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Detention issue rises to the top of campaigners’ priorities for dealing with the Coalition
Well over a hundred people turned up for the launch of the London Detainees Support Group’s new report, No Return, No Release, No Reason – Challenging Indefinite Detention.
The meeting heard from Jerome Phelps, LDSG’s director, Rashid Ali, a former detainee who was held for over 4 years in an immigration detention facility, Amal de Chickera, a lawyer from the Equal Rights Trust and myself, representing MRN.
Jerome set out the main findings of the report, with the headline fact being of the 188 people supported by LDSG who had been detained for over one year, 57% were subsequently released. Only one-third of the detainees were moved through the system to the point of deportation. In the meantime the LDSG supported group had served a total of 399 in detention, at a cost to the taxpayer of over £27 million.
Discussion moved to the issue of how we were expecting the coalition government to square up to these issues, and what factors were likely to have the most influence on their decision making.
Thinking about what parliamentary politics now looked like meant picking over some complicated issues. Political initiatives coming from the leading elements in government seem to have to take into account new realities of contending power blocs and struggles for influence, and the dominance of the whip’s office in commanding obedience appears to have been diminished. This is a situation which is potentially favourable to campaigners who are staking their case on solidly researched evidence which conflicts with the official line coming out of the government.
But messages came out of the discussion which made it clear that campaigners should not simply count of the Lib Dem component of the coalition to assert its influence over government policies. As a representative of Medical Justice reminded us, the commitment to end child detention has not yet been realised, and ministers have now taken to saying that they will merely aim to reduce numbers rather than end the practice altogether.
Questions also arise about the role the Labour Party will play in these policy debates. Throughout its period in government Labour ministers took positions which were firmly on the right of the political spectrum when it came to enforcement issues. Their view was that discipline and compliance with immigration regulations should be maintained by strict monitoring of migrant movements and a willingness to use a big stick to keep refugees and economic migrants firmly in line. It is in everyone’s interests that Labour shift from this position whilst in opposition, and thought has to be put into how this can be done, as well in dealing with the coalition.
All-in-all the discussion mapped a whole range of themes that will have to be taken up in the future. On the positive side, there was a feeling that the parliamentary scene had at least become interesting under the rule of the coalition, something that was seldom the case under the previous government.
From the LDSG the discussion will move on to an event currently being organised on 1stOctober by the groups brought together in the Detention Forum, on dealing with the coalition government. This will be followed up with a meeting with MPs interested in the work of the Detention Forum and the proposals for reform which are emerging from its discussions, which will be held in the Palace of Westminster on 8thNovember. Further news of both meetings will be posted on this website, as well as LDSG’s.
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Comments
I agree with Don that the parliamentary scene had possibly become more interesting under the new Coalition regime, plus due to some fresh-faced MPs starting their careers in Westminster. However, I worry that that interesting-ness might prove to have rather limited shelf-life when it comes to matters relating to the issue of immigration control. Now the Labour has finally managed to elect its new leader, there is more likelihood of immigration reverting into a hot political issue very rapidly. The task for refugee / migrant charities might be to get in there now (it might already be too late, but not trying is simply not good enough, no?), talk to the MPs in the Coalition government (and some Labour MPs too) while they haven’t quite decided yet whether to swallow blindly what Mr David Wood of UKBA always says in the media: ‘detention is only used for the shortest possible time’. There are now plenty of evidence-based reports produced by charities out there that contradict UKBA’s repeated corporate line about their use of detention, as well as those that highlight other structural defects of the detention system. Efforts must be made to bring all these together, so that there is a more credible, critical voice. Or will the pride and ego of the charities prevent them from working together? We need to chip away what UKBA is doing. We also need to alert the politicians UKBA’s culture of unlawfulness and inhumanity. Above all, however, we need to go beyond repeating our complaints and rants - we need to think about ways to overcome the current impasse. Migration is here to stay and of course the sector can happily live with that. But can the sector really live with the misery of not being able to offer any radical new view on migration to the government? Judging by the quality of some of the comments that were made from the floor at the LDSG event - which simply repeat the same old issues that we are too familiar with - the sector probably needs to get their acts - and thinking - together quickly.
@Anonymous
Perhaps the answer on how to offer new thinking would be for the whole refugee, asylum, migration, detention, sector to consolidate around an overarching idea of migrants rights, instead of parceling the issue out to different categories. We need to see the whole forest not just the wood of the trees.
At least any progressive debate needs to address it as such. Otherwise, migrants (whoever they happen to be - refugees, economic, irregular, etc.) will take the blame every time housing, unemployment, social cohesion, etc. becomes an issue. It is becoming evident that at least the general public makes very little difference between different categories the sector sees as important.
I wonder what will happen after the budget cuts kick in. One thing is for sure, the sector as we know it now will look quite differently. As dreadful as it sounds, that might actually be a good call to arms or at least a wake up call for certain people who see issues of migration as completely unrelated...
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