Immigration and asylum - new material (4)
01 October 2009
Significant Harm – the effects of administrative detention on the health of children, young people and their families. Intercollegiate Briefing Paper (Royal College of Paediatrics and Child Health care, Royal College of Central Practitioners, Royal College of Psychiatrists, Faculty of Public Health), pp. 10. This briefing paper “describes the considerable harms to the physical and mental health of children and young people in the UK who are subjected to administrative immigration detention. It argues that such detention is unacceptable and should cease without delay.” Dr. Iona Heath, President of the Royal College of general Practitioners, said: “Any detention of children for administrative rather than criminal purposes causes unnecessary harm and further blights disturbed young lives. Such practices reflect badly on all of us.” Available as a free download at: http://www.rcpsych.ac.uk/pdf/Significant%20Harm%20intercollegiate%20statement%20Dec09.pdf
Centres et locaux de rétention administrative. Rapport 2008, Cimade, pp. 415, ISBN: 978-2-900595-08-4. This extensive report by Cimade provides a wealth of material, statistics and analysis on the conditions of detention in French centres and facilities for the administrative detention of foreigners. It is an exceptional work in that it ranges from objective data, applicable regulations and legislative measures and orders approved over the year, as well as including the eye-witness and professional testimonies of Cimade members who are active in the assistance of migrants within the centres and facilities, and providing accounts of incidents such as revolts, hunger strikes and the problems and complaints that migrants in the centres experience. Thus, it is an unparalleled source of material and documentation: official, from staff working in the centres, volunteers supporting the migrants from legal, human and psychological perspectives, and the detainees themselves. Available from: La Cimade, Service œcuménique d’entraide, 64 rue Clisson, 75013 Paris, France.
Conditions at G4s Immigration Prison ‘Worse and Worse’. Watching the Corporations (Corporate Watch) 2.12.09, pp. 3. This article, on the UK’s newest and biggest immigration prison, Brook House near Gatwick airport, reports on deteriorating conditions due to increased security conditions for the detainees and their visitors. The report highlights the harassment and banning of visitors by Group 4 Securicor (G4S) which is described by one visitor as “just an excuse for the management to limit visits as some sort of punishment.” Visitors are now prevented from taking “any toiletries or tobacco in for detainees” to prevent, the management claims, the smuggling of drugs, although some detainees said that it is aimed at “forcing them to buy” these items from the centre’s privatised shop: ““So if you don’t have money and don’t have visitors who can give you cash”, one detainee complained, “you are basically deprived of these essentials.”” It is also pointed out that, besides making a profit, “prison canteens are used by prison managements for punishment and disciplinary purposes.” Available as a free download: http://www.corporatewatch.org/?lid=3471
‘Afghanistan is not in a state of war’: ruling by immigration judges paves way for asylum seekers to be returned, Robert Verkaik. The Independent 23.10.09. pp. 14-15. This article discusses the decision by three Immigration and Asylum Tribunal judges who ruled that the level of “indiscriminate violence” in war-torn Afghanistan was not enough to permit Afghans to claim general humanitarian protection in the United Kingdom. Afghan’s living in Britain now face being removed having been prevented from arguing that the country is a dangerous place. “The judgement also made it clear that an asylum seeker had to show why it was not possible to be relocated to another part of Afghanistan if they had succeeded in proving that they faced persecution in their own region.”