UK Immigration - Detainees held too long

UK - Immigration detainees held for 'excessively long' periods – watchdog

Harmondsworth under spotlight for holding detainees as long as three years at a cost of £110 a night, says IMB report

• Alan Travis, home affairs editor
• guardian.co.uk, Friday 17 June 2011 14.19 BST
• London Guardian

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Ministers have been warned by an official immigration watchdog of the "excessively long" periods, including cases of more than three years, that detainees are being held at Europe's largest removal centre.

A "snapshot" taken last December showed that 35 detainees at Harmondsworth removal centre, near Heathrow airport, had been waiting more than 12 months to be deported, including seven who had been waiting more than two years.
Harmondsworth's officially appointed independent monitoring board (IMB) said one man had been held in detention for three years and seven months at a cost of £110 a night. The bill is already more than £144,000.

"This is not only emotionally costly to detainees but expensive for the taxpayer," says the IMB's annual report to the immigration minister, Damian Green. It adds that the latest national figures show that as of 3 March, 170 detainees around the country have been held more than two years waiting for their removal....more

Immigration Policy in the UK

Foreign students cut could cost economy £2.4bn

By Wesley Johnson, PA

Monday, 13 June 2011

London Independent

Home Secretary Theresa May's plans to cut the number of foreign students coming to Britain will cost the economy £2.4 billion, figures have showed...

Immigration Tension in UK Government

David Cameron accused of breaching immigration policy deal as rift opens

Tensions grow over 'tens of thousands' figure with 'incandescent' Vince Cable challenging policy interpretation

• Nicholas Watt, chief political correspondent
• guardian.co.uk, Thursday 14 April 2011 21.11 BST

David Cameron says his immigration policy speech was 'an important attempt to explain why we are doing what we are doing'. Photograph: Steve Parsons/PA

The first major rift between David Cameron and Nick Clegg opened up after the Liberal Democrats accused the Tories of attempting to breach the agreement on immigration.


In a sign of tensions in the run up to the local elections and AV referendum on 5 May, senior ministerial sources dismissed Clegg's view of the policy.


The row erupted after the prime minister declared in his first major speech on the subject since the election that the government would cut net migration to the "tens of thousands" each year rather than hundreds of thousands.
Cameron also warned that immigrants unable to speak English or unwilling to integrate have created a "kind of discomfort and disjointedness" which has disrupted communities.


An "incandescent" Vince Cable, the business secretary who was not briefed about the speech, rounded on Cameron. "I do understand there is an election coming but talk of mass immigration risks inflaming the extremism to which he and I are both strongly opposed," he told the BBC...more

Student Visas in the UK may take a Big Hit

Universities hit out at visa plans for foreign students

In a letter to the Observer, 16 vice-chancellors express 'profound concern' over Theresa May's plans to limit visas

• Toby Helm, political editor
• guardian.co.uk, Saturday 5 March 2011 20.01 GMT

Universities across the country [UK] will have to close vital science and engineering courses and sack staff unless the home secretary, Theresa May, drops controversial plans to limit UK visas for international students, a powerful alliance of vice-chancellors has warned.


In a letter to the Observer, 16 vice-chancellors express their "profound concern" at the proposals, making clear that they will have a devastating effect on universities' incomes and their ability to run the best courses for British, as well as overseas, students. Their intervention will stoke a cabinet battle that has pitted May, who is committed to cut net immigration from 215,000 to 100,000 by 2015, against the business secretary, Vince Cable, and the universities minister, David Willetts.


Cable and Willetts are known to be deeply concerned about the damage to universities and the economy if the £5bn-a-year income universities get from overseas students is choked off.
The vice-chancellors, many of whom have lobbied ministers privately in recent weeks, have gone public with the joint letter just days after a 12-week Home Office consultation over the changes was concluded. A decision from ministers is imminent.


The vice-chancellors say they are "fully aware" of public concern about abuse of immigration rules by bogus students and colleges, and promise to continue playing their part in combatting it. But they insist that "international students in universities overwhelmingly do not abuse the system" and are instead a welcome and much-needed part of the university system.


They add: "International students coming to universities contribute over £5bn each year to the UK economy through tuition fees and off-campus expenditure...more

Immigration Issues in the UK: Different than U.S.?

