"All of us are immigrants or descended from immigrants, it just depends how far back you go".

...19 Princelet Street.

Nottingham and Notts Refugee Forum (NNRF) is an independent, voluntary organisation set up to work with and for asylum seekers and refugees in Nottingham and Nottinghamshire. For a copy of our Statment of Values and Aims, click here.

The Refugee Forum is a volunteer led organization, run by a volunteer management committee. The Centre has a number of paid staff, but relies heavily on the time, dedication and enthusiasm of volunteers from refugee, asylum seeking and host community backgrounds (Click here to find out more about the Centre).

We offer advice, practical assitance and friendship to all refugees and asylum seekers regardless of race, religion or political opinion.

Don't forget that you can shop at NNRF to raise money for the Destitution Fund. Use this search box to find what you want to buy or see below right for more details:

- and here's a new way of raising money for the Destitution fund:

Buy your shopping vouchers for Sainsbury, Asda, John Lewis, Comet, Dixons &c, &c, from vouchers4charity, and 3% of what you spend can be donated to NNRF who will put the money in the Destitution Fund. When filling in the forms at checkout, remember to nominate "Nottingham & Notts. Refugee Forum" (in those words) as your chosen charity.

The Centre

The Centre is open on Monday, Tuesdays and Thursdays from 10 am till noon for anyone to come in and use the facilities (eg computers/internet) or meet friends. There are also regular social evenings and training courses. We have a playroom for children. Interpreters are available in most refugee community languages.

There are drop in advice sessions on Tuesday, Wednesday and Thursdays from 1 pm till 4 pm. Here you can find information about or help with:

• NASS support or accommodation problems,
• Section 4 issues,
• how to obtain a solicitor,
• interpreting letters and documents,
• applications and form filling,
• contacting organizations, eg City Council, Job Centre, employers &c,
• making appointments,
• advice if you are destitute,
• advice if you have just been granted refugee status or leave to remain,
• passport applications.

• the asylum process,
• contacting your solicitor or the Home Office,
• advice if you have reached the end of the official asylum process,
• making naturalization and registration applications,
• making travel document.

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The Anti-destitution Group

The Anti-destitution Group provides limited support to refused asylum seekers who find themselves without support, destitute or homeless.

The Destitution fund is very short of money so that anti-destitution work may have to shut down unless more can be found. Please make a donation.

To download a combined standing order and gift aid declaration form, click here.

If you don't have Acrobat Reader, which you need to open these files, hit the Downloads button on the left. To find out more about the Anti-destitution group, hit the Anti-destitution group button on the left.

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Accommodation for Destitute Asylum Seekers

If you could offer a spare room to a destitiute asylum seeker for a few days, weeks or even months, please consider being a host. Initially, we are looking for hosts who live within two miles iof the city.

HOST Nottingham has been set up jointly by Nottingham Arimathea Trust, NNRF, Refugee Action, the Rainbow Project and the British Red Cross, to coordinate the provision of hosting in Nottingham.

They provide training and support for those who are able to provide temporary accommodation in Nottingham, and their guests.

The scheme is flexible, fitting to our host families' needs. Some hosts do emergency hosting for a few days, others for a few weeks or longer.

If you've looked at any of the stuff on this web site, you will already realise that destitute asylum seekers have been forced to flee their own countries, having experienced severe persecution because of their political opinions, faith or sexuality. They will have suffered further trauma and abuse on the hazardous journey that brought them to Britain, where they find that the main aim of the British legal process is to return them to the danger from which they have been trying to escape. Once turned down, asylum seekers may try further legal processes to be allowed to remain here but have no support while doing so, and nowhere to live. Some sleep rough or on friend's floors. This is where HOST is needed.

Hosts are checked for their suitability and matched with appropriate guests. Hosts and guests agree the ground rules for a placement in advance. the guest might need to leaveinthe morning when the host does and return for a set time to an evening meal, or perhaps the guest stays at home during the day. The guest might prepare meals independently, or take turns cooking the main meal, help out with household jobs, &c.

If you can't spare a room, there are plenty of other ways to make HOST Nottingham a more sustainable model:

• Sponsor a bus pass
• Befriending
• Gift an unwanted bike
• Raise money and awareness

For more information regarding hosting or for an initial chat, call Jane on 07940 548832 or e-mail: hostnotingham@gmail.com. Quite a few people are already interested but more are needed.

There must be around 300 NNRF members who are not refugees or asylum seekers; so far only about six households are engaged in hosting. For hosting to work properly, a lot more are needed.

