Immigration and asylum - new material (6)
01 April 2010
Report on a full announced inspection of Brook House Immigration Removal Centre 15 – 19 March 2010, HM Chief Inspector of Prisons. Her Majesty’s Inspectorate of Prisons 2010, pp. 121. The Chief Inspector of Prisons found conditions at the privately-run (G4S) deportation centre at Gatwick airport to be “fundamentally unsafe”, with serious problems of bullying, violence and drugs. “Recalcitrant” prisoners among the 400 male detainees are placed in oppressive, windowless and seatless holding rooms. Although detainees are meant to be held for no more than 72 hours, the average period of detention is three months, with one man having been held for 10 months. See: http://www.justice.gov.uk/inspectorates/hmiprisons/docs/Brook_House _2010_rps_.pdf
Improving Conditions for Migrant Workers. Labour Research Vol. 99 no. 7 (June) 2010, pp. 17-18. This article observes that immigration was “a hot topic” during the general election campaign, but unfortunately the political parties focussed on the numbers entering the UK rather than the more pressing issues of pay, working conditions and exploitation. It examines how unions are responding to the lack of health and safety protection for many migrant workers. LRD email – info@lrd.org.uk
Recent developments in immigration law – Part 1, Tooks’ Chambers immigration team. Legal Action, July 2010, pp.16-20. This series of updates reviews significant developments in immigration case-law concerning issues such as the points-based system, states’ failure to protect human trafficking victims, and the deportation and extradition of foreign nationals from Russia and various European member states.
Using immigration law to break our unions. Labour Research Vol. 99 No 8 (August) 2010, pp. 9-11. This article examines the “capital’s overwhelmingly migrant cleaning workforce on the tube” and how their campaign for a living wage, decent working conditions and the right to strike has been countered by the firms that employ them using “immigration as a tool...to undermine union organisation.” Clara Osagiede sums this situation up as follows: “For years and years cleaner’s on the London Underground were paid peanuts, but migration and our immigration status was never an issue. It was only after the cleaners started asking for a living wage and decent conditions, and taking strike action to achieve this, that the companies who employed us began using immigration as a tool to divide us and to undermine union organisation.”
Too many of whom, and too much of what? What the new population hysteria tells us about the global economic and environmental crisis, and its causes. Discussion paper (No One Is Illegal) 10.07.09, pp. 16. This paper considers the “resurgence of population politics” at a time of crisis in the global capitalist system. It argues that this development places the issue of human autonomy firmly and urgently in the spotlight. Available as a free download: http://www.noii.org.uk/2010/01/13/too-many-of-whom-and-too-muchof-what/
No place for the innocent, Paul Vallely. Independent Life, 12.1.10, pp. 1-5. This feature article examines the plight of the Mansours and their five children, who fled to the UK after a campaign of intimidation in Egypt, only to be snatched from their beds by a dozen burly security guards and locked up at Yarl’s Wood Immigration detention centre. As Vallely observes: “...this isn’t East Germany under the Stasi – it’s 21st century Britain.”
refurbish existing official sites”.