More Government Racial Abuse

Subject: More Government Racial Abuse Thu Jan 03, 2008 7:54 pm

Report lists racist abuse at immigration centres

A catalogue of racist behaviour inside Britain's immigration detention centres was exposed by an official report today.

One female officer at Colnbrook, near Heathrow airport, who taunted the detainees by saying "Animals, lock-up time," also described immigration offenders and failed asylum seekers as "black bastards".

The Home Office's Border and Immigration Agency (BIA) commissioned the report following a 2005 TV documentary that exposed racism and mistreatment at Oakington immigration centre in Cambridgeshire.

The review described the atmosphere at Colnbrook, which holds up to 360 men and women, as "distressing" and "turbulent".

Many detainees once held in jails said they would prefer to be back in prison than at Colnbrook, the audit team from Focus Consultancy said.

At Lindholme immigration removal centre in South Yorkshire, one member of staff described north African detainees as "donkeys", accompanied by "full animal sounds", the report said.

The officer has since been dismissed. There were generally good relations between staff and detainees at the 112-bed centre, the report said.

At Harmondsworth immigration removal centre, also near Heathrow, the investigators found that in-house inquiry repeatedly missed alleged racism.

There were even "staff on staff" problems at Harmondsworth, where an auditor overheard a senior officer tell an Asian colleague: "Talk proper, I can't understand you."

Rating each of the 10 centres with a series of scores, the report ranked Harmondsworth - which is run by the private company Kalyx - as the worst, with a percentage score of 35%.

Haslar in Hampshire scored highest with 81% followed by Dover with 77%. The Prison Service runs both.

The inspectors also found a "tense" atmosphere at Campsfield House in Oxfordshire, where a member of staff said: "If this was white British people in here we would be a lot stricter, it is because they are black people that we are afraid."

And at Yarl's Wood in Bedfordshire, which was badly damaged by a fire shortly after its opening in 2002, the report recommended cultural awareness training for staff after a CCTV operator raised the alarm about a "riot" in the library which was, in fact, an enthusiastic game of checkers by Jamaican inmates.

"Their loud speech and slamming of fists on the table had been interpreted as aggressive behaviour," the report said.

A member of staff at Yarl's Wood told auditors that white detainees were treated with more discipline, but the presence of black people caused "paralysis and a softer approach".

The BIA chief executive, Lin Homer, said it would "consider the recommendations closely".

"We are pleased the report recognises that race relations procedures are operating above average at nine out of 10 removal centres," she said.

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Subject: Human Rights Watch Thu Jan 03, 2008 7:58 pm

Refugees and Displaced Persons

Who
A refugee is someone with a well-founded fear of persecution on the basis of his or her race, religion, nationality, membership in a particular social group or political opinion, who is outside of his or her country of nationality and unable or unwilling to return. Refugees are forced from their countries by war, civil conflict, political strife or gross human rights abuses. There were an estimated 14.9 million refugees in the world in 2001 - people who had crossed an international border to seek safety - and at least 22 million internally displaced persons (IDPs) who had been uprooted within their own countries.

What
Enshrined in Article 14 of the 1948 Universal Declaration of Human Rights is the right "to seek and to enjoy in other countries asylum from persecution." This principle recognizes that victims of human rights abuse must be able to leave their country freely and to seek refuge elsewhere. Governments frequently see refugees as a threat or a burden, refusing to respect this core principle of human rights and refugee protection.

Where
The global refugee crisis affects every continent and almost every country. In 2001, 78 percent of all refugees came from 10 areas: Afghanistan, Angola, Burma, Burundi, Congo-Kinshasa, Eritrea, Iraq, the Palestinian territories, Somalia and Sudan. Palestinians are the world's oldest and largest refugee population, and make up more than one fourth of all refugees. Asia hosts 45 percent of all refugees, followed by Africa (30 percent), Europe (19 percent) and North America (5 percent).

When
Throughout history, people have fled their homes to escape persecution. In the aftermath of World War II, the international community included the right to asylum in the 1948 Universal Declaration of Human Rights. In 1950, the Office of the United Nations High Commissioner for Refugees (UNHCR) was created to protect and assist refugees, and, in 1951, the United Nations adopted the Convention Relating to the Status of Refugees, a legally binding treaty that, by February 2002, had been ratified by 140 countries.

Why
In the past 50 years, states have largely regressed in their commitment to protect refugees, with the wealthy industrialized states of Europe, North America and Australia - which first established the international refugee protection system - adopting particularly hostile and restrictive policies. Governments have subjected refugees to arbitrary arrest, detention, denial of social and economic rights and closed borders. In the worst cases, the most fundamental principle of refugee protection, nonrefoulement, is violated, and refugees are forcibly returned to countries where they face persecution. Since September 11, many countries have pushed through emergency anti-terrorism legislation that curtails the rights of refugees.

How
Human Rights Watch believes the right to asylum is a matter of life and death and cannot be compromised. In our work to stop human rights abuses in countries around the world, we seek to address the root causes that force people to flee. We also advocate for greater protection for refugees and IDPs and for an end to the abuses they suffer when they reach supposed safety. Human Rights Watch calls on the United Nations and on governments everywhere to uphold their obligations to protect refugees and to respect their rights - regardless of where they are from or where they seek refuge.

http://hrw.org/doc/?t=refugees&document_limit=0,2

International Committee of the Red Cross: refugees

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More Government Racial Abuse

More Government Racial Abuse

Anarcho-Capitalist Categorical Imperatives

Via AnCaps: Law & Enforced Unnatural Order