• UK signs contract with US startup to identify migrants in small-boat crossings

    The UK government has turned a US-based startup specialized in artificial intelligence as part of its pledge to stop small-boat crossings. Experts have already pointed out the legal and logistical challenges of the plan.

    In a new effort to address the high number of Channel crossings, the UK Home Office is working with the US defense startup #Anduril, specialized in the use of artificial intelligence (AI).

    A surveillance tower has already been installed at Dover, and other technologies might be rolled out with the onset of warmer temperatures and renewed attempts by migrants to reach the UK. Some experts already point out the risks and practical loopholes involved in using AI to identify migrants.

    “This is obviously the next step of the illegal migration bill,” said Olivier Cahn, a researcher specialized in penal law.

    “The goal is to retrieve images that were taken at sea and use AI to show they entered UK territory illegally even if people vanish into thin air upon arrival in the UK.”

    The “illegal migration bill” was passed by the UK last month barring anyone from entering the country irregularly from filing an asylum claim and imposing a “legal duty” to remove them to a third country.
    Who is behind Anduril?

    Founded in 2017 by its CEO #Palmer_Luckey, Anduril is backed by #Peter_Thiel, a Silicon Valley investor and supporter of Donald Trump. The company has supplied autonomous surveillance technology to the US Department of Defense (DOD) to detect and track migrants trying to cross the US-Mexico border.

    In 2021, the UK Ministry of Defence awarded Anduril with a £3.8-million contract to trial an advanced base defence system. Anduril eventually opened a branch in London where it states its mission: “combining the latest in artificial intelligence with commercial-of-the-shelf sensor technology (EO, IR, Radar, Lidar, UGS, sUAS) to enhance national security through automated detection, identification and tracking of objects of interest.”

    According to Cahn, the advantage of Brexit is that the UK government is no longer required to submit to the General Data Protection Regulation (RGPDP), a component of data protection that also addresses the transfer of personal data outside the EU and EEA areas.

    “Even so, the UK has data protection laws of its own which the government cannot breach. Where will the servers with the incoming data be kept? What are the rights of appeal for UK citizens whose data is being processed by the servers?”, he asked.

    ’Smugglers will provide migrants with balaclavas for an extra 15 euros’

    Cahn also pointed out the technical difficulties of identifying migrants at sea. “The weather conditions are often not ideal, and many small-boat crossings happen at night. How will facial recognition technology operate in this context?”

    The ability of migrants and smugglers to adapt is yet another factor. “People are going to cover their faces, and anyone would think the smugglers will respond by providing migrants with balaclavas for an extra 15 euros.”

    If the UK has solicited the services of a US startup to detect and identify migrants, the reason may lie in AI’s principle of self-learning. “A machine accumulates data and recognizes what it has already seen. The US is a country with a significantly more racially and ethnically diverse population than the UK. Its artificial intelligence might contain data from populations which are more ethnically comparable to the populations that are crossing the Channel, like Somalia for example, thus facilitating the process of facial recognition.”

    For Cahn, it is not capturing the images which will be the most difficult but the legal challenges that will arise out of their usage. “People are going to be identified and there are going to be errors. If a file exists, there needs to be the possibility for individuals to appear before justice and have access to a judge.”

    A societal uproar

    In a research paper titled “Refugee protection in the artificial intelligence Era”, Chatham House notes “the most common ethical and legal challenges associated with the use of AI in asylum and related border and immigration systems involve issues of opacity and unpredictability, the potential for bias and unlawful discrimination, and how such factors affect the ability of individuals to obtain a remedy in the event of erroneous or unfair decisions.”

    For Cahn, the UK government’s usage of AI can only be used to justify and reinforce its hardline position against migrants. “For a government that doesn’t respect the Geneva Convention [whose core principle is non-refoulement, editor’s note] and which passed an illegal migration law, it is out of the question that migrants have entered the territory legally.”

    Identifying migrants crossing the Channel is not going to be the hardest part for the UK government. Cahn imagines a societal backlash with, “the Supreme Court of the United Kingdom being solicited, refugees seeking remedies to legal decisions through lawyers and associations attacking”.

    He added there would be due process concerning the storage of the data, with judges issuing disclosure orders. “There is going to be a whole series of questions which the government will have to elucidate. The rights of refugees are often used as a laboratory. If these technologies are ’successful’, they will soon be applied to the rest of the population."

    https://www.infomigrants.net/en/post/48326/uk-signs-contract-with-us-startup-to-identify-migrants-in-smallboat-cr

    #UK #Angleterre #migrations #asile #réfugiés #militarisation_des_frontières #frontières #start-up #complexe_militaro-industriel #IA #intelligence_artificielle #surveillance #technologie #channel #Manche

    –—

    ajouté à la métaliste sur la Bibby Stockholm:
    https://seenthis.net/messages/1016683

    • Huge barge set to house 500 asylum seekers arrives in the UK

      The #Bibby_Stockholm is being refitted in #Falmouth to increase its capacity from 222 to 506 people.

      A barge set to house 500 asylum seekers has arrived in the UK as the government struggles with efforts to move migrants out of hotels.

      The Independent understands that people will not be transferred onto the Bibby Stockholm until July, following refurbishment to increase its capacity and safety checks.

      The barge has been towed from its former berth in Italy to the port of Falmouth, in Cornwall.

      It will remain there while works are carried out, before being moved onto its final destination in #Portland, Dorset.

      The private operators of the port struck an agreement to host the barge with the Home Office without formal public consultation, angering the local council and residents.

      Conservative MP Richard Drax previously told The Independent legal action was still being considered to stop the government’s plans for what he labelled a “quasi-prison”.

      He accused ministers and Home Office officials of being “unable to answer” practical questions on how the barge will operate, such as how asylum seekers will be able to come and go safely through the port, what activities they will be provided with and how sufficient healthcare will be ensured.

      “The question is how do we cope?” Mr Drax said. “Every organisation has its own raft of questions: ‘Where’s the money coming from? Who’s going to do what if this all happens?’ There are not sufficient answers, which is very worrying.”