[UK] Government 'faces immigration cap dilemma'

By Wesley Johnson, PA

Thursday, 18 November 2010 - London Independent

The Government faces an "unpalatable choice" between an immigration policy that will damage the economy or the possibility of failing to fulfil a key promise, a think-tank said today.

The Migration Advisory Committee's (MAC) recommendation for the level of the proposed cap on non-EU migrant workers showed the scale of the challenge faced by the Government as it aims to deliver its pledge to cut net migration from 196,000 to the tens of thousands by 2015.

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Visas for students will have to be more than halved and family visas will face a 20% cut alongside a proposed reduction of between 6,300 and 12,600 in the number of non-EU migrant workers for 2011/12, the MAC said.

Such workers generally earn more and have a higher employment rate than the average British worker, leading to a £6 reduction in the GDP per head.

Sarah Mulley, associate director at the Institute for Public Policy Research, said the report implied that "implementing such drastic cuts in entry visas over the next four years would have serious consequences for the UK"...more

From London: Supporting Immigration

From the London Independent

Economic - Recovery will be hindered by tough migration rules

In no mood to listen on immigration caps

UK Immigration

Legal challenge to immigration cap

By Wesley Johnson, PA

Friday, 24 September 2010

PA

Immigration Minister Damian Green has expressed his confidence in the policy

UK Immigration - Are Sports Stars More Important than Other Immigrants?

Earlier today dreamacttexas received a comment that this article is not about Texas legislation, since it is from a London paper.

It is true that this blog is not just about Texas immigration issues. It is about global immigration policy, among other things. While we started with a focus on the DREAM Act, we soon realized that there are many other issues that need to be addressed, like public health, migration issues from other parts of the world, the dilemma of the Palestinians, among other things. The internet provides us with a fantastic opportunity to disseminate (send out) information that isn't always in our view (or on our TVs).

The problem DREAMers have in Texas and the rest of the U.S. is tragic. However, all the people that have drowned in the over crowded boats traveling from North Africa to Spain and Italy are just as important.

The purpose in mentioning the immigration issue regarding soccer players is to show that some people are seen as "necessary", and their governments don't care about quotas. This certainly isn't fair, but we have helped create this dilemma with how we idealize sports figures. Just think of how many American baseball players are immigrants who were brought over with visas by their sports teams.

As for the article being about someplace other than Texas; the UK is in a difficult place regarding immigration. Many people are saying that there are too many people of color in Britain. The country is changing, and its really hurting some of them especially because the UK has always been so rigid about it class lines.

It is important for Americans to know what is going on in other places. One aim of this blog is to remind the U.S. that we are not the center of the universe.

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Tory plan to cap immigration 'could prevent clubs signing top footballers
'Annual immigration limit 'unworkable' and could keep out likes of Didier Drogba, argues left-of-centre think tank

guardian.co.uk

Anushka Asthana, policy editor
The Observer, Sunday 28 March 2010


A flat immigration limit could keep out football stars such as Didier Drogba if they were signed at the wrong time of year. Photograph: Simon Dawson/AP

The Conservative party's plans to cut net immigration to the level of the early 1990s by imposing an annual cap are "unworkable", according to research published today.

The Limit to Limits, from the left-of-centre Institute of Public Policy Research, says that the move would require drastic changes to policy, including putting severe limits on the number of highly skilled immigrants from outside the EU and on overseas students. Any such moves could put the party on a collision course with big business and higher education. "Would the government be happy to tell KPMG that it could not bring over an analyst from its New York office? Or to tell Arsenal that it could not sign a promising young player from Côte d'Ivoire?" the paper asks.

David Cameron, the party's leader, has said he would like to see immigration capped at the "tens of thousands". Although he has not given an exact number, he has said he would like to see the level back to what it was in the early 1990s. Then, net annual immigration was around 50,000, compared to closer to 200,000 in recent years.

But the IPPR paper points out that the government has little control over large parts of net immigration, including workers coming from the EU, asylum seekers and Britons returning home. The government has already stopped all unskilled workers coming in from outside the EU, apart from those in industries suffering shortages. "There has been a lot of talk about capping immigration from various groups, and close to an election those calls are becoming stronger," said Sarah Mulley, author of the report. "But people are often vague about outlining how it would work in practice."

