[IMC-UK-Features] No Borders feature proposal

Tue Mar 17 13:35:16 PDT 2009

*ok, i've cut a bit out and changed paragraphs round. the 1st 4 paragraphs
are now similar length as the previous few frontpage texts. The rest could
be after a break (not on the frontpage, but available to read as the whole
article). that seems to have been done with previous features too. as
links could be the migration and anti-racism pages on imc.

cheers

Last Friday evening, two dozen activists entered the offices of Minister
for Immigration and Borders Phil Woolas in Oldham, ‘detaining’
[http://www.indymedia.org.uk/en/2009/03/424174.html] him for about 30
minutes. The campaigners included members of No Borders Manchester
[http://www.nobordersmanchester.blogspot.com/], No One Is Illegal
[http://www.noii.org.uk/] and the Anarchist Federation
[http://www.af-north.org/]. The action intended to mirror the
government’s practice of detaining migrants in ‘immigration removal
centres’ without trial or sentencing, for indefinite periods
of time. This was the second time since his appointment last year that the
immigration minister has become the target of an action by No Borders,
after a member of the group pushed a custard pie in his face last October
[http://www.indymedia.org.uk/en/2008/10/411573.html].

On Tuesday morning, 20 anti-deportation campaigners
[http://www.indymedia.org.uk/en/2009/03/424368.html] blocked access to the
Tinsley House immigration detention centre near Gatwick airport. Activists
used d-locks and superglue to blockade the entrance gate for
several hours. The action aimed to prevent the forced deportation on a
charter flight of approximately 50 Iraqi refugees from the UK.

Groups affiliated to the UK No Borders network [http://noborders.org.uk/]
are now calling for demonstrations against immigration detention on
Saturday 21st March. A protest march
[http://london.noborders.org.uk/yarlswood2009] will lead from Bedford to
the Yarl’s Wood detention centre, which was half destroyed by fire in
2002, following an uprising ignited by the ill-treatment of a sick woman
by guards. Transport is available from London. Solidarity demonstrations
are planned in Manchester and Edinburgh.

The demonstration in Manchester
[http://www.indymedia.org.uk/en/2009/03/423790.html] will be going to the
newly-expanded ‘Pennine House’ detention facility at the airport. The
campaign to close this prison has achieved a high profile recently after
the invasion of Phil Woolas’s offices and an intervention
[http://www.indymedia.org.uk/en/2009/03/423407.html] during a speech by
Manchester City Council leader Richard Leese. In Edinburgh
[http://www.indymedia.org.uk/en/2009/03/424189.html],
campaigners will picket the private security company G4S. G4S profits
from running immigration prisons in the UK, including Brook House,
Dungavel near Glasgow and Pennine House.

-BREAK-

Every year up to 30.000 innocent people including 2,000 children are
detained arbitrarily and indefinitely in the UK under immigration
powers, in purpose built prisons for migrants. Torture and rape survivors
are routinely detained, so are pregnant women and people who have or
develop
serious illnesses and mental health problems. 2,500 people are currently
locked up in 10 British immigration prisons, 7 of them owned and managed
by private companies. There are also a number of ‘short-term’ detention
centres at British ports and airports. Phil Woolas is seeking the
expansion of the detention estate to 4,000 spaces. Brook House, a new
immigration prison at Gatwick airport has opened this month
[http://www.indymedia.org.uk/en/2009/01/420686.html] and there are plans
to build another ‘mega’-detention centre near Bullington, Oxfordshire.

Fires, riots and hunger-strikes in protest at appalling treatment and
conditions are such a common occurrence in British detention centres
that it would be impossible to document
[http://london.noborders.org.uk/radicalhistory] them all. Many protests
have also highlighted racism and violence from guards, obstruction of
asylum claims, attempts to isolate people from outside support and
targeting of so-called ringleaders. Similar conditions can be found in
detention centres across Fortress Europe, with the recent destruction by
fire [http://www.indymedia.org.uk/en/2009/02/422754.html] of a centre in
Lampedusa, Italy, grabbing the headlines.