      The Independent previously revealed that asylum seekers will have less living space than an average parking bay on the Bibby Stockholm, which saw at least one person die and reports of rape and abuse on board when it was used by the Dutch government to detain migrants in the 2000s.

      An official brochure released by owner Bibby Marine shows there are only 222 “single en-suite bedrooms” on board, meaning that at least two people must be crammed into every cabin for the government to achieve its aim of holding 500 people.

      Dorset Council has said it still had “serious reservations about the appropriateness of Portland Port in this scenario and remains opposed to the proposals”.

      The Conservative police and crime commissioner for Dorset is demanding extra government funding for the local force to “meet the extra policing needs that this project will entail”.

      A multi-agency forum including representatives from national, regional and local public sector agencies has been looking at plans for the provision of health services, the safety and security of both asylum seekers and local residents and charity involvement.

      Portland Port said it had been working with the Home Office and local agencies to ensure the safe arrival and operation of the Bibby Stockholm, and to minimise its impact locally.

      The barge is part of a wider government push to move migrants out of hotels, which are currently housing more than 47,000 asylum seekers at a cost of £6m a day.

      But the use of ships as accommodation was previously ruled out on cost grounds by the Treasury, when Rishi Sunak was chancellor, and the government has not confirmed how much it will be spending on the scheme.

      Ministers have also identified several former military and government sites, including two defunct airbases and an empty prison, that they want to transform into asylum accommodation.

      But a court battle with Braintree District Council over former RAF Wethersfield is ongoing, and legal action has also been threatened over similar plans for RAF Scampton in Lancashire.

      Last month, a barrister representing home secretary Suella Braverman told the High Court that 56,000 people were expected to arrive on small boats in 2023 and that some could be made homeless if hotel places are not found.

      A record backlog of asylum applications, driven by the increase in Channel crossings and a collapse in Home Office decision-making, mean the government is having to provide accommodation for longer while claims are considered.

      https://www.independent.co.uk/news/uk/home-news/barge-falmouth-cornwall-migrants-bibby-b2333313.html
      #barge #bateau

    • ‘Performative cruelty’ : the hostile architecture of the UK government’s migrant barge

      The arrival of the Bibby Stockholm barge at Portland Port, in Dorset, on July 18 2023, marks a new low in the UK government’s hostile immigration environment. The vessel is set to accommodate over 500 asylum seekers. This, the Home Office argues, will benefit British taxpayers and local residents.

      The barge, however, was immediately rejected by the local population and Dorset council. Several British charities and church groups have condemned the barge, and the illegal migration bill it accompanies, as “an affront to human dignity”.

      Anti-immigration groups have also protested against the barge, with some adopting offensive language, referring to the asylum seekers who will be hosted there as “bargies”. Conservative MP for South Dorset Richard Drax has claimed that hosting migrants at sea would exacerbate tenfold the issues that have arisen in hotels to date, namely sexual assaults, children disappearing and local residents protesting.

      My research shows that facilities built to house irregular migrants in Europe and beyond create a temporary infrastructure designed to be hostile. Governments thereby effectively make asylum seekers more displaceable while ignoring their everyday spatial and social needs.
      Precarious space

      The official brochure plans for the Bibby Stockholm show 222 single bedrooms over three stories, built around two small internal courtyards. It has now been retrofitted with bunk beds to host more than 500 single men – more than double the number it was designed to host.

      Journalists Lizzie Dearden and Martha McHardy have shown this means the asylum seekers housed there – for up to nine months – will have “less living space than an average parking bay”. This stands in contravention of international standards of a minimum 4.5m² of covered living space per person in cold climates, where more time is spent indoors.

      In an open letter, dated June 15 2023 and addressed to home secretary Suella Braverman, over 700 people and nearly 100 non-governmental organisations (NGOs) voiced concerns that this will only add to the trauma migrants have already experienced:

      Housing people on a sea barge – which we argue is equal to a floating prison – is morally indefensible, and threatens to retraumatise a group of already vulnerable people.

      Locals are concerned already overstretched services in Portland, including GP practices, will not be able to cope with further pressure. West Dorset MP Chris Lode has questioned whether the barge itself is safe “to cope with double the weight that it was designed to bear”. A caller to the LBC radio station, meanwhile, has voiced concerns over the vessel’s very narrow and low fire escape routes, saying: “What they [the government] are effectively doing here is creating a potential Grenfell on water, a floating coffin.”

      Such fears are not unfounded. There have been several cases of fires destroying migrant camps in Europe, from the Grand-Synthe camp near Dunkirk in France, in 2017, to the 2020 fire at the Moria camp in Greece. The difficulty of escaping a vessel at sea could turn it into a death trap.

      Performative hostility

      Research on migrant accommodation shows that being able to inhabit a place – even temporarily – and develop feelings of attachment and belonging, is crucial to a person’s wellbeing. Even amid ever tighter border controls, migrants in Europe, who can be described as “stuck on the move”, nonetheless still attempt to inhabit their temporary spaces and form such connections.

      However, designs can hamper such efforts when they concentrate asylum seekers in inhospitable, cut-off spaces. In 2015, Berlin officials began temporarily housing refugees in the former Tempelhof airport, a noisy, alienating industrial space, lacking in privacy and disconnected from the city. Many people ended up staying there for the better part of a year.

      French authorities, meanwhile, opened the Centre Humanitaire Paris-Nord in Paris in 2016, temporary migrant housing in a disused train depot. Nicknamed la Bulle (the bubble) for its bulbous inflatable covering, this facility was noisy and claustrophobic, lacking in basic comforts.

      Like the barge in Portland Port, these facilities, placed in industrial sites, sit uncomfortably between hospitality and hostility. The barge will be fenced off, since the port is a secured zone, and access will be heavily restricted and controlled. The Home Office insists that the barge is not a floating prison, yet it is an unmistakably hostile space.

      Infrastructure for water and electricity will physically link the barge to shore. However, Dorset council has no jurisdiction at sea.

