The VOICE project aims to set up opportunities for BRR members to engage in the local community through volunteering and involvement in community engagement events.
How to apply go to Work with us … page to download an applicationpack or phone us and ask for a printed version 07734 347817
People from refugee backgrounds are strongly encouraged to apply.
VOICE enables asylum seekers and refugees to connect with local businesses, community organisations and other groups looking for volunteers.
The blog will be updated monthly with reports of how the project has got on with enabling volunteering for a wide range of asylum seekers and refugees. Keep an eye on us!
Free training for those campaigning for justice in the system and immigration system. Saturday 10th December 1-5pm at the Community Hall, St Nicholas of Tolentino Church, followed by Public Meeting from 6pm and Party from 7.30pm, both at Refugee Welcome Centre, Newton Hall, Newton Street.
Bristol Refugee Rights and Bristol No Borders invite you to…
A free training for those campaigning for justice in the asylum and immigration system.
Saturday 10th December, from 1-5pm
A unique chance to find out what is effective, share experiences and improve our local responses.
Trainings from;
*Detention Action – improving welfare for those in detention
http://www.detentionaction.org.uk
*Corporate Watch – author of Immigration Prisons: Brutal, Unlawful and Profitable
*The Unity Centre – signing support and anti-deportation classes
*National Coalition of Anti-deportation Campaigns http://www.ncadc.org.uk
No need to be an expert, but these workshops will
assume familiarity with the basic issues.
Where? The Community Hall, St. Nicholas of Tolentino Church, Lawfords Gate, Easton, Bristol, BS5 0RE
Please contact BRILL_2@mail.com or call 0117 908 0844 to reserve a place & to tell us what you’re interested in. THANKS
Bristol Refugee Rights is a Charity and a Company, and it has a board of trustees who oversee what we do.
We have 9 trustees - Andrew Edgington (Chair); Claire Stern (Vice Chair); Dammy le Grand (Company Secretary); Malcolm Jenner (Treasurer); Abdi Mohamed; Daahir Mohammed; Kate Oliver; Christopher Orlik; Forward Maisokwadzo. Staff, volunteers and members would be most welcome to attend our meetings.
Please contact the BRR office - dropin@hotmail.co.uk if you would like to come along. Meetings which are held about every 6-8 weeks on Tuesday evenings at the Easton Christian Family Centre.
Our meetings in 2012 will be on January 17th; March 6th; May 8th; July 10th; September 11th; October 16th is our AGM starting at 7pm; November 6th.
Khethiwe was released from Yarls Wood last Friday 4 November and came home to Bristol. Thanks to all of you who have come to demonstrations, written letters, made phone calls, signed the petition and spread word of the campaign to others. Now we must make sure she stays here.
On the same day Moughane won his appeal to stay at the hearing in Newport.
So celebrations, congratulations and many thanks all round.
You can still help by telling and encouraging your friends to make a contribution towards Khethiwe’s legal fees. These can be sent to Borderlands c/o Assisi Centre, Lawford’s Gate, Bristol, BS5 0RE (cheques made payable to ‘Borderlands’ and marked legal fees on the back).
For further information and to follow the campaign, go to http://khethiwemuststay.posterous.com
Annual Report and Accounts - 2010/11
Our 2011 Annual General Meeting will be held on 18th October 2011. Here is our Annual Report and Accounts for the year ending 31st March 2011 :-
final_trustees_report_2010-11pdf
Khethiwe Must Stay
Khethiwe Mashavave was detained on Wednesday 21st September, whilst signing at Trinity Police Station and has been moved to Yarls Wood detention Centre. She has removal directions set to remove her to Zimbabwe next Thursday 29th September at 10pm.
She is well known to many different groups in Bristol and was a keynote speaker at the launch of Bristol City of Sanctuary on the 22nd June 2011.
If you are able, please come to the demonstration on Saturday 24th Sept in Bristol City Centre by the fountains/hippodrome area at 12:30pm. We will also be collecting signatures for the petition.
For further information and to follow the campaign, go to http://khethiwemuststay.posterous.com
If you go to our ‘Reports and Publications’ page you can read the executive summary of Oxfam’s Feb 2011 report on destitution amongst asylum seekers in the UK.
We understand that Rebecca’s article about Siva is to be published by New Internationalist.
Asylum seeker returned to Big Society - but for how long?
On 7th December Siva, a 26 year old father of two, went to sign at his local Bristol police station. Siva came to the UK from Sri Lanka when he was 14, after his parents were killed. For asylum seekers, like for unemployed people, signing on is a regular part of life. Unlike unemployed people, asylum seekers never know whether they will come out again.
