The Tragedy of Jean Charles de Menezes

link to photo

It reminds me of the trial in Simi Valley California, when the officers who savagely beat Rodney King were exonerated.  Now, it has happened in the U.K.  The two officers who shot Menezes at a London subway station will not be prosecuted.

The officers thought Menezes was a terrorist - it wasn't long after the subway bombings of July 7 -  But there are many conflicting accounts.  The Washington Post states:

...passengers who witnessed the shooting testified that the police did not identify themselves and that de Menezes did nothing suspicious.

"Although there were some inconsistencies in what the officers said at the inquest, there were also inconsistencies in what passengers had said," O'Doherty said. "A jury could not be sure that any officer had deliberately given a false account of events."

The de Menezes family, which has waged a public campaign to hold the police to account for the shooting, reacted angrily to Friday's decision.

"We are all in shock and simply cannot understand how the deliberate killing of an innocent man and an attempt by the Metropolitan police to cover it up does not result in a criminal offence," said a statement issued by Vivian Figuierdo, a cousin of de Menezes.

"The inquest put the truth out there for all the public to see, but the authorities want us to forget the truth to stop us getting justice," Figuierdo said in the statement. "But we will never forget."..more

Backlash against immigrant workers in the UK

London Independent:  "Tensions over immigration are bound to increase during the recession. They go beyond jobs: research for the Government has found that white working class people believe immigrants get unfair (preferential) treatment on housing and benefits."

Andrew Grice: The soundbite that haunts the PM

I don't think he meant it literally. But he was trying to send a signal.

Saturday, 31 January 2009

London Independent

...It was too late. Mr Brown's original, stark message had stuck. If it was meant as a dog whistle, it failed – everyone heard it. Yesterday, it was certainly in the minds of the workers who staged wildcat strikes about construction jobs going to Italian and Polish workers. Their placards included: "In the wise words of Gordon Brown 'UK jobs for British workers'."

Tim Finch, head of migration, equalities and citizenship at the Institute for Public Policy Research thinktank, said: "'British jobs for British workers' was a careless slogan that is coming back to haunt the Prime Minister." Denis MacShane, the former Europe minister, warned: "Nationalist-protectionist rhetoric always does lasting economic and social damage."

The line from Downing Street is that Mr Brown does not regret his language. He doesn't do regrets – or sorry. However, ministers were sufficiently worried by the refinery protests to call urgent talks to try to ensure a level playing field for British workers in the recession.

If Mr Cameron had announced a policy of "British jobs for British workers", Labour MPs would have queued up to accuse him of racism. No one is suggesting Mr Brown has a racist bone in his body. But he was playing with fire and has been burnt.

Mr Cameron chooses his words on immigration carefully. The Tories' previous hardline rhetoric delighted traditional supporters but alienated others, contributing to their "nasty party" image. In fact, Mr Cameron hasn't changed his party's policies much. It is still committed to a cap (as yet undefined) on the number of immigrants coming to Britain from outside the EU. To try to reassure voters, Labour hints its "points system" for skilled workers amounts to the same thing, but does not support a cap.

Tensions over immigration are bound to increase during the recession. They go beyond jobs: research for the Government has found that white working class people believe immigrants get unfair (preferential) treatment on housing and benefits. Hazel Blears, the Communities Secretary, warns that such fears, however unfounded, should not be branded "racist", since that alienates people even more. The fears could hurt Labour at the general election.

Recently, Mr Brown has cooled on his "Britishness" agenda as he puts his energies into limiting the downturn. Unfortunately for him, the damage had already been done...more

BBC stays quiet on Somali Piracy Incident

It doesn't just happen in the United States...

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World Service dropped report on piracy after Foreign Office request
• Journalists protest at threat to independence
• Network says decision was made for sake of hostages

* Leigh Holmwood
* The Guardian, Thursday December 4 2008


The BBC has been accused of putting the independence of the World Service at risk after agreeing to pull an episode of the series From Our Own Correspondent following a request from the Foreign Office.

Angry World Service staff and union officials said the decision to withdraw the programme, about the Somalia pirate hijackings, could "seriously damage" the Foreign Office-funded operation's reputation for independent journalism.

The programme, about how reporter Mary Harper was able to speak to the pirates holding the Sirius Star and its captain, had been broadcast on Radio 4 and 48 times on the World Service network before the Foreign Office intervention on Sunday.

Sources said the FCO had asked for the programme to be pulled as it claimed that after each broadcast the phonelines to the Sirius Star were blocked by callers - even though the number was not aired - and that it was hampering efforts by Saudi Arabia to end the hijack...more

World Aids Day - December 1

The UK celebrates World AIDS Day by deporting HIV positive immigrants.

London-Guardian
December 1, 2008


Britain is criticised for deporting HIV patients
• MP says some people face virtual death sentence
• Government failing to support G8 drugs pledge

by Sarah Boseley

The government is today, on World Aids Day, accused of double standards for permitting the deportation of people diagnosed in the UK with HIV to countries where they may not get the drugs they need to stay alive.