      The commercial agreement on the barge was signed between the Home Office and Portland Port, not the council. Since the vessel is positioned below the mean low water mark, it did not require planning permission.

      This makes the barge an island of sorts, where other rules apply, much like those islands in the Aegean sea and in the Pacific, on which Greece and Australia have respectively housed migrants.

      I have shown how facilities are often designed in this way not to give displaced people any agency, but, on the contrary, to objectify them. They heighten the instability migrants face, keeping them detached from local communities and constantly on the move.

      The government has presented the barge as a cheaper solution than the £6.8 million it is currently spending, daily, on housing asylum seekers in hotels. A recent report by two NGOs, Reclaim the Seas and One Life to Live, concludes, however, that it will save less than £10 a person a day. It could even prove more expensive than the hotel model.

      Sarah Teather, director of the Jesuit Refugee Service UK charity, has described the illegal migration bill as “performative cruelty”. Images of the barge which have flooded the news certainly meet that description too.

      However threatening these images might be, though, they will not stop desperate people from attempting to come to the UK to seek safety. Rather than deterring asylum seekers, the Bibby Stockholm is potentially creating another hazard to them and to their hosting communities.

      https://theconversation.com/performative-cruelty-the-hostile-architecture-of-the-uk-governments

      –---

      Point intéressant, lié à l’aménagement du territoire :

      “Since the vessel is positioned below the mean low water mark, it did not require planning permission”

      C’est un peu comme les #zones_frontalières qui ont été créées un peu partout en Europe (et pas que) pour que les Etats se débarassent des règles en vigueur (notamment le principe du non-refoulement). Voir cette métaliste, à laquelle j’ajoute aussi cet exemple :
      https://seenthis.net/messages/795053

      voir aussi :

      The circumstances at Portland Port are very different because where the barge is to be positioned is below the mean low water mark. This means that the barge is outside of our planning control and there is no requirement for planning permission from the council.

      https://news.dorsetcouncil.gov.uk/2023/07/18/leaders-comments-on-the-home-office-barge

      #hostile_architecture #architecture_hostile #dignité #espace #Portland #hostilité #hostilité_performative #île #infrastructure #extraterritorialité #extra-territorialité #prix #coût

    • Sur l’#histoire (notamment liées au commerce d’ #esclaves) de la Bibby Stockholm :

      Bibby Line, shipowners

      Information
      From Guide to the Records of Merseyside Maritime Museum, volume 1: Bibby Line. In 1807 John Bibby and John Highfield, Liverpool shipbrokers, began taking shares in ships, mainly Parkgate Dublin packets. By 1821 (the end of the partnership) they had vessels sailing to the Mediterranean and South America. In 1850 they expanded their Mediterranean and Black Sea interests by buying two steamers and by 1865 their fleet had increased to twenty three. The opening of the Suez Canal in 1869 severely affected their business and Frederick Leyland, their general manager, failed to persuade the family partners to diversify onto the Atlantic. Eventually, he bought them out in 1873. In 1889 the Bibby family revived its shipowning interests with a successful passenger cargo service to Burma. From 1893 it also began to carry British troops to overseas postings which remained a Bibby staple until 1962. The Burma service ended in 1971 and the company moved to new areas of shipowning including bulkers, gas tankers and accommodation barges. It still has its head office in Liverpool where most management records are held. The museum holds models of the Staffordshire (1929) and Oxfordshire (1955). For further details see the attached catalogue or contact The Archives Centre for a copy of the catalogue.

      The earliest records within the collection, the ships’ logs at B/BIBBY/1/1/1 - 1/1/3 show company vessels travelling between Europe and South America carrying cargoes that would have been produced on plantations using the labour of enslaved peoples or used within plantation and slave based economies. For example the vessel Thomas (B/BIBBY/1/1/1) carries a cargo of iron hoops for barrels to Brazil in 1812. The Mary Bibby on a voyage in 1825-1826 loads a cargo of sugar in Rio de Janeiro, Brazil to carry to Rotterdam. The log (B/BIBBY/1/1/3) records the use of ’negroes’ to work with the ship’s carpenter while the vessel is in port.

      In September 1980 the latest Bibby vessel to hold the name Derbyshire was lost with all hands in the South China Sea. This collection does not include records relating to that vessel or its sinking, apart from a copy ’Motor vessel ’Derbyshire’, 1976-80: in memoriam’ at reference B/BIBBY/3/2/1 (a copy is also available in The Archives Centre library collection at 340.DER). Information about the sinking and subsequent campaigning by the victims’ family can be found on the NML website and in the Life On Board gallery. The Archives Centre holds papers of Captain David Ramwell who assisted the Derbyshire Family Association at D/RAM and other smaller collections of related documents within the DX collection.

      https://www.liverpoolmuseums.org.uk/artifact/bibby-line-shipowners

      –—
      An Open Letter to #Bibby_Marine

      Links between your parent company #Bibby_Line_Group (#BLG) and the slave trade have repeatedly been made. If true, we appeal to you to consider what actions you might take in recompense.

      Bibby Marine’s modern slavery statement says that one of the company’s values is to “do the right thing”, and that you “strongly support the eradication of slavery, as well as the eradication of servitude, forced or compulsory labour and human trafficking”. These are admirable words.

      Meanwhile, your parent company’s website says that it is “family owned with a rich history”. Please will you clarify whether this rich history includes slaving voyages where ships were owned, and cargoes transported, by BLG’s founder John Bibby, six generations ago. The BLG website says that in 1807 (which is when slavery was abolished in Britain), “John Bibby began trading as a shipowner in Liverpool with his partner John Highfield”. John Bibby is listed as co-owner of three slaving ships, of which John Highfield co-owned two:

      In 1805, the Harmonie (co-owned by #John_Bibby and three others, including John Highfield) left Liverpool for a voyage which carried 250 captives purchased in West Central Africa and St Helena, delivering them to Cumingsberg in 1806 (see the SlaveVoyages database using Voyage ID 81732).
      In 1806, the Sally (co-owned by John Bibby and two others) left Liverpool for a voyage which transported 250 captives purchased in Bassa and delivered them to Barbados (see the SlaveVoyages database using Voyage ID 83481).
      In 1806, the Eagle (co-owned by John Bibby and four others, including John Highfield) left Liverpool for a voyage which transported 237 captives purchased in Cameroon and delivered them to Kingston in 1807 (see the SlaveVoyages database using Voyage ID 81106).

