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No Deportations to Zimbabwe – protest Tues 19th Feb 9am Vulcan House

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So far two asylum seekers from Sheffield/Zimbabwe have been detained and are threatened with deportation to Zimbabwe. They were detained when they went to Vulcan House, the Home Office building in Sheffield for an ‘interview’ on Monday 11th February. An article in Independent “He’ll be killed” 12th Feb gives more information

This latest move follows asylum seekers being questioned by a Zimbabwean Embassy official invited by the Home Office to interrogate them in December. A number of other Zimbabwean asylum seekers are being asked to attend Vulcan House over the next week and we are concerned that they maybe detained. Naturally, they are afraid that this could result in deportation to Zimbabwe, the country they were forced to leave because of persecution.

That’s why Zimbabwean asylum seekers have called for a protest to support them when they go to Vulcan House. The Home Office and government seem ready to deport political opponents of the Zimbabwean government at the height of violence against those who criticise ZANU (PF). SYMAAG member Marian Machekanyanga described the Zimbabwean army going house to house to identify, beat, detain, sometimes kill opposition activists and others critical of the government, of children shot in the street, internet access shut down and phone calls monitored. The new Zimbabwean government of Emerson Mnangagwa seems every bit as repressive as Robert Mugabe’s.

Sign the petition to release Victor Mujakachi from detention https://www.change.org/p/home-office-free-victor-mujakachi

Some of the Zimbabwean people in Sheffield threatened with deportation are well-known and well-liked community activists like Victor Mujakachi and Marian Machekanyanga. 5000 people signed a petition to release him from Morton Hall immigration detention centre in 24 hours. Other people are not so well-connected but all need our support. There should be no deportations to Zimbabwe. Our asylum system should give protection to those who need it, not hand them over to their tormentors.

 

No Deportations to Zimbabwe. Release our friends from detention. Zimbabwe is Not Safe

Demonstrate! Tuesday 19th February 9am Vulcan House, Sheffield Home Office S3 8NU

“G4S tenants will be dancing in the streets”

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After a six year campaign by asylum tenants G4S have lost their contracts to run asylum housing. From September 2019 tenants will not have “a prison guard as a landlord”

The new 10 year £4 billion Asylum Accommodation and Support Contract has been given to Serco, Clearsprings and the Mears Group. We will be working alongside asylum tenants to ensure they are treated with dignity and respect and provided with decent housing.

We will publish a detailed response to the announcement of the new contract soon.

In the meantime listen to John Grayson from SYMAAG interviewed on Sheffield Live on G4S getting dumped from asylum housing contract and our small part in that success here

Sheffield Stands with the Stansted 15

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December 18th, International Migrants Day, was a day of action in support of the Stansted 15 who were convicted of terror-related offences for stopping a deportation charter flight taking off. In doing so they saved lives. We believe the government and Home Office are trying to terrorise those showing solidarity with people seeking asylum.

So SYMAAG and many others protested outside Vulcan House Home Office in Sheffield, as part of a day of action in support of the Stansted 15 involving 20 towns and cities in the UK.

 

Statement from Right to Remain on the Stansted 15

The Stansted 15 have been convicted for preventing a charter deportation flight through peaceful direct action.

Today’s ruling is a bitter blow for the defendants, their friends and families. It is also a blow against all those who seek to stand for justice. We wish to first and foremost express our solidarity with them as they deal with this news today.

We know that the steps they took – which caused neither injury or ill-will to anyone – was done only in order prevent a great crime. That crime was one that would have serious impact on the 60 people bound for deportation on a ‘charter flight’.

Charter flight removals and deportations are one of the most worrying aspects of the UK’s asylum and immigration process. Shielded from public oversight and information protected from freedom of information requests, these ‘ghost flights’ forcibly remove people en masse from the UK. As is common with charter flights, many who were on the grounded flight were still fighting their cases. Everybody seeking the right to remain in the UK faces significant obstacles to establishing their legal rights. Those subject to charter flight removal and deportation have even less access to justice.

The Stansted 15’s actions meant that people were able to continue to fight to remain in the UK with their families, communities, in the places they have made their lives. Not only that, it shone a bright light on charter flights and the wider deportation regime.

To Helen, Lyndsay, Nathan, Laura, Melanie E, Joseph, Benjamin, Jyotsna, Nicholas, Melanie S, Alistair, Edward, Emma, May, and Ruth, we say: stay strong, we are with you.

The Stansted 15 will be appealing the verdict. Please donate today to help them with trial related costs. Donate here.

