Video: Protest locks down Glasgow UKBA reporting centre

Source: NCADC

On Monday, NCADC joined the Unity protest in Glasgow against the resumption of dawn raids on asylum-seeking families in the city. Unity had called the protest after two lone parent mothers were raided the week before, including Nigerian mum Funke Olubiyi and her five year old son Joseph, residents of Govan.

NCADC walked to the protest with refugees and volunteers from Govan and Craigton Integration Network, and supporters from No Borders North East, up from Newcastle for the day. At Brand Street we met our friends from Unity, Justice and Peace Scotland and Glasgow Campaign to Welcome Refugees.

The protest had begun at 7am, when three activists chained themselves to the gates of the reporting centre, while one scaled a scaffolding tripod, blocking the gates and making sure that no dawn raid vans would leave the UKBA car park that day. They were soon joined by about 100 or so supporters, including many asylum seekers who spoke of the fear they feel every time they have to report, and now the fear of being raided at home.

There was music and drumming and singing of African and Scottish songs and hymns. After a couple of hours the three chained to the gates were removed, but the man on the tripod stayed in the air for an impressive 10 hours, finally coming down at 5 o'clock.

The point had been made, and the media coverage helped spread the word: people in Glasgow still believe that dragging mothers and children from their beds to detention and deportation is totally unacceptable. The practice was stopped in Glasgow in 2006, following a long campaign of protests, direct action, campaigning and lobbying. It appears that a new campaign is starting in the city.

Related articles

• In UK: Border hostilities: Passport to the media-policy merry-go-round (madikazemi.blogspot.com)

Video: Refugee Week 2011.. and something you can do

Source: British Red Cross



Today is international Refugee Day, the beginning of Refugee Week.

There are events and actions going on all over the world. One action which you can take would be to support the campaign in the UK to stop the removal of Iraqis to Baghdad, scheduled for tomorrow.

• See here for more information

In the UK, here is an update of events around the country. Here's info on events in Australia.

More videos:

Read more »

LGBT Asylum News appeal: please consider a donation

LGBT Asylum News has been described as "invaluable", "indispensable" and "an essential service" - Now we need your support and donations. Producing the website does come with a cost and here's where you can help.

Ugandan refugee and co-founder of the Lesbian Immigration Support Group, Prossy Kakooza, says:

"When I was an asylum seeker looking for support, I found people and groups who were able to help me navigate the labyrinth of the asylum process. And I found them through LGBT Asylum News"

Please consider making a donation via PayPal to account paul.canning@gmail.com or make a direct payment to Halifax Bank of Scotland, sort code: 111431 account #: 00105866 Note: If they use a credit or debit card on PayPal there will be a small fee. You can decide to pay this or pass it on.

Here's how we describe what we do:

We document the situations in countries from which LGBT people are fleeing hoping for a safe haven and the problems they can face from the asylum system in many countries.

We know this helps LGBT people gain their right of sanctuary.

Stories featured on LGBT Asylum News regularly feature elsewhere online, we're a source for the reference website asylumlaw.org plus we're asked for comment.

In the background, we also help individuals and refer on the many enquiries we get, often from desperate people.

Since we were established in January 2008 to help save 19yo gay Iranian Mehdi Kazemi from deportation to execution by the British government, our audience across web, email, social media and other routes has grown to c250k in 2010.

See below for testimony about the value of LGBT Asylum News

Now we need your support. Producing the website does come with a cost and here's where you can help.

Please consider making a donation via PayPal to account paul.canning@gmail.com or make a direct payment to Halifax Bank of Scotland, sort code: 111431 account #: 00105866 Note: If they use a credit or debit card on PayPal there will be a small fee. You can decide to pay this or pass it on.

Thank you. Your support is greatly appreciated.

What others have to say about LGBT Asylum News

Read more »