      The same and related claims were recently mentioned by Private Eye. They also appear in the story of Liverpool’s Calderstones Park [PDF] and on the website of National Museums Liverpool and in this blog post “Shenanigans in Shipping” (a detailed history of the BLG). They are also mentioned by Laurence Westgaph, a TV presenter specialising in Black British history and slavery and the author of Read The Signs: Street Names with a Connection to the Transatlantic Slave Trade and Abolition in Liverpool [PDF], published with the support of English Heritage, The City of Liverpool, Northwest Regional Development Agency, National Museums Liverpool and Liverpool Vision.

      While of course your public pledges on slavery underline that there is no possibility of there being any link between the activities of John Bibby and John Highfield in the early 1800s and your activities in 2023, we do believe that it is in the public interest to raise this connection, and to ask for a public expression of your categorical renunciation of the reported slave trade activities of Mr Bibby and Mr Highfield.

      https://www.refugeecouncil.org.uk/latest/news/an-open-letter-to-bibby-marine

      –-

      Très peu d’info sur John Bibby sur wikipedia :

      John Bibby (19 February 1775 – 17 July 1840) was the founder of the British Bibby Line shipping company. He was born in Eccleston, near Ormskirk, Lancashire. He was murdered on 17 July 1840 on his way home from dinner at a friend’s house in Kirkdale.[1]


      https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/John_Bibby_(businessman)

    • ‘Floating Prisons’: The 200-year-old family #business behind the Bibby Stockholm

      #Bibby_Line_Group_Limited is a UK company offering financial, marine and construction services to clients in at least 16 countries around the world. It recently made headlines after the government announced one of the firm’s vessels, Bibby Stockholm, would be used to accommodate asylum seekers on the Dorset coast.

      In tandem with plans to house migrants at surplus military sites, the move was heralded by Prime Minister Rishi Sunak and Home Secretary Suella Braverman as a way of mitigating the £6m-a-day cost of hotel accommodation amid the massive ongoing backlog of asylum claims, as well as deterring refugees from making the dangerous channel crossing to the UK. Several protests have been organised against the project already, while over ninety migrants’ rights groups and hundreds of individual campaigners have signed an open letter to the Home Secretary calling for the plans to be scrapped, describing the barge as a “floating prison.”

      Corporate Watch has researched into the Bibby Line Group’s operations and financial interests. We found that:

      - The Bibby Stockholm vessel was previously used as a floating detention centre in the Netherlands, where undercover reporting revealed violence, sexual exploitation and poor sanitation.

      – Bibby Line Group is more than 90% owned by members of the Bibby family, primarily through trusts. Its pre-tax profits for 2021 stood at almost £31m, which they upped to £35.5m by claiming generous tax credits and deferring a fair amount to the following year.

      - Management aboard the vessel will be overseen by an Australian business travel services company, Corporate Travel Management, who have previously had aspersions cast over the financial health of their operations and the integrity of their business practices.

      - Another beneficiary of the initiative is Langham Industries, a maritime and engineering company whose owners, the Langham family, have longstanding ties to right wing parties.

      Key Issues

      According to the Home Office, the Bibby Stockholm barge will be operational for at least 18 months, housing approximately 500 single adult men while their claims are processed, with “24/7 security in place on board, to minimise the disruption to local communities.” These measures appear to have been to dissuade opposition from the local Conservative council, who pushed for background checks on detainees and were reportedly even weighing legal action out of concern for a perceived threat of physical attacks from those housed onboard, as well as potential attacks from the far right against migrants held there.

      Local campaigners have taken aim at the initiative, noting in the open letter:

      “For many people seeking asylum arriving in the UK, the sea represents a site of significant trauma as they have been forced to cross it on one or more occasions. Housing people on a sea barge – which we argue is equal to a floating prison – is morally indefensible, and threatens to re-traumatise a group of already vulnerable people.”

      Technically, migrants on the barge will be able to leave the site. However, in reality they will be under significant levels of surveillance and cordoned off behind fences in the high security port area.

      If they leave, there is an expectation they will return by 11pm, and departure will be controlled by the authorities. According to the Home Office:

      “In order to ensure that migrants come and go in an orderly manner with as little impact as possible, buses will be provided to take those accommodated on the vessel from the port to local drop off points”.

      These drop off points are to be determined by the government, while being sited off the coast of Dorset means they will be isolated from centres of support and solidarity.

      Meanwhile, the government’s new Illegal Migration Bill is designed to provide a legal justification for the automatic detention of refugees crossing the Channel. If it passes, there’s a chance this might set the stage for a change in regime on the Bibby Stockholm – from that of an “accommodation centre” to a full-blown migrant prison.

      An initial release from the Home Office suggested the local voluntary sector would be engaged “to organise activities that keep occupied those being accommodated, potentially involved in local volunteering activity,” though they seemed to have changed the wording after critics said this would mean detainees could be effectively exploited for unpaid labour. It’s also been reported the vessel required modifications in order to increase capacity to the needed level, raising further concerns over cramped living conditions and a lack of privacy.

      Bibby Line Group has prior form in border profiteering. From 1994 to 1998, the Bibby Stockholm was used to house the homeless, some of whom were asylum seekers, in Hamburg, Germany. In 2005, it was used to detain asylum seekers in the Netherlands, which proved a cause of controversy at the time. Undercover reporting revealed a number of cases abuse on board, such as beatings and sexual exploitation, as well suicide attempts, routine strip searches, scabies and the death of an Algerian man who failed to receive timely medical care for a deteriorating heart condition. As the undercover security guard wrote:

      “The longer I work on the Bibby Stockholm, the more I worry about safety on the boat. Between exclusion and containment I encounter so many defects and feel so much tension among the prisoners that it no longer seems to be a question of whether things will get completely out of hand here, but when.”