The report says: "Some visa categories in the United States do have fixed numerical limits, and they result in fairly arbitrary lines being drawn as visa categories 'sell out'." Mulley argued that such a system would have to say no to Premier League footballers, such as Chelsea's Ivorian striker Didier Drogba or Arsenal's Russian forward Andrey Arshavin, if it was the wrong time in the year.

Last week, Gordon Brown addressed the issue of immigration during his weekly podcast. The prime minister said: "I recognise that among the concerns you must address when you talk of fairness is immigration...link to complete article

UK Immigration and Prime Minister Gordon Brown

London Guardian: Brown's Speech

Click here for link to UK Prime Minister Brown's Immigration Speech

Gordon Brown's immigration speech: what he said, and meant

by Allegra Stratton

London Guardian November 12, 2009

•Importance "I have never agreed with the lazy elitism that dismisses immigration as an issue, or portrays anyone who has concerns about immigration as a racist … Immigration is … a question to be dealt with … So if people ask me, do I get it?, yes, I get it.

What it means Brown the intellectual had been criticised for being too keen on considering an abstract concept of Britishness, but not necessarily immigration as experienced by the less academic. The declaration that he "gets it" is spurred by recent and growing gains by the BNP, and Labour's private polling makes this a matter of urgency.

•Rights "The right to stay permanently will no longer follow automatically after living here for a certain number of years … Instead, we have said that after living here for five years, migrants will have to apply to become probationary citizens – and at that point they will have to pass a points-based test."

What it means This is classic Blairite/Brownite territory and is also an attempt to show the rigour of the government's analysis of the skills needed.

•Variations in demand "I do want to ensure that we give British people looking for jobs the best chance of filling vacancies that arise as we come out of the downturn. But where there are vacancies that have been advertised here and are unfilled, it is necessary for businesses and for the economy to be able to recruit more widely."

What it means This is Brown adapting his "British jobs for British workers" rubric. It worried colleagues when he first said it more than two years ago because of possible racist overtones, but Brown has not shied away from it. This will annoy academics who dislike a cap, saying it is difficult to predict job markets.

•Stress on public services "Where there are short term increases in the numbers of children at your local school, or patients using GP services, extra resources should be provided."

What it means: This addresses the long held critique by minister Margaret Hodge that immigrants using public services have put them under stress. This is not new. Earlier this year the government announced the Migration Impact Fund – every non-EU migrant would pay a charge into a £70m fund, which already provides more teaching assistants and GPs in areas most affected by immigration.

•Population "That net inward migration from both within and outside the EU is not rising but falling – with the annual figures showing that overall net immigration is down 44% on last year."

What it means This is a rebuttal of a report from the Office for National Statistics, which predicted the population would rise to 70 million, giving rise to feelings of being "swamped".

•Security "The measures to strengthen our borders are now more co-ordinated than ever – our new Border Agency, biometric visas, electronic border controls counting people in and out, and ID cards for foreign nationals."

What it means This is a daring defence of a government policy (ID cards) unpopular with the metropolitan elite, but popular with other social groups.

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  link to photo

Children Immigrating Alone to the UK - seeking an education

Many people say that the U.S. Civil Rights Movement got a huge kick start from the unfortunate murder of Emmett Till.  The French movie, "Welcome" is doing the same in Europe.  

For us in the United States the film could be very helpful.  While most immigrants here are from Spanish Speaking countries, the idea of a young man struggling to immigrate to the UK so he can get an education resonates with American DREAMers.

The movie "Welcome" may be the answer for those nativists who cringe every time they think of Mexican immigration.  The protagonist is a young boy who is not European, yet he is not Mexican either.  The film might have a chance at seducing anti-immigrationists into having empathy for a kid just trying to get an education.

Once the movie reaches the states it will be important to encourage everyone to see it.

see "France hails film drama of refugee's desperate swim across the Channel," London Observer, March 8, 2009

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Welcome to Calais

March 17, 2009

Champs-Elysees Blog

Reflections on life in France and French Culture

Talk of the town this week is the new film by Philippe Lioret called 'Welcome', which looks at the human drama unfolding at the northern port of Calais. That is where hundreds of migrants from Iraq, Afghanistan, Somalia and elsewhere gather with the purpose of secretly crossing the Channel to England in the back of lorries. They are generally thwarted in their endeavours, because security is tight, but enough evidently do make it over to keep hopes alive. In the meantime the migrants live rough in makeshift camps on the outskirts of Calais, subsisting on hand-outs from charity and looked on with a certain resentment by many locals.