The UK has strongly supported the G8 pledge to get treatment to all people who need it in poor countries, and yet it is sending back people who have discovered they have HIV and been put on drugs while in the UK, to places where they have little hope of continuing their medication.

The African HIV Policy Network, which is attempting to change UK policy, has many examples of people who are struggling to get hold of life-saving medication. Its campaign is supported by Neil Gerrard, the Labour MP who chairs the all-party parliamentary group on refugees and previously chaired the group on Aids.

"I think when you have got someone who has been put on treatment here and then they are removed back to a country where they can't get treatment, it is virtually a death sentence," he said.

Britain has heavily backed the G8 call for universal access to Aids drugs, as well as prevention and care, in the poorest countries of the world.

"We are doing some really good work and probably leading the field in terms of promoting better care and treatment internationally," said Gerrard. "To have that on the one hand and be sending somebody back knowing if they are not able to get treatment they will die, is a horrible contradiction."

Two years ago, Sitiwe, who prefers not to give her full name, lived in the UK and was on regular medication for HIV. She was able to go about her normal life without worrying that her health might suddenly deteriorate.

Last year she was deported to her native Zimbabwe. Now she goes to the only clinic that will supply her with the three-drug combination she needs and sometimes leaves empty-handed. She shares tablets with friends who are in the same predicament. If people with HIV do not take the tablets at the same time every day, there is a high risk the virus will become resistant to the medication and the drugs will no longer work.

"I tried to visit clinics but they couldn't take me on," she said from the home she shares with her son and granddaughter. "Finally I found this one.

"They said they would give me some medication but sometimes they don't give me all the combination. Sometimes I have to do without. It makes me very anxious. It is really scary. You don't know whether you are going to make it."

Allegations that people with HIV are seeking asylum in the UK solely to get medical treatment are false, says Gerrard. Figures from the Health Protection Agency last week showed people are arriving at their GP's surgery when their immune systems are compromised and they are at risk of dying.

It is not a long-term issue for the UK, said Gerrard. "If we are successful - and there has been some really solid progress in getting drugs available in sub-Saharan Africa - this is a short-term problem. We should reach a point where removing somebody for immigration reasons doesn't mean you are sending them to somewhere they will probably die."

How people eat in the UK -

We are what we eat

London Independent

November 23, 2008

...Last week the European Union announced that, from September 2009, it would introduce free fruit and vegetables in primary schools to boost nutrition among children and combat obesity among 22 million European children.

It would cost €€90m (£76m), paid through the Common Agricultural Policy. Free fruit and vegetable schemes already exist in schools in England, Scotland and Wales, targeted at youngsters aged four to six, although this is not enjoyed by all schools.

There is also little evidence that the children who need it most, those on low incomes, are eating the fruit and vegetables provided by schools. Ministers are now desperate to limit the scale of obesity in the UK.

Latest predictions suggest more than half the population will be obese by 2050. The prevalence has doubled in the last 25 years, with 24 per cent of people aged 16 or over and 16 per cent of children classed as obese.

Obesity is most common among the lowest social classes, particularly in women, and in Scotland and the North-east of England, according to the document...more

When a child is detained

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UK -

A brave face
Despite deprivation and tragedy, the pupils of Gorton Mount primary find much to smile about

* Eric Allison

Guardian - London

November 5, 2008

Picture a primary school in a deprived area of Manchester, where a third of the 450 pupils are considered "at risk". Add to that a tragedy involving children from the school, followed by the removal into immigration custody of a nine-year-old boy, at a time when teachers say he was showing signs of recovering from the trauma of his life in the country of his birth.

You might imagine such a school to be sombre. From the outside at least, Gorton Mount primary creates that impression - but after a day spent with staff and pupils, it is clear that this is a happy place.

Manchester is known as the asbo capital of the UK, and Gorton, where the Channel 4 series Shameless was filmed, has more than its share of problems. Staff say they are as likely to give advice to parents on debt management and nutrition as on academic progress.

Carol Powell has been head of Gorton Mount since 2002. In August, when we first spoke, Powell was embroiled in consultations with lawyers and activists, trying to prevent the removal to Iran of a nine-year-old pupil who, along with his mother, brother and sister, had been placed in a detention centre. (The family is now free and the boy is back in class.) Two weeks before, Powell had attended the funeral of a Gorton parent, who had died under a train. The head was also involved in several child protection cases... more

UK will now have an ID card for all

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Smith unveils design for ID card

By Jack Doyle, PA
Thursday, 25 September 2008

London Independent

The design for the new identity card was unveiled by Home Secretary Jacqui Smith today.

Each card will carry a picture and a chip holding the person's name and date of birth, fingerprint record and other biometric data.

It will also detail the holder's visa status and right to work.

