This video is about a pro refugee demonstration at Harmondsworth Immigration Detention Centre in England.
From British daily News Line:
Saturday, 21 June 2008British government implicated in abuse of refugees and asylum seekers: here.LOCKED IN FLOODED CELLS! – Harmondsworth inquiry demand
On Monday, 23 June, the High Court will respond to a Liberty demand for an independent investigation into the treatment of detainees at Harmondsworth Immigration Detention Centre.
The court will determine whether an inquiry must be held after vulnerable detainees were locked in flooded cells without food or water while fires burned during a disturbance in the centre, near Heathrow.
The legal challenge is on behalf of three individual detainees who claim that during the November 2006 Harmondsworth disturbance they were denied food and water for up to 40 hours.
The detainees also allege they were locked in overcrowded, pitch-black rooms flooded with water for more than 24 hours; forced to urinate and defecate in front of each other; and were strip searched in front of several officers.
Permission to judicially review the actions of the Home Office and Kalyx Ltd (the private contractor running the centre) was granted by the High Court in March.
Liberty’s Legal Officer Alex Gask said: ‘This appalling mistreatment of immigration detainees will only be stopped if exposed through a root and branch independent inquiry.
‘It is shameful that these men were abandoned to pain, fear and hunger while in UK detention.’
One detainee told how he was taken to the centre’s medical clinic suffering from a bad back.
The man said: ‘They just abandoned me. There was no doctor and, when I asked where the doctor was, the detention officers laughed at me . . .
‘One of them stepped on the hem of my trousers to make me fall over. He then started laughing and called me a “fucking negro”.’
Britain: Gay and lesbian asylum-seekers can be safely deported to Iran as long as they live their lives “discreetly”, the Home Secretary, Jacqui Smith, has claimed: here.
Woman ‘assaulted’ by UK security guards during forced removal: here.
EU parliament agrees to strengthening of Fortress Europe: here.
Why is Australia still mistreating refugees? Here.
Inside Bush’s Billion-Dollar Immigration Gulag: here.
Hi Kitty, You might want to check out La Chola’s Women of Color blog. She has written extensively on the sexual abuse of immigrant women by US authorities. I also like her writing a lot. Her URL is:
http://brownfemipower.com/
Comment by Jon — June 21, 2008 @ 4:17 pm
Hi Jon, thank you for the information about this blog. And good luck with your own blog!
Comment by Administrator — June 22, 2008 @ 4:20 pm