Zimbabwe is Not Safe, No Deportations, No Home Office/Embassy Intimidation

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Protest Monday 10th Dec 11am outside Vulcan House Home Office 6 Millsands, Sheffield S3 8NU

At Vulcan House, Sheffield the Home Office invited representatives of the Zimbabwean government to ask questions of Zimbabwean refugees in the UK. This was naturally a very distressing experience for people here because they are escaping Zimbabwean government violence.

People who were at Vulcan House today said they wanted to demonstrate our opposition to these threats.

This has happened at other Home Office buildings in the UK and appears to be part of a “redocumentation” process to make deportation to Zimbabwe possible. The UK government has had an uncritical relationship with the new Zimbabwean government of Emmerson Mnangagwa and discussed the possible deportation of 2500 Zimbabwean refugees from the UK. The fact that a Zimbabwean Embassy official was invited – without a Home Office rep being present – to question Zimbabwean refugees suggests a close relationship between UK and Zimbabwean authorities. This relationship was described as “corrupt” by one Zimbabwean woman who was questioned by the Embassy official (who refused to give his name) today.

As one Zimbabwean refugee who was questioned today said “Why is the Home Office giving this person my file? How do I know my family is safe now in Zimbabwe?”

Join us on UN Human Rights Day to say

Zimbabwe is still not safe. No deportations to Zimbabwe. Stop Home Office and Zimbabwean Embassy intimidation of asylum seekers.

Protest Monday 10th Dec 11am outside Vulcan House Home Office 6 Millsands, Sheffield S3 8NU

Protest against Sheffield Council putting migrant children in Dangerous B&B

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Despite assurances Sheffield City Council are still putting migrant children in the dangerous and unsuitable Earl Marshall Bed and Breakfast which John Grayson and Violet Dickenson reported on 6 months ago. This is not acceptable behaviour from any local authority. That Sheffield City Council, which prides itself on the being the first City Of Sanctuary, should behave like this is disgraceful. That’s why SYMAAG has called for a protest on Wednesday 5th December 1pm outside the Town Hall, before the full meeting of Sheffield City Council, where we will be asking questions.

Background to recent events: In April and again in September Sheffield councillors Jackie Drayton and Jim Steinke and Chief Council Officers said no more children would be put in the Earl Marshall B&B. SYMAAG has spoken to seven families since dumped in this dangerous and unsuitable accommodation. All are people of colour – new refugee families just after celebrating their leave to remain, sent to a “home” with no safeguarding protection for babies, toddlers and young children. Parents can share one room with four, even five children. In April there were two families who had been there for two years. This has to stop.

Join our protest on 5th December outside Sheffield Town Hall at 1pm and come to the full Council meeting, starting  at 1.45pm with us to ask why a City of Sanctuary is treating refugee families like this

“Welcome to Sheffield” book discussion November 26

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SYMAAG founding member and local author David Price will talk about his latest book, “Welcome to Sheffield – A Migration History” November 26th 7-9pm at The Sanctuary 37-39 Chapel Walk Sheffield S1 2PD

Some of the refugees mentioned in the book will talk about their own experiences of welcome, and there’ll be an opportunity to discuss some of the issues raised.

The event is free but please reserve a place here

Copies of the book will be on sale at £12 at the meeting. Event organised by Sheffield City of Sanctuary

Discuss “The UK Border Regime: a critical guide” Sheffield November 6

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A vital and comprehensive resource for anyone trying understand the border regime, and ask how we can fight it effectively has been produced by Corporate Watch. The book The UK Border Regime: a critical guide is now out.

Discuss The UK Border Regime: a critical guide with Corporate Watch on Tuesday 6th November 6.30-8.30 at The Sanctuary, 37-39 Chapel Walk Sheffield

This is how Corporate Watch describe their work:

This book brings together Corporate Watch’s recent research on the “hostile environment” against migrants in the UK, and the companies that profit from it. It also includes a lot of new research and analysis, and looks at the history of recent migration struggles in the UK, asking what has been effective.

You can download it for free here. And you can order paper copies here in our online shop. (It will be in bookshops soon too).

We will be glad to send copies for free to asylum seekers and other people without papers. For other people and groups fighting the border regime, we can send at cost price or whatever you can afford to donate. Email us on contact[AT]corporatewatch.org.

The UK Border Regime

Throughout history, human beings have migrated. To escape war, oppression and poverty, to make a better life, to follow their own dreams. But since the start of the 20th century, modern governments have found ever more vicious ways to stop people moving freely.

The UK border regime includes the razor wire fences at Calais, the limbo of the asylum system, and the open violence of raids and deportations. Alongside the Home Office, it includes the companies running databases and detention centres, the media pushing hate speech, and the politicians posturing to win votes. It keeps on escalating, through Tony Blair’s war on refugees to Theresa May’s “hostile environment”, spreading fear and division.

