Latest News from Positive Action in Housing

Alan Travis, home affairs editor
Tuesday May 22, 2007
Guardian Unlimited

Only 8,000 Romanians and Bulgarians came to work in Britain in the first three months after their countries joined the European Union on January 1, according to official figures published today.
Although ministers are being cautious, the figures appear to explode claims by anti-immigration groups that 300,000 would “flood in” from Romania and Bulgaria in the first 20 months of EU membership.

The Home Office figures show that 10,418 Romanians and Bulgarians applied for permission to work in Britain between January and March this year, of which 7,935 were granted. The figures include 2,660 who registered as self-employed and 200 who described themselves as “self-sufficient”. About two-thirds were Romanian.

The quarterly migration figures also showed that 49,000 migrants from Poland and other new EU member countries from eastern Europe arrived in the first three months of 2007 - a fall of 16,000 from the previous quarter but about the same level as the first three months of 2006.

A total of 630,000 migrants have registered to work since Poland and other east European countries joined the EU in 2004, but that number includes many who have already gone home. The figures come amid initial signs that the flow of migration from the new EU east European states may have already peaked.

Asylum figures published today also show that applications from asylum seekers have fallen to 22,750 in 2006-07. This is 10% lower than the previous financial year, with Afghans, Iranians and Chinese accounting for the highest number of applications.

The removal of failed asylum seekers slumped in the first three months of this year, falling 17% to only 3,055 as the Border and Immigration Agency was under ministerial orders to prioritise the deportation of foreign national prisoners.

In a renewed attempt to increase the rate of deportations, a further 10 countries are to be added to the existing 14-strong “white list” of countries from which it is assumed that asylum applications are unfounded and removals are fast-tracked. The list includes Sierra Leone, Kenya, Bosnia, Liberia and Malawi.

The annual citizenship bulletin, also published today, shows a 32% fall in new applications for British citizenship to 149,035, reflecting the impact of the introduction of English language and citizenship tests in November 2005.

The immigration minister Liam Byrne told the Guardian that it remained too soon to evaluate the full impact of the accession of Bulgaria and Romania to the EU. Early indications, however, were that the home secretary’s policy of restricting access to the UK labour market was helping to ensure that only those who had something to offer the UK were allowed to work here.

Before Romania and Bulgaria joined the EU in January, the Migrationwatch pressure group predicted that 300,000 people from the two countries would arrive within 20 months. Today’s figure of 8,000 looks closer to the estimate of 56,000 in the first year made by the Institute for Public Policy Research.

http://society.guardian.co.uk/asylumseekers/story/0,,2085635,00.html

Another breastfeeding mother has been separated from her baby in the drive to deport failed asylum seekers, despite government promises to end the practice.
Immigration officials were ordered last year to stop removing children from their breastfeeding mothers after two cases involving Turkish and Vietnamese mothers were highlighted by Guardian Unlimited.

Campaigners have now told Guardian Unlimited of another case, this time involving a Ugandan mother who is currently being detained away from her four-week-old son and one-year-old daughter in the immigration removal centre at Yarl’s Wood.

The case of Janipher Maseko has raised fears that police, immigration officials and social services are continuing to flout UN conventions on the care of pre-weaned children.

Ms Maseko’s son, who was born on April 23, was put into foster care with his sister after their mother was found suffering from depression and sleeping rough with them in Crawley, south London. Ms Maseko was kept in a police cell for four days under the mental health act, even though a doctor said she should be sectioned after a day in custody.

She was then sent to Yarl’s Wood, pending deportation to Uganda, because her application for asylum had been turned down.

Ms Maskeo has been kept away from her children for almost two weeks, despite concerns about her health and that of her children. It is also claimed that, at Yarl’s Wood she has been denied access to a breast pump to relieve her pain and allow her to continue to lactate.

Ms Maseko has now been told she will be reunited with her children, but only after a concerted campaign by experts, charities, MPs and the Liberal Democrat peer Lord Avebury.

Lesley Page is a professor in midwifery at King’s College London and one of many who took up the case, raising concerns with the immigration minister Liam Byrne, who last year accepted the need to end the practice of separating breastfeeding mothers from their children.

In a letter to Mr Byrne on Sunday, Prof Page said: “Ms Maseko is extremely distraught and desperate to see her children. Her breasts are full of milk and she is in constant pain. Her children need to be urgently reunited with their mother.

“The forcible separation of the mother from her very young children and our failure to provide her and her family with essential health care and support is an act that is so inhumane its difficult to believed that it would happen.”

Patti Rundall, policy director at the charity Baby Milk Action, said she was concerned that guidance ordered by Mr Byrne to prevent such cases was not being followed.

