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January Racial Justice Update
Welcome to first update of 2008.
Features:
Finally Good News: Pastor Daly and his family received the news they have wanted or seven years: they have been granted the right to remain in this country. Thank you for all of you who prayed for this family or have helped in any way their case. See the article in the Evening Times.
Down at the corner of the street, another great poem by Stephen Eric Smyth
Marring a Foreigner might be tricky from now on
Please have a look at the two consultation posted towards the end of this update. And please note the Home Office’s proposal to treat those people who fall in love and marry a foreigner. If you feel that our society should treat the foreigner who marry a Brit with respect then please respond to the consultation.
Scotland on Sunday columnist Kenny Farquharson wrote an interesting piece on the 6th of January paper, Glorious diversity of our mongrel nation. I am not sure how many of you read it. But I provide a link here.
1. Racist incidents in Scotland:
Shopkeeper's disgust over bigoted graffiti
An Asian shopkeeper today said he was "disgusted and hurt" after his bakery was daubed with religiously-offensive graffiti. Mohammed Munir, 49, a Muslim from Penicuik, has seen his shop, the Pentland Bakery in Pentland Terrace, targeted three times since last November. The latest incident saw the words "Profit is a peado" and a Star of David scrawled across his shop. White paint had also been splashed over the bakery's windows. Police are treating it as a bigoted hate crime.
Edinburgh News
CCTV checks for racist Dundee attacker
Police in Dundee are examining CCTV footage for clues to the identity of a racist attacker. A 29-year-old Pakistani man was driving in the city's Kingsway West Retail Park when a car pulled up in front of him. The driver got out of the car and made a racist comment before repeatedly punching the victim in the face.
Press and Journal
Croatian man fined for racially abusing doorman
A Croatian engineer who shouted racial abuse at Scottish doormen after they asked him not to smoke in a pub doorway has been fined. Viskovic Mladen, 53, appeared at Aberdeen Sheriff Court yesterday and admitted acting in a racially aggravated manner on Christmas Eve.
Press and Journal
Police stop and search 14,000 since terror attack on airport
Anti-terror police have carried out more than 14,000 random stop and searches in Scotland in the wake of the Glasgow Airport attack, triggering an unprecedented warning from a government minister of a serious threat to civil liberties.
Scotsman
Race claim lawyer 'not credible'
A high-profile lawyer has been called "not credible" by a sheriff who cleared a woman of racially abusing him. Aamar Anwar and his wife Ifet claimed office manager Lorraine Ferrie made a racist comment to them following a car accident in Glasgow in August 2006.
BBC
Stop-and-search policy requires careful handling
Scotsman
2. Developments, Reports and Investigations
Novelty factor or racism
Black and ethnic minority teachers can encounter unique obstacles in their careers, but some schools are making equality a priority. Hannah Frankel reports. …. “I drew a picture of a Muslim man on the board for pupils to discuss and asked them how they’d feel if they saw him walk down the street,” says the 32-year-old. “Most told me they’d feel uneasy and would cross the road or walk faster. I’d drawn me.”
TES
3. Asylum refugees:
Joy as asylum family are allowed to stay in Glasgow
An African churchman and his family have won a seven-year battle to stay in Glasgow. Pastor Makieokele Daly says he feels like he has been freed from prison. After years of waiting and worrying, having his asylum case repeatedly rejected and being locked up on three occasions, Pastor Daly has been given permission to stay on in the city indefinitely.
Evening Times
Asylum backlog ‘locks youngsters into years of fear’
An asylum backlog in the UK has condemned around 100,000 vulnerable children to years of poverty, uncertainty and fear, according to a leading children's charity. New procedures introduced by the Home Office mean that families arriving in the UK to claim asylum will now be swiftly returned to their own country if their claim fails. But Barnardo's, which welcomes these changes, says there is still a huge backlog of families unaffected by the legislation which could take up to 2011 to clear.