Action alert: Nigerian lesbian faces deportation from Britain

Source: NCADC campaign page

Update 17 November: Unfortunately we learned today that Sarah was removed to Lagos last night. It was the first attempt at removal. This was despite a judicial review being submitted yesterday and despite her MPs representations. Sarah has been in touch with her supporters today and it is hoped that a way can be found to support and protect her in a hostile place.

~~~~~~~~

Sarah is a 27-year-old Christian Nigerian national who is currently detained at Yarl’s Wood, where she has been held since August 2010 as part of fast track. She is a lesbian and fears that she will be killed upon her return to Nigeria.

In 2002 after her uncle discovered her with a girlfriend, Sarah was raped and threatened with genital mutilation. Sarah arrived in the UK in 2004 and her applications for leave to remain have failed again and again. She was detained this year for overstaying and she risks removal at any moment.

Support Sarah's campaign to stay in the UK!

About Sarah 

In 2002, Sarah's uncle learned that she was a lesbian after discovering her with a girlfriend. After raping her and threatening her with FGM, he took her to Lagos for a ‘spiritual deliverance’, conducted by a pastor over a period of 3-4 months. The pastor, believing that Sarah had been successfully ‘delivered’, told her to look after the children of a Nigerian family.

In 2004, the Nigerian family whose children she was looking after asked Sarah to accompany them to the UK. She was led to believe that she would go there to study and that they would act as her guardians.

Her passport and travel documents were kept by the family and she was promised that once in the UK they would help her begin school, a promise that never came to fruition. Instead she continued to look after the family's children, although she was never paid.

In 2006 her employer discovered her with her then girlfriend and kicked her out of the house. Sarah has since been effectively forced into an engagement by her church, which she then broke off.

Sarah’s applications for leave to remain, as well as her appeals, have been consistently denied. In August of this year, she was taken to detention for overstaying after calling the police for a friend following a domestic quarrel.

If Sarah is returned to Nigeria, her life will be in grave danger. A 2008 Human Rights Report: Nigeria, by US Department of States records that, “Homosexuality is illegal under federal law; homosexual practices are punishable by prison sentences of up to 14 years.”

On top of this, vigilante violence against LGBT people is extremely frequent. The vast majority of Nigerian residents (97% according to the 2007 Pew Global Attitudes Project) believe that homosexuality should be rejected by society. This is clearly not a safe environment to be forced to return to.

As a signatory of the ECHR, the United Kingdom would not be fulfilling several of its international legal obligations if Sarah is deported. Sarah desperately needs the humanitarian protection which the UK must now supply.

Act Now!

Don't wait! Contact the Home Secretary today.

Click here for sample model letter, or view and edit online.

Rt. Hon Theresa May, MP
Secretary of State for the Home Office,
2 Marsham St
London SW1 4DF
Fax: 020 7035 4745

Emails:

• mayt@parliament.uk
• UKBApublicenquiries@UKBA.gsi.gov.uk
• CITTO@homeoffice.gsi.gov.uk
• Privateoffice.external@homeoffice.gsi.gov.uk

UK asylum win for bisexual Ghanaian

By Paul Canning

The bisexual Ghanaian asylum seeker Baffour Obeng has been released from detention on the order of an Immigration Tribunal judge. According to the journalist Simon Lewis, who has been helping him, "the judge at the tribunal indicated that [his asylum] claim would be successful but Baffour is still awaiting official confirmation."

Lewis said that the judge cited the July Supreme Court decision which said that LGBT asylum seekers could no longer be told to 'go home and be discreet'. In previously ordering his removal using the 'discretion' argument the Home Office had admitted that there would be "no protection available [from authorities] if you were to experience problems on account of your sexuality."

Obeng has been in detention for six months. In June he had no solicitor and a removal flight was booked for June 13. But a campaign was started, the Home Secretary's office was flooded with faxes and emails, a solicitor found, the flight was canceled, and Baffour was told by the Home Office that his case would be "substantively re-considered".

Baffour traveled to Europe in 2005 with his father, who has Dutch citizenship, both escaping a particularly violent inter-family chieftainship dispute which claimed the lives of four people.

For the first time, in Europe Baffour was able to be open about his sexuality, and began a relationship with another man. In Ghana, this would have been extremely dangerous, as well as being illegal. However, his coming out also led his father and family to abandon him. Baffour thinks his father has returned to Ghana, but is unable to contact any of his family any more - they will not speak to him.

With no access to documentation of his father's European citizenship, which would have allowed Baffour the right to stay in the UK, he was placed in a detention centre and faced forced removal from the UK. This terrified him as friends in Ghana warned him that his "secret" is out, and that it would be very dangerous to return.

Homosexuality is illegal in Ghana and the local LGBT community operates at least one safe house to protect people from attacks. Blackmail and extortion is widespread. The US Department of State human rights report, published March 2010, says:

