A dramatic end to a week in Yarl's Wood
A couple of days ago in Bedfordshire, uniformed immigration officers surrounded Melchior Singo as his screaming children looked on. They dragged him away as his wife Ethol tried to stop them, to talk to her husband, to keep the family together.
Amid highly charged and chaotic scenes inside the Yarl's Wood detention centre on Wednesday afternoon, two officers were injured - one claims to have been bitten, another stabbed in the neck with a pen. Children were vomiting and weeping as a number of men were marched away.
Ethol then took nine-year-old Olger and seven-year-old Renee into a side room and instructed them to pray.
It was the dramatic end to a week when the desperation of those facing deportation boiled over.
The Singo family is from Malawi. Their claims to stay in Britain have all but come to an end after living for the past five years in Leyland near Preston in Lancashire. They were active members of a local church and the children both attended the scout troop. Melchior worked at the local hospital; Ethol had a job in Tesco.
Whatever the rights and wrongs of their residency application, the family has been shown support by people in Leyland.
A church newsletter shows what can happen when people are asked to choose between friendship and the system:
"The PPC and the monks think that it is our Christian duty to support them in their hour of need, and we know how many of you are concerned for them. There will be fund-raising events happening. As usual this Sunday we will attempt to talk to them through the computer."
It seems clear that, this week, Melchior's resilience snapped. After staying with his family for over a month in Yarl's Wood, with the threat of imminent deportation hanging over them, he was among twenty detainees who took part in what is being described as a hunger strike.
Ethol, who I spoke to last night, says it was a period of "fasting and praying", but it was undoubtedly a challenge to the system. There were demands from a number of the families held in the centre for better healthcare, but their decision to boycott the centre's canteen and to move their mattresses into the corridors looks to many like a protest borne of desperation.
It was clearly a potentially dangerous situation for the staff at Yarl's Wood, too. Children and parents were sitting and lying around the centre and staff could not clean or go about their normal duties.
They had tried to calm the situation with the offer of one-to-one meetings with any detainee who had a grievance or a problem about their treatment. However, a small number of protesters had convinced the rest that they should all stick together. Their sit-in would continue until someone from the Home Office addressed them as a group.
According to Ethol, with the impasse continuing, the management from the private security firm Serco decided to take action just after lunch on Wednesday.
"At about 2.15, twenty to thirty officers came in, rushing to where were sitting," she told me. "They were wearing black and white Serco uniforms. Someone was filming it all."
Ethol was having her hair braided by another detainee and her two children were sitting playing cards when the operation began.
"They saw it all happen. People were being sick everywhere, throwing up, crying and screaming. My children were really traumatised."
The Home Office described the operation this way:
"Officers separated a small number of detainees from the general population who were disrupting the normal operation of Yarls Wood. The separation was conducted by staff trained in conflict resolution. It was undertaken with the utmost sensitivity and there have been no injuries to detainees."
Ethol and the children were escorted from Yarl's Wood that evening and taken by van to Kingsley House near Gatwick. They were apparently told that Melchior would join them shortly afterwards.
In fact, he had been taken to Colnbrook near Heathrow. Ethol's attempts to contact her husband were rebuffed, one officer telling her that her husband was not allowed to make or accept any calls. I am told that the UK Border Agency later apologised for what it accepted was a mistake.
What strikes me about all of this is how easy it is to demand deportations and tough sanctions against those who attempt to live in Britain without permissions, and also how hard it is for those professionals charged with making the system work in the face of the emotions and apparent desperation of those caught up in it. Particularly the children. (It is Ethol Singo's birthday today.)
PS: The Children's Commissioner for England, Sir Al Aynsley-Green is urging the UK Border Agency to rethink its treatment of children caught up in the deportation process following his hard-hitting report which I posted on recently.
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One question,
If the people had been on hunger strike / fasting for several days how come they were being sick everywhere?
It's a sad story, but I lack any sympathy for someone who was here illegally trying not to be sent home. It's a pity that the children were caught up in the middle of it, but the parents should have considered them before forcing the situation where they had to be phyically removed.
I'm sure that at almost any point during the past five years they could have calmly got on a plane and left with no distress to their kids but they denied themselves that opportunity.
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The family had entered Britain some time ago when immigrants were ''more welcome'' than today.
Britain should take responsibility for allowing persons in.
Britain has also been keen to give them good employement, which should have elevated such immigrants staus here,at least, as beyond any future deportation.[If persons are good enough to get a job(and taxpaying)surely those persons are good enough to stay.]
I think it was the Nazis that wanted the Jews to go quietly.People say they are just doing their jobs.