Periodically French government ministers feel compelled to promise more substantial shelter -- but this immediately triggers howls of protest from the right-wing press in Britain. Across the Channel, there is a paranoid fixation that France is going to create a new 'Sangatte' -- this being the name of the holding centre for migrants that became a kind of operational HQ for the people-smugglers. Sangatte was closed in 2002 by the then interior minister -- one Nicolas Sarkozy -- but the same humanitarian arguments that led to its creation in the first place (i.e. the crying disgrace of hundreds of men living under tarpaulin) continue to apply today.

This is the backdrop to the film, which is about how a swimming instructor -- played by the very watchable Vincent Lindon -- befriends a young Kurd who wants to swim across to England to be with his girlfriend. Unlike so many French films, 'Welcome' is well-constructed and has enough dramatic tension to keep the viewer engaged. It also sheds much-needed light on the plight of so many stranded migrants, living in abject misery on one side of the Channel with the white cliffs of their eldorado visible just 20 miles away...more

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The Sunday Times (London)
March 22, 2009
Edition 1

Children risking lives to sneak into Britain;
People smuggling Young boys are among those waiting in squalor to cross the Channel, reports Matthew Campbell in Calais

SECTION: FEATURES; Pg. 26

HE has crossed deserts, seas and mountains in pursuit of his dream, but the English Channel is proving more of an obstacle.

Sawab, a 12-year-old Afghan boy, is reduced to living under a piece of plastic in Calais while awaiting a passage to Britain.

Sawab is one of a growing band of children who have joined the throng of supposed refugees hoping to hide in lorries travelling from Calais to Dover, increasing pressure on the French to offer humanitarian aid in spite of British complaints that this will merely attract more migrants.

"It's becoming commonplace to see children travelling without parents," said Vincent Lenoir, a 30-year-old biology teacher who helps to run a soup kitchen in the evenings. "They get younger and younger." The children live in "the Jungle", as locals call their small, rubbish-strewn wood near the northern French port. Sawab, who sleeps in a cardboard box, was foraging for firewood when I met him last week. He speaks no English so an older boy translated. complete article

Detention Center - Collaboration between France & UK

Using the term Guantanamo brings to mind torture and Al Qaeda.  The article below is about a detention center for asylum seekers and undocumented immigrants, not terrorists.   Perhaps what is similar is the proposed location -  a sort of no-man's land location - an "ambiguous" UK control zone that will make it easier to transport prisoners across international boundaries.

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The Calais ‘Guantanamo’

French and British ministers in talks to open dockside holding centre for illegal immigrants and asylum-seekers

By John Lichfield in Paris and Ben Russell

Saturday, 21 March 2009


The British and French governments are discussing the creation of a new immigrant holding centre within the Calais docks which would be "inside Britain" under immigration law and allow cross-Channel asylum-seekers to be shipped back to their home countries easily.


Although no details have yet been agreed, the idea is to exploit the ambiguous legal status of a British "control zone" of the Calais port, created in 2003, to cut through the mesh of legal difficulties which prevent asylum-seekers from being expelled to their countries of origin.

The idea – discussed by the British and French immigration ministers last month – seeks to turn the tables on the asylum-seekers and the gangs who smuggle them into northern France. At present, the immigrants gathered in Calais, mostly from Afghanistan, Kurdistan and the Horn of Africa, can exploit contradictions and grey areas in European and international law on immigration and asylum to evade expulsion from France. They can be arrested repeatedly only to be freed to try to enter Britain illegally again.

The holding centre would potentially allow London and Paris to use the ambiguous status of the British "control zone" at Calais to send the migrants home. If agreed, the centre is likely to attract the scrutiny of civil liberties and human rights groups.

The creation of an "offshore, on-shore" holding centre, which helps London and Paris cut through the thickets of asylum law, may invite parallels with Guantanamo Bay. Although the idea would be to hold the asylum-seekers for only a short time in humane conditions, the immigrants would have fallen into a legal limbo of their own making.

Hints of the Franco-British discussions were dropped this week by the British Immigration minister, Phil Woolas. He said Britain and France were discussing a new "detention centre" in Calais where illegal immigrants would be held "after passing through British immigration controls" within the Calais docks. They would be sent back to their home countries on charter flights.