LGBT persons face widespread discrimination, as well as police harassment and extortion attempts. Gay men in prison are often subjected to sexual and other physical abuse. The law makes consenting homosexual acts a misdemeanor, and strong sociocultural beliefs discriminate against and stigmatize same gender sex.

A prominent heterosexual supporter of LGBT in Ghana, Nana Oye Lithur, recently was not appointed to represent Ghana on the African Union's Commission on Human and People’s Rights (ACHPR), it is thought because of her support for LGBT.

Baffour told NCADC:

Without your help they would have send me already. Thank you so much to all the people who support me. It's rough inside, but it helps to know people are campaigning. Now please help others in this situation, there are too many needing help.

Flight cancelled for Baffour Obeng

By Simon Lewis

Ghanaian asylum seeker Baffour Obeng was due to be removed on Sunday, until he received a fax on Thursday from the Home Office. It said that his ticket back to Ghana has been cancelled and his case would be looked at again.

It could only have been the campaign generated by the National Coalition of Anti-Deportation Campaigns which secured the cancellation. Petitions, letters and emails to the Home Office appear to have made it reconsider its position that that "the independent courts found that the claim was totally without merit".

The news was welcomed by his aunt Pauline Boachie, who lives in Edmonton Green, North London. She said: "We need to say thank you to all the people. A lot of people have been really helpful."

But, said Pauline, "The battle is not over." The Home Office have said that a new decision is imminent, but at the moment Baffour is without representation and needs to secure legal aid. Baffour is still being detained at Colnbrook detention centre at Heathrow and could recieve as little as 72 hours warning if he gets another removal order.

Baffour, 23, is bisexual, and has been abandoned by much of his family. In Ghana homosexuality is against the law and a recent march suggests that anti-gay sentiment is rising in the country, as elsewhere in West Africa.

Baffour has received specific warnings that his life is in danger if he returns, but he was told by the Home Office to move to another part of Ghana and be discreet about his sexuality. In light of the coalition government's commitment to stop deporting people fleeing persecution for their sexuality, and a pending Supreme Court decision, Baffour could become a test case for a new approach to LGBT asylum.

• More information on how you can help Baffour

Related articles by Zemanta

• Gay asylum seekers need sanctuary, not secrecy (guardian.co.uk)

Lesbian asylum seeker amongst Yarl's Wood hunger strikers

By Paul Canning

The Black Women's Rape Action Project today released information about the large group of hunger strikers at the Yarl's Wood detention centre in Bedfordshire saying that it includes a Jamaican lesbian.

'Ms N', they say, won her case at Tribunal in October for asylum in the UK but the Home Office appealed and she has been kept in detention since.

Yarl's Wood is supposed to house refugees prior to deportation who have exhausted their legal rights. Their removal should be imminent or there should be a risk of them absconding. Other alternatives to detention must have been considered and the person must have no particular health needs or vulnerabilities.

The group says that many of the detained women are survivors of rape or other torture. Home Office rules say they should only be detained "under very exceptional circumstances." Others are in detention having been convicted of the crimes of destitution or for travelling on false papers (which is often unavoidable when you are fleeing persecution); those thus imprisoned are transferred straight to detention pending removal.

'Ms N' a single mum with two children, has been in the UK for twelve years. She fled to the UK from Jamaica after she witnessed a murder, was falsely accused of being a police informer and beaten and stabbed.

The group say that, like many other asylum seekers, she fled not knowing that she had a legal right to be able to claim asylum in the UK.

For years she was unable to speak about the rape she suffered from her stepfather as a child. She eventually disclosed it to Women Against Rape describing how when she told her real father about the abuse, her stepfather killed her mum.

While she's been detained, her son in Jamaica has been attacked by a gang and threatened with guns.

Home Office policy as stated in their country-specific guidance is that there is "no evidence that lesbians generally face serious ill-treatment in Jamaica and in the absence of evidence to the contrary [an asylum claim] may be certified as clearly unfounded".

Diva magazine has reported the first-hand experience for Jamaican lesbians:

Verbal abuse takes place on a daily basis, and I regularly see and hear about lesbians who’ve been raped and beaten. We can’t hold hands safely.

So-called 'corrective rape' is an epidemic in a number of countries - most documented in South Africa but in its annual report glbtqja said:

The [Jamaican] lesbian community specifically saw a continued onslaught of homophobic incidents with the so described and disturbing “Corrective Rape” cases continuing from 2008. We saw allegedly 5 cases in 2008 and a further 4 for 2009.

Citing the supposed lack of persecution of lesbians the Home Office suggests 'internal relocation' to "other parts of Jamaica where homophobic violence is less prevalent and where they would not face treatment that would amount to persecution." It also suggests 'internal relocation' for "a gay or bisexual man who is habitually ‘discreet’ about his sexuality but who has a well-founded fear of mistreatment because it has been ‘discovered’ locally."