The cards will be issued to foreign nationals from November and from next year to people working in airports and other high security jobs.

From 2011 everyone over the age of 16 applying for a passport will have their details added to a national identity register.

Ministers argue the cards will boost national security, tackle identity fraud, prevent illegal working and improve border controls.

But opponents say ID cards are unnecessary, costly and impinge liberty.

There are also fears about the security of personal data after a string of government data loss blunders.

Liberty Director Shami Chakrabarti said: "This week the Prime Minister said he doesn't do PR but clearly the Home Secretary wasn't listening.

"The public will yawn at yet another re-launch of this scheme and if the card came with loyalty points, we still wouldn't buy it.

"Picking on foreigners first is divisive politics; as costly to our race relations as our purses."

Earlier this week Home Office minister Meg Hillier was forced to row back after claiming ID cards could be issued to children as young as 14

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Britain unveils new ID card amid criticism
By Michael Holden
Reuters/Washington Post
Thursday, September 25, 2008; 9:30 AM

LONDON (Reuters) - Britain unveiled its new biometric identity card on Thursday which the government says will be vital in fighting illegal immigration and terrorism, while critics call it an expensive attack on civil liberties.

The controversial multi-billion pound scheme, which involves one of the world's most ambitious biometric projects, will see ID cards used in Britain for the first time since they were abolished after World War Two.

Initially only foreign nationals from outside the European Economic Area will be required to have one if they come to Britain to work or study, but the scheme will be expanded to Britons and some others over the next few years.

"We all want to see our borders more secure, and human trafficking, organized immigration crime, illegal working and benefit fraud tackled," said Home Secretary Jacqui Smith.

"ID cards for foreign nationals, in locking people to one identity, will deliver in all these areas."

Despite a series of embarrassing data losses recently, including the admission that the personal details of half the population had been mislaid, the government insists that both the cards and their related databases will be secure.

But critics of the cards, which will contain personal details, fingerprints and a facial image, remain unimpressed.

Both major opposition parties have vowed to ditch cards for Britons should they win power, and with the Labour government trailing in the polls, the 4.7 billion pound national identity scheme's days may already be numbered.

"It does not matter how fancy the design of ID cards is, they remain a grotesque intrusion on the liberty of the British people," said Chris Huhne, the Liberal Democrat home affairs spokesman.

"When voting adults are forced to carry ID cards, this scheme will prove to be a laminated poll tax," he added, referring to the local charge whose massive unpopularity led to Margaret Thatcher being ousted as prime minister.

The first cards for foreign nationals will be issued in November while from next year anyone working in sensitive areas, such as airport staff, will need one at a cost of 30 pounds.

Smith said opinion polls showed the majority of the public supported the cards and that people would warm to them once they saw the advantages, allowing them to easily verify who they are and helping the authorities at the same time.

(Editing by Steve Addison)

Police "mistakenly" arrest Oxford computer science graduate

link to photo

U.K. - Nzube Udezue a recent computer science graduate of Oxford University was mistakenly arrested and held at gunpoint by Dorset police as he was leaving a train at a UK station.

According to a Guardian article "The Independent Police Complaints Commission said yesterday that it deemed the actions of Dorset police "appropriate and proportionate to the circumstances." This story sounds like it could have happened in Brooklyn or Los Angeles.

A London Times article stated "Mr Udezue lives in Bournemouth with his father, Emmanuel, an eminent doctor and fellow of the Royal Society of Tropical Medicine and Hygiene, and his mother, Chika, a journalist." Nzube already has a job lined up with Accenture, a consulting company.

Udezue is also a fairly well known performer in Saudi Arabia (where he lived most of his life) and in the UK. He has already posted a detailed narrative of his experience on his blog. Hopefully he will put this experience into his lyrics for his next song.

Below is his most recent video.

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The Times - London
July 9, 2008
Stop-and-search victim Nzube Udezue relives his gunpoint ordeal

Richard Ford and Patrick Foster

Police stopped people on the streets almost 1.9 million times last year to ask them to account for their movements – and black people were more than twice as likely to have been stopped than whites.

The figures were released as the innocent Oxford graduate who was pictured in The Times yesterday being stopped at gunpoint by police at Bournemouth station said that he was “shocked, confused, scared and embarrassed” by the incident.

Writing on his blog, Nzube Udezue, 21, said: “When I woke up this Saturday morning, I could happily say that I’d managed to get through (almost) 22 years of my life without any real incident with the police. I could also say that I’d never had a gun pointed at me. Little did I know that by 6.10pm I’d be lying face down on the ground, handcuffed, with several sub-machine-guns pointed at me.”

The computer science graduate, a budding musician whose rap video is being screened on satellite television, said that he had spent the day in Southampton promoting his music. “[At] 5.24pm, I hop on to the train back to Bournemouth, looking forward to a hardcore gym session. 6.09pm, the train pulls into Bournemouth station and all hell is about to break loose. The next 30 seconds was like a blur.”

