A three day march from the Home Office in Sheffield to the Detention Centre at Lindholme near Doncaster is being held to protest against the treatment of asylum seekers in this country, demand asylum seekers' right to work and to say that seeking asylum is not a crime.
The 3 Day March
Sheffield to Lindholme Detention Centre
Friday 26th – Sunday 28th October 2007.
Friday 26th
12 noon: Demonstrate at Milton House, Home Office (Charter Row, Sheffield S1 3FZ).
Rally: 1.45pm at Ellesmere Green, Burngreave, Sheffield
Saturday 27th
Leaving Eastwood Methodist Church, Rotherham at 9am
Rally & social in Doncaster town centre from 6.30pm
Sunday 28th
Leaving Priory Church, Doncaster DN1 1TR at 9am
3pm: Demonstrate at Lindholme Detention Centre (A614, Donc. DN7 6EE)
(Accommodation in Rotherham and Doncaster & refreshment stops)
For info contact:
Telephone: 07931 900 167
Supported by South Yorkshire Migrant and Asylum Action Group (SYMAAG)
More information from the event organisers
Right to Work
Did you know that people seeking asylum in this country are not allowed to work? Rather than face destitution or criminalisation they are forced to work in unregulated jobs, often with the lowest pay and most dangerous conditions in industries which already use casual labour to drive down wages and conditions for us all. Therefore we demand their right to work.
Politicians and vicious media campaigns spread myths about ‘scroungers’ and encourage people to believe that refugees rather than the politicians themselves are responsible for housing shortages and unemployment. Yet asylum seekers get no special priority for council housing and are given benefits below the minimum allowed for British nationals.
Asylum is Not a Crime
Over 40,000 asylum seekers pass through the UK’s 10 prison-like detention centres each year. Unlike prisoners, they have no release date, few legal rights and have often committed no criminal offence.
Government restrictions on legal aid make it almost impossible for asylum seekers to appeal against their detention without trial. While civil war and human rights abuses are condemned by the UK Government in Zimbabwe, Iraq, Afghanistan, Iran, Sudan and elsewhere, exiles from these countries find themselves detained without legal support, facing deportation and death.
Why Lindholme?
Staff at this former prison treat detainees as offenders, rather than recognising that they have not been convicted of any crime. Run by the Prison Service, Lindholme “Immigration Removal Centre” near Doncaster holds up to 112 male detainees. An unannounced inspection by HM Chief Inspector of Prisons in 2004 recommended that the Government “should review whether Lindholme is an appropriate facility for an immigration removal centre” due to it being “deficient in all four of our keys tests: safety, respect, purposeful activity and preparation for release”. Inspectors noticed Prison Officers shouting in English to non-English speaking detainees and a lack of interpreters.
People in Lindholme have left their homes and families to escape war, torture and dictatorship in their own countries. Yet the UK Government invades Iraq and Afghanistan; it helps western companies plunder £millions of resources daily from places like Congo in Africa while proxy wars rage; it works with corrupt regimes around the world and then it tries to imprison and deport people who seek safety in this country.
Does the Government speak for you when it acts like this?
Supported by South Yorkshire Migrant and Asylum Action Group (SYMAAG)
SYMAAG unites refugee, asylum and migrant organisations with campaign groups, trade unions, charities, political parties and supportive individuals.
SYMAAG campaigns both for the rights of those seeking asylum and of those coming to work in this country. Contact via 0114 241 2780.