[Onthebarricades] UK: Campsfield immigrants protest

[Andy]

> Thursday, 2 August 2007, 00:34 AM
> 
> 
> :: FOR IMMEDIATE RELEASE ::
> 
> 
> HOME OFFICE REPS ROASTED BY ANGRY, WELL-INFORMED CAMPSFIELD DETAINEES.
> 
> 
> FOLLOWING TUESDAY NIGHT'S LARGE, DISCIPLINED 
> YARD-PROTEST and Wednesday morning's hunger 
> strike, two Home Office representatives were 
> called to Campsfield on Wednesday afternoon to 
> hear the detainees' grievances. The pair, 
> including the Assistant Director of Escorting 
> Services at the Borders and Immigration Authority 
> (Philip Schoelenberger?) were confronted by an 
> angry, articulate, multi-national delegation of 
> 22 detainees in a meeting that lasted 2 and a 
> half hours.
> 
> The stunned Home Office representatives promised 
> to respond to the detainees' grievances within 48 
> hours, on the understanding that further 
> demonstrations would be put on hold until 3:30pm 
> on Friday.
> 
> Here is a summary of the detainees' demands:
> 
> 
> 1. THE DETAINEES DEMAND TEMPORARY ADMISSION. 
> According to the Government's own rules the 
> majority of them are being held illegally because 
> they cannot be deported, nor is their detention a 
> "last resort" measure. The Home Office is also in 
> breach of the European Convention on Human Rights 
> Article 5 (the right to liberty) and Article 8 
> (the right to family life - around half of those 
> detained at Campsfield have families, yet are 
> detained for no compelling reason, often for 
> months, causing great and predictable hardship).
> 
> Many detainees' families and friends have offered 
> substantial sureties; there is no conceivable 
> reason why they would (or could) abscond; even so 
> they are refused bail.
> 
> 
> 2. SOME DETAINEES HAVE ACCEPTED "VOLUNTARY" 
> repatriation. Even so, the Home Office persists 
> in detaining them - for over 3 months in many 
> cases. These people have surely suffered enough 
> and should be allowed to return immediately.
> 
> 
> 3. THERE IS COMPLETE LOSS OF CONFIDENCE in the 
> Immigration Court at Newport, South Wales, where 
> all Campsfield bail applications are now heard 
> and all but 5% are dismissed. Judges there are 
> said to have a contemptuous attitude and use 
> racist language toward detainees. The 
> exceptionally high refusal rates can only be 
> explained, it is felt, by entrenched racism.
> 
> Families must make long, expensive journeys to 
> get to Newport (£150 return from London; those 
> making longer journeys may have to stay 
> overnight) only to see their loved one 
> re-detained.
> 
> It is felt that the decision to move Campsfield 
> bail hearings to Newport was malicious 
> retaliation for the widely-publicised protests in 
> March this year.
> 
> The detainees want future bail hearings to be 
> held, as they were previously, at either London 
> or Birmingham Immigration Courts.
> 
> 
> 4. THEY DEMAND AN END to the squalid and 
> overcrowded conditions. Frequently men are held 3 
> to a room and sometimes up to 7 in a room. The 
> inadequate toilets and showers have become 
> health-hazards. In these conditions infections 
> spread rapidly - the more so as healthcare 
> provision is also completely inadequate. 
> Paracetamol is prescribed for almost any 
> condition, and sometimes not even that is 
> available.
> 
> :: ENDS ::
> 
> For more information, contact 01865 726804 or 01865 558145
> 
> The detainees also sent a fax, on Tuesday, to the 
> European Court of Human Rights, Liberty, Justice, 
> Campsfield's MP Evan Harris, and the Secretary of 
> State. This can be forwarded on request.
> 
> Bob Hughes
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