 20 Feb, but want to share information about actions you are taking, please get in touch with us too.

The hashtag for the event is #Time4aTimeLimit

Practical information –

• Unfortunately, we don’t have enough funding to be able to offer lunch, so please bring your own food.  We will provide tea and coffee.
• We are very sorry but we are not able to pay for your travel expenses.
• There is also going to be an informal social event in the evening at the same venue.  More information is available here

Please note all tickets have now been booked. If you want to be on the waiting list, please register via Eventbrite link below (10 Feb 2015).

The Detention Forum invites you to an evening of thought-provoking ‘salon’ event.

What is immigration enforcement doing to us?  Media, ‘Go Home’ vans and our lives

 Friday 20 Feb 2015 6:00pm to 8:30pm, Amnesty International, 25 New Inn Yard, London EC2A 3EA

(Please note that we are also hosting #Time4aTimeLimit Strategy Day on the same day during the day) 

The event is free but you need to book your place here. 

Sans Papiers by Justine Roland-Cal (http://www.justinerolandcal.co.uk/)

A discourse of ‘hardworking’ migrants is often used to counter anti-immigration opinions.  On the other hand, what is rarely discussed is the impact of a range of immigration enforcement measures on migrant communities and British citizens.  This salon-style event brings together academics, activists, a journalist, a NGO worker and individuals affected by immigration enforcement to explore what it means to be living in immigration-obsessed Britain during this pre-election period.  Please come and join in the conversation.

Speakers

Hannah Jones is an Assistant Professor in Sociology at the University of Warwick, and principal investigator on the Mapping Immigration Controversies research project (Project Twitter: @MICresearch) which explores the impacts on local communities and national debate of current publicity campaigns about migration by the UK Home Office. Hannah’s Twitter: @uncomfy

Kirsten Forkert is a researcher and activist based at Birmingham City University, and is also involved in the Mapping Immigration Controversies project (Project Twitter: @MICresearch). She also researches the cultural politics of austerity. Kirsten is a member of Birmingham Asylum and Refugee Action. Kirsten’s Twitter: @kforkert

Harley Miller is an Australian senior Systemic and Family Therapist who worked for the NHS for nearly 10 years until 14 months ago, dedicating herself to improving the lives of young people with mental health issues. When her marriage to an Italian national broke down, Harley followed the rules and notified Home Office of her change of circumstance. She was assured she could remain under the EU Free Movement laws and could later apply for Indefinite Leave to Remain. When the time came, however, Harley discovered a completely different reality. Her application was refused without right to appeal, she was deemed an overstayer and immediately lost her job. Her story has featured in a number of newspapers where she was dubbed as “the online pin-up for the shambolic state of the UK Border Agency”. After a long and expensive legal battle, Harley has won a small reprieve and can remain for a further 2.5 years.  Harley’s Twitter: @HarleyM65

Aderonke Apata is a feminist, equality advocate and human right activist, Nigerian-born out and proud lesbian seeking asylum in the UK. She fled torture and the threat of death for being a lesbian in Nigeria, and has proved to be an unstoppable force in fighting for justice. She started the shutdown Yarl’s Wood campaign from inside Yarl’s Wood in 2012. In spite of terrible violence and human rights violations, she chose to stand up not only for herself, but for others who have experienced injustice and continue to challenge the government and legal system that penalises the many LGBT refugees seeking asylum in the UK. She has garnered almost 320,000 signatures online for her personal campaign to remain in the UK. Winner of the Positive Role Model for LGBT National Diversity Awards 2014 and number 41 on the 101 Rainbow list Most Influential LGBT people in UK. Aderonke’s Twitter: @rock4_ronnie

Ian Dunt is editor of Politics.co.uk and political editor of the Erotic Review. He also writes for other publications, including the Guardian and Index on Censorship. He appears regularly on the BBC, Sky, al-Jazeera, Channel 5 News and LBC. He writes primarily about immigration, prisons, civil liberties and free speech issues.  Ian’s Twitter: @IanDunt

Ben du Preez is the Campaigns and Communications Officer at Detention Action, a national charity that supports people in immigration detention and campaigns for detention reform. Having previously co-ordinated survivor activism groups in advocating for their rights, he now runs Detention Action’s Freed Voices project, which works with individuals with direct experience of detention to speak out against the UK’s policy of indefinite detention.  Detention Action’s Twitter: @DetentionAction

Update – Please note that the planning meeting has been deferred to 19 February 2015.  This means that we still have time to submit objections to the planning committee to oppose the plan to expand Campsfield detention centre.  

