Immigration - new material (87)
01 July 2007
Moving On - from destitution to contribution. Joseph Rowntree Charitable Trust, 28.3.07, pp 22. This is the report of an independent inquiry into people refused asylum that exposes the "inhumane" conditions created by the government that leaves an "invisible population of destitute people who can neither go home nor contribute to British society." It is based on a survey of failed asylum seekers in Leeds that "found that one in four (including women) had slept rough and a third had been destitute for a year or more. Many were suffering grave social and health problems and some with thoughts of suicide." See: http://www.jrct.org.uk/text.asp?section=0001000200030006
"Mamadou va a morire. La strage di clandestini nel Mediterraneo", Gabriele Del Grande, Infinito Edizioni, May 2007, ISBN 978-88-89602-14-0, pp 160, 14 euros. A fascinating journey by Del Grande, founder of Fortress Europe, a media observatory documenting the tragedies and deaths during "illegal" immigration attempts, who travels in the opposite direction to migrants, from Italy to the places from where the victims set off and key points along their journeys. He visits the villages where the victims of well-documented shipwrecks came from, describing the colours, fragrances and glimpses of everyday life, as well as talking to families of the deceased (who often continue to hope their relatives are alive, in the absence of a body of the "disappeared"). He talks to others who are not dissuaded from their plans to emigrate by the tragic news from the seas and offers a wealth of details to the researcher. In-depth information concerning a number of incidents, shipwrecks, failed immigration attempts and policies and practices to combat immigration is included. Incidents such as shipwrecks during interception attempts, abuses in operations against illegal immigration, and practices such as collusion and corruption between border guards and members of people smuggling networks are detailed. Notorious among migrants they are seldom referred to in the debate in immigration at an official and media level. He provides insights that paint a far more comprehensive picture of the migrants' experience: from institutions such as detention centres or prisons to life in make-shift communities among which they hide and await their chance, along the African coast in villages where migrants embark, or in large cities in countries of origin. The accounts from protagonists of this phenomenon are used to provide an account of the different stages in their journey, and to cover as wide a region as possible - all the way from Turkey to Senegal, passing through countries including Morocco, Algeria, Senegal, Mauritania and the Western Sahara - from all of which he offers vivid snapshots. Available from: Infinito Edizioni, http://www.infinitoedizioni.it
Sergey Baranyuk forgotten at Harmondsworth. Race Files Issue 36 (January) 2007, p 3. Article on the death of Ukranian asylum seeker, Sergey Baranyuk, who was "detained, forgotten and slowly driven to despair" until he was found hanged in a shower room at Harmondsworth removal centre in July 2004. Available from Greenwich Council for Racial Equality, 1-4 Beresford Square, Woolwich, London SE18 6BB, email: gcre@supanet.com
Aspects of contempt for Humanity in Europe, Deportation Centre Motardstraße. Bündnis gegen Lager Berlin/Brandenburg (Alliance Against Camps), February 2007, pp 48. This brochure describes the internal and external situation of Fortress Europe and, in particular, the detention and racist exclusion of refugees and migrants in Germany. It provides a history of migration policy, and outlines and analyses the situation of refugees in Brandenburg, 'departure centres' and the 'Motardstraße' detention camp in Berlin. It also points the finger at profiteers from the camp system and suggests possibilities for political intervention against the detention system within an anti-racist framework. There is an interview with a Motardst