Mr Woolas said that London and Paris wanted to "send a message" to immigrants and their smugglers. "We want to increase the profile of the deportations because we have to get the message back to Afghanistan and Iraq that Britain is not the Promised Land," he said.

The minister's remarks were widely mocked in the British press after they were – allegedly – dismissed the same night by the French Immigration Minister, Eric Besson. In fact, M. Besson did not repudiate Mr Woolas. He said France had no intention of building a new Sangatte refugee camp – a different animal entirely. The French government was embarrassed, and angered, by the British minister's remarks, because the words "detention centre" have a sinister, historical ring to the French. Paris prefers to speak about a "retention centre".

In the scramble to mock Mr Woolas, his key words were missed. The new detention centre – or retention centre – would be built beyond the line of British immigration controls in Calais docks. complete article

A Young Journalist in London writing about Immigration

How concerned is the public about immigration?
Posted by Amol Rajan

London Independent  -  Live Journal

* Friday, 27 February 2009 at 04:47 pm

The Telegraph reported this morning on a YouGov poll showing that "Immigration is top issue for both Labour and Tory voters".

This unremarkable finding conceals something more important.

I've just spoken to Ben Page, Managing Director of Ipsos MORI, to confirm a statistic that he told me about last year, and which has been revalidated by new research his organisation has conducted.

According to Ipsos MORI, 76% of people in Britain reckon that immigration is their 'top concern'.

But only 18% of people in Britain say it is the biggest problem, or even a major problem, in their area.

This is a finding that has stayed, Page said, "remarkably consistent over several years - it's one of our most consistent poll findings".

The discrepancy between the two statistics is very revealing. It shows that concerns about immigration tap into a generalised anxiety about the state of Britain - all that "broken society" stuff. Despondent voters, who feel the country is going to the dogs, pin the blame for a vast array of ills - crime, lack of teachers, nurses, hospital beds, increased teenage pregnancy etc - on Johnny Foreigner.

Yet less than a fifth think it's a major problem in their area.

Last year I heard the Tory MP Sir Nicholas Winterton, who was in the room when Enoch Powell delivered his Rivers of Blood speech to the Midland Hotel in 1968, give an appreciative speech about his hero.

Reaching a crescendo with his conclusion, he said, fixing his eye on me (who he realised was the only non-white person in the room): "And now we see what's happening with our schools, with our hospitals, with our streets... I'm immensely proud to have been in that room, and immensely grateful to Enoch for his contribution to this debate!"

The clear implication was that the problem with public services in this country is one of capacity: we're overwhelmed by numbers. This attempt to re-write the debate about immigration in terms of demographics is David Cameron's presently favoured method (though it wasn't when he wrote the Tories' 2005 manifesto).

Sir Nicholas was subscribing to precisely the scapegoating instinct that explains those Ipsos MORI findings. Immigrants are a blank canvas, onto which are projected the fears of an atomised society. They are a mechanism for re-writing internal problems as products of external forces.

People are worried, of course, but for more subtle reasons than the Telegraph thinks.

link to Live Journal post

How may Minute Men work for the Dept. of Homeland Security?

Far Right Wing "British National Party" advocates sending everybody away. They are not allowed to work for the UK's immigration system. What a novel idea! Can you imagine if DHS couldn't hire Minutemen or people who belong to Krikorian's group?

BNP links to immigration service staff

After nearly 300 allegations of brutality and racist abuse, official inquiry is launched

By Robert Verkaik, Law Editor
Wednesday, 14 January 2009

An official investigation has been launched after two immigration service staff working with asylum-seekers were found to have links to the British National Party, The Independent has learnt.

One guard employed to look after asylum-seekers at a detention centre has been forced to resign after his name was found on a membership list of the BNP. Another man has been suspended while his employer investigates alleged links to the same far-right organisation.

Both cases raise serious concerns about racism within the immigration system, where membership of extreme political groups has long been suspected. Over the past two years The Independent has helped reveal nearly 300 allegations of brutality, including 38 claims of racism, made by asylum-seekers about private security and immigration staff. Some of the allegations included abusive and racist language, in which refugees fleeing persecution were referred to as "monkeys" or told to "go back to their own countries".  more

UK Immigration Policy Tightens after November 27

200,000 jobs barred to non-European migrants

* Alan Travis, home affairs editor
* The Guardian, Wednesday November 12 2008

Two hundred thousand skilled jobs in Britain will be closed to non-European migrants from November 27, when the new points-based immigration system comes into effect, the Home Office announced yesterday.