      He went on:

      “I couldn’t stand the way prisoners were treated […] The staff become like that, because the whole culture there is like that. Inhuman. They do not see the residents as people with a history, but as numbers.”

      Discussions were also held in August 2017 over the possibility of using the vessel as accommodation for some 400 students in Galway, Ireland, amid the country’s housing crisis. Though the idea was eventually dropped for lack of mooring space and planning permission requirements, local students had voiced safety concerns over the “bizarre” and “unconventional” solution to a lack of rental opportunities.
      Corporate Travel Management & Langham Industries

      Although leased from Bibby Line Group, management aboard the Bibby Stockholm itself will be handled by #Corporate_Travel_Management (#CTM), a global travel company specialising in business travel services. The Australian-headquartered company also recently received a £100m contract for the provision of accommodation, travel, venue and ancillary booking services for the housing of Ukrainian refugees at local hotels and aboard cruise ships M/S Victoria and M/S Ambition. The British Red Cross warned earlier in May against continuing to house refugees on ships with “isolated” and “windowless” cabins, and said the scheme had left many “living in limbo.”

      Founded by CEO #Jamie_Pherous, CTM was targeted in 2018 by #VGI_Partners, a group of short-sellers, who identified more than 20 red flags concerning the company’s business interests. Most strikingly, the short-sellers said they’d attended CTM’s offices in Glasgow, Paris, Amsterdam, Stockholm and Switzerland. Finding no signs of business activity there, they said it was possible the firm had significantly overstated the scale of its operations. VGI Partners also claimed CTM’s cash flows didn’t seem to add up when set against the company’s reported growth, and that CTM hadn’t fully disclosed revisions they’d made to their annual revenue figures.

      Two years later, the short-sellers released a follow-up report, questioning how CTM had managed to report a drop in rewards granted for high sales numbers to travel agencies, when in fact their transaction turnover had grown during the same period. They also accused CTM of dressing up their debt balance to make their accounts look healthier.

      CTM denied VGI Partners’ allegations. In their response, they paraphrased a report by auditors EY, supposedly confirming there were no question marks over their business practices, though the report itself was never actually made public. They further claim VGI Partners, as short-sellers, had only released the reports in the hope of benefitting from uncertainty over CTM’s operations.

      Despite these troubles, CTM’s market standing improved drastically earlier this year, when it was announced the firm had secured contracts for the provision of travel services to the UK Home Office worth in excess of $3bn AUD (£1.6bn). These have been accompanied by further tenders with, among others, the National Audit Office, HS2, Cafcass, Serious Fraud Office, Office of National Statistics, HM Revenue & Customs, National Health Service, Ministry of Justice, Department of Education, Foreign Office, and the Equality and Human Rights Commission.

      The Home Office has not released any figures on the cost of either leasing or management services aboard Bibby Stockholm, though press reports have put the estimated price tag at more than £20,000 a day for charter and berthing alone. If accurate, this would put the overall expenditure for the 18-month period in which the vessel will operate as a detention centre at almost £11m, exclusive of actual detention centre management costs such as security, food and healthcare.

      Another beneficiary of the project are Portland Port’s owners, #Langham_Industries, a maritime and engineering company owned by the #Langham family. The family has long-running ties to right-wing parties. Langham Industries donated over £70,000 to the UK Independence Party from 2003 up until the 2016 Brexit referendum. In 2014, Langham Industries donated money to support the re-election campaign of former Clacton MP for UKIP Douglas Carswell, shortly after his defection from the Conservatives. #Catherine_Langham, a Tory parish councillor for Hilton in Dorset, has described herself as a Langham Industries director (although she is not listed on Companies House). In 2016 she was actively involved in local efforts to support the campaign to leave the European Union. The family holds a large estate in Dorset which it uses for its other line of business, winemaking.

      At present, there is no publicly available information on who will be providing security services aboard the Bibby Stockholm.

      Business Basics

      Bibby Line Group describes itself as “one of the UK’s oldest family owned businesses,” operating in “multiple countries, employing around 1,300 colleagues, and managing over £1 billion of funds.” Its head office is registered in Liverpool, with other headquarters in Scotland, Hong Kong, India, Singapore, Malaysia, France, Slovakia, Czechia, the Netherlands, Germany, Poland and Nigeria (see the appendix for more). The company’s primary sectors correspond to its three main UK subsidiaries:

      #Bibby_Financial_Services. A global provider of financial services. The firm provides loans to small- and medium-sized businesses engaged in business services, construction, manufacturing, transportation, export, recruitment and wholesale markets. This includes invoice financing, export and trade finance, and foreign exchanges. Overall, the subsidiary manages more than £6bn each year on behalf of some 9,000 clients across 300 different industry sectors, and in 2021 it brought in more than 50% of the group’s annual turnover.

      - #Bibby_Marine_Limited. Owner and operator of the Bibby WaveMaster fleet, a group of vessels specialising in the transport and accommodation of workers employed at remote locations, such as offshore oil and gas sites in the North Sea. Sometimes, as in the case of Chevron’s Liquified Natural Gas (LNG) project in Nigeria, the vessels are used as an alternative to hotels owing to a “a volatile project environment.” The fleet consists of 40 accommodation vessels similar in size to the Bibby Stockholm and a smaller number of service vessels, though the share of annual turnover pales compared to the group’s financial services operations, standing at just under 10% for 2021.

      - #Garic Ltd. Confined to construction, quarrying, airport, agriculture and transport sectors in the UK, the firm designs, manufactures and purchases plant equipment and machinery for sale or hire. Garic brought in around 14% of Bibby Line Group’s turnover in 2021.