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Petitions and action

In this section, you can find details of action that needs to be taken. This will be very urgent if it is to prevent someone being deported. There will be links to electronic petitions, pro-forma letters or faxes to send to Ministers, MPs, Airlines &c. There will also be news of other action you could take in support of refugees and asylum seekers.

Refugee Council PLEDGE

2011 is the 60^th anniversary of the UN Refugee Convention, the international treaty which guarantees refugees' rights. The Refugee Convention has saved countless lives and no country has ever withdrawn from it. 2011 also marks 60 years of the Refugee Council and despite the challenges, the RC are determined to celebrate this anniversary in style.

Refugee protection is part of our national history and is something that the UK should take pride in. We want the UK government to know that we're proud to protect refugees. This year, we want 10000 people to speak up for refugee protection by signing our 60^th anniversary pledge. We need your support: please add your name now.

Young People Seeking Safety PETITION

Young People Seeking Safety (YPSS) is a campaign to promote the rights and safety of unaccompanied young people seeking asylum in the UK. Many unaccompanied young people seeking safety experience distressing circumstances before and also after arriving in this country. The YPSS campaign aims to being attention to these issues and ensure that unaccompanied young people are cared for and their rights protected.

Please sign the petition:

I share YPSS's concerns with the problems that unaccompanied young people in the UK are facing. I support the YPSS campaign in echoing the recommendations made to the Government by countless other organisations surrounding the treatment of these young people before, during and after the asylum process. We urge the Government to:

• Give fewer and better age assessments to unaccompanied young people.
• Ensure the best interests of a child are always at the forefront of decisions to remove children.
• Issue an investigation into the extremely high percentage of refused cases of 18-21 year old unaccompanied young people and ensure that they are given the leaving care support to which they are entitled by law.
• Get asylum decisions right the first time by ending the widely acknowledged 'culture of cynicism and disbelief'.

Payment card for asylum seekers is inhumane

Many asylum seekers whose claims have been refused, but who are unable to return to their countries, are forced to rely on the Azure payment card. The Refugee Council's November 2010 report "Your Inflexible Friend: the cost of living without cash" brings to light the multitude of problems with the card. The Azure card is topped up weekly with just £35 for a single person and can only be used in a limited number of supermarkets. It cannot be exchanged for cash which makes travel impossible, and for single adults, only £5 can be carried over to the next week. Often the card doesn't work at all, leaving asylum seekers unable to buy food for themselves and their children. You'll find a link to the full report on this page of the RC web site.

Life without cash means hunger and deprivation for asylum seekers. Act now: tell the government to replace the payment card with cash support and let asylum seekers live in dignity by sending this e-mail to Damian Green.

They take photos of us - why can't we take photos of them?

A new law could mean that you can be arrested for photographing a policeman. Under section 76 of the 'counter terrorism' act that could potentially lead to arrest and imprisonment of anybody who takes a photograph of the intelligence services, the armed forces or police officers. Click here to see a copy of the law as made available by the office of public sector information. Click here also for contents page of whole act.

The way we read 76 (2), once you've been charged - which can happen for filming at a demonstration, "looking suspicious" or "wearing a loud shirt in a built up area" - it is up to the defendant to prove that they had an innocent reason for photographing/filming. We don't see why you should be treated as guilty until proven innocent. We thought it was the other way round, or were we being hopelessly naive?

As recent events have shown, taking photos and videos of police at demonstrations is the only way they can be called to account. The cynical might think that this is why they're not keen on being photographed. Legal and peaceful demonstrations against UK's unjust and brutal asylum laws are now routinely subject to the attention of police photographers. See Full Circle page. Frighteningly, some police photographers are even dressed as canaries... So, if they can take photos of us, why can't we take photos of them?

Well, maybe we can. For the government response to the petition, click here. If you like to take photos at demos like we do, you might want to print it off and take it with you. But as you can see, the police still have the option of causing trouble for you by claiming they "reasonably suspect" that you are "...preparing an act of terrorism".

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Issues and news

A book by David Belbin

We should have a book page!

Published locally by Five Leaves, who are making a donation to the Destitution Fund for each copy sold. More details about Secret Gardens can be found on David Belbin's web site.

"When I wake up in the morning, I don't know where I am. My feet are light and my head is heavy. The wall in front of my opening eyes is white and empty. Then I remember: I am here in another's country."

- a salad-processing factory worker from north China, August 2007.

