19.10: demonstration against detention in dover

Demonstrate 10.00am Saturday 19th October 2002 Dover Immigration Removal/detention Prison The Citadel, Western Heights, Dover, Kent, CT17 9DR

20.Sep.02 - Kent Committee to Defend Asylum Seekers, CAE Paris Commite Anti-Expulsions, Committee to Defend Asylum Seekers and Barbed Wire Britain are calling for campaigners and concerned individuals to come together on Saturday, October October 19th at 10 a.m. outside Dover Immigration Removal/detention Prison England. For a demonstration and a day of (optional) actions.

We as part of a day of coordinated action across Europe are having a day of action against immigration detention and deportation and racist border controls. We hope to highlight the shocking plight of refugees on both sides of the Channel.

We will be sending a delegation to Sangatte to show solidarity for the present occupants of the camp and to defend the right of shelter for those men, women and children who will come in future and be forced once again to sleep under the stars,and in the wet freezing conditions that are most frequent on the North coast of France.
Those who choose to remain will picket the Dover removal/detention centre and there will be actions. ( If you wish to travel to France, don't forget your Passport!!!)

The Dover removals centre and Sangatte camp.They stand on opposite sides of the channel and both symbolise the incredible injustice that faces refugees . Whilst holiday-makers pass by, men, women and children are forced into a deadly game that may cost them limbs and often their lives. They come to Britain because they have family here, because they speak English and want to work. They think that at least if they do get here there is a chance they will get a fair hearing and possibly the chance to start again, unlike in France where the acceptance rates are far lower.
Rather than campaign against that injustice, Britain is increasingly adopting the anti-refugee policies detention/deportation strategies of some countries in Europe and Australia. Now we even have countries from which no asylum claims are accepted, even though we know from organisations such as Amnesty that massive Human rights abuses are going on in those countries, primary examples being Czech and Slovak Roma,and Turkish Kurds. Without any evidence that Afghanistan is a safe place to return people to the British government, like the French and German is beginning to send people back.

Refugees are being daily terrorised by the policies that our governments seem intent on forcing upon them.The closure of Sangatte and the widespread incarceration of innocent people, men,women and children in prisons are actions of politicians that do not have respect for human life. It is up to us to ensure that refugees are given a voice until they have a chance to recover enough to tell us their stories themselves and to attempt to ensure they are treated with as much respect or dignity as we would hope for.

Asylum is a Human Right !!!

Keep Sangatte Open!!

Give Refugees a way to escape misery and claim asylum without risking their lives clinging to trains!!

End our Racist Immigration Laws !!!

End arbitrary Detention!!

Campaign for a system that gives everyone a chance of a fair hearing!!

Inquiries, further information contact:
Tom 07890 939 253
goldfish1967@hotmail.com
Jon 07789 961744
jon@margate.demon.co.uk
Kent Refugee Action Network

another call from the Kent Committee to Defend Asylum Seekers:

Mass picket of the Dover removal centre 10am october 19th western heights, Dover

Join Us Demonstrate against the closure of Sangatte!!! , Don't make refugees shelterless and destitute !!! Fight for a Common European Policy that respects the Right of Asylum !!! Stop detentions!!, Stop deportation!! Defend the Rights of Refugees!!

We will be sending a delegation to France to oppose the closure of Sangatte, bring your passport if you are coming!!!

Contact kentCDAS@hotmail.com

or call Tom 07890 939 253 or Jon 07789961744

The now decided closure of Sangatte is a being hailed by David Blunkett as a victory against 'illegal immigration'. Yet the occupants of Sangatte are the victims of war and persecution in their own countries . Over 50% of them are Iraqi Kurds around thirty eight per cent Afghans ,yet Blunkett likes to call calls them 'illegal immigrants' They are survivors of regimes like the Taliban or Saddam Hussein which our government is prepared to sacrifice the lives of our soldiers in war for .But the victims it seems matter not at all. The only thing that is 'bogus' about the situation are the lies of right-wing politicians like Blunkett and Rooker and media who have sustained a lengthy hate campaign against people who have no voice or ability to tell their stories.

The sick fact is that what Blunkett is celebrating is the closure of a homeless shelter for refugees which offers them only the most basic of shelters against the elements and racist attacks. Refugees will not simply disappear when Sangatte closes they are real people and we are signed up to international agreements to protect them. More will come because they must and the more immigration controls mean more will risk and lose their lives. The present measures mean that only one refugee is getting through day (says Blunkett) so where will the rest go as the numbers build and the desperation increases.Once the winter sets in. back onto the cold, wet streets of Calais .

So why do they risk it ?, anyone could presumably ask a refugee this (but not David Blunkett) Refugees according to New Labour having "abandoned their families"(Rooker) who spend their life savings getting here and then they risk and sometimes lose their lives clinging to the underside of trains for £37.50 a week .How stupid do New Labour take people for ? It is clear that Sangatte is a symptom of both the British and French governments refusal to honour their commitments to the Geneva Convention . The Red Cross Humanitarian camp would not exist if governemnts heard refugees claims properly. It is ridulous to call it a stopping off point to England, you might as well call the France, a stopping off point for England and try to shut that .

Refugees come because they have family here already, or because they know that they have a better chance of a fair hearing in England. WE NEED POLITICIANS WHO WILL CAMPAIGN FOR A COMMON BUT DECENT EUROPEAN POLICYso that all refugees get a fair hearing throughout Europe,surely to allow refugees to seek asylum from perecution or War in another country is one of the standards by which we can call ourselves civilised

The closure of Sangatte may safeguard the profits of Eurotunnel and the freight services but it puts their considerations before the established human rights that have been fought for and obtained at tremendous cost . They talk of honouring genuine refugees yet who are the people of Sangatte if for example 4 in 5 Iraqis get asylum hear. They cannot be "Bogus","illegals" in France and yet genuine here Asylum in any real sense is being ended by the actions of this government. The severity of border controls only plays into the hands of people smugglers that afford the only opportunity for refugees to reach Britain.

This government present track record on Asylum is a national and international disgrace, and refugees and asylum seekers, as well as minority groups are reaping the reward in racist attacks and murder. Now more will die on both sides of the channel as a result of the bigotry of a government pandering to racist sentiment and ignoring the fact that British society has been built on the work of migrant populations, even Oliver Letwin an unlikely friend of asylum seekers says that we need migration. We need mass migration from the extremely selfish point of view that with a shrinking birth rate and aging population we will be unable to meet our pensions obligations to the elderly unless we do,yet this fact is completly overlooked instead old people are being asked to work five to ten years longer.

So the determination to cling to racist ideology and commentary with regard to refugees and asylum seekers will now cost refugees further misery and trauma,it is hard indeed to think that once polticians like Blair Blunkett and Hain once went on anti-nazi marches

Don't let them close Sangatte without any commitment to the right to asylum refugees !!!