Key factors will include the extent to which an individual would be perceived to be gay, for example through dress, behaviour or demeanour, the extent to which he associates with other gay men, whether he is a prostitute, and the extent to which he is perceived to flout what many people in Jamaica regard as the norm of acceptable heterosexual behaviour. The important point here is whether the applicant is perceived to be gay. The [Asylum Immigration Tribunal] AIT also found that wealthy gay men may be tolerated in the social circles in which they move so long as they are not ‘openly gay’, although men in these circumstances may be susceptible to blackmail.

Speaking to the notion of 'safe areas' on the small island, glbtqja reported on a 2009 case of 'corrective rape' of a lesbian couple who had relocated to restart their lives due to a previous homophobic attack.

Diva quotes Amnesty International's spokesperson Sarah Green (my highlight):

Amnesty, too, has received a litany of grim reports ranging from anti-gay vigilante action by members of the community to ill treatment or abuse by the police, medical authorities and employers. Lesbians and gay men have been beaten, burned, raped and murdered because of their sexuality – but Amnesty believes that the number of reports it hears is the tip of the iceberg.

‘We’re only a voluntary organisation, and have built up a picture via limited investigation, but we believe our finding holds true for the national picture. The very nature of these crimes is likely to make people mistrust figures of authority, so reporting levels are going to be lower because of the fear of being identified. There’s shame about sexuality, so people might not want to talk about themselves,’ says Green.

Amnesty has received reports of specific acts of violence against lesbians, namely rape and other forms of sexual violence. There are reports of lesbians being attacked on the grounds of ‘mannish’ physical appearance or other visible ‘signs’ of sexuality. Some reports of abduction and rape emanate from inner-city communities, where local NGOs have already expressed concerns about high incidences of violence against women.

One of the reasons for the widespread disdain for lesbians, reckons Karlene, is that the public thinks lesbianism is illegal. That’s true of male homosexuality, but there are no specific legal penalties against lesbians. Anecdotal evidence suggests that Jamaicans are largely unaware of this, a perception reinforced by comments made by politicians, the media, religious leaders and dancehall musicians. ‘It’s a popular subject that’s often used to stir up support,’ confirms Green. ‘If you’re a politician and are criticised for not being firm on crime, at least you can give yourself a platform on this subject.’

The Guardian reported Tuesday on the Yarl's Wood hunger strike:

An immigration removal centre was reported to be in a state of chaos yesterday, as at least 50 women entered the fourth day of a hunger strike in protest against their detention and conditions, with several reportedly fainting in corridors and almost 20 locked outdoors wearing few clothes. Yarl's Wood detention centre in Bedfordshire, which houses 405 women and children, was in lockdown, leaving women in communal spaces without food, water or toilet facilities.

UPDATE: The Guardian reports extensively today, including calls for an enquiry into the 'riot' from the local Tory MP and audio: 'One girl tied a rope around her neck and tried to hang herself'.

UPDATE: Amnesty International: Statement from a woman currently being detained in Yarl's Wood: 'I have been traumatised and victimised because of this experience. I can never believe this can happen in the UK and I am still in  shock.'

On Wednesday the Parliamentary Ombudsman issued a scathing report saying that it had upheld 97% of the complaints made to it about treatment by the UK Border Agency.

On Thursday the BBC reported that Immigration minister Phil Woolas has admitted millions of pounds is being paid in compensation to migrants who have been detained in removal centres. Around half of those detained are not deported and, despite the best efforts of the UK Border Agency, secure UK asylum.

Women supporters of the hunger strikers from the National Coalition of Anti-Deportation Campaigns (NCADC) have described the events during the 'riot' as "hell".

The courageous women behind the wire on hunger strike, with out cause or reason, were yesterday subjected to *'heavy manners' [a situation where all civilized norms are abrogated and government forces or in this case government agents, use unwarranted force; a steamroller to crack open a peanut].

For about eight hours, the detainees were harried by staff at the centre. Many of the women sustained light injuries but were refused treatment for several hours. People phoning into detainees, could not hear what was being said as the cries of distress in the background, were drowning out any attempt to converse. Four of the women were removed from Yarl's Wood, yesterday evening at 20:00 hrs to Bedford police station, where they are now; they have not been arrested/charged, so why are they in police cells?

The Home Office were reporting this morning that the Hunger Strike is over, women speaking from Yarl's Wood today, say it is definitely not.

Updates on the Yarl's Wood situation, including actions you can take, can be found on the NCADC website.

All African Women's Group - Speech by former detainee at Yarls Wood Demo

Council of Europe adopts resolution on the detention of migrants in Europe

Image via Wikipedia

Source: NCADC - 1 February