      Prior to February 2021, Bibby Line Group also owned #Costcutter_Supermarkets_Group, before it was sold to #Bestway_Wholesale to maintain liquidity amid the Covid-19 pandemic. In their report for that year, the company’s directors also suggested grant funding from #MarRI-UK, an organisation facilitating innovation in maritime technologies and systems, had been important in preserving the firm’s position during the crisis.
      History

      The Bibby Line Group’s story begins in 1807, when Lancashire-born shipowner John Bibby began trading out of Liverpool with partner John Highfield. By the time of his death in 1840, murdered while returning home from dinner with a friend in Kirkdale, Bibby had struck out on his own and come to manage a fleet of more than 18 ships. The mysterious case of his death has never been solved, and the business was left to his sons John and James.

      Between 1891 and 1989, the company operated under the name #Bibby_Line_Limited. Its ships served as hospital and transport vessels during the First World War, as well as merchant cruisers, and the company’s entire fleet of 11 ships was requisitioned by the state in 1939.

      By 1970, the company had tripled its overseas earnings, branching into ‘factoring’, or invoice financing (converting unpaid invoices into cash for immediate use via short-term loans) in the early 1980s, before this aspect of the business was eventually spun off into Bibby Financial Services. The group acquired Garic Ltd in 2008, which currently operates four sites across the UK.

      People

      #Jonathan_Lewis has served as Bibby Line Group’s Managing and Executive Director since January 2021, prior to which he acted as the company’s Chief Financial and Strategy Officer since joining in 2019. Previously, Lewis worked as CFO for Imagination Technologies, a tech company specialising in semiconductors, and as head of supermarket Tesco’s mergers and acquisitions team. He was also a member of McKinsey’s European corporate finance practice, as well as an investment banker at Lazard. During his first year at the helm of Bibby’s operations, he was paid £748,000. Assuming his role at the head of the group’s operations, he replaced Paul Drescher, CBE, then a board member of the UK International Chamber of Commerce and a former president of the Confederation of British Industry.

      Bibby Line Group’s board also includes two immediate members of the Bibby family, Sir #Michael_James_Bibby, 3rd Bt. and his younger brother #Geoffrey_Bibby. Michael has acted as company chairman since 2020, before which he had occupied senior management roles in the company for 20 years. He also has external experience, including time at Unilever’s acquisitions, disposals and joint venture divisions, and now acts as president of the UK Chamber of Shipping, chairman of the Charities Trust, and chairman of the Institute of Family Business Research Foundation.

      Geoffrey has served as a non-executive director of the company since 2015, having previously worked as a managing director of Vast Visibility Ltd, a digital marketing and technology company. In 2021, the Bibby brothers received salaries of £125,000 and £56,000 respectively.

      The final member of the firm’s board is #David_Anderson, who has acted as non-executive director since 2012. A financier with 35 years experience in investment banking, he’s founder and CEO of EPL Advisory – which advises company boards on requirements and disclosure obligations of public markets – and chair of Creative Education Trust, a multi-academy trust comprising 17 schools. Anderson is also chairman at multinational ship broker Howe Robinson Partners, which recently auctioned off a superyacht seized from Dmitry Pumpyansky, after the sanctioned Russian businessman reneged on a €20.5m loan from JP Morgan. In 2021, Anderson’s salary stood at £55,000.

      Ownership

      Bibby Line Group’s annual report and accounts for 2021 state that more than 90% of the company is owned by members of the Bibby family, primarily through family trusts. These ownership structures, effectively entities allowing people to benefit from assets without being their registered legal owners, have long attracted staunch criticism from transparency advocates given the obscurity they afford means they often feature extensively in corruption, money laundering and tax abuse schemes.

      According to Companies House, the UK corporate registry, between 50% and 75% of Bibby Line Group’s shares and voting rights are owned by #Bibby_Family_Company_Limited, which also retains the right to appoint and remove members of the board. Directors of Bibby Family Company Limited include both the Bibby brothers, as well as a third sibling, #Peter_John_Bibby, who’s formally listed as the firm’s ‘ultimate beneficial owner’ (i.e. the person who ultimately profits from the company’s assets).

      Other people with comparable shares in Bibby Family Company Limited are #Mark_Rupert_Feeny, #Philip_Charles_Okell, and Lady #Christine_Maud_Bibby. Feeny’s occupation is listed as solicitor, with other interests in real estate management and a position on the board of the University of Liverpool Pension Fund Trustees Limited. Okell meanwhile appears as director of Okell Money Management Limited, a wealth management firm, while Lady Bibby, Michael and Geoffrey’s mother, appears as “retired playground supervisor.”

      Key Relationships

      Bibby Line Group runs an internal ‘Donate a Day’ volunteer program, enabling employees to take paid leave in order to “help causes they care about.” Specific charities colleagues have volunteered with, listed in the company’s Annual Review for 2021 to 2022, include:

      - The Hive Youth Zone. An award-winning charity for young people with disabilities, based in the Wirral.

      – The Whitechapel Centre. A leading homeless and housing charity in the Liverpool region, working with people sleeping rough, living in hostels, or struggling with their accommodation.

      - Let’s Play Project. Another charity specialising in after-school and holiday activities for young people with additional needs in the Banbury area.

      - Whitdale House. A care home for the elderly, based in Whitburn, West Lothian and run by the local council.

      – DEBRA. An Irish charity set up in 1988 for individuals living with a rare, painful skin condition called epidermolysis bullosa, as well as their families.

      – Reaching Out Homeless Outreach. A non-profit providing resources and support to the homeless in Ireland.

      Various senior executives and associated actors at Bibby Line Group and its subsidiaries also have current and former ties to the following organisations:

      - UK Chamber of Shipping

      - Charities Trust

      - Institute of Family Business Research Foundation

      - Indefatigable Old Boys Association

      - Howe Robinson Partners

      - hibu Ltd

      - EPL Advisory

      - Creative Education Trust

      - Capita Health and Wellbeing Limited

      - The Ambassador Theatre Group Limited

      – Pilkington Plc

      – UK International Chamber of Commerce

      – Confederation of British Industry

      – Arkley Finance Limited (Weatherby’s Banking Group)

      – FastMarkets Ltd, Multiple Sclerosis Society

      – Early Music as Education

      – Liverpool Pension Fund Trustees Limited

      – Okell Money Management Limited

      Finances

      For the period ending 2021, Bibby Line Group’s total turnover stood at just under £260m, with a pre-tax profit of almost £31m – fairly healthy for a company providing maritime services during a global pandemic. Their post-tax profits in fact stood at £35.5m, an increase they would appear to have secured by claiming generous tax credits (£4.6m) and deferring a fair amount (£8.4m) to the following year.