Since we have the beginnings of a book page, let's also mention Chinese Whispers by Taiwanese journalist Hsiao-Hung Pai. Published by Penguin in 2008, it's not new, but everyone should read it. Hsiao-Hung Pai went undercover to find out about the lives of undocumented Chinese workers in the UK and why they go to such lengths to come here and to stay here. They work in the agricultural, food processing, restaurant and sex industries, the jobs that not many British want to do. Their utter vulnerability is shocking. They can be ripped off by employers, traffickers or gangmasters. They receive no training for the often dangerous equipment they have to operate. They can be robbed, attacked, injured or raped. But because they have no papers, they can have no redress whatsoever for any of the wrongs done to them. The employers involved do very well out of it:

"...the state's policies create a situation in which labour-hungry employers help themselves from a pool of exploitable workers. An enclave of exploitation is created, defended and endorsed by all those benefiting and profiting from it. Within this enclave, the undocumented workers are earning thirty-three percent less than the most lowly of the legally employed staff."

"'Back then,' he said, 'you were allowed to work a little while you were waiting for asylum decisions. Now you have to eat your own flesh to survive'"

Most people in the UK would rather not know anything about this hidden dystopia on which UK food production depends; but in February, 2004, at least 21 Chinese workers were drowned by the inrushing tide in Morecambe Bay while trying to gather cockles and the spotlight of publicity shone, albeit briefly. A gangmaster, Lin Liang Ren, and his associates were jailed, but the local businessmen who employed them were cleared of breaching immigration law. The only reason things haven't quite gone back to how they were for the Chinese is because workers from Poland and Rumania can now also be hired for low wages, but legally.

You might want to buy your copy of Chinese Whispers on-line from those nice people at Word Power Books, Edinburgh, one of the UK's few remaining independent book shops. Word Power has around 14 different books with the title Chinese Whispers in its database, so the link takes you straight to the one by Hsiao-Hung Pai.

UKBA continues inhumane persecution of sick asylum seekers

March, 2011. A heavy headline, but I don't know what else you'd call it:

"This is stomach turning stuff, I'm afraid, and has left me quivering with anger. A new case on Article 3 has just been reported: GS (Article 3 ­ health exceptionality) India [2011] UKUT 35 (IAC). The facts of the case and the medical evidence were undisputed. That evidence was as follows:

He (the respondent) is dependant on this treatment to remain alive and well, and would expect he would die after a period of one to two weeks if the treatment was discontinued. (The respondent) is a good candidate to receive renal transplant, and we have been discussing with him whether any of his family could offer a live kidney donor for him. However, there are no firm plans to proceed with this at present.¯

New jail for migrant kids in Pease Pottage

At the start of 2011, we only gave one cheer at the announcement that children would no longer be detained in Yarl's Wood, because we suspected that the government would have something equally nasty up its sleave. And lo!

Pease Pottage is a village near Gatwick Airport, where the government want to get planning permission to close a special needs school and convert it into a detention centre for asylum-seeking children and their families. The school is privately owned and the landowner wants to rent the site to the UK Border Agency. The coalition government promised to end the detention of children for immigration control purposes by May 2011. This new centre, that they want opened by 11th May, is being called a “pre-departure accommodation facility” and could see over 6,000 children a year detained.

The government claim children will only be detained there for up to 72 hours, unless in exceptional circumstances. But this is exactly what they said about children who were detained for months at other immigration removal centres like Dungavel, Yarl’s Wood and Tinsley House. The centre will be surrounded by barbed wire and locked doors. Families will be escorted in and out by prison style vans – medical reports have shown that this was one of the most traumatic experiences for children who were detained before. Are you getting faint hints of "detention centre" here??

A public outcry caused the government to promise to end child detention when medical evidence came to light detailing the extreme psychological damage detention did to children. Even Nick Clegg called it “state sponsored cruelty”. Immigration detention is unnecessary and expensive. The government say people will only be detained at Pease Pottage for 72 hours before being deported or, if an appeal is successful, released. This is unnecessary, especially as families are the least likely to go into hiding – think how difficult that is to do with children. The Home Office also thinks if they take people straight from their homes to the airport then it might trigger a ‘public-order situation’ outside their house - but this would only happen if the family were so settled in their community that they shouldn’t be getting deported anyway. Do they really think the community would be so stupid as not to realise that a move to a “pre-departure accommodation facility” is equivalent to taking the family straight to the airport and would therefore (we hope) arrange for a ‘public-order situation’?

This is also a very expensive project, especially at a time of government spending cuts. Detaining a family of 4 for between 4 to 8 weeks at Yarl’s Wood costs the taxpayer £20000. Although individual families might not be held for so long at Pease Pottage, the Border Agency will want to keep the centre full. Dozens of staff from a private company will be employed to lock up parents and their children. The landowner and a multi-national company will benefit from this scheme. No one else will.

You couldn't make it up, could you? Go to the NCADC web site for a full report on Barnardo's involvement.