Herald
Waiting for asylum in Glasgow
Fleeing from the war in Somalia, Sofia sought refuge in Britain. She has been raped, left destitute on the streets of Glasgow, is HIV-positive, and cannot find her two daughters, whom she believes may yet be stranded in Somalia. Six years after her arrival Sofia is still waiting for a decision by the British government as to whether she will be granted refugee status. Meanwhile, she lives out a precarious existence in a run-down block of flats and volunteers to work with the stream of refugees that continues to flow into Glasgow. Here, she tells her story
Guardian weekly
Racism Rife In Immigration Centres, Says Official Report
Widespread racism was exposed inside Britain's immigration removal centres last night in an official report.
Herald
4. Immigration
A time to celebrate just being together
THE letterbox rattles at the door of the new Kasokota household in Motherwell, a million miles from the violence of their home country. It's a friend from church with a gift of a bicycle, cycling helmet and lights for head of the family Justin. "He's a good friend," says Justin, 34. "If I have some problem, then I pick up the phone to call him."
Evening Times
Cardinal makes plea on immigrants
People should do more to welcome immigrants, the leader of Roman Catholics in England and Wales says. In his Christmas address at Midnight Mass, Cardinal Cormac Murphy-O'Connor said he understood the need for immigration to be controlled.
BBC
Catholic leader claims Poles could split Church
The leader of the country's Roman Catholics has sparked a row by accusing immigrants of creating a separate church in Britain. Worshippers outside a packed Polish Catholic Church in London Crowded out: Worshippers outside a packed Polish Catholic Church in London Cardinal Cormac Murphy-O'Connor, the Archbishop of Westminster, urged the Polish community to do more to learn English and integrate into local parishes, claiming the Catholic Church in the UK was in danger of dividing along ethnic lines as the number of Polish-speaking churches rose.
Telegraph
Shortage of curry chefs as immigration changes start to bite
Curry restaurants are facing an "unprecedented crisis" due to tough new immigration laws, one of Britain's leading Asian businessmen said yesterday.
Scotsman
Migrant admits luring Poles with promise of bogus jobs
A Polish migrant yesterday admitted luring fellow Poles to Scotland for bogus jobs and then abandoning them, penniless, on the streets. Lucas Zylinski, who admitted charges of fraud and theft, faces a jail term after two Polish women were left stranded. Joanna Cieslak, 31, and Pawel Janicki, 32, had answered an advert on a Polish website offering them the chance to relocate to Scotland and be housed for an agreed fee.
Herald
'Lock-up time, you animals' – migrants abused
A catalogue of racist behaviour inside Britain's immigration detention centres was exposed in an official report yesterday.Immigration offenders and failed asylum-seekers at one centre, Colnbrook near Heathrow airport, were described as "black b******s" by one female officer, who taunted detainees by saying: "Animals, lock-up time".
Scotsman
Migrants take the high road to better quality of life in Scotland
Scotland is becoming increasingly attractive to an army of migrants from south of the border, new figures reveal.
Almost 60,000 people are moving to Scotland from the rest of the UK every year, attracted by the quality of life and relative affordability of housing.
Scotland on Sunday
‘The paradox of immigration’
When eight new East European nations joined the EU in 2004, Britain decided, unlike most other EU nations, not to impose restrictions on migrants from the accession countries. Critics warned that millions of East Europeans would overwhelm Britain. In fact, some 600,000 East Europeans, mainly Poles, have arrived since 2004 - far closer to the critics' estimate that that of the government . And Britain is still standing. If anything, the new migrants have kept Britain standing by picking crops, cleaning streets and building houses.
Bergens Tidende
Limbo status is made official
The Criminal Justice and Immigration Bill, currently going through the Commons, creates a new immigration status for undeportable 'foreign nationals'.
IRR
Chief Rabbi: Britain is losing its identity
Britain is losing its identity because of over-zealous political correctness and a failure to deal with immigration, the Chief Rabbi has warned.