“I find it very shocking that the officials in charge of this case seem to be showing no regard for or understanding of the needs and rights of the child or mother and that Home Office guidance continues to be ignored,” she said.

Lord Avebury said: “When I heard about this case I was completely outraged, having got assurances about it from Liam Byrne last year.”

He also said it was “intolerable” that Ms Maseko had been denied access to breast pumps and breastfeeding experts who offered help at Yarl’s Wood.

A Home Office spokeswoman denied that guidance had not been followed or that Ms Maseko had been refused help at Yarl’s Wood. But she said: “We do not comment on individual cases.”

Matthew Weaver
Tuesday May 22, 2007
Guardian Unlimited
http://society.guardian.co.uk/asylumseekers/story/0,,2085614,00.html?gusrc=rss&feed=9

Universities are calling for the Scottish Executive to waive tuition fees for the children of asylum seekers after it was revealed a small number of students are already being offered degree places.

Last night there were warnings that the controversial move to allow the most academically gifted to pursue their studies beyond school could act as incentive for people wanting to come into the UK illegally.

Currently, because children of asylum seekers are treated as overseas students if they apply to higher education, they face paying thousands of pounds in fees. Scottish students have their fees paid for them.

What makes the situation even more difficult is that asylum seekers cannot legally work to pay for their studies under UK government rules. Asylum seekers are similarly restricted in taking up university education in England and Wales.

However, some Scots universities already run small-scale initiatives to scrap fees and provide bursaries for a limited number of high-achieving asylum seekers.

Now Universities Scotland believes it is time for the executive to enable all those who could benefit from a university education to do so.

Careers Scotland figures show there are currently 17 asylum seeking school leavers who have been offered a place at a Scottish university in 2007-08, but only three or four will get a place depending on the goodwill of the institutions involved.

A spokesman for Universities Scotland, which represents university principals, said: “We will ask the executive to consider that children of asylum seekers who attend Scottish secondary schools get the same rights as Scottish domiciled students.

“There is an anomaly because if they want to go to university they have to pay overseas students fees, but if they want to attend a further education college course part-time they are considered as home students and get the appropriate support.

“Anyone who has seen the enthusiasm and commitment of these talented children in the Scottish school system will be in no doubt what an asset they could be to Scotland.”

However, Murdo Fraser, education and lifelong learning spokesman for the Scottish Conservative Party, cautioned against the move.

“There is a very delicate balancing act of providing opportunity to those who want to make an economic contribution to the country, but on the other hand we don’t want a situation where there is an incentive to those coming into the country illegally to access free education.

“Universities are private institutions and can do what they like, but a change in government policy has much wider implications.”

Simon Hodgson, head of policy and communications at the Scottish Refugee Council, backed the call by Universities Scotland.

“If you can’t work then you cannot save money and any payment of fees becomes hugely problematic. We have a lot of children who have done very well at school, but then cannot go on to the next stage and it is very frustrating for them,” he said. There was also support from Imelda Devlin, access co-ordinator from Strathclyde University, who oversees the institution’s bursary scheme which - along with similar schemes at the universities or Glasgow, Paisley and Glasgow Caledonian - allows one talented asylum seeker a place every year.

“These children are integrated enough into the Scottish system to come out with excellent Highers results and then they come up against this barrier,” she said.

“They are often the top performers in their school, but that is where it has to stop because the funding doesn’t allow them to go any further. We would support any move to make this more available.”

By ANDREW DENHOLM, Education Correspondent

Report claims overcrowding and staff abuse are driving asylum seekers to desperate behaviour

Jamie Doward, home affairs editor
Sunday May 20, 2007
The Observer

Hunger strikes, rioting and self-harm are now endemic in Britain’s biggest detention centres as detainees become increasingly desperate about living in what they claim are deteriorating conditions.
At Yarl’s Wood in Bedfordshire, more than 100 women are refusing to eat, and there have been recent reports of major disturbances at Lindholme, South Yorkshire, and at Colnbrook in Middlesex.

Self-harm is particularly acute at Yarl’s Wood, which reopened in September 2003 after half of it was gutted by fire during rioting in February 2002. It now houses hundreds of women, many of whom have attempted to claim asylum in Britain after fleeing war zones.

Amid growing concern over Britain’s overstretched asylum system, the campaign group Liberty will call tomorrow for the Home Secretary, John Reid, to order a public inquiry into the large-scale riot at Harmondsworth detention centre in west London last November.
If Reid refuses, the group says that it intends to seek a judicial review of his decision on behalf of seven detainees it is representing - an unprecedented move that would see Britain’s immigration system placed under scrutiny in the courts.

‘Well-documented abuses at Harmondsworth detention centre sparked the disturbance in November,’ said Liberty’s legal officer, Alex Gask. ‘These men deserve a public inquiry into the ill-treatment they faced; anything less could result in legal action.’