UK border agency fails in concluding asylum claims

On February 26^th, 2010, the Independent Chief Inspector of the UK Border Agency, John Vine released the report: ‘Asylum: Getting the Balance Right’, which established that the UK Border Agency’s target of concluding 90 per cent of asylum cases within six months by December 2011 is unachievable. The report also found 30000 asylum cases that had not been processed within the timeframe set for them.

The Chief inspector made a number of recommendations to tackle these failures, such as the introduction of clear targets to resolve any outstanding cases, including legacy cases.

Sources:

• Download the Chief Inspector’s Report: 'Asylum: Getting the Balance Right?'
• For the Refugee Council's response click here.
• For the Scottish Refugee Council's initial response click here.

Border staff humiliate asylum seekers

This isn't news to all those working to gain justice for asylum seekers, who will be familiar with the incompetence, indifference and endless procrastination of the UK Border Agency beaurocracy. But did you know it was this bad? Several staff have been so disgusted with the inner workings of the UKBA, that they have left and blown the gaff, among them Louise Perrett, who according to an article in the Guardian of February 2^nd, 2010:

'..."I witnessed general hostility, rudeness and indifference towards clients. It was completely horrific. I highlighted my concerns to senior managers but I was just laughed at. I decided to speak out because nobody else was saying anything and major changes are needed at senior management level."

One of her cases involved a Congolese woman who had the right to remain in the UK. Perrett says a superior nevertheless decided the woman and her children should be removed, and asked officials whether there were any grounds to remove them. Frustrated, she approached a member of the legal department. His reply, according to Perrett, was: "Umbongo, umbongo, they kill them in the Congo."'

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Outsourcing Abuse - what follows comes mostly from NCADC North West

"Outsourcing Abuse" by Birnberg Peirce & Partners, Medical Justice and NCADC, published today (July 14^th, 2008), describes an alarming number of injuries sustained by asylum deportees at the hand of private "escorts" contracted by the Home Office. It reveals evidence of widespread and seemingly systemic abuse of vulnerable people who have fled their own countries seeking safety and refuge, and that assault claims have largely been brushed off by the Home Office. It provoked the following comments (the painting above left is by Lucy Edkins):

"I have just read one of the most shocking reports about our immigration system that I have seen in 20 years as a Member of Parliament. The report "Outsourcing Abuse" catalogues the frightening state-sponsored violence that happens to asylum-seekers when they are being deported. This report suggests a complete failure [by the Home Office] to investigate many of the allegations. This report is distressing and upsetting for anyone to read. But for Ministers it is a damning verdict on their inability to inject even a shred of humanity into a flailing immigration system."

Diane Abbott, MP

Together with every right thinking person, those who read it will not want to believe what it contains. If the Home Office, Ministers and officials alike, is sensible it will pay due attention to the dossiers. They should recognise that our national reputation is not something to be treated lightly or wantonly, and that, if even one of the cases is substantiated, that amounts to something of a preventable national disgrace."

Lord David Ramsbotham, GCB, CBE

"I have seen many serious injuries with long lasting effects ; crushing of nerves at the wrist from forceful pulling on handcuffs, limitation of neck movement by patients whose heads were pushed under aircraft seats, numbness of the face after blows around the cheek and eye. I have also seen a dislocated wrist, giant bruises and swellings the size of my fist. I have seen far worse abuses but do not have the patient's permission to reveal confidential medical information. Our report includes evidence from 18 independent doctors. Some of these findings are worse still. They include dislocation to the knee requiring a plaster cast and several people rendered unable to walk for extended periods. Some were denied wheelchairs, pain relief and other essential treatment although in state custody."

Dr Frank Arnold, independent doctor, Medical Justice

"This report reveals the extent of lawless disregard for basic rules in the application of force, combined with a wholly inadequate system for investigating often extremely serious criminal allegations. As a lawyer with experience of dealing with misconduct allegations against the police and the prison service I have been shocked to discover the extent of casual racism and inhumanity from officers employed by the Home Office and its subcontracted private companies - think the police as portrayed in 'Life on Mars' - and you have a picture of where the immigration service is now."

Harriet Wistrich, Birnberg Peirce & Partners

"The Home Office uses charter flights and military planes to deport to places like Afghanistan and Iraq, and have even arranged a private jet to deport one suicidal 14-year old girl and her mother. Asylum applications are at a 14-year low, yet the proportional use of detention has increased 7-fold. The government is driven by seemingly arbitrary targets on deportation and plans a near doubling of detention centre capacity. We feel this all may lead to further abuse. One shudders to think what will happen if they fulfill their announcement to deal with 450,000 unresolved cases within 5 years. A third of the cases we documented were regarding alleged assaults against women and a significant number were cases of children who witnessed their parent being assaulted. This report is just the "tip of the iceberg" of horrific violence, for which the Home Office is ultimately responsible. Lord Ramsbotham has sent the 48 cases from our dossier that are highlighted in this report to Jacqui Smith, the Home Secretary, for investigation."