Siva did not come out. Neither reason nor warning was given for his detention. None was needed; he is an asylum seeker, not a British citizen. He was then moved between detention centres five times in a month.
He went on hunger strike. He refused water for three days and food for eleven days. He was put in solitary confinement at Colnbrook immigration removal centre for three days; allowed into a concrete yard for half an hour a day. No reason was given for such especially inhumane treatment, but perhaps it was due to other detainees growing interest in Siva’s resistance.
On 22nd December, UKBA staff told him he would be attending a bail hearing in London. Instead he was taken to the Sri Lankan High Commission to confirm his identity.
On 31st December Siva received his bail papers just moments before the bail hearing by video link. He had no legal representative. The Home Office statement opposing bail was full of omissions and inaccuracies:
When Siva tried to correct the facts he was not even allowed to complete his sentences.
It is unconvincing to assume such numerous inaccuracies and omissions were down to error. The term “kangaroo court” would come to mind if it were not so clearly associated with courts in foreign lands.
Siva was refused bail and still threatened with deportation.
Deporting Siva would prevent his children (aged 2 and 4) from having access to their father, perhaps for ever. This would contravene the Human Rights Act, Article 8 of which states that everyone has a right to family and private life. Deporting him would also remove him from his friends, his community and the only place he has known as an adult.
Siva is immensely likable; he is extrovert, energetic and kind-hearted. He is actively involved in his local “Big Society”, often cooking for 130 people at the Bristol Refugee Rights welcome centre, and a member of two local cricket teams.
This, combined with the blatant violation of his human rights, means that a sizable campaign developed with: petitions, meetings with local MP, Facebook campaign, regular protests and frequent coverage by local media.
On January 9th Siva was informed that the Sri Lankan high commission could not confirm his identity. He was also told his detention would continue until his removal could be carried out.
The UKBA estimates that a fifth of the outstanding pre-2007 asylum claims “cannot currently be resolved as there are external factors which prevent the Agency from either removing the applicants or allowing them to stay in the UK”.[1] . In June 2010 the Home office reported having 245 people in detention for over a year.[2]
On 12th January, 37 days after being detained, Siva was told he was free to leave. No reason, no warning. But at least it was good news.
We can only speculate as to why Siva was released. Was it the level of public protest?
The treatment Siva received is not uncommon. Thousands of asylum seekers are held in detention every day. Many simply disappear from their local community when they sign at the police station.
The double standards in the treatment of asylum seekers are blatant. While politicians discuss how long to hold terror suspects, thousands of asylum seekers are detained for weeks, months, even years, without charge, often without legal representation.
Last week Ken Clarke, justice secretary announced the closure of three prisons. He questions the cost of custody and whether ‘ever more prison for ever more offenders’ produces better results[3]. One of these prisons, Morton Hall will instead be used as an immigration removal centre, bringing Britain’s capacity to lock immigrants up without trial, to nearly 3,500 places[4].
This government is committed to cutting costs. Detaining someone at Colnbrook for a month in 2005 cost £5667[5]. Siva, like many other asylum seekers, would like to work, to contribute to the British economy and to his children. But in the case of asylum seekers, being a ‘hard working family’ would be a criminal offence.
In Siva’s case we can celebrate at least for now. But his case is not resolved; he could be detained again at any time. He will resume his regular trips to sign at the police station.
Asylum seekers in the UK today are increasingly treated as sub-human, as unworthy of the protection offered to other human beings. Colnbrook detention centre is directly next to a Sheraton hotel. How can people enjoy their luxurious beds overlooking such atrocity? Perhaps they do not know what is going on next door to them.
It is time we as a nation stopped tolerating or turning a blind eye to the violation of the human rights of people like Siva who attempt to find sanctuary in the UK.
Rebecca Yeo
January 2011
The campaign to stop Siva’s threatened deportation continues. Please sign the petition http://www.petition.co.uk/protect-the-human-rights-of-siva-rajah and see the blog at http://savesiva.blogspot.com/
[1] National Audit Office, Management of Asylum Claims by the UK Border Agency, 23/1/2009
[2] Home Office, Control of Immigration, Quarterly Statistical Summary, UK, April – June 2010.
[5] In 2005 the Home office quoted the cost of Colnbrook as £68,000 per detainee per year (response to a Freedom of Information Act request, January 2007, quoted by Information Centre about Asylum and Refugees, Detention of Asylum Seekers in the UK, 2007, p6).