The Parliamentary Assembly of the Council of Europe (PACE) adopted a resolution on the detention of asylum seekers and irregular migrants in Europe.  The resolution, adopted on 28 January, states in no unclear terms that detention results from political decisions that represent a "hardening attitude towards irregular migrants and asylum seekers".

The resolution goes on to criticise the overpopulation of detention centres, and the deterioration of conditions and safeguards for asylum seekers and irregular migrants alike.  The resolution states that the "conditions and safeguards afforded to immigration detainees who have committed no crime are often worse than those of criminal detainees."  Elsewhere, the resolution criticises the European Union's adoption of the so-called Returns Directive, for adopting the "lowest common standard in regard to detention length."

The centerpiece of the resolution is its adoption of "10 Guiding Principles Governing the Circumstances in which the Detention of Asylum Seekers and Irregular Migrants may be legally permissible", and "15 European Rules Governing Minimum Standards of Conditions".

Council of Europe - Parliamentary Assembly
The detention of asylum seekers and irregular migrants in Europe
Resolution 1707 (2010)1

1.       The detention of asylum seekers and irregular migrants in Council of Europe member states has increased substantially in recent years. Whilst the cause of this increase is in part due to the growing number of arrivals of irregular migrants and asylum seekers in certain parts of Europe, it is also to a large extent due to policy and political decisions resulting from a hardening attitude towards irregular migrants and asylum seekers.

Read more »

Air Italy will fly no more charter flights for UKBA

Image via Wikipedia

From: "Cesari Francesco"
To: "'ncadc@ncadc.org.uk'"
Date: Thu, 22 Oct 2009 15:53:48 +0200
Subject: R: Charter flights leased by UK Border Agency

Dear Mr O

We paid a lot of attention at your e-mail and I inform you that in future we will refuse to operate air transport with asylum seekers or refugees.

We are an Airline operating regular and charter flights and sometime "flights on demand", usually rescue flights for other airlines and humanitarian flights.

The flight reported was our first and last experience.

I take this opportunity to give you greetings and best wishes for your noble cause.

Rgrds

Francesco Cesari

Francesco Cesari
Resp Operazioni Terra
Ground Operation Post Holder
Corso Sempione, 111 - 21013 Gallarate (VA) ITALY
e-mail: Francesco.Cesari@airitaly.it
web-site: www.airitaly.it

~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~

Da: John O [mailto:ncadc@ncadc.org.uk]
Inviato: giovedì 15 ottobre 2009 9.56
A: Press
Cc: JohnO@ncadc.org.uk
Oggetto: Charter flights leased by UK Border Agency
Charter flights leased by UK Border Agency

Hi Air Italy,

a number of refused asylum seekers in the UK were removed yesterday evening from Stansted Airport on a Air Italy charter leased to UK Border Agency to Iraq.

Do you have a press release or comment, is this the first charter flight that Air Italy have provided for UK Border Agency, will Air Italy be providing future charters?


With thanks,

John O

Guidance on Fresh Asylum Claims

Source: Immigration Law Practitioners' Association (ILPA) via National Coalition of Anti-Deportation Campaigns (NCADC)

A fresh claim is where someone who has previously made an asylum claim, which has been finally refused, makes a new claim that they should be granted asylum.

Immigration Rules

Paragraph *353 of the Immigration Rules states:

"Submissions will amount to a fresh claim if they are significantly different from the material that has previously been considered. The submissions will only be significantly different if the content:

(i) had not already been considered; and

(ii) taken together with the previously considered material, created a realistic prospect of success"

Fresh claim or further representations

The distinction between fresh claims and further representations is very important.

Further representations (or further submissions) are no more than information that is sent to the Home Office after asylum has been refused. These may or may not include new information. These may or may not relate to an identified asylum or human rights claim. Sometimes, the representations may do no more than restate any compassionate circumstances and ask the Home Office to exercise their general discretion to grant some form of status.

A fresh claim, however, must contain new information. That is information, which no decision-maker (whether the Home Office or an immigration judge) has yet considered. The effect of the new information must be that there is a real chance the claim will be successful.

Benefits of a fresh claim

If a fresh claim is made, this may enable a person to qualify again for welfare and housing support as an asylum-seeker. A person will usually have a new right of appeal against a refusal of a fresh claim. Also, a fresh claim may qualify for legal aid. In contrast, further representations will not usually lead to these benefits.


What counts as new information?

There is no limitation on what will count as new information - except that it must not have been considered before. New information might include:

• new information about the individual asylum-seeker - e.g. documents received from his or her home country, such as an arrest warrant
• new information related to the individual asylum-seeker - e.g. information from his or her home country of the arrest of a family member
• evidence of a change of circumstances in the asylum-seeker's home country
• a development in caselaw - e.g. a new judgment of the Court of Appeal or decision of the Asylum and Immigration Tribunal

These categories are not exhaustive. They merely indicate the range of information that may count as new. In particular, they show that new information may, but does not need to be, personal to the asylum-seeker.