Emma Ginn, the National Coalition of Anti-Deportation Campaigns (NCADC)

Click here to download a copy of the report.

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Children in detention

"That this House is concerned that the Government persists in detaining children and their families in immigration removal centres; notes that recent work by Save the Children, Bail for Immigration Detainees, the Office of the UN High Commissioner for Refugees, the Chief Inspector of Prisons, Legal Action for Women, Refugee Council and the Children's Commissioner of England among others have found that detention centres are not suitable places for children to live; further notes that despite these objections children continue to be held in detention centres, at times for over 28 days; believes that holding children and families who are extremely vulnerable and in need of social and psychological help contravenes a plethora of human rights principles and laws; and calls on the Government to bring an end to the appalling practice of detaining children and vulnerable people."

Click here for the text of Ms Abbott's Commons speech in which she describes the appalling treatment of asylum seeker children by the immigration authorities, and the following exchanges. Click here for a list of MPs who signed up to EDM 634.

In her speech, Ms Abbott referred to a government report entitled "Review of UKIS Family Removals Processes":

"Obviously, the people who wrote it have read the same things as I have about how frightened and traumatised the children are by the process of being dragged away to detention, so they have thought very hard about what can be done about the psychological impact on children and proposed that the uniform of immigration officers be changed. They seem to be saying that what is frightening the children is the fact that the uniforms are navy blue or black and suggesting that they should be a pale colour - maybe pink or lilac!

You thought the official attitude to asylum seekers was inhumane - but did you know it could also be wacky?

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The cost of getting the numbers down by one

Fatma, 54, is from Turkey and was a volunteer with the Food Group earlier this year. Many of us knew her from parties, Women’s Group activities, etc. She is suffering from many serious health problems. Among these, Fatma's consultant stated that she is suffering from post traumatic stress disorder, anxiety, depression and psychosis, which is in keeping with her accounts of being tortured, raped and imprisoned in her country. These outrages were committed by the Turkish authorities for her political actions in support of working people in Turkey and Kurds in particular. The home office have chosen not to believe Fatma or her consultant, and detained her in Yarlswood. The account of what happened next is from Miriam:

"...She rang at 1.40 a.m. and we stayed in contact for about forty minutes. Fatma had refused to dress and was clearly doing her best to delay or inhibit removal. The banging on her door as the Yarlswood officers came for her was chilling. Given that only two women were in the room in a secure institution, the banging on the door was too loud, too insistent and unecessary for anyone, let alone someone suffering from trauma and other conditions. Fatma was distraught. She was shouted at repeatedly by a number of female officers, who warned her regularly and urgently that "the men are coming" which served to terrify her more. Fatma demanded over and over to be told where she was going and was answered with a "we don't know". When we became disconnected I continued to redial the number and Fatma answered even if she was not directly speaking with me. When "the men came" there were men and womens voices shouting at Fatma in a cacophony of mixed shouted instructions and demands as she became more terrified and began to scream continuously.

I am still trying to pursue any avenue I can think of to try and trace Fatma and hope that perhaps she will turn up in the next few days. I have had an assurance from someone who seems very reliable in the domestic violence field in Istanbul, that Fatma has not been detained by the police - this may be more to do with her using a different surname."

That's how you get the asylum seeker numbers down by one.

Will we ever hear about Fatma again?

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Upcoming events

It's great to have some events to report - having to put "...we have no information about upcoming events" makes it look as if we haven't a clue what's going on! Remember, if you've got an event coming up, just send details - say a .jpg of your flyer or notice - to rms.titanic@hotmail.co.uk and we'll put it here.

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Recent events

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Are your dear offspring butchering your favourite tunes?

Long Journey Home helps out musicians in exile, who arrive in the UK without their own instruments or the money to buy new ones. So they can make good use of unwanted musical instruments, either on a short or long term loan or donated to Long Journey Home or Leicester-based Farside Music's Instrument Library. If you can help please contact:  Stuart Brown, Long Journey Home Co-ordinator, mobile: 07891 701133, e-mail: stuartbrown@gn.apc.org.  See also www.longjourneyhome.org.uk.

The Music Workshop which happens twice monthly at the Centre, is also looking for all kinds of musical instruments. So if you would like to give Amanda's trombone to them, 'phone Frank on 07905 322813.

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Who are asylum seekers?