Gladys Mabvira finally released from Yarls Wood
Gladys Mabvira is an opposition activist from Zimbabwe. Despite the enormous risks she would face if returned to Zimbabwe, she has time and again been issued with removal directions by the Home Office. Only her strength in adversity and last minute legal actions kept Gladys with us here in the UK. She has this morning been released from Yarls Wood IRC on temporary admission, after spending six months detained there. Gladys has been an inspiration throughout – frequently asking after other individuals for whom NCADC is campaigning – and never giving up her fight for freedom. Just days before she was released, she wrote a damning statement on the conditions in Yarls Wood.
Read Gladys’ statement on the NCADC blog.
Air France refuse to fly Patrice to torture in Cameroon
On 13 February an Air France pilot refused to carry Patrice on the flight as Patrice maintained he would be tortured if removed to Cameroon. Thank you to everyone who raised awareness of Patrice’s flight with Air France – by phone, email, fax, letter, Twitter or Facebook.
The escorts came for me at 01:30 am Monday morning and we had to drive around and around and then find somewhere to wait. I do not know why they came so early.
Eventually we arrived at the airport, one escort went to the plane to see if they could take me. I think they were told they had to wait until the Air France pilot arrived. When the pilot did arrive, he came over to the van and asked if I was Patrice Ndjonssy and asked if I was ready to fly with them. I said No I do not want to go back as my life will be in danger. He said okay I won’t carry you and went back to the plane. So here I am back in Colnbrook STH, no doubt waiting for RDs number 14.
I thank all the people who supported me and got in touch with Air France. But now UKBA say that the next thing will be a charter flight, but a charter flight to where to as I understand Cameroon will not accept such flights. I have been told by other detainees that a charter flight to Nigeria in January carried other nationalities than Nigerian. I believe they were from Tanzania and Somalia and they were dumped at Lagos airport to make their own way back to their countries
Patrice fled to the UK in 2008, to escape persecution in Cameroon. His safety is at severe risk should he be removed.
Find out more about Patrice’s campaign here.
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Charter flight delayed; numerous detainees did not fly
BBC Report on the protest against plans to hand over asylum seeker housing contract to notorious detention and deportation company G4S.
About 40 people stood outside the city’s town hall after it was announced that the UK Border Agency planned to sign a regional contract with G4S. South Yorkshire Migration and Asylum Action Group (SYMAAG) said “G4S was not the best company for the job”. G4S said it would work with local agencies to engage asylum seekers.
Stuart Crossthwaite, from SYMAAG, said: “We believe they got the contract because they undercut the other bidders. For them its about saving money.
“Saving money means moving people to the cheapest housing and the cheapest housing is not going to be the best housing by any means.”
More details about the Yorkshire campaign against G4S’s involvement in refugee housing here
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Suicide is an ever-present possibility across the UK’s immigration detention estate. Clare Sambrook comments on the HM Inspectorate of Prisons (HMIP) report, which has found serious failings in suicide prevention.
“Staff did not carry anti-ligature knives,” inspectors found on their unannounced visit last October to Waterside Court in Leeds, one of the UK Border Agency’s holding facilities for immigration detainees. What’s more, escort staff at the commercial contractor Reliance Security “had difficulty in locating anti-ligature knives and one van did not have a knife at all
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International: Children deported to Kabul will face ‘horrible risks‘
Children deported to Kabul will face ‘horrible risks’ Alice Farmer, Human Rights Watch
Picture your 16-year-old son, brother, cousin or friend. Picture him without his parents in a strange country, where he is picked up by uniformed officials and put on a plane alone. Picture him dropped off in a strife-ridden city, like Kabul or Baghdad, and left to fend for himself. Picture having no idea where he will end up.
That is what the United Kingdom Border Agency wants to do to migrant children in Britain. It has a proposal to start deporting unaccompanied 16 and 17-year-old Afghans early this year, even if it cannot find the children’s families back in Afghanistan. It is quite obvious that children returning to Afghanistan, especially under these circumstances, face risks of destitution, violence, and recruitment into armed forces.
Sanade, Harrison & Walker v Secretary of State for the Home Department [2012] UKUT 00048(IAC)
This case concerns the application of human rights exceptions to the deportation of individuals who were married to British citizens or who had British children.