Hi Miriam,
I share your concerns as I am working with a number of people seeking asylum who are from Zimbabwe and given that a new power sharing (ha ha!) agreement has been reached there is a fear of deportation, which is building momentum throughout the community in our area with some people trying to dip out of the system to avoid this.
I too am frustrated at the closed shop that the Home Office appears to be and at the lack of information / communication and the disregard for the human rights of the person shown by them towards the people that I have contact with, with files being lost, benefits / payments stopped in error leaving families in poverty, people being taken for deportation as / when they sign and given no opportunity to even say goodbye or make any arrangements with their solicitor to appeal etc.
I have signed up to the national campaign calling for an end to this situation for people from Zimbabwe but I think from your email that a campaign is needed that addresses these issues across all peoples regardless of country of origin.
I have written to my MP asking her to raise my concerns and she has replied saying that she is awaiting a response from the Minister responsible and will get back to me in the fullness of time but this seems less than adequate given the ongoing sitaution.
As this is not an area that I am familiar with and I am learning as I go, I wonder if there are others on the list with more experience than I who have some suggestions for what we could do in order to have an impact upon the individuals and organisations responsible for this situation.
Jacqui
> Date: Mon, 22 Sep 2008 10:59:51 +0100
> From: [log in to unmask]
> Subject: Re: [COMMUNITYPSYCHUK] Call to action
> To: [log in to unmask]
>
> In this context we have to admire the campaigning of the Coalition for
> an Ethical Psychology and its victory over the APA leadership's policy
> of craven collaboration with US State security. See the press release
> that I circulated the other day. While not a head on confrontation with
> the State and its repressive apparatus (of which treatment of refugees
> is just one more example) it does undermine its legitimation by the
> psychological profession / industry. Of course there is heaps more to
> do, but this shows just what can be achieved by good organisation and a
> central organising theme.
>
>
>
> David Fryer wrote:
> > Dear Miriam,
> >
> > I really appreciated your passionate intervention at the Edinburgh CP
> > Conference in the midst of a discussion called by Paul and Carl (a
> > discussion where we focused our attention on our talk about action on
> > the list but lack of action over the years yet ironically where we
> > also reproduced such talk and inaction). I took no notes and am not
> > able to adequately summarise the diverse points made at Edinburgh (and
> > Paul / Carl may plan to do so) but what came through for me at
> > Edinburgh was: a widespread commitment to act to 'make a
> > difference'; dismay at our tendency to get more energised about
> > matters of self interest like CBT but less so about poverty and hardly
> > at all collectively about war; some scepticism that issuing press
> > statements was a way to make a difference; grudging appreciation that
> > some sort of hierarchical structure might be required in order to
> > mobilise a collective voice and some sort of affiliation with a larger
> > professional or other group (like BPS or ECPA) might be necessary to
> > maximise chances of the voice being heard and taken seriously; but
> > concern that in taking on such structure and affiliation and
> > losing our heterarchy and occasional anarchic spasms might lead to us
> > being even more complicit with the status quo.
> >
> > D uring this debate you concentrated our attention for a few moments
> > on the actuality of appalling oppression of people in our country
> > in our name by our government ands its agents while we debate on the
> > list and in lovely venues. Your message today
> > details such oppression in a graphic way which is for me painful but
> > essential reading. A s you point out, while we debate, people are
> > coerced, intimidated, deprived of water, food, medicine, beaten and
> > returned to war zones.
> >
> > I am hoping that the discussion about making a difference at Edinburgh
> > will continue on this list and lead to ... well . . . action.
> >
> > Just in passing: I assume you are aware of ukwatch. If not you might
> > like to take a look at: http://www.ukwatch.net/about Well worth
> > browsing and if you don't already contributing to.
> >
> > David
> >
> > *From:* The UK Community Psychology Discussion List
> > [[log in to unmask]] On Behalf Of miriam hollis
> > [[log in to unmask]]
> > *Sent:* 20 September 2008 23:58
> > *To:* [log in to unmask]
> > *Subject:* [COMMUNITYPSYCHUK] Call to action
> >
> > I dont have a reputation really, for subtlety.