> Hi there,
>
> It's a bit long for a feature - maybe could you rewrite it to be only 3
> paragraphs and link out to articles which already exist to get all the
> ideas across?
>
> m
>
>> Hi, we are proposing the following feature. We've already included links
>> in brackets into the text. As reports of the demos come in, they could
>> maybe be included as updates as done with the pieing of Mandelson. As a
>> picture we suggest the photograph of Phil Woolas trapped in his office
>> on
>> our blog at the moment. Cheers
>>
>> www.manchesternoborders.org.uk
>>
>>
>> Abolish All Immigration Prisons
>>
>> Last Friday evening, two dozen activists entered the offices of Minister
>> for Immigration and Borders Phil Woolas in Oldham, ‘detaining’
>> [http://www.indymedia.org.uk/en/2009/03/424174.html] him for about 30
>> minutes. The campaigners included members of No Borders Manchester
>> [http://www.nobordersmanchester.blogspot.com/], No One Is Illegal
>> [http://www.noii.org.uk/] and the Anarchist Federation
>> [http://www.af-north.org/]. The action intended to mirror the
>> government’s
>> practice of detaining migrants in ‘immigration removal centres’ without
>> prosecution, trial or sentencing, for indefinite periods of time. They
>> called for all immigration prisons to be abolished.
>>
>> Every year up to 30.000 innocent people including 2,000 children are
>> detained arbitrarily and indefinitely in the UK under immigration
>> powers,
>> in purpose built prisons for migrants. Torture and rape survivors are
>> routinely detained, so are pregnant women and people who have or develop
>> serious illnesses and mental health problems. 2,500 people are currently
>> locked up in 10 British immigration prisons, 7 of them owned and managed
>> by private companies. There are also a number of ‘short-term’ detention
>> centres at British ports and airports. Phil Woolas is seeking the
>> expansion of the detention estate to 4,000 spaces. Brook House, a new
>> immigration prison at Gatwick airport is due to open this spring
>> [http://www.indymedia.org.uk/en/2009/01/420686.html] and there are plans
>> to build another ‘mega’-detention centre near Bullington, Oxfordshire.
>>
>> Groups affiliated to the UK No Borders network
>> [http://noborders.org.uk/]
>> are now calling for demonstrations against immigration detention on
>> Saturday 21st March. A protest march
>> [http://london.noborders.org.uk/yarlswood2009] will lead from Bedford to
>> the Yarl’s Wood detention centre, which was half destroyed by fire in
>> 2002, following an uprising ignited by the ill-treatment of a sick woman
>> by guards. Transport is available from London. Solidarity demonstrations
>> are planned in Manchester and Edinburgh.
>>
>> Fires, riots and hunger-strikes in protest at appalling treatment and
>> conditions are such a common occurrence in British detention centres
>> that
>> it would be impossible to document
>> [http://london.noborders.org.uk/radicalhistory] them all. Many protests
>> have also highlighted racism and violence from guards, obstruction of
>> asylum claims, attempts to isolate people from outside support and
>> targeting of so-called ringleaders. Similar conditions can be found in
>> detention centres across Fortress Europe, with the recent destruction by
>> fire [http://www.indymedia.org.uk/en/2009/02/422754.html] of a centre in
>> Lampedusa, Italy, grabbing the headlines.
>>
>> The demonstration in Manchester
>> [http://www.indymedia.org.uk/en/2009/03/423790.html] will be going to
>> the
>> newly-expanded ‘Pennine House’ detention facility at the airport. The
>> campaign to close this prison has achieved a high profile recently after
>> the invasion of Phil Woolas’s offices and an intervention
>> [http://www.indymedia.org.uk/en/2009/03/423407.html] during a speech by
>> Manchester City Council leader Richard Leese.
>>
>> In Edinburgh [http://www.indymedia.org.uk/en/2009/03/424189.html],
>> campaigners will picket the private security company G4S. G4S profits
>> from
>> running immigration prisons in the UK, including Dungavel near Glasgow
>> and
>> Pennine House. They have also received the contracts for Brook House.
>>
>>
>> --
>> Indymedia United Kollektives editorial mid-column features
>> http://lists.indymedia.org/mailman/listinfo/imc-uk-features
>>
>
>
>