Armed officers shouted at him to “get down”. He said: “It took me a couple of seconds to realise that it was me that all those guns were aimed at. Are they seriously talking to me? I honestly felt like I’d stepped off the train and into a really bad dream.”

Mr Udezue, who will join Accenture, the consultancy, next month, said he was told to lie down and put his hands out. “I oblige. I’m shocked, confused, scared and embarrassed all at the same time,” he wrote. “Most of the bystanders have vacated the platform by now, by police order. And I’m not talking about normal police either. This is the Specialist Firearms Unit, about eight of them, machineguns, bulletproof vests, police dogs and all.”

He added: “It appears that someone whose description I matched (a black male wearing a dark T-shirt with bright orange writing) was involved in an altercation in Basingstoke and had threatened someone with a handgun...

for link to complete London Times article click here

Ever think about Resistance?

French Resistance Poster
"Anna Marly will sing her songs of the Resistance"









In Europe the idea of the French Resistance to the Vichy government during World War II is very much alive. Walking around Paris you see many street signs that give the name of a hero (or heroine); the next line in smaller letters says "mort pour la France" -(died for France)

The United States doesn't say much about heroes - except an occasional story about the Alamo. In terms of resistance to oppression or inequality, we haven't been doing much for about 40 years. France took resistance seriously, and remembers what it's people did.

We Americans are not very resisting people, at least not since the 1960s. We have so many worries, gas is so expensive, we have little time - who has a moment to think about resistance - and the mistreatment of undocumented people, our over populated prisons, the high Latino school drop out rate - the U.S. government's denial of global warming, and those poor guys fighting a very violent make-believe war in Iraq?

Resistance is an important word. It is not about violence. It is about stopping something bad. Roget's Thesaurus gives us a few words that help describe resistance - defense, protection, guard, ward; shielding, propugnation, preservation, guardianship. area defense, site defense, self-defense and self-preservation. Maybe its time for us to begin thinking resistance.

...when the Home Office [immigration] began coming to the estate at 5am to remove them, Donnachie and the rest of the residents looked on in horror. "It was like watching the Gestapo - men with armour, going in to flats with battering rams. I've never seen people living in fear like it,"
- The Guardian

click here for video by Stevenson and Grant

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Land of no return
By Rachel Stevenson and Harriet Grant
The Guardian - London, Friday June 13 2008

All across the country, communities are organising themselves to stop their friends and neighbours from being deported. From lobbying the Home Office to foiling dawn raids, the resistance will stop at nothing to keep failed asylum seekers safe in Britain.

'We had our own little code to warn them it was a dawn raid and to get out. There's more than one way of getting out of the flats - there's two staircases and two lifts, so you could play games if you knew how. If we were a thorn in their flesh, then good."

Sixty-seven-year-old Jean Donnachie flashes a mischievous smile as she describes the tactics she and her neighbours used every day to thwart immigration officers trying to arrest asylum seekers on her estate in Glasgow. A grandmother and former cashier who has lived on the Kingsway for 20 years, she makes an unlikely resistance fighter. But when she talks about how the estate took on the Home Office, there is a gleam of defiance in her eyes...


The estate became home for hundreds of families escaping persecution and torture in places such as Iraq, Afghanistan, Algeria, Uganda and Congo. Most had their request for asylum in the UK turned down, and when the Home Office began coming to the estate at 5am to remove them, Donnachie and the rest of the residents looked on in horror. "It was like watching the Gestapo - men with armour, going in to flats with battering rams. I've never seen people living in fear like it," says Donnachie. "I saw a man jump from two storeys up when they came for him and his family. I stood there and I cried, and I said to myself, 'I am not going to stand by and watch this happen again.'"

She got together with her friend Noreen and organised the residents into daily dawn patrols, looking out for immigration vans. When the vans arrived, a phone system would swing in to action, warning asylum seekers to escape.

The whole estate pitched in, gathering in large crowds in the early-morning dark to jeer at immigration officials as they entered the tower blocks. On more than one occasion, the vans left the estate empty - the people they had come for had got out in time and were hidden by the crowd. The estate kept this up for two years until forced removals stopped.

But what happened on the Kingsway is not unique. Over the past few years there has been a growing resistance to the government's attempts to deport failed asylum seekers. From Manchester, from Sheffield, from Belfast, from Bristol, the Home Office is being bombarded with requests from British people all over the country asking for asylum seekers to be given another chance.

for complete Guardian article click here

Face scans at airports in the E.U.?

Detail of photo: Image Source/Getty

what movie would this remind you of?
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Face scans for air passengers to begin in UK this summer

Officials say automatic screening more accurate than checks by humans

* Owen Bowcott
* The Guardian - London,
* Friday April 25 2008

Airline passengers are to be screened with facial recognition technology rather than checks by passport officers, in an attempt to improve security and ease congestion, the Guardian can reveal.