The official shortage occupations list, published yesterday, which will be opened to skilled workers from outside Europe, covers 800,000 jobs, compared with the estimated 1m vacancies covered by the existing work permit system. The largest occupations being closed to non-EU migrants are doctors, secondary school teachers and most nursing jobs.

The final list of professions covers 100,000 posts more than the provisional list proposed by the migration advisory committee, which is made up of labour market economists. The flow of skilled migration from outside Europe is expected to fall by between 30,000 and 70,000 people a year as a result of the introduction of the shortage occupation list...more

Surveillance on UK International Students

New rules for international students in the UK "could breach the European convention on human rights." British universities will be required to follow the movements of foreign students.  You would think the Bush administration is running the UK.

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Academics balk at 'spying' on students to nail migrant scams

* Polly Curtis, education editor
* guardian.co.uk, Monday November 10 2008 00.01 GMT
* London - The Guardian, Monday November 10 2008


Universities are being asked to set up surveillance units to monitor the movements of international students in a government-led crackdown on bogus student immigration scams, academics say. New rules to force universities to report overseas students who miss too many lectures to immigration officers will harm the academic-student relationship because lecturers are being asked to act in a "police-like" manner, according to a group of 200 academics and activists opposing the moves.

A letter to the Guardian, organised by Ian Grigg-Spall, academic chair of the National Critical Lawyers Group and signed by leading academic lawyers, the head of the lecturers' union and Tony Benn, claims that the rules could breach the European convention on human rights, which guarantees the individual's right to privacy. "This police-like surveillance is not the function of universities and alters the educational relationship between students and their teachers in a very harmful manner," it says. "University staff are there to help the students develop intellectually and not to be a means of sanctioning these students..." more

UK Immigration Policy Xenophobic?

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Labour MP's immigration plan brings claims of xenophobia
Institute for Public Policy Research criticises Frank Field after he backs repatriation plans for non EU workers
Patrick Wintour
The Guardian-London, Monday September 8 2008

Labour MP Frank Field was yesterday accused of pandering to xenophobia by the leftwing thinktank the Institute for Public Policy Research (IPPR), after he backed plans for all skilled immigrants from outside the EU to be sent home when their work visas expire after four years.

Field, in a report jointly authored with Nicholas Soames, the Tory backbencher, claims that the current wave of immigration is 25 times higher than any previous migration and will increase the population by 2031 to 59 million in England.

He identifies the chief source of migration as the large majority of non-EU migrants granted work visas for the country who stay on after the visa expires and are allowed to settle permanently.

Field and Soames also back the Tory proposal for an annual quota on the number of non-EU migrants allowed to come to Britain, suggesting on the basis of the latest immigration figures that an annual cap of 20,000 non-EU migrants be set, including dependants. He said the proposals would mean that between 50,000 and 170,000 people a year would no longer acquire "an almost automatic right to settle here".

The 20,000 would be selected on the basis of their skills as reflected in their salary. The cap would be adjusted annually, taking into account other migration figures including total net British emigration.

Field claims in the pamphlet, entitled Balanced Migration, that the government's solution of an Australian-style points system for non-EU migrants based on skills amounts to an open door for tens of thousands to migrate, since any work permit holder staying on for more than five years will be qualified to apply for permanent residence in Britain or probationary citizenship. He claims the rate of inflow is higher than any other previous period of immigration since the Norman Conquest in 1066, making Britain the most crowded land in Europe.

Jill Rutter, senior research fellow at the IPPR, rejected the Field analysis. She said: "The proposal that migrant workers should leave the UK after a four-year period of work would mean that employers could not retain the hard-working migrants they want to keep. For example, football clubs would have to lose talent such as Kanu, Viduka and Drogba. We need to make migration work for Britain, rather than play to xenophobic sentiments."

Immigration minister Liam Byrne said yesterday: "Our tough new points system plus our plans for newcomers to earn their citizenship will reduce overall numbers of economic migrants coming to Britain, and the numbers awarded permanent settlement.