      Judging by their last available statement on the firm’s profitability, Bibby’s directors seem fairly confident the company has adequate financing and resources to continue operations for the foreseeable future. They stress their February 2021 sale of Costcutter was an important step in securing this, given it provided additional liquidity during the pandemic, as well as the funding secured for R&D on fuel consumption by Bibby Marine’s fleet.
      Scandal Sheet

      Bibby Line Group and its subsidiaries have featured in a number of UK legal proceedings over the years, sometimes as defendants. One notable case is Godfrey v Bibby Line, a lawsuit brought against the company in 2019 after one of their former employees died as the result of an asbestos-related disease.

      In their claim, the executors of Alan Peter Godfrey’s estate maintained that between 1965 and 1972, he was repeatedly exposed to large amounts of asbestos while working on board various Bibby vessels. Although the link between the material and fatal lung conditions was established as early as 1930, they claimed that Bibby Line, among other things:

      “Failed to warn the deceased of the risk of contracting asbestos related disease or of the precautions to be taken in relation thereto;

      “Failed to heed or act upon the expert evidence available to them as to the best means of protecting their workers from danger from asbestos dust; [and]

      “Failed to take all reasonably practicable measures, either by securing adequate ventilation or by the provision and use of suitable respirators or otherwise, to prevent inhalation of dust.”

      The lawsuit, which claimed “unlimited damage”’ against the group, also stated that Mr Godfrey’s “condition deteriorated rapidly with worsening pain and debility,” and that he was “completely dependent upon others for his needs by the last weeks of his life.” There is no publicly available information on how the matter was concluded.

      In 2017, Bibby Line Limited also featured in a leak of more than 13.4 million financial records known as the Paradise Papers, specifically as a client of Appleby, which provided “offshore corporate services” such as legal and accountancy work. According to the Organized Crime and Corruption Reporting Project, a global network of investigative media outlets, leaked Appleby documents revealed, among other things, “the ties between Russia and [Trump’s] billionaire commerce secretary, the secret dealings of Canadian Prime Minister Justin Trudeau’s chief fundraiser and the offshore interests of the Queen of England and more than 120 politicians around the world.”

      This would not appear to be the Bibby group’s only link to the shady world of offshore finance. Michael Bibby pops up as a treasurer for two shell companies registered in Panama, Minimar Transport S.A. and Vista Equities Inc.
      Looking Forward

      Much about the Bibby Stockholm saga remains to be seen. The exact cost of the initiative and who will be providing security services on board, are open questions. What’s clear however is that activists will continue to oppose the plans, with efforts to prevent the vessel sailing from Falmouth to its final docking in Portland scheduled to take place on 30th June.

      Appendix: Company Addresses

      HQ and general inquiries: 3rd Floor Walker House, Exchange Flags, Liverpool, United Kingdom, L2 3YL

      Tel: +44 (0) 151 708 8000

      Other offices, as of 2021:

      6, Shenton Way, #18-08A Oue Downtown 068809, Singapore

      1/1, The Exchange Building, 142 St. Vincent Street, Glasgow, G2 5LA, United Kingdom

      4th Floor Heather House, Heather Road, Sandyford, Dublin 18, Ireland

      Unit 2302, 23/F Jubilee Centre, 18 Fenwick Street, Wanchai, Hong Kong

      Unit 508, Fifth Floor, Metropolis Mall, MG Road, Gurugram, Haryana, 122002 India

      Suite 7E, Level 7, Menara Ansar, 65 Jalan Trus, 8000 Johor Bahru, Johor, Malaysia

      160 Avenue Jean Jaures, CS 90404, 69364 Lyon Cedex, France

      Prievozská 4D, Block E, 13th Floor, Bratislava 821 09, Slovak Republic

      Hlinky 118, Brno, 603 00, Czech Republic

      Laan Van Diepenvoorde 5, 5582 LA, Waalre, Netherlands

      Hansaallee 249, 40549 Düsseldorf, Germany

      Poland Eurocentrum, Al. Jerozolimskie 134, 02-305 Warsaw, Poland

      1/2 Atarbekova str, 350062, Krasnodar, Krasnodar

      1 St Peter’s Square, Manchester, M2 3AE, United Kingdom

      25 Adeyemo Alakija Street, Victoria Island, Lagos, Nigeria

      10 Anson Road, #09-17 International Plaza, 079903 Singapore

      https://corporatewatch.org/floating-prisons-the-200-year-old-family-business-behind-the-bibby-s

      signalé ici aussi par @rezo:
      https://seenthis.net/messages/1010504

    • The Langham family seem quite happy to support right-wing political parties that are against immigration, while at the same time profiting handsomely from the misery of refugees who are forced to claim sanctuary here.


      https://twitter.com/PositiveActionH/status/1687817910364884992

      –---

      Family firm ’profiteering from misery’ by providing migrant barges donated £70k to #UKIP

      The Langham family, owners of Langham Industries, is now set to profit from an 18-month contract with the Home Office to let the Bibby Stockholm berth at Portland, Dorset

      A family firm that donated more than £70,000 to UKIP is “profiteering from misery” by hosting the Government’s controversial migrant barge. Langham Industries owns Portland Port, where the Bibby Stockholm is docked in a deal reported to be worth some £2.5million.

      The Langham family owns luxurious properties and has links to high-profile politicians, including Prime Minister Rishi Sunak and Deputy Prime Minister Oliver Dowden. And we can reveal that their business made 19 donations to pro-Brexit party UKIP between 2003 and 2016.