While the newspapers are taking an interest in indefinite detention in ‘UK Guantanamo Bay’, with the news that one man spent 1,701 days in detention, the Government is still planning to expand the size of the detention estate.  There have been both local and national oppositions to stop the expansion of Campsfield House Immigration Removal Centre since autumn last year.  The Detention Forum has been calling for a moratorium on the detention expansion by urging members and others to lobby MPs on this issue.

Thanks to local and national actions that are taking place to oppose this plan, Nick Clegg, the Deputy Prime Minister, has now spoken against the Home Office plan to expand UK’s detention estate.

We need to take a further action now to stop the expansion.

The Cherwell District Council planning committee is meeting on 19 February 2015 to decide whether to grant planning permission to the Home Office / Ministry of Justice which would enable them to double the size of Campsfield House detention centre.

Anyone can send objections to the planning committee, who will consider issues that are relevant on planning grounds.  You do not have to be a local resident to participate in this process, but you must send your objections before 19 February 2015.  You can email them at planning@Cherwell-dc.gov.uk quoting ref 14/01778/F.  In our view, it is very important that as many objections as possible are received so that the planning committee recognises that it is a national issue.

The main planning issue is that the proposed site for expansion lies in a designated Green Belt area, in which construction of new buildings is generally not allowed.  This means that the Home Office / Ministry of Justice must demonstrate that there is a strong need for detention expansion in order to obtain planning permission.  See Appendix D of the planning statement document http://npa.cherwell.gov.uk/AnitePublicDocs/07770139.pdf for more details.  (Please note that this link is currently not working.  We have now asked Cherwell District Council several times for a new link but we have not been given one yet.  We will update this information as soon as we hear back from the Council.)

Please note that any objection should be on planning grounds connected to the fact that building on the Green Belt has to have very special reasons.  The local authority planning officers are recommending that the councillors only examine the application on ordinary planning matters (ie not on wider issue of immigration detention in general).

In a nutshell, the Home Office / Ministry of Justice are stating that there is a need to expand the detention estate because;

• The new Immigration Act, together with new 500 enforcement officers, will make it easier for them to detain and remove people
• They need to detain and remove more ‘illegal immigrants’ in order to reduce health, housing, education and policing costs which depend on the public purse
• 5,000 detention bedspaces (current capacity is 4,270), particularly for ‘longer stays for men’, is required for their ‘planned removals in the medium term’[1]

The Home Office / Ministry of Justice’s needs document fails to mention the following which undermine their ‘needs’ argument.  The Cherwell District Council planning committee must be informed that;

• More than a third of those who are detained are released back into the community and do not result in removals. In fact, UK has been removing fewer people while the size of the detention estate has grown.
• Detention is extremely expensive to maintain.
• The ongoing Parliamentary inquiry into immigration detention is yet to report its findings.

You are encouraged to use the information available in a briefing paper below to prepare your objections to send to the Cherwell District Council before 22 January 2015.  Please feel free to modify it, but we also recommend you state clearly who you are and in what capacity you are commenting on this planning application.  It’s important to remember that the planning committee members are unlikely to be immigration or detention specialists, and their knowledge of detention is likely to be limited.  You can play a useful role in informing them what you know – at the moment, all they have is what the Home Office / Ministry of Justice have told them to justify their plan to expand the detention estate.

For more information, please also visit the website of Campaign to Close Campsfield here.

[1] See Planning Statement, Proposed extension to Campsfield IRC, Home Office and Ministry of Justice (October 2014), Appendix D: Needs case (available at http://npa.cherwell.gov.uk/AnitePublicDocs/07770139.pdf)

FINAL expansion counter narrative for circulation Jan 2015