Could M.Singo get a job with the UK Border Agency ??
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". . . the management from the private security firm Serco . . ." acted. Really? So where is the statement from Serco? Oh no, we get a description of events from the Home Office. And how the hell do they know if they are not running the place?
The Home Office have been hiding behind hands off, one step removed agencies for years. Remember the fiasco with Michael Howard and Paxman on Newsnight about Derek Lewis? There seems to be absolutely no mechanism the Home Department will not use to distort, mislead and probably deliberately lie about almost anything under their control.
Look at your own posts about knife crime statistics, violent crime stats, 'harm' as measure of the effects of drugs. They distort, they lie and they hide behind the safe remove of agency reliance. The whole department should be disbanded and split in to managable and accountable units.
I wish Alan Johnson better fortune than his recent predecessors but the bottom line is that the only truly successful Home Secretary will be the last one.
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The reality is that unless either
a) all immigrants of whatever description or merit are allowed into the country without let or hindrance, or
b) all immigrants of whatever description or merit are banned from the country
... cases like this will inevitably arise. Whilst one cannot blame the family for trying any desperate measure, equally one cannot blame the police, immigration and prison/security staff who have to enforce whatever is the policy of the day.
As my father said, life is s**t son, get over it and move on'.
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If you called a once and for all amesty on illegal immigrants who are here and implemented a rigid policy on turning away illegals at the port of entry, you could close Yarl's Wood within weeks if not days.
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Yarl's Wood and other similar centres provide two excellent reasons why I will never move back to this country of my birth. British officials believe that as soon as they don a uniform they can drop all standards of decency when dealing with other people.
Nobody outside the UK can understand how the home office can take years for some official to open a file long enough to take a decision, yet armed police descend like a bolt from the sky on people who have been living quietly and decently in order to chuck them out like yesterday's rubbish.
The xenophobes among you make life so difficult for the few church communities who care.
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To #5 threnodio: I am in the USA and can tell you that amnesty does not work. President Ronald Reagan granted amnesty to ~12,000,000 Hispanic illegal aliens.
Today, we have 12,000,000 more, with rabid "immigration reform" supporters screaming for amnesty and open borders. There will always be more illegal immigrants, amnesty does not work. Please do not reward people who lack respect for your country's laws.
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I work with asylum seekers. I interviewed one last week, a woman from Uganda who had been gang raped by government officials in Uganda. Last year she was sent to Yarlswood and this is what she said about her experience:
"It took all night to get to Yarlswood Detention Centre because the van I was in had a puncture on the way down there. There were three of us in a large cage at the back of the van, like animals in a zoo. We arrived in the early hours of the morning.
When I arrived at Yarlswood, they frisked me even though they had frisked me before I travelled down in the van. Then I passed through lots of gates, each of which was locked behind me as I passed through.
The guards are not interested in listening to you. They think we are animals. They told me off for not wearing slippers, but they hadnt given me any slippers to wear.
We were moved around from one wing to another and I didnt see the same people twice. The chapel was always packed with all of us praying. Prayer is very serious down there. Services were organised by inmates.
Everyone is terribly stressed and unhappy. Mothers were completely broken. They couldnt cope. They were in tears. The children were clinging on to their mothers. The officers just thought we were all pretending; that was their attitude. Someone might collapse and they still thought they were pretending. They think we are lying about our whole lives. They are always trying to catch us out. Which year did you do this or which year did you do that? When you are stressed, you get confused. That just confirms to them that you are a liar".
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Malawi - British Central Africa protectorate between 1883 and 1907, just about the time Oil was discovered there (the first oil fond in the world)
So we spent 14 years in this country removing the wealth of this nation at the end of a bayonett - which is part of the reason you live in a wealthy nation today - and how do we treat the unfortunate descendants of a country we decided to mess up?
Another point that people often miss about immigration is a simple one - ask yourself why is capital (i.e. wealth) allowed to move across borders without any hinderance, but the labour that needs to follow it is restricted?
That's exactly why Britain is (and will always be) a popular destination for immigrants. We took the wewalth from their country during colonial times and they are simply trying to follow it.
If anyone thinks immigration controls are fair after digesting this point then I would be interested to know how you justify it.
If I came to your house tonight and emptied it of all your posessions leaving you with nothing, surely you would try everything to get into my house tomorrow night to either take it all back (and if you failed that becaue my military might is greater than yours) or to at least try to hide in my cupboard so you can watch your own TV!
Just because your MP is a hypocrite - doesn't mean you have to be one too.