From summer, unmanned clearance gates will be phased in to scan passengers' faces and match the image to the record on the computer chip in their biometric passports.

Border security officials believe the machines can do a better job than humans of screening passports and preventing identity fraud. The pilot project will be open to UK and EU citizens holding new biometric passports.

But there is concern that passengers will react badly to being rejected by an automated gate. To ensure no one on a police watch list is incorrectly let through, the technology will err on the side of caution and is likely to generate a small number of "false negatives" - innocent passengers rejected because the machines cannot match their appearance to the records.

They may be redirected into conventional passport queues, or officers may be authorised to override automatic gates following additional checks.

Ministers are eager to set up trials in time for the summer holiday rush, but have yet to decide how many airports will take part. If successful, the technology will be extended to all UK airports.

The automated clearance gates introduce the new technology to the UK mass market for the first time and may transform the public's experience of airports.

Existing biometric, fast-track travel schemes - iris and miSense - operate at several UK airports, but are aimed at business travellers who enroll in advance.

The rejection rate in trials of iris recognition, by means of the unique images of each traveller's eye, is 3% to 5%, although some were passengers who were not enrolled but jumped into the queue.

The trials emerged at a conference in London this week of the international biometrics industry, top civil servants in border control, and police technology experts. Gary Murphy, head of operational design and development for the UK Border Agency, told one session: "We think a machine can do a better job [than manned passport inspections]. What will the public reaction be? Will they use it? We need to test and see how people react and how they deal with rejection. We hope to get the trial up and running by the summer.

Some conference participants feared passengers would only be fast-tracked to the next bottleneck in overcrowded airports. Automated gates are intended to help the government's progress to establishing a comprehensive advance passenger information (API) security system that will eventually enable flight details and identities of all passengers to be checked against a security watch list.

Phil Booth of the No2Id Campaign said: "Someone is extremely optimistic. The technology is just not there. The last time I spoke to anyone in the facial recognition field they said the best systems were only operating at about a 40% success rate in a real time situation. I am flabbergasted they consider doing this at a time when there are so many measures making it difficult for passengers."

Gus Hosein, a specialist at the London School of Economics in the interplay between technology and society, said: "It's a laughable technology. US police at the SuperBowl had to turn it off within three days because it was throwing up so many false positives. The computer couldn't even recognise gender. It's not that it could wrongly match someone as a terrorist, but that it won't match them with their image. A human can make assumptions, a computer can't."

Project Semaphore, the first stage in the government's e-borders programme, monitors 30m passenger movements a year through the UK. By December 2009, API will track 60% of all passengers and crew movements. The Home Office aim is that by December 2010 the system will be monitoring 95%. Total coverage is not expected to be achieved until 2014 after similar checks have been introduced for travel on "small yachts and private flights".

So far around 8m to 10m UK biometric passports, containing a computer chip holding the carrier's facial details, have been issued since they were introduced in 2006. The last non-biometric passports will cease to be valid after 2016.

Home Office minister Liam Byrne said: "Britain's border security is now among the toughest in the world and tougher checks do take time, but we don't want long waits. So the UK Border Agency will soon be testing new automatic gates for British and European Economic Area [EEA] citizens. We will test them this year and if they work put them at all key ports [and airports]."

The EEA includes all EU states as well as Norway, Switzerland and Iceland.

*
This article appeared in the Guardian on Friday April 25 2008 on p1 of the Top stories section. It was last updated at 01:00 on April 25 2008.



* guardian.co.uk © Guardian News and Media Limited 20

The UK's Hidden Women

South China Batik Wall Hanging

In today's London Guardian, there is an excerpt from Hsiao-Hung Pai's book Chinese Whispers: The True Story Behind Britain's Hidden Army of Labour. It is about Asian migrant women who entered the sex trade in England. Below is a portion of what was published in the Guardian -



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• Hsiao-Hung Pai
• The Guardian,
• Tuesday April 22 2008

Local men have a special liking for foreign girls - but they want it cheap'

Ah-Fang, an illegal Chinese migrant, works as a housekeeper in an 'Oriental' brothel in Cheam. She earns £180 a week - a step up from the £50 she got picking leeks. And at least she doesn't suffer the degradations of the brothel's 'Misses' who sell sex for 14 hours a day. In the first of two extracts from her new book, Hsiao-Hung Pai hears what life is like for the 3,000 Chinese women who work in Britain's sex industry

One night about a year ago, Ah-Fang sat up studying the job advertisements in the free paper she had picked up in Birmingham's Chinatown. "Oriental Massage", "China Red", "One Night Passion": Ah-Fang circled them all with her pen.

"Massage parlour", as every Chinese worker knows, is a euphemism for "brothel". There are more than 600 Chinese parlours in London alone - half the number of Chinese takeaways in the capital, as Chinese like to joke. Most of them advertise vacancies in the Chinese papers.