Telegraph
English lessons for immigrants plan
Immigrants who have settled
in Britain but cannot speak English will be targeted with language
lessons under radical plans to improve community relations.
Skills
Secretary John Denham said too many long-term residents lack the
English skills they need to communicate with their neighbours.
Scotsman
Trafficking
Sex Slaves Bought For £7000 Freed In Police Raid
Three women held as sex slaves in Scotland were bought for just £7000 - and forced to have sex with up to 20 men a day. Human traffickers charged up to £60-a-time for sex with the victims, two Slovakians and a Lithuanian. The women have now been freed thanks to a massive police operation. They were among 17 sex slaves rescued during a series of raids across Scotland in the last few months.
Daily Record
Gangmasters’ Licensing Authority – Appeal from Nottingham Diocese Justice & Peace Commission
Following from the most recent Annual Assembly of the Nottingham Catholic Diocese Justice and Peace Commission, ‘Migrant labour – a modern form of slavery?’, the J&PC wish to commend to you a campaign action launched by us on 3 December, the World Day of Migrants and Refugees. The action is in the form of an e-petition to the Prime Minister to extend the remit of the Gangmasters’ Licensing Authority (GLA). This body was set up in 2004 to safeguard the welfare and interests of workers whilst ensuring that labour providers operate within the law.
Please sign the petition at http://petitions.pm.gov.uk/Gangmasters/
5. Marking the Bicentenary of the abolition of the slave trade
Britain to get official slavery remembrance day
Black campaign groups have welcomed news that Britain is to have an official National Slavery and Abolition Memorial Day. The event will be marked on August 23 every year, and school children will be learning about slavery in schools from next September. Campaign groups, along with trade unions and some officials in cities such as Liverpool and London, had fought for years to get an annual day to remember the horror of slavery. They also wanted school children to be taught about the atrocity, called the African holocaust by black campaigners.
The Voice
See also Freedom For All Website
6. Publications and Resources:
Talk at seminar on 'The Political and Cultural Debates Surrounding Migrant Workers in the UK'
‘In the 1950s, immigration controls were viewed as a means of preserving a racialised form of British identity. Today they are seen as tools of managing cultural diversity and of creating a more coherent society. But one thing that debates about immigration throughout the past half century have had in common is that they have not really been about immigration at all.’
Kenan Malik at University of Oxford, 8 November 2007
Publication of audit of race relations across the immigration detention estate
BIA (British Immigration Authority)
Fair Play, Refugees and Asylum Seekers in Scotland: A guide for Journalists, revised edition 2007, Published by Oxfam.
Like any other child
Barnardos
Consolations:
Marriage Visas: Pre-Entry English Requirement For Spouses (27 February 2008)
Home Office
Marriage to Partners from Overseas (27 February 2008)
Home Office
Events:
Still Human, Still Here: How we can take action to stop the destitution of people seeking asylum
Saturday 2 February 10am to 1.30pm, Renfield St Stephens Centre, 260 Bath Street, Glasgow G2 4JP, Organised by Church Action on Poverty with PAIH
Poster is available at Church Action on Poverty website (PDF)
Background info on destitution is available at: http://www.stillhuman.org.uk/
Poem
Down at the corner of the street
Slouched in a kind of coiled crumple
two wee neds lean
not quite haphazardly
against the world.
It's an attitude as old as youth
and first rehearsed
down at the corner of the caves.
These are new neds. They're locals,
as of a couple of weeks ago. And,
they're black. But,
they're not
the recent black of Africa or India,
the black of half a world
come home from the lost to the last of colonies;
not Italian black
nor the black of the black Irish,
which are now treasures on our family trees;
nor are these the near-forgotten black
of the burned out glens.
I sense a different world, an arcane tongue.
I feel afraid that they
are talking about me.
I guess they're Middle East.
Briefcased, I pass them by.
They shift shoulders, resettle scowls,
prop up the walls.
Here's tae us. Wha's like us?
By Stephen Eric Smyth