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#6 blewinfromsomewhere
- obviously you haven't travelled a lot, particularly not to the USA. Whilst not perfect (no-one with power over others ever is) British officals are paragons compared to a lot of other places.
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Detainees were hurt, I have spoken to several by phone.
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#7. At 5:08pm on 19 Jun 2009, SanGabriel
Yes but you are talking about land border 1,969 miles long - not a moat.
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#11 - mstime4tea wrote:
"Detainees were hurt, I have spoken to several by phone".
Of course they were. Thuggery is not confined to people in civvies. The only distinction is that those in uniform are paid for it.
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I have read the article with interest and it seems a very fair piece of journalism. Thank you Mark Easton. Let us remember the horrors that asylum seekers face, their fears, their need for support, and after visiting such detention centres, their great dignity in difficulties
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The question for many immigrants is not just economic, and the results of the economic rape of colonialism. Many people come here are not coming to escape poverty, but to live in freedom, escaping rape, torture and the threat of violence.
The question is how can we encourage the development of a culture of human rights across the world?
My concern with those that blame it on colonialism, is that it removes the responsibility of the corrupt governments and the people who are doing the beating, killing and raping that people are escaping. Also the corrupt regimes who line their own pockets rather than helping their own people, which undermine their own country's prosperity.
It is tempting to note that the British Empire had its faults, but many people today from across the world seem to want to live under British rule. Immigration is one of the greatest compliments that people can pay us.
However, the rights and freedoms that we enjoy in this country, and this country is far from perfect, are universal. They are the right of every man, woman and child on this planet. The challenge is to establish democracy, freedom and to remove poverty across the globe.
Part of my concern is that some people view these values as Western, but they are not, they belong to everyone. We need to find a different approach so that people can live in freedom and prosperity where they are.
There are no easy answers, but we must always act with compassion.
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#15 "However, the rights and freedoms that we enjoy in this country....."
I don't think so.....that's what the article is about. Until you experience first-hand the abhorrant way people are sometimes treated in this supposedly civilised country you wouldn't believe it could possibly happen. We are lulled into a false sense of security by our cosy middle-class lives. There are still many people who will take on the role of the thuggish state whilst being paid to do so. They will put all the blame on the recipients of their actions. That's what happened in Nazi Germany.
I have personally walked away from jobs which required me to behave in ways I found morally repugnant. Not easy to do when you take the job because you need the money but I would rather have a clear conscience.
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writing on the wall.
News to me your stuff about Malawi. Formally Nyasaland there was not and is no oil in that country Nyasaland was granted independence in 1964 and was ruled by the dictator Hastings Banda for years he was still there as President when I left the country after six years in 1975. Malawi is a democratic country these days and so why should ANY nationals of that country demand to stay in the UK is beyond me. The same applies to many other ex colonial countries. When I lived and worked in Malawi I had to obtain a proper work permit before I was allowed to enter the country. I left after my my second three year contract despite the fact that after that period of time I could've legally stayed in the country with permanent residence. Stay with the UK rules and you will not end up in places such as Yarls Wood. If you choose to jump the queue then you get what you deserve. Perhaps you are confusing the oil from Tung trees which is used in paint manufacture, there was a small plantation in Nyasaland (Malawi)and like with most endeavours such as tea growing it was started by colonials the local folk had nothing to do with it. But it did provide paid work. It was Hastings banda that cashed in on tobacco growing though he hardly did it for the people rather it was to feather his personal nest. I know because I was there, were you?
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Every case of forced repatriation sounds like this one. The local community comes together to support the people under threat of deportation. Then we read stories such as this one and are meant to feel sympathy and support the call for the people to be allowed to stay here.
Crass and immature.
I have to place my trust in the immigration system in this respect and if it says that the family has to go back to Malawi then I support it. I don't want an emotional reporter telling me an emotional supporter to help me to change my mind.
On the other hand, there are, I believe, hundreds of thousands of people living illegally in the UK because of tree huggers who feel sorry for people about whom they really know nothing. The tree huggers have also made it so difficult for the immigration authorities to deal with the flood of immigrants that it is almost impossible for them to do their jobs properly.
Duncan
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This sort of thing is the inevitable downside of the government's wish to exclude illegal immigrants.
Personally I feel this policy stinks as it can only lead to this sort of barbarity. By letting these poor souls into the country in the first place the government is guilty of the grossest hyprocrisy. Better to exclude from the outset as at least then the correct message would get across.
At the moment there are thousands of illegals trying to get into the UK as they have been lead to believe there is free money to be had. I can only imagine how these benighted souls got that idea but it is one hell of a driver to get in regardless of the consequences.