Ah-Fang, a 52-year-old Malaysian-Chinese woman, had a little experience of working as a massage-parlour housekeeper. It was one of the less appallingly paid jobs she had had since arriving in Britain in 2005. She felt she could continue with this kind of work.

"Are you sure you can handle it?" I asked her, when she told me what she was planning. The first time I met her, she had been picking vegetables for a living, and the advertisements she was scouring were the lonely hearts.

"It isn't for everyone," she said. "It's one of the toughest and most dangerous jobs for Chinese women in England. But I'm helped by my age. Usually being old is a disadvantage in job-seeking, but in this job it's an advantage. My age is what protects me."

The next day she started to call the parlours. "Sorry, the job's gone," she was told each time. It surprised her how quickly the vacancies had been filled. So she turned to the page where the agencies advertised, and phoned a firm called Xianglong ("Fortunes and Prosperity"). After some haggling over the fee, she was eventually put in touch with the owner of a parlour in London.

Mr Lee was Malaysian-Chinese, and liked the fact that Ah-Fang was also from Malaysia. He told her she would be paid £180 a week. This was riches compared with the £50 a week she had been earning picking leeks. "At last," Ah-Fang said to me on her mobile phone as she took the coach to London, "I've achieved my dream of leaving the world of work in the Midlands. But," she said with a giggle, "I'm not sure whether I'm moving up or down the career ladder."

Lee picked her up at Victoria and drove her to her destination. Ah-Fang had no idea which direction they were going in. "Are we still in London?" she kept asking. After more than 40 minutes, they arrived in an affluent-looking suburban town, which Ah-Fang later discovered was Cheam. All she could see then, however, were rows and rows of houses, with hardly anyone about. "A massage parlour in this quiet place?" was her initial reaction.

Lee turned into a narrow lane that looked so sleepy and residential that she thought they must have made a wrong turn. But the boss parked outside a small block of flats. When he put the key in the door of a second-floor flat, Ah-Fang asked if he owned the place. He scowled and shook his head. She was later to learn that all Chinese massage parlours rent their premises: impermanence is of the essence...

for complete Guardian post click here

Protecting UK physicians from international competition

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Doctors from outside [the] European Union barred from consultant training

* John Carvel, social affairs editor
* The Guardian, London
* Thursday February 7 2008


A ban on doctors from outside the EU training to become consultants in the NHS was imposed by the government yesterday in an attempt to protect the career prospects of British graduates.

The immigration minister, Liam Byrne, said an Australian-style points system would be used to stop doctors from outside Europe entering Britain to access postgraduate medical training. The rule is expected to keep out up to 5,000 applicants, mainly from India and other Commonwealth countries, from 2009.

The health secretary, Alan Johnson, said immediate action was needed to stop overseas doctors who are already working for the NHS from winning coveted places to train as consultants. His plan, which is fraught with legal difficulty, would stop about 10,000 non-European NHS doctors from applying in June for the next round of interviews for trainee posts.

Their only chance of getting a foot on the ladder to become NHS consultants would come if the medical deaneries could not fill posts in unpopular specialities from the pool of European graduates. Non-Europeans already working in Britain would be allowed to compete for these few remaining places. The restrictions are designed to avoid a repetition of the chaos last year when nearly 28,000 applicants competed for about 15,500 training places in England. About 45% had graduated outside Europe and many unsuccessful candidates were hoping for another chance in this year's competition.

The outcome of Johnson's decision to disqualify them hangs on a forthcoming decision by the law lords. Last year the government consulted on the principle of excluding foreign doctors from training as NHS consultants.

A legal challenge by the British Association of Physicians of Indian Origin was upheld on appeal on the grounds that health ministers did not have authority to change immigration law.

The case will go to the House of Lords on February 20, with judgment expected in May. If the government loses, its plan to ban the non-Europeans from this year's competition will collapse.

Johnson said: "It can cost up to £250,000 to train a UK medical student. With the increase in UK medical schools, we are moving to a policy of self-sufficiency. If UK medical graduates cannot access specialist training because of a large number of applicants from outside Europe, then it is only right we should consider what needs to be done."

Dr Hamish Meldrum, chairman of the BMA, said: "Our concern is that the overseas colleagues already working in the UK are being both scapegoated and sent confusing messages.

"At a time when they need clarity, it's being made very unclear to them what jobs they can apply to and when."

New immigration fees in UK making legal immigration more difficult

For those who complain that all immigration should be legal - both the U.S. and the U.K. have significantly increased their fees - making it much more difficult to process visas. The increase in fees is said to be so that there would be more administrative funds. However it is a convenient way to keep immigrants with fewer resources out of the country. A paradox is also created in that societies who constantly complain that immigrants are costing their countries too much money have now found a way to take advantage of the immigrants.

