THE PROTESTS that erupted inside Campsfield immigration detention centre on August 2 1997 put detention policy in the dock once more, and triggered two developments that have now come to the fore. The first was the commissioning of two reports, one by the Asylum Rights Campaign, the other by the government - from its own Chief Inspector of Prisons. The second development was a show trial staged to intimidate refugees and nip any future protests by detainees in the bud. Nine young West African refugees have been selected to be scapegoats for the protest that nailed the failure of the UK's detention policy on that day in August. 50-100 detainees of many nationalities and both sexes protested at yet another sudden, arbitrary and violent removal to prison, in this case of two detainees. During the pretest, placards were hastily made up said 'Prisoners of Conscience", and Freedom for all". They appeared on our TV screens.
The nine are charged with riot and violent assembly. Their trial opens at Oxford Crown Court on Monday June 1 and will last weeks, maybe two months. Eight of the nine have been in prison since August., after months (up to 17 in one case) in detention.
Six of the nine are from Nigeria and sought refuge in the UK from the Abacha regime: two of these are Ogonis from lands devastated by Shell. The others are from Gambia, Ghana and Liberia Three of the nine have artempied suicide. Two of the nine are minors - Lads of 16 las: August; one of them is Dom I a set ps.chiatric unit, driven sick bETTe • Caras Public :.30 Rat0:ne: exoctances inctuding Abdul Onibiyo. • lorda, i June Mass Lobby of Oxfore Crown Court. 8.30am St dictates • Europe Behind Barbed Wire: a repor, of the proceedings of the conference held in Lille, France, last isar on the growth of immigration desentons in different countries in EuroDe. Copies £3.40 from c/o 60 G'es: Carendon Street, Oxford 0X2 64x • Camosfield 9 Defence ca caigr Campaign to Close Campsfelo: c o 60 Great Clarendon Street, Oxford 012 6AX 01865 55511501865 726804 01865 at the hands of the UK government. Two of those charged have now been officially granted full refugee status (a rarity indeed, for some 1,000 individuals in a year), and one is free on bail. Labour ministers are involved in the trial. Immigration O'Brien made remarks prejudicial to a fair trial immediately after the protest. phone call "right from the top" of the Home Office, according to a police officer at Banbury reluctant police to pursue charges. A special incident room was set up. One estimate of the cost of the prosecution is £2 million.
The bringing of charges is a "first" for any British government in such circumdifferent stances. After the protest at Campsfield on June 4 1994, during which damage of a similar order was done, no charges were brought against any protesting detainees. Labour seems determined to be tougher than Tory immigration minister Charles Wardle and his cohorts.
These seven men and two boys should not be in the dock. The British government, on the other hand, should be tried for its denial of human rights in breach of conventions to which the UK is a signaThe many authorities for such a charge, including the United Nations High Commission for Refugees' UK representatives, have now been joined by David Ramsbotham, HM Chief Inspector of Prisons. His report (which can be obtained from Home Office, 50 Queen Anne's Gate London SWT) flays the government.
Perhaps it is not suprising they refused to →: to: Ere months until forced to :: = LEE CE3s ta z-=g=s i = axes under judicial superision, courts of justice).
Further, it is the government, not Group 4 which runs Campsfield, that is responsiregime that is detainees". There is "too much secrecy associated with immigration detention". Immigration detainees should not be held in prisons alongside criminals and those on remand.
In this context Ramsbotham states; "In my view, money would be better spent on expanding Immigration Service places, if legislation still requires such numbers be detained, than requiring the prison service to continue to hold too many" (emphasis added).
In fact the 1971 Immigration Act does not require the government to detain, it empowers immigration officials to decide to detain in individual cases. But the point SOCI is made: how many people are detained is up to the government of the day, and it could be fewer. It beggars belief that the immigration minister can claim that minister Michael police station, urged policy is going on.
Event a thoroughgoing review. "misreporting". out the window, without debate. is bound to have limitations. contrast, some reported statements thoughtfully presumably with informaic= provided by Group 4 had only been three children "unsafe for example. Ramsbotham's 94 cover. that, inside, operates with The message is loud enough and & clear to all but ministers, stuck on lory policies the Ramsbotham report vindicates government policy on detention. Such misrepresentation, and other remarks by Michael O'Brien that give the lie to the claim that a serious review of asylum and detention Michael O'Brien should resign: the effect heed of. of his public statements can only be to preAt the time when the government is supposedly considering such matters as part of its review, it recently planted "rumours' in the press that an amnesty was in the offing for asylum seekers whose applications have from dragged on for years: the government promptly issued a statement denying such Hey presto a key demand of refugees and campaigners goes So, some, even a surprising amount of' ammunition for campaigners in Ramsbotham. But the ex-army general's report One is the rousing defence of private companies whose work is inflicting misery - Group 4, and Wakenhurst, which runs Tinsley near Gatwick, subject of another Ramsbotham report. They are "doing a good job". Apart from not questioning their ghastly trade, Ramsbotham fails to credit or pursue the many reports by detainees of racism in Group 4 guards. By detainees' beggars belief that the "corrected", immigration minister can claim that the Ramsbotham report ase statevindicates government policy received at the centre since it had opened' are reported unchallenged, when they contradict what is on public record. Twenty-seven children have been taken into care from Campsfield by the nearby Bicester Social Services office: for recommendations on include the important one that detainees should be given reasons for their detention in writing, and suggest changes to the complaint procedure and to mental health However, the "secure-hostel" regime of detention centres which does allow some free-association, should be replaced by one that is more prison-like. Despite the fact Campsfield currently "only the consent of the detainees", detainees should from now on