This book describes and analyses the UK’s system of immigration controls. It looks at how it has developed through recent history, the different actors involved, and how people resist. The aim is to help understand the border regime, and ask how we can fight it effectively.

You can read the introduction and summary of the book here.

And see the full table of contents below.

 

 

Table of Contents

Introduction, Acknowledgements, Summary

Part One: Background
1. A brief history of the UK border regime
2. The Home Office: an overview
3. Sorting people
4. What is the border regime?

Part Two: Control
5. In limbo: reporting, dispersal, destitution
6. Immigration raids
7. Detention
8. Deportation
9. Calais (the ultimate “hostile environment”)
10. The “hostile environment”: making a nation of border cops
11. Hostile data
12. The logic of hostility: how collaboration works
13. Does immigration control work? The deterrent dogma

Part Three: Consent
14. Public opinion: target publics
15. Media: communication power
16. Politicians
17. Corporate power
18. Agitators
19. Anxiety engine

Part Four: How can we fight it?
20. Fighting the border regime

Annexes

Annex 1. Border profiteers: list of major Home Office immigration contracts
Annex 2. Border profiteers: company mini-profiles (G4S, Serco, Mitie, GEO, Carlson Wagonlit, Titan Airways)
Further reading

Lift The Ban on Asylum Seekers Right to Work

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Right now, right here in the UK, people seeking refugee status are banned from working whilst they wait months, and often years, for a decision on their asylum claim.

Instead, they are left to live on just £5.39 per day, struggling to support themselves and their families, whilst the Government wastes the talents of thousands of people.

We think that’s wrong. We believe that people who have risked everything to find safety should have the best chance of contributing to our society and integrating into our communities. This means giving people seeking asylum the right to work so that they can use their skills and live in dignity.

The Lift the Ban coalition is working to change this. Together, we believe we can #LiftTheBan and ensure that people seeking safety in the UK have the right to work.

It’s ironic that people detained in immigration removal centres can work for as little as £1 per day for the global corporations like G4S, Serco GEO and Mitie who run them but are banned from work when they are released.

SYMAAG is proud to be part of the Lift the Ban Coalition which is calling for the right to work for people seeking asylum, and their adult dependants, after six months of having lodged an asylum claim or further submission, unconstrained by the Shortage Occupation List.

The alternative is destitution for people seeking asylum or the dangers of working illegally – no rights or protection at work, unpaid wages and a weakening of all workers’ rights

What can you do to support our campaign? See the Lift the Ban Activism Pack for resources and ideas

Asylum Journey Sheffield

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Asylum Journey Sheffield website has information about services and resources for asylum seekers and refugees in Sheffield. Created by Sheffugees it is a comprehensive and easily searchable resource for people at each stage of the asylum process

It contains detailed information and signposting on the asylum process, legal support, accommodation, health, finance, education and much more.

The site needs constant updates to keep it useful. If you have any comments or feedback, or if you spot any gaps or errors, please contact admin@sheffield.cityofsanctuary.org.

Website https://asylumjourney.org.uk/

 

Zimbabwe still not safe – Sheffield Protest Against Deportations July 25

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End Forced Deportations to Zimbabwe

Demonstrate outside Sheffield Town Hall

Wednesday 25th July 12noon to 1pm

Stop another Windrush Scandal

According to New Zimbabwe.com, British ambassador to Zimbabwe, Catriona Laing, in February 2018 told Zimbabwean Deputy President Kembo Mohadi that her government intended to deport 2,500 “illegal Zimbabweans” in that country. The announcement came as Theresa May said that her government was “determined to reduce the number of immigrants coming into the country by thousands”. Very few people have been deported to Zimbabwe over the past ten years.

There are now reports of Zimbabwe Embassy staff going to detention centres to interview any Zimbabwe nationals there to give them travel documents so that they can be forcibly deported. Some people have already been deported to a Zimbabwe where the same regime is in power even though Mugabe has gone. Their lives are in danger.

As Marian Machekanyanga, an exiled trade unionist from Zimbabwe and SYMAAG Executive Committee member, explained to us  “nothing has changed for Zimbabwean people here or at home. Mnangagwa is still ZANU-PF…there are no changes and no democracy”.

Zimbabwe refugees here for years are facing deportation rather than extension to their right to safety here in the UK

Tell Sajid Javid the Home Secretary to stop deporting Zimbabwe refugees. This is Theresa May’s Hostile Environment yet again bringing misery and danger to families seeking protection from persecution and torture in the UK