> >
> > Those of you who were at the Community Psychology Conference in
> > Edinburgh this year may remember my anger that a charter flight of
> > seventy Kurdish people who were being forcably removed back to
> > Northern Iraq, was held on a runway at Stanstead Airport,
> > approximately a mile away from the main traffic area for almost 11
> > hours without being offered food or water, that three men resisted the
> > enforced deportation and were then shackled hand and foot and forced
> > onto the plane. Each man was accompanied by two Immigration security
> > officers, and one of the men on the plane, who had led a hunger strike
> > against enforced removals and Government quotas on removals during
> > August whilst in detention, and was reisting removal, was so savagely
> > beaten on that plane at Stanstead Aitport, that the inner window of
> > the plane was smashed, and the mans' face was badly swollen and
> > bruised. Having spoken to many men who were on that plane, and they
> > have been particularly reluctant to embellish accounts, and each has
> > reported what he heard or saw, I am disheartened today to read in the
> > Guardian that it was one of the detainees who smashed the window. I
> > ask you all to reflect on sitting in an aircraft with restricted leg
> > room, shackled at your hands and feet, sat beside two security
> > officers, surrounded by approximately seventy other security officers,
> > and give to me an explanation about how such an explanation bears any
> > resemblance to the truth.
> >
> > I have two reports of a man who was in danger of going into a diabetic
> > coma and waited ten hours for medication to be brought to him, whilst
> > the men waited for six hours on a coach at Stansted, before being
> > escorted one at a time to the plane, surrounded by five security
> > officers: as one man said to me' Miriam they were hiding us. They
> > didnt want anyone to see what was happening to us'.
> >
> > This plane didnt leave the airport because the pilot refused to fly.
> > The pilot called the police and the police escorted him from the
> > plane. The reason given by the pilot were that he would be in the air
> > for longer than he was legally permitted to fly. The charter company
> > had not told the cabin crew that they were taking a mass plane load of
> > deportees to Northern Iraq.
> >
> > Despite all the marching and chanting against sending troops to Iraq,
> > despite the news that bombing is still taking place in Diyala, Mosul,
> > Baghdad, and Kirkuk, depsite the continuing controversy over who will
> > rule Kirkuk and its oil, despite leaked letters in the Iraqi press
> > that the deputy prime minister has approached old baathists members to
> > create a second military in the region, despite a stand off situation
> > in Quanakin which has taken place twice in the last ten days - the
> > Iraqi army squaring up to the Pesmerga forces, the UK Government has
> > stated that it is safe to return Iraqis to any part of Iraq. You or I
> > might find this particularly difficult to understand, particularly if
> > we are continuing to read the press reports from both within the
> > region, and from the rest of Europe and America. You, like myself,
> > might find it particularly difficult when you read the UN report
> > published yesterday criticising the UK and our decisions in this regard.
> >
> > However, these undercover removals are happening often. Information is
> > difficult to come by. It is usual to issue a removal letter to people
> > being deported, and this letter gives the time, date and flight number
> > and destination of their proposed flight, hence giving legal teams and
> > families time to fight a further battle. Campaigners gear up to oppose
> > the removal. However, the Iraqi rmovals have, for the second time this
> > year , been given indistinct information. They state 'You will be
> > removed not less than 72 hours, and not more than 14 days from the
> > date of this letter' and no details of the flight or where it leaves from.
> >
> > Trying to stay in touch with men in each of the detention centres this
> > last week, all of whom are angry and distraught, I tried, with others,
> > to piece together the information about exactly what was happening to
> > them. At 8.30 last Monday morning I hear the voice of the Immigration
> > Officers as they entered the detention centre, simply shouting at the
> > men to pack up and move out. Men were shouting that their solicitors
> > were lodging fresh claims on their behalf, others were crying out that
> > their families had met with solicitors to lodge Article 8 claims (
> > Article 8 is a UN Convention on the right to family life) as they were
> > rounded up. I agreed to pass the information around to the other men,
> > but each time I get through to the next of the three detention centres
> > I heard the same call and the same responses.