Financial Times:

a company with 50 or more staff hiring one migrant would face a rise from £200 ($397) to £1,170 (with the British pound at twice the value of the U.S. Dollar)

CBI says new immigration fees may hit economy
Financial Times (London)
By Jimmy Burns
Published: January 31 2008 02:40 | Last updated: January 31 2008 02:40

A huge rise in immigration fees risks deterring employers from hiring skilled workers capable of contributing positively to the economy, the CBI employers’ body warned on Wednesday night.

Plans published by the Home Office on Wednesday propose a considerable increase in the fees businesses pay for workers’ visas under the new PBS points based migration system, with smaller businesses seeing fees rise by as much as 500 per cent.

Liam Byrne, immigration minister, justified the rises, saying the government’s aim was to help to ensure only workers with the skills to benefit the economy came to the UK.

Under the blueprint, a company with 50 or more staff hiring one migrant would face a rise from £200 ($397) to £1,170 with the increase being reduced as more skilled migrants were hired.

“We welcome the contribution that legal migrants make to the economy and cultural life in the UK and we have ensured that these fees ... are at levels that will not damage our international competitiveness,” said Mr Byrne. “We are confident that we are not out of line with other countries’ prices and that the people we want to come here will not be deterred from doing so.”

However, John Cridland, CBI deputy director-general, warned that ministers had structured the new levels of fees in a way that would make hiring cost effective the more people were employed, so that smaller companies would take more of a hit.

“By seeking to recover far more from the cost of processing the application, the government risks putting up a barrier to firms hiring people with the skills they need to grow and create jobs for the whole economy,” Mr Cridland said. “The CBI has supported the PBS as a flexible way of managing migration. But it will need to be fair and seen to work in practice. Cost is one concern, as is ensuring the new register of sponsors is user friendly and that companies can more easily transfer existing staff from abroad on a short-term basis.”

The fees are part of what the government describes as a “challenging” programme of reform to the immigration system over the next year. It includes on-the-spot fines for businesses that do not make the right checks on migrant workers, the introduction of a single border force with police-like powers, and compulsory ID cards for foreign nationals who want to stay in the UK.

Copyright The Financial Times Limited 2008

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Facebook group helps Nigerian family avoid deportation

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Student protest halts family's deportation

Steven Morris
Monday January 28, 2008
The Guardian - London

A family of seven threatened with deportation has been reprieved after a campaign that began in a Devon classroom, spread around the world, and led to the government being bombarded with thousands of protest letters.

Last night more than 10,000 people had joined a Facebook group devoted to saving the family from being sent back to Nigeria, and the youngsters who launched the campaign from a sixth-form common room vowed to keep up the pressure.

The mother, Helen, who has asked for the family name not to be published, and her six children had lived in Plymouth for four years. They claimed asylum because they feared they would be persecuted if they were sent back. Helen was afraid her 14-year-old son, Emmanuel, could die in Nigeria because he has sickle cell anaemia and she could not afford the medication.

Friends of the family at Stoke Damerel community college in Plymouth were outraged when they were seized by immigration officials and held in an immigration centre, ready to be flown back to Africa. Alex Stupple-Harris, 17, who was in the same year as two of the brothers, Mac and Winston, told how he went back to school on the evening he heard about his friend's plight and began printing off protest letters. They wrote to MPs, the Home Office and even executives of the airline that was to fly the family home. The campaign quickly spread through the school. "Thirteen-year-old boys were coming up to me and asking for 150 letters. They would come back with them all signed. The Facebook campaign has also been amazing."

The family was permitted to stay for three more weeks and on Wednesday officials are to look at the case again.

Stupple-Harris said he was sure that the campaign had helped to give the family a second chance. "The strength of feeling has been immense. We're going to carry on, even if the hearing that's beginning on Wednesday goes the wrong way."

The family were described as "model citizens" by Father Sam Philpott, of St Peter's Church, Stonehouse, where they worshipped. He said they would be hugely missed if they were sent back to Nigeria.

Helen has worked as a volunteer for the Devon and Cornwall Refugee Support Council and as a university researcher. She is a governor of a primary school in Plymouth. The Home Office will not talk about individual cases but said: "We only remove people whose asylum claims have been dismissed by an independent judge. Families with children are detained only where this is absolutely necessary for as short a period as possible."

Helen claims she has been told she may be killed if she returns to Nigeria. Stupple-Harris last spoke to her on Friday. She is refusing most food but taking a little nourishment in case the family is suddenly flown from the UK. He said: "Despite everything she was on good form. We spent most of the conversation laughing, which sums her up."

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UK Denies Soccer Star a Work Permit

http://www.latimes.com/news/nationworld/world/la-fg-soccer27jan27,1,5478854.story

From the Los Angeles Times

Britain denies Iraqi soccer star's dream

Fans, ecstatic to see the athlete courted by a top team, are in an uproar over London's refusal to issue him a work permit.