The deteriorating situation in the detention centres has sparked a surge in self-harm, according to campaigners. Every other day detainees harm themselves to such a serious degree that they require medical treatment, according to the National Coalition of Anti Deportation Campaigns. Between April 2006 and March 2007 there were 199 attempts to self-harm that required medical treatment.

An investigation last year into conditions at Yarl’s Wood found 70 per cent of women at the centre had reported rape, nearly half had been detained for more than three months and 57 per cent had no legal representation.

Conditions have not improved, according to campaigners. Assaults are said to be commonplace. One woman was stripped and thrown naked into a van taking her to the airport for deportation only for the pilot to refuse to allow her to fly as she had no clothes.

The women also allege staff regularly refer to them as ‘black monkey’, ‘nigger’ and ‘bitch’. They claim vital faxes from solicitors are going missing and information on basic legal rights is being withheld. Detainees also complain they are given days-old reheated food in which they have found hair, dirt and maggots.

Campaigners are also concerned about conditions at Harmondsworth, where detainees rioted after being banned from watching news coverage of a damning report on the centre.

The Liberty report, to be published tomorrow, contains a clutch of testimonies from detainees about the conditions in Harmondsworth before the riots. One man interviewed for the study told how he was taken to the centre’s medical clinic suffering from a bad back. ‘They just abandoned me,’ the man said. ‘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”.’

Solitary confinement as a punishment for speaking out at Harmondsworth is common, according to Liberty. ‘If we made a complaint we would be given a warning,’ one man known as ‘K’ told Liberty. ‘If we were given three warnings, we would be put in an isolated cell. We were scared of making complaints against officers because we expected to be treated badly if we did. We were treated like pigs and very unfairly, as if we were serious criminals.’

A spokesman for Kalyx, which runs Harmondsworth, declined to comment. Serco, which took over Yarl’s Wood on 26 April, denied conditions had deteriorated and said that many of the detainees’ original concerns had been addressed.

A Serco spokesman said staff had been praised by the prisons inspector for their good relationship with detainees. ‘We take any complaints seriously,’ he said.

http://observer.guardian.co.uk/uk_news/story/0,,2083892,00.html

Imagine there is a vein of pure gold buried in rocks somewhere in Scotland that everyone knows about but nobody makes any attempt to exploit. Inconceivable? In this instance, we are talking about some of the most exceptionally talented and well-motivated young people in the country today. By any objective standards they have beaten overwhelming odds. Typically, they will have arrived here relatively recently with, at best, a sketchy knowledge of English. Not content to master our language at a speed that would put most of us to shame, they have gone on to work their way to the top of the class and emerged from school with an impressive set of certificates. But, while their contemporaries head off to university, they are faced with an academic brick wall. These are Scotland’s young asylum seekers.

There is a puzzling anomaly at the heart of educational policy as it applies to asylum seekers. They are educated in our schools and are treated as “home students”, eligible for grants and loans if they go on to part-time courses in further education colleges. But if they qualify for a university place, they are treated as “overseas students”, charged around £10,000 a year (much more for courses such as medicine) and barred from access to student loans. This adds insult to injury as they are also unable to work to finance their studies. The result is that outstanding students, who would hold their own with ease in our top universities, are forced to downplay their ambitions and settle for college courses.

The automatic treatment of all asylum seekers as home students in the higher education system may risk creating perverse incentives to breach immigration regulations. However, there is an unacceptably wide gap between automatic home student status for all and the tiny handful of scholarships currently offered to the highest-achieving asylum seekers from Scottish universities. As things stand, of the 17 asylum seekers offered places at Scottish universities this year, only three or four are likely receive financial backing.

This issue is too important to leave to the goodwill of hard-pressed universities. If the Scottish Funding Council were to allow for, say, 20 of these youngsters to be treated as home students, the public investment would be amply repaid in the contribution to society these elite students stand to make in the future. There is an especially compelling argument for Scotland taking an enlightened stance on this issue on account of the looming skills gap, particularly in science and IT. The current system not only fails a deserving group of students but represents an appalling waste of talent. It also appears to breach the UN Declaration of Human Rights. Article 26 declares: “Higher education shall be equally accessible to all on the basis of merit.”

This situation would not arise if Britain possessed a coherent asylum and immigration policy that delivered decisions on asylum that were swift and fair. The present system merely perpetuates existing social inequalities. For the past three decades Britain’s universities, especially the science and technology base, have been highly dependent on academically gifted immigrants. It is unfair and illogical to ignore the vein of gold right under our noses.

The Herald
http://www.theherald.co.uk/features/editorial/display.var.1412125.0.0.php