> >
> > Many of these men arrived in 1999- 2001, when Sadam was still stomping
> > around Iraq. It is, of course, notoriously difficult to prove that you
> > have experienced oppression, or that you feared for your life, if you
> > got out just before someone kicked your door in ( the Home Office
> > almost needs to see the hinges these days), and at the time these men
> > arrived they were still able to work, and the new rules about working
> > have been slow to withdraw the right to people busy in their lives in
> > the UK. I spoke with men who had the right to work, who had been
> > living with their partners for between one and eight years, working
> > with papers, paying taxes and entered into pension schemes, speaking
> > english as well as anyone. Pregnant wives crying their way through the
> > shock as their husbands are dragged away from them. Well, this is a
> > socialist democracy after all, no matter how thinly we hold onto that
> > image.
> >
> > The men were returned to the detention centres last Monday, arriving
> > back at 3 a.m.. They were searched and searched again. They had been
> > picked up at 8.30, taken to London and then held on coaches for 6
> > hours. From there they were taken to the plane one at a time - sevety
> > men- and they sat on the plane for almost six hours. After six hours
> > they are escorted back to the coaches. When have they ever been
> > unsupervised?By the time the men arrived back in the detention
> > searches they had been almost 24 hours without food, water, or the use
> > of the toilet. It is Ramadan, the last food or drink was consumed at
> > 4.22 a.m.
> >
> > Within 48 hours they are put through it again. I have spoken to
> > several of the men since they have been back, gathering statements
> > about what had happened to them. Thankfully they are pleased to report
> > that the violence towards them was less this time, but they are
> > concerned for a man who was carried to the plane by his friends in a
> > blanket, recovering from surgery - anyone in this situation should be
> > deemed not fit to fly.
> >
> > So thats the news this week. An every day story of the behaviour of
> > English folk. I would draw your attention to the now closed petition
> > http://www.martinbarofund.org/contact/petition-APA.htm against the
> > participation of psychologists in torture. I would draw your attention
> > to some of the additional comments to the petition drafted by Ignacio
> > Martín-Baró Fund for Mental Health & Human Rights .
> >
> > / It's nice to know that there are other psychologists who aren't
> > turning a blind eye to the horrors that our government and its
> > corporate allies are perpetrating in many parts of the world.' /
> > / /
> > / I continue to be shocked that we are not marching in the streets in
> > outrage over these issues.' /
> > / /
> > Me too.
> >
> >
> >
> > Miriam Hollis
> >
> >
> >
> >
> >
> >
> >
> >
> >
> >
> >
> >
> >
> >
> >
> >
> >
> >
> >
> >
> >
> >
> >
> >
> >
> >
> >
> >
> >
> >
> >
> >
> >
> >
> >
> >
> > Win £3000 to spend on whatever you want at Uni! Click here to WIN!
> > <http://clk.atdmt.com/UKM/go/111354032/direct/01/>
> > ___________________________________ COMMUNITYPSYCHUK - The discussion
> > list for community psychology in the UK. To unsubscribe or to change
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> > ([log in to unmask]) or Grant Jeffrey ([log in to unmask])
> > Academic Excellence at the Heart of Scotland.
> > The University of Stirling is a charity registered in Scotland, number
> > SC 011159.
> > ___________________________________ COMMUNITYPSYCHUK - The discussion
> > list for community psychology in the UK. To unsubscribe or to change
> > your details visit the website:
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> > problems or queries, contact the list moderators: Rebekah Pratt
> > ([log in to unmask]) or Grant Jeffrey ([log in to unmask])
>
> ___________________________________
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> To unsubscribe or to change your details visit the website:
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