Month: October 2022

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Tagging

31 October 2022: Institute of Race Relations: From GPS tagging to facial recognition watches: expanding the surveillance of migrants in the UK

Written by Lucie Audibert (Lawyer and Legal Officer, Privacy International) & Monish Bhatia (Lecturer in Criminology, Birkbeck, University of London)

Through its use of GPS tags and smartwatches in immigration enforcement, the UK is extending the reach of surveillance and control of migrants to frightening levels.

In early August, we learned that the Ministry of Justice had awarded a £6m contract for ‘facial recognition smartwatches’ to be worn by foreign national offenders. The devices will track their GPS location 24 hours a day, 7 days a week, and will require them to scan their faces up to five times a day. The information obtained from the devices, including names, date of birth, nationality, photographs, and location data, will be stored for up to six years and may be accessed by the Home Office and shared with law and border enforcement agencies.

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Briefing: ‘The Cost of Living (Tenant Protection) (Scotland) Bill

Refugees for Justice is a StatusNow signatory organisation based in Scotland. They have brought the Briefing: ‘The Cost of Living (Tenant Protection) (Scotland) Bill to our attention.

They would welcome the support of other organisations in pushing for basic human rights to be applied in this way, to people seeking asylum:

With the Scottish Parliament making substantial and appreciated efforts to alleviate the cost of living crisis, this briefing explores gaps in the recently passed Cost of Living (Tenant Protection) (Scotland) Bill when it comes to asylum seekers.

As such, we urge the Scottish Government to ensure that asylum seekers enjoy the same tenants’ rights as any resident in Scotland, including entitlements under the Scottish Housing Quality Standards and the protection from eviction encapsulated by the bill.

You can access the full briefing here: https://communitypolicyforum.com/portfolio-item/briefing-cost-of-living-tenant-protection-scotland-bill/

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Aderonke Apata – detained in Yarls Wood and now a barrister

This is a story of real hope, and rising above the hostile system. Congratulations Aderonke Apata:

22 October 2022: Guardian: Barrister says she became legal expert while in Home Office immigration detention

Aderonke Apata says she has Home Office to thank for career as she fought removal to Nigeria

A refugee who has just been called to the bar says she has the Home Office to thank for her career after she became an amateur legal expert while locked up in a detention centre.

Aderonke Apata, 55, from Nigeria, said she was proud to take part in a ceremony last week where she, along with dozens of other newly qualified barristers, were formally called to the bar.

Apata was almost forcibly removed from the UK on a Home Office charter flight to Nigeria in January 2013 after her asylum claim, based on the fact that as a lesbian who had been persecuted in Nigeria her life would be in danger if she was returned there, was rejected.

Apata had completed a degree in microbiology before fleeing Nigeria and hoped to pursue a career in public health in the UK.

She was detained in Yarl’s Wood immigration detention centre in Bedfordshire, which at the time was used mainly for women, from the end of 2011 until the beginning of 2013, including a week spent in solitary confinement in 2012.

During her time in Yarl’s Wood, more women – who either could not understand English or did not understand what the Home Office had written in refusal letters about their immigration claims – turned to Apata for help in explaining what was happening with their legal cases.

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StatusNow4All Newsletter October 2022

OCTOBER 2022 NEWSLETTER

Welcome to this edition of SNN newsletter where we are covering a number of items that will be of interest to everyone involved in migrant and refugee solidarity work.

The first article reports the People’s Assembly against deaths at borders attended by representatives of Status Now in Brussells. More than 200 people from several countries took part in the conference and a demonstration in defence of migrants’ rights was organized outside the European Parliament. 
Our second article is dedicated to Friends of Status Now and its first online meeting. 
Finally we update on SNN plan for an away weekend strategy event and welcome our new signatories Bridging Change and Waling Waling. 
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I Was Not Born a Sad Poet

People who have been to StatusNow events will most likely know that one of our CoChairs, Loraine Masiya Mponela is an amazing poet who bring to life the experiences of people living without status through her words.

We congratulate Loraine, and welcome the publication of her first book of poetry:

“I Was Not Born a Sad Poet”

You can read more about the book, Loraine, and her poetry on her website here

My book of poems: I Was Not Born a Sad Poet 
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Refugees are part of the solution

1 October 2022: Manchester Evening News: Thousands turn out for Enough is Enough protest in city centre

Pictures showed scores of people taking to the city centre as part of the campaign’s day of national action

Thousands of people gathered in Manchester city centre this afternoon to protest against soaring energy prices and the cost of living crisis as part of a day of national action for an anti-poverty campaign.

Enough is Enough, a national campaign created by trade unions and community organisations to help battle the cost of living crisis, launched in Manchester at an event in the Cathedral on August 30, where organisers say over 5,000 people attended to hear from mayor of Greater Manchester Andy Burnham and RMT member Eddie Dempsey.

The event officially launched the campaign in the city region, with over 500,000 people across the country signed up to support the organisation’s five demands within the first month. The group is pushing for: a real pay rise, lower energy bills, an end to food poverty, decent homes for everyone, and more taxation on the top five per cent of earners and big businesses.

Whilst some of the group’s demands have been partially met, including a reversal of the recent National Insurance payment increase from 12 per cent up to 13.5 per cent and a temporary cap to energy bill prices, a national day of action today, Saturday, October 1, saw demonstrations held in dozens of cities across the UK, including London, Liverpool, Glasgow, and Birmingham.

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European campaigns for regularisation confer and protest in Brussels

March to Brussels 2022: Over two hundred people representing migrant and refugee rights organisations met in Brussels over the weekend September 30 – 2nd October to reinvigorate their collaboration across European networks.

The years of the Covid pandemic have had their impact on human rights activism in this area, which depends on people meeting face-to-face and finding ways to get beyond the national differences that distort transnational solidarity.  But as the gathering got underway it was clear that participants were able to report on an upturn in their work, from across Spain, France, Belgium, the Netherlands, Italy and Greece as well as the UK, who all at strong representation in the discussion.

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