By Kimi Yoshino
Los Angeles Times Staff Writer

January 27, 2008

BAGHDAD — Iraqi soccer phenom Nashat Akram's face already graces hundreds of posters plastered around Baghdad. And in recent days, he had been poised to do what no Iraqi player has done before: Sign a professional contract with a top team in England's Premier League -- a trailblazing move that many predicted would open the "golden door" for future soccer stars.

The only thing standing in his way was a work permit.

Last week, British officials denied his application for a second time, consigning Akram to the same fate as thousands of other Iraqis, his dreams another casualty of war.

"This is a very, very unfair decision," said Akram's agent, Najim Mohammed. "We want to make good relations between Iraq and the U.K. and America. We want to show Iraqi people these people want to help give us a hand. But this is against Iraqi people. . . . They keep the people suffering. They don't give them any joy."

As the news spread Saturday across soccer-crazed Iraq, fans reacted with anger and disbelief. Iraqi government and sports officials vowed to appeal and threatened to launch large-scale protests that would be visible around the world.

Britain's Home Office, which issues passports, visas and citizenship to immigrants, said it could not comment on individual cases.

But Akram's would-be employer, Manchester City Football Club, said the government's rejection of the appeal was based on a technicality. The Iraqi national team has not recently played against any of the world's top 20 teams and its two-year average rank is 71. To meet the requirements of the visa, the team needs to be ranked in the top 70.

"I'm sure people aren't happy [in Iraq], but people aren't happy at Manchester City either," club spokesman Paul Tyrrell said. "We genuinely don't understand the decision. We thought the immigration authorities would take into consideration that Iraq, because of the domestic problems, would have difficulty playing against any of the top 20 countries."

Despite the low ranking, the team won the Asian Cup last year and placed fourth in the 2004 Olympics. The only way to move up in the rankings is to play more, but because of the war, it has been impossible for Iraq to play any home matches.

"Thanks to the Americans, we can't do this," said Ahmed Abbas, general secretary of the Iraqi Football Assn. Because of the country's security problems, he said, "we couldn't have games in Iraq."

"Even abroad, we can't have games."

To help persuade the government panel, Manchester City Football Club manager Sven-Goran Eriksson, another team official and a representative of the Professional Footballer's Assn. attended the appeals hearing last week in London to deliver personal pleas on Akram's behalf.

"This is a big blow and a great disappointment to us," Eriksson said in a statement released on the team's website. "I have huge sympathy for Nashat. He is a very good footballer with an excellent international pedigree. . . . He is somebody who we will maintain an interest in for the long term."

The 24-year-old midfielder is considered a rising star capable of creating scoring opportunities. He had been playing with the Al-Ain club in the United Arab Emirates, but Manchester City reportedly bought out the remainder of his contract for $800,000. Tyrrell said the team had been scouting him extensively and Akram had already begun training in Britain.

"We knew how good he was," Tyrrell said. "He would have gone straight to our first team squad. He's a top quality player."

The team said it had exhausted the appeals process, but planned to re-submit a request for a work permit in the summer.

Meanwhile, Iraqi sports officials called on the government to intervene.

"Before, they had the excuse that this was a rogue state because of Saddam Hussein and because of his human rights atrocities and attacking neighboring states," said Ahmed Sabri, a member of the Iraqi Olympic Committee.

"Now, they don't have any excuse, we're a democratic state. This makes us question: Is there another agenda?"

Iraqi government spokesman Ali Dabbagh said he personally had requested that the Home Office reconsider its decision. After the appeal was rejected Wednesday, Dabbagh said, he spoke to the British ambassador in Iraq and sent a formal letter to the British government.

Iraqi lawmaker Fawzi Akram, a member of the parliament's Sports and Youth Committee, said he planned to ask the foreign ministry to look into the matter.

"Highly decorated Iraqi players from different kinds of sports are prevented from entering different countries regardless of their high level of professionalism," the lawmaker said. "They are trying to repress Iraqi professionals from attaining their objectives and goals."

In the last few weeks, as Nashat Akram headed to Britain to practice with the team, soccer fans across Iraq had been eagerly awaiting his start with Manchester City.

Ahmed Salman, 19, an aspiring player, said he spent a "big part of his savings" throwing a party for his friends when he found out that Akram would play in England.

"But now I am shocked that his work permit was denied," he said. "I thought it was a message to all Iraqi youth telling them not to work hard or make something out of yourselves because you will be rejected in the end as you are Iraqi."

Oday Fadhil Mahmoud, president of the fan club of Iraq's most popular team, Zawra, said, "They thought that this is the golden door for other Iraqi players. I am going to the club right now. I don't know how I'm going to face the people. This brings hopelessness to all Iraqis."

kimi.yoshino@latimes.com

Times staff writers Saif Rasheed in Baghdad and Janet Stobart in London, and a special correspondent in Hillah, Iraq, contributed to this report.

Image: http://www.nashatakram.org/index_english.html