For my part I do not want to be party to this cruelty and so it should stop. If it means we have to give an amnesty on a person by person basis then so be it. Good people who want to work and make a life for themselves in Britain are worth keeping here.
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The reason that communities come together to support 'these people' is because of our appreciation for what they have done in our community. Our friend has worked hard and never asked for any handouts from us or the state.
As for 'Stay with the UK rules and you will not end up in places such as Yarls Wood.' This family stayed with the rules and were still visited in the morning and given two hours to pack and sent to Yarls Wood. Its actually the ones who comply who get picked on because thay are easy targets and the government can tick the boxes to keep the 'small minded'happy.
BTW Ive never hugged a tree in my life
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The number one need is to prevent the illegal immigrants from getting here. This is easiest to do by removing the reasons which make them want to come here rather than stay in France. I understand that the French provide them with nothing for six months - no money, no house, nothing. If we did the same (instead of handing out free living) then why should they strive so hard to get here? It would be easier to stay in France. In addition their move to the UK is illegal as EU law requires that they stay in the first EU country which they enter.
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I just came through Northern France en route by road to the UK. There were many of these illegals waiting at truck stops trying to get a ride. I have no objections to hard working folk. But they must apply apply for a permit to enter the UK before they leave as is applied by many countries. I have a five year residence card where I now live and I followed the rules of entry. I am still not allowed to work without a permit. Malawi is a very poor country and if a person has skills better they stay home and help their fellow countrymen. Perhaps financial sponsorship by those interested in helping these illegals may help.
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The attitude of Megawatt58 (17) shows one reason why we should not detain asylum seekers. Fortunately not all staff take that attitude, but some clearly do. This government wants to increase the size of the detention estate. We already have far too many people locked up for indeterminate periods at an enormous cost, last HO estimate was about £130 per detainee per day. I can think of many better ways of spending that money, better care for our elderly and more support for the many people who are looking for work for example. It is not a crime to seek asylum, we need a just and fair way of treating those who come here, not the "culture of disbelief" that our current asylum system works in.
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As usual the authorities pick on the easy targets. Aren't there plenty of illegal immigrants working on the black economy, and involved in crime? If we do have to drag people off in the dead of night and forcibly repatriate them, how about we start with those who deserve it? No, they'd rather pick on this family, who have shown themselves to be good, decent people whose only 'crime', it seems, is to get proper jobs and become proper members of our society. This means that they can be traced much more easily than, say, an illegal immigrant over here to sell drugs, beg, or become involved in crime. Typical of the craven approach of our law enforcement authorities.
I'd rather have families like this in our country than some of our own people! Who deserves to live here more? Decent, hard-working, appreciative immigrants, or some of the spoilt, drunken, idle British people who think that the world (and the State) owes them a living? I'd like to see the drunken, drug-taking, violent morons that foul up our towns and estates dragged away screaming by baton-wielding police. Instead the authorities go all touch-feely on them, and go in all guns blazing on decent immigrants whose only crime is to be born in a poor country and who want to better themselves.
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What a mess!
Obviously I dont have the full history, but the case highlighted seems to show a family that has integrated with the community, and it apparently seems outragously inhumane treatment.
The dilemma might seem to be that people with the best of intentions have forced into place a system to ensure fairness of treatment.
I think I know what i would like, that illegal immegrants are not allowed to work, that decisions are reached quickly, and probably that amnesty is considered for those who are currently here with families and integrated and have been for some time. It is not that easy though. And understandably there will be attempts to work whatever loopholes are the the system and where inconsistencies exist with human rights acts ... etc.
And the precedent is that this family is allowed to stay ... then the next in line case seems more deserving.
I dont have easy answers. But something doesnt seem right, and something needs to be changed.
I really want my MP sorting this out and not worry if he/she has bought a toilet paper holder inappropriately on expenses.
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Very emotive and unpleasant.
All of it could be avoided if the people involved just left the country when they are informed they have no right to be here.
Even better if they did not enter or remain in the country illegally in the first place.
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I have a comment in support of the Singo family, but i've re-read the report and i notice that officers seem to have been injured in incidents at Yarlswood.
This too is unacceptable, and the officers deserve to be supported.
The officers have a right to do their job without injury.
As I once seen in a college in surrey, everyone has has the right to be safe, the right to be respected, and the right to learn.
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I really am getting sick and tired of these bleeding heart liberals moaning about ILLEGAL Immigrants getting a bad deal.
They are here ILLEGALY and they must be returned from whence they came.