A real chance of success

In addition to providing new information, a fresh claim must have a real chance of success. This means that the new information must be relevant. It must give reason to think that, despite previous decisions, the asylum-seeker is now at risk.

Necessary considerations before making a fresh claim

Firstly, it is vital to obtain the decisions made on the original (and any other) asylum claim. The evidence on which that claim was based is also needed. This information must be carefully considered to work out:

• what information has already been considered?
• what findings of fact have already been made?

Secondly, it is necessary to consider the new information. Having seen what information has already been considered, it is now possible to decide whether the information is indeed new. It will not be new unless it either provides evidence of some new fact or provides a new source of evidence for a fact that has previously been rejected.

Thirdly, it is necessary to consider whether any new information creates a real chance of success. This can only be done by considering the facts already decided. For instance, country information establishing that persons of a particular ethnic group are now at risk will not assist if it has already been decided that the asylum-seeker is not of that ethnic group - unless there is also new information giving reason to think that decision was wrong.

It will be necessary to consider why the new information has not been made available previously. Relevant questions will include:

• from where and from whom has the new information come?
• why has it been possible to obtain it now; and why was this not possible previously?

Credibility

Asylum claims are often refused because the asylum-seeker is said not to be credible (not truthful, or not reliable). If the asylum-seeker has been found to be not credible, this may affect how much weight will be given to any new information. This will depend on the source of the new information. However, if the new information contains new and relevant evidence (not simply the asylum-seeker stating that something new has happened) it would usually justify a fresh claim - unless there were strong reasons to think the evidence was clearly unreliable.

*The leading case on paragraph 353 is the decision of the Court of Appeal in WM (DRC) v Secretary of State for the Home Department [2006] EWCA Civ 1495, in which Buxton LJ set out in terms both the task of the Secretary of State when deciding whether further submissions amount to a fresh claim and the test to be applied by a Court called on to review the Secretary of State's decision.

The following principles can be taken from paragraphs 6-11: the task of the Secretary of State under paragraph 353 is to decide whether the new material is "significantly different" from material already considered and rejected.

That task is twofold.

First, the Secretary of State must ask whether the new material was in fact considered on the asylum claim. If so that is the end of the matter, because the material is not new and cannot constitute a fresh claim.

Second, only if the new material has not already been considered, the Secretary of State must consider whether, when taken together with material previously considered, the whole creates a realistic prospect of success on a fresh asylum claim.

If the answer is yes, it is a fresh claim under 353.

In approaching the second limb of his task the Secretary of State's judgment will involve a judgment on the reliability of the new material, as well as a judgment on the outcome of a fresh asylum claim based on that material.

A Court reviewing a 353 decision similarly has a twofold task and must address two matters.

First, has the Secretary of State asked himself the right question, namely whether there is a realistic prospect of an adjudicator, applying the rule of anxious scrutiny, concluding that the applicant will be exposed to a real risk of persecution on return?

Second, in addressing that question, did the Secretary of State satisfy the requirement of anxious scrutiny? If the reviewing court cannot answer both of these questions affirmatively, it will grant the application for judicial review.

Home Office policy on fresh claims

Disclaimer

Please note: NCADC does not provide 'Immigration Advice' as defined in section 82, Part V of the Immigration and Asylum Act 1999, such advice is subject to regulation by the Office of the Immigration Services Commissioner (OISC).

Therefore the contents of this message should under no circumstances be seen as 'Immigration advice'.
If you are looking for legal advice relating to:

The contents of this message

A substantive asylum claim,

Application to appeal,

Application for bail,

Removal or deportation from the UK,

Application for judicial review,

Application or variation of entry to the UK,

Making a fresh asylum claim.

Nationality or citizenship application,

Admission to the UK under Community law,

or any issues relating to immigration/migration:

You need to seek the advice of an immigration solicitor or registered immigration advisor.

John Bosco updates

This content courtesy of the John Bosco campaign.

Save John 'Bosco' Nyombi Campaign Resources

As you hopefully may know, Anglican St. Judes Southsea church-member John 'Bosco' Nyombi is in danger of deportation from the UK to be stoned to death back in his homeland Uganda due to his gay sexuality and his own brother's high-profile political opposition and consequent murder.

Many churched and non-churched friends, colleagues and clients have actively supported him personally for the 7 years of his stay so far here in the UK where he has not claimed any benefits whatsoever but instead has earned a living and paid taxes working to support vulnerable adults in the community despite not being able to use his University degree level skills as a former Bank Manager.