"Crucially the points system means only the migrants with the skills Britain needs can come - and no more. Unlike made-up quotas, this stops government cutting business off from the skills it needs when they need them."

Narratives about Detention in the U.K.

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Painful experiences take centre stage


by Alison Benjamin
The Guardian - London
June 25, 2008

Asfin Azizian stares at you from the screen. Standing in his kitchen in north London, the former professional footballer from Iran nervously relays his story of detention, destitution and attempted suicide. However, his 13-year ordeal was not at the hands of Tehran's secret police, but the result of the British immigration service.

Azizian's painful experience is one of many horrific tales of asylum seekers' struggle and survival on the streets of Britain that will unfold on the stage of Southwark Playhouse, London, next month in a play combining film, live action and audience participation.

Devised and directed by Topher Campbell, artistic director of theatre company Red Room, Unstated aims to expose the dehumanising treatment meted out to some of society's most vulnerable people and its impact on both them and us.

"These people become stateless," Campbell explains. "We wanted to tell their stories in the UK, where their rights have been removed. While the government is debating whether to lock up terror suspects for 42 days, asylum seekers are being locked up in detention centres for two years. Britain is home to just 3% of refugees worldwide, yet the tabloid view is that we are being overrun..."

for link to video click here

for  link to complete Guardian article click here

Tilting UK immigration laws to help Scotland

Trevor Phillips, Chairman of the UK Equality and Human Rights Commission. Photo by Tom Stockill.

Trevor Phillips, chairman of the Equality and Human Rights Commission, is asking to "tilt" UK immigration policy -to help the Scottish pharmaceutical industry. This is so different from our Congress that is constantly fighting Bill Gates who wants to increase the number of HBI visas.

The U.S. continues to shoot itself in the foot regarding immigration - by limiting HB1 visas, forbiding driver's licenses for undocumented immigrants, keeping DREAMERS from working in their professions.

If only Trevor Phillips could speak to some of our lawmakers.

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Flexible immigration policy call

The UK's equality watchdog has suggested immigration policy should be "tilted" to help Scotland acquire the skills it needs.

Trevor Phillips, chairman of the Equality and Human Rights Commission, will tell a conference in St Andrews immigration should be handled flexibly.

He believes Scotland's biological and pharmaceutical industry has specific demands for skilled workers.

His views have been given a cautious welcome by the Scottish Government.

Under Home Office rules introduced last month, people wishing to work in the UK must satisfy various criteria before they are allowed in.

Migrant workers

Points are allocated to different employment sectors - but the Home Office view is for the UK as a whole.

Mr Phillips believes flexibility could be delivered through a work permit system which would allow suitable migrant workers to work only in Scotland.

"We're in the new position of having a managed migration system where basically everyone who comes into the UK has to have a job," Mr Phillips told BBC Radio Scotland's Good Morning Scotland.

"They will be admitted if they have enough points awarded for having jobs, speaking English, having a high level of education and so on.

So, in a sense coming to Scotland would mean that migrants would find it easier to fit in Trevor Phillips

"What I'm suggesting here is a part of the UK - Scotland - which like the rest of Western Europe suffers from an ageing population and needs more people, particularly more skilled people to boost it's economy to keep its prosperity, could benefit if we tilt the points system in such a way that potential migrants perhaps get some extra points for coming to Scotland."

Mr Phillips said the move would "turn a number of people who might otherwise go elsewhere towards Scotland".

He said the expectation would then be that immigrants would then stay in Scotland to complete the work they came to do.

Mr Phillips also said that if there was to be more integration, then new arrivals must be made to feel integrated and "that they belong".

He added: "The work that we've done in previous years shows that oddly enough, immigrants find it much easier to essentially integrate with Scottish and Welsh identities, perhaps because they're strong civic and cultural identities, than they find with other kinds of identities within Britain.

"So, in a sense coming to Scotland would mean that migrants would find it easier to fit in and easier to feel loyal to the place where they are and that would give Scotland a particular attraction for migrants."

The Scottish Government said its existing Fresh Talent initiative is aimed at attracting suitably skilled workers.

Story from BBC NEWS:
http://news.bbc.co.uk/go/pr/fr/-/2/hi/uk_news/scotland/7295602.stm

Published: 2008/03/14 10:47:13 GMT

© BBC MMVIII

photo: www.telegraph.co.uk/.../2007/01/15/ngb15.xml