I do not know of any other country that is as soft and lax as the UK over illegal immigration.
This is why we have hundreds queing up in Calais to get over here.
Enough is enough.If you come here illegaly irrelevant of you having your family with you then expect to be removed.
This government needs to start getting tougher on those that come here illegally and think they can hide away for a few years then expect sympathy when it comes to the crunch time.
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Whilst I sympathise with the detainees detailed in the article, there is one thing that always greatly concerns me. I may be wrong, but if you are seeking asylum from persecution in your home country, then surely you would seek out the NEAREST safe country. Just how many safe European (or other) countries do asylum seekers travel through to get here and, more importantly, why?
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This report seems to be based on a telephone conversation with one or more Detainees who will have their own agenda and, in my opinion, unless Mr Easton was there makes the report one sided and lacking credibility.
For accuracy, as far as I am aware there are no "Uniformed Immigration Officers" in Yarls Wood, so I must ask how many other inaccurcies are there in Mr Eastons report.
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Personally I think we should remove all restrictions from every country and let people come and go as they please. The real issue here is territory and identity. Loss of either breeds fear. To focus on illegal entry is to mask the real problem. The indigenous population do not want to be overwhelmed and become the minority, having to learn a new language, adapt to new customs and perhaps abide by other religious tennants. It is natural to want to move to where there are better and safer pastures. The rest of the animal kingdom does just that so is it any wonder that we too seek that option. Remember,we do not own the land - we are borrowers from Mother Earth!
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Most of the people living in England illegally are people coming from very poor countries, people who also want a chance in life and whom are willing to work so hard and even always pay taxes.Its sad they are treated like dogs, when the people whom maybe to those who think... of honesty first... would say,, this treatment should be given to those people stealing tax payers money!!! which has been done in all your faces and no one has ill treated them, I personally know the people mentioned in the above article and think they were great people and have never committed any crime,,, British people,, think! who really deserves this type of treatment.
And when it comes to deportation I personally believe those people who come into the country and commit crimes should with no question be deported,, but those whom have done nothing but work and make a normal living like every other citizen should at least be given a chance!
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Uncharacteristically, Mark Easton's article is neither complete nor very rounded and gives a very biased picture of the immigration/economic migration problem in this country. Some bloggers are pitifully naive in their knowledge of developing countries and what our responsibilities are, both moral and legal, in dealing with illegal entry. The Government has admitted to over 600,000 illegal immigrants in Britain which means there are probably twice that number. As has been mentioned on this blog, if successive British Governments had turned away illegals at the border then there would be no problem. The difficulty arises with a system that allows asylum seekers to stay and we have always rightly had that facility otherwise we would never have had the benefit of Huguenot and other European immigration. The scale of economic migration from cultures which are very different from our own requires a radical re-think which our governments are afraid to do lest they be labelled racist.
If we were to bar entry to the vast majority of these people and instead increase our aid both direct and indirect to them in their own countries, this would be surely a more sensible approach. Somewhere in the blog is mention of a Ugandan woman who had been raped in her home country and then badly treated at Yarlswood. Well, just think of the thousands of other women in Uganda and other African countries who are raped every day. Allowing this woman entry doesn't do much to solve the problem. It is the big picture we should be concerned about, is it not?
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Send them back!
Why oh why are we letting foreign nationals into the country when we have unemployment in the millions, a struggling NHS, big businesses on the verge of collapse (BA, Corus etc)and a government who don't want to seem to listen to the voice of the people.
I recently went to Egypt on holiday and was informed when we arrived that our English rep would meet us outside of the terminal as only Egyptians are allowed to work in the airport. Could you imagine how many more British citizens we would be able to employ nationally if we did the same in British airports?
Why do we not have a stricter, tighter immigration policy that only lets in the people we need at this time (Dr's, Engineers, Teachers, etc)?
Alot of foreign nationals who have permission to stay in the UK seem to think that whatever they do they are never going to be sent home - some commit crime and think they will still be allowed to stay. No! - send them back regaqrdless of whatever alleged threat they say they will face; after all, if you face persecution back in your home country and have permission to stay in the UK would you seriously risk cocking it up by offending against our laws & rules?
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The UK is far to lenient with the uninvited. By dragging out appeal after appeal illegal immigrants stay here for years. When all legal avenues have been explored then the illegals should go without fuss.
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Nobody is saying these people shouldn't escape and seek political asylum. But why do they all want to come here to the UK? To leave your own country / politcal regime you only need to travel a few hundred miles to the next one. To get to our little island you have to cross most of Europe. Could it be because it's well known the UK is soft on immigration?
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