There is a website from the Friends of Bosco to support the Save Bosco Campaign at www.savebosco.net

Bosco's plight has featured in print, radio, web and most recently TV media (BBC TV South Today - Monday 15th September 2008 - Evening bulletin).

You might like to receive update notifications on John 'Bosco' Nyombi's unsafe deportation to Uganda case, The Save Bosco Campaign and its website. If so then please send a request for update notifications to notifications@savebosco.net stating your preferred contact details - including email address and any other details of your choice.

Bosco coverage

Bosco was featured on BBC TV "South Today" local news bulletin yesterday evening, Monday 15th September 2008.

The Anglican Bishop of Portsmouth was interviewed along with Friends of Bosco in Southampton.

If you missed the interview then it is on YouTube and available direct from the campaign webpage

Or you can visit the Save Bosco YouTube Channel

[NB: video also available in this post]

Ugandan Human Rights

USA: Country Reports on Human Rights Practices - Uganda 2007

Released by the Bureau of Democracy, Human Rights, and Labor March 11, 2008

The government's human rights record remained poor. Although there were improvements in a few areas, serious problems remained, including unlawful killings by security forces; instances of torture and abuse of suspects by security forces; vigilante justice; harsh prison conditions; official impunity; arbitrary arrest; incommunicado and lengthy pretrial detention; restrictions on the right to a fair trial and on freedoms of speech, press, and association; some limits on freedom of religion; sexual abuse of internally displaced persons (IDPs) in camps; restrictions on opposition parties; electoral violence and irregularities; government corruption; violence and discrimination against women and children, including female genital mutilation (FGM) and sexual abuse of children; trafficking in persons; violence and discrimination against persons with disabilities and homosexuals; and forced labor, including by children.

Homosexuals faced widespread discrimination and legal restrictions. It is illegal for homosexuals to engage in sexual acts, based on a legal provision that criminalizes "carnal acts against the order of nature" with a penalty of life imprisonment.

Public resentment against homosexuality sparked demonstrations and significant public debate during the year. The government took a strong position against the practice. A local NGO, Sexual Minorities in Uganda, protested several members' alleged harassment by police for their vocal stand against sexual discrimination

With many thanks to NCADC for the above information.

The grim fate that awaits those deported to Congo

Source: IRR News

By Arun Kundnani

The plane lands at Ndjili airport, Kinshasa, in the dead of night - the better to avoid monitoring by journalists and human rights activists. Then the returning asylum seekers are led out onto the tarmac by their European escorts to be handed over to the Congolese authorities. Some will have suffered violence in the process of being deported or in the detention centre where they were held prior to the flight. Others will have been tied to the seats with scotch tape for the duration of the seven-hour journey. Most would have been prevented from using the toilet or eating. They are handed over to the offices of the Director-General of Migration (DGM), ostensibly the Congolese immigration service but, in reality, an arm of the government's security services. A file containing details of their claim for political asylum in Europe is also passed to the DGM. According to René Kabala Mushiya, an activist who works in Kinshasa with the National Human Rights Observatory, this is the moment when European governments abandon those who have claimed asylum in their countries to a state which violates human rights with impunity.

Talking to IRR News while on a visit to the UK to address the Bar Human Rights Committee, René Kabala Mushiya has outlined a trail of abuse that stretches from Europe's immigration detention centres to the brutality and violence of DRC's notorious Makala Central Prison - nicknamed the 'morgue' in recognition of the numbers of people who have lost their lives there.

'According to reports that we have had from returning asylum seekers as well as from agents of the DGM, deportees are held by the DGM in small cells at the airport,' he says. 'There are no windows and there is no light. But you can see cockroaches and rats. From these cells, they are called in one by one to the director of the DGM for an interrogation.'

During the interrogation, deportees are sifted into different groups. Only those able to pay a bribe of between US $250 and $300 have a chance of immediate escape from detention. Since the officials of the DGM have not been paid for so long, accepting bribes is their only income. Yet few deportees have easy access to these sums of money; it would take a university professor six months to earn the required amount on local wages.

Illegal detentions

Of those who cannot bribe their way out, many will be handed over to the National Security Agency (ANR) which operates its own extra-judicial prisons where people are detained illegally for long periods of time. As individuals who have claimed asylum in Europe, deportees are automatically regarded by the ANR as threats to national security in Congo. Simply because they have claimed asylum in the West, the Congolese authorities consider them political dissidents. 'There are cases I have dealt with,' says René Kabala, 'in which somebody asks for asylum in Europe for humanitarian rather than political reasons. However when they are returned to Ndjili airport, they are put in prison like all the others.' They may then stand trial under the national security legislation and, if convicted, find themselves imprisoned at Makala.

Makala is a place where prisoners depend on outside support for food and medical care. The US State Department reports that sixty-nine people died there in 2003, some as a result of severe beatings, the others as a result of starvation and disease. But often the families of returned asylum seekers have already fled the capital to avoid persecution, meaning that deportees sent to Makala are less likely to have networks of outside support.

According to René Kabala, there are lots of cases of political prisoners who have been held at Makala by the Congolese authorities, then bribed their way out before fleeing to Europe to claim asylum. But because of Europe's failure to properly assess asylum claims, these asylum seekers have then been sent back into the hands of the authorities from whom they fled and, in turn, find themselves back at Makala prison, the very place from which they were hoping to escape. Asylum hearings in Europe tend to be sceptical about stories of bribery, further reducing the chances of sanctuary for refugees from places like Makala prison.

Insecurity

René Kabala cannot produce figures on what proportion of asylum seekers deported from Europe end up in Makala or other forms of illegal detention in Kinshasa. 'There are many cases which escape us,' he says. 'We can follow up those that we know about. Others disappear if we haven't got contact details for their families.' But even those deportees who are released face insecurity. The DGM takes down details of all deportees' family members and, often, agents arrive on their doorsteps a few weeks later to make arrests. Some deportees have chosen to disappear on their return to Kinshasa to avoid re-arrest.

The allegation that files containing information about asylum claims are ending up, via the DGM, in the hands of the Congolese security services is particularly disturbing. Frances Webber, a leading immigration barrister in the UK, told IRR News: 'If these claims are true, it is a matter of extreme concern that asylum files which are meant to be confidential are finding their way to the very agencies which asylum seekers have fled.'

The majority of deportations from Europe to DRC originate in Belgium and Netherlands. Current Home Office policy is that failed Congolese asylum seekers should be deported from the UK. The expectation is that Britain will follow in the footsteps of Netherlands and embark on a much tougher regime for Congolese asylum seekers under which detentions and deportations will be stepped up. The National Coalition of Anti-Deportation Campaigns (NCADC) knows of four Congolese asylum seekers who have been returned from the UK in the last six months. The most recent was Bonnet Malungidi Mbombila, a paranoid schizophrenic who needs weekly injections. At first a fax and email campaign by supporters persuaded Air France to abandon the deportation. But NCADC believes he has now been returned to Kinshasa. It says it is in touch with a number of asylum seekers who have been removed from the UK and who allege that they have since been held in detention in DRC.

'H' is a Congolese asylum seeker whose claim for refugee status in Britain has been rejected at appeal and who now faces deportation to Kinshasa. He cannot be named for his own safety. Before fleeing to London, he worked in DRC as a trade unionist. As a 'failed asylum seeker', his benefits and accommodation have been withdrawn and he currently has a peripatetic existence, sleeping on friends' floors for a few days at a time. He has lost contact with his wife and two young children who have also had to flee Kinshasa and have headed towards the border with Angola. Were he to be deported, 'H' would be unable to take any money with him, having had no entitlement to work. He would not therefore be able to bribe himself out of detention in Kinshasa. 'I would certainly be scared that I could end up in prison,' he told IRR News. 'I just hope it's not going to happen that way.'

Beaten

Earlier this year, Bail for Immigration Detainees (BID), a charity that supports asylum seekers held in UK detention centres, discovered that, of three deportees who were removed to DRC between October 2003 and April 2004, two were able to pass information back to the UK revealing that they had ended up in Makala Central Prison. BID has also documented abuses that occurred after thirteen Congolese asylum seekers were deported from the UK on a charter flight on 12 March 2002. According to the testimony of one of the deportees, who later returned to the UK, they were detained and beaten on a daily basis by three to six soldiers who accused them of being 'traitors'.

René Kabala's allegations were also corroborated by the Dutch NGO Docu-Congo. Speaking at a meeting at the Houses of Parliament earlier this month, Mieke Rang, co-ordinator of Docu-Congo, criticised reports that had been published by other NGOs on deportations to DRC. A report by the NGO Voices of the Voiceless, which had been commissioned by a European government, claimed that an international monitoring team had been operating at Ndjili airport to ensure the safety of deportees. In fact, says Mieke Rang, no such monitoring exists. 'To return someone to Kinshasa means to put them in the hands of the security services.'

The Home Office's Country Information and Policy Unit claims that there is no evidence that failed asylum seekers are persecuted after they are returned to DRC and that Congolese asylum seekers whose claims are rejected should, in principle, be deported.