      Late founder John Langham was described as an “avid supporter” of UKIP in an obituary in 2017. Now his children, John, Jill and Justin – all directors of the family firm – are set to profit from an 18-month contract with the Home Office to let the Bibby Stockholm berth at Portland, Dorset.

      While Portland Port refuses to reveal how much the Home Office is paying, its website cites berthing fees for a ship the size of the Bibby Stockholm at more than £4,000 a day. In 2011, Portland Port chairman John, 71, invested £3.7million in Grade II* listed country pile Steeple Manor at Wareham, Dorset. Dating to around 1600, it has a pond, tennis court and extensive gardens designed by the landscape architect Brenda Colvin.

      The arrangement to host the “prison-like” barge for housing migrants has led some locals to blast the Langhams, who have owned the port since 1997. Portland mayor Carralyn Parkes, 61, said: “I don’t know how John Langham will sleep at night in his luxurious home, with his tennis court and his fluffy bed, when asylum seekers are sleeping in tiny beds on the barge.

      “I went on the boat and measured the rooms with a tape measure. On average they are about 10ft by 12ft. The bunk bed mattresses are about 6ft long. If you’re taller than 6ft you’re stuffed. The Langham family need to have more humanity. They are only interested in making money. It’s shocking.”

      (#paywall)
      https://www.mirror.co.uk/news/politics/family-firm-profiteering-misery-providing-30584405.amp

      #UK_Independence_Party

    • ‘This is a prison’: men tell of distressing conditions on Bibby Stockholm

      Asylum seekers share fears about Dorset barge becoming even more crowded, saying they already ‘despair and wish for death’

      Asylum seekers brought back to the Bibby Stockholm barge in Portland, Dorset, have said they are being treated in such a way that “we despair and wish for death”.

      The Guardian spoke to two men in their first interview since their return to the barge on 19 October after the vessel lay empty for more than two months. The presence of deadly legionella bacteria was confirmed on board on 7 August, the same day the first group of asylum seekers arrived. The barge was evacuated four days later.

      The new warning comes after it emerged that one asylum seeker attempted to kill himself and is in hospital after finding out he is due to be taken to the barge on Tuesday.

      A man currently on the barge told the Guardian: “Government decisions are turning healthy and normal refugees into mental patients whom they then hand over to society. Here, many people were healthy and coping with OK spirits, but as a result of the dysfunctional strategies of the government, they have suffered – and continue to suffer – from various forms of serious mental distress. We are treated in such a way that we despair and wish for death.”

      He said that although the asylum seekers were not detained on the barge and could leave to visit the nearby town, in practice, doing so was not easy.

      He added: “In the barge, we have exactly the feeling of being in prison. It is true that they say that this is not a prison and you can go outside at any time, but you can only go to specific stops at certain times by bus, and this does not give me a good feeling.

      “Even to use the fresh air, you have to go through the inspection every time and go to the small yard with high fences and go through the X-ray machine again. And this is not good for our health.

      “In short, this is a prison whose prisoners are not criminals, they are people who have fled their country just to save their lives and have taken shelter here to live.”

      The asylum seekers raised concerns about what conditions on the barge would be like if the Home Office did fill it with about 500 asylum seekers, as officials say is the plan. Those on board said it already felt quite full with about 70 people living there.

      The second asylum seeker said: “The space inside the barge is very small. It feels crowded in the dining hall and the small entertainment room. It is absolutely clear to me that there will be chaos here soon.

      “According to my estimate, as I look at the spaces around us, the capacity of this barge is maximum 120 people, including personnel and crew. The strategy of ​​transferring refugees from hotels to barges or ships or military installations is bound to fail.

      “The situation here on the barge is getting worse. Does the government have a plan for shipwrecked residents? Everyone here is going mad with anxiety. It is not just the barge that floats on the water, but the plans of the government that are radically adrift.”

      Maddie Harris of the NGO Humans For Rights Network, which supports asylum seekers in hotels, said: “Home Office policies directly contribute to the significant deterioration of the wellbeing and mental health of so many asylum seekers in their ‘care’, with a dehumanising environment, violent anti-migrant rhetoric and isolated accommodations away from community and lacking in support.”

      A Home Office spokesperson said: “The Bibby Stockholm is part of the government’s pledge to reduce the use of expensive hotels and bring forward alternative accommodation options which provide a more cost-effective, sustainable and manageable system for the UK taxpayer and local communities.

      “The health and welfare of asylum seekers remains the utmost priority. We work continually to ensure the needs and vulnerabilities of those residing in asylum accommodation are identified and considered, including those related to mental health and trauma.”

      Nadia Whittome and Lloyd Russell-Moyle, the Labour MPs for Nottingham East and Brighton Kemptown respectively, will travel to Portland on Monday to meet asylum seekers accommodated on the Bibby Stockholm barge and local community members.

      The visit follows the home secretary, Suella Braverman, not approving a visit from the MPs to assess living conditions as they requested through parliamentary channels.

      https://www.theguardian.com/uk-news/2023/oct/29/this-is-a-prison-men-tell-of-distressing-conditions-on-bibby-stockholm
      #prison #conditions_de_vie

  • UK to fund France detention site as leaders agree migration deal

    The UK will help fund a detention centre in France as part of a financial package to tackle irregular migration.
    France and the United Kingdom have agreed on a multiyear financial package to stop migration across the Channel, days after the UK government drew criticism for a bill barring unauthorised arrivals.

    As part of the deal announced on Friday, the UK will help fund a detention centre in France while French authorities will deploy a new dedicated permanent policing unit and enhanced technology to patrol the country’s beaches, including drones and aircraft.

    The agreement also involves doubling the number of personnel deployed to northern France to tackle small-boat crossings, half of whom will be in place by the end of 2023.

    It will see a new 24-hour zonal coordination centre with permanent British liaison officers that will bring all relevant French authorities together to coordinate the response.

    Officers from both countries will also look to work with countries along the routes favoured by people traffickers.

    The UK said it would contribute roughly $581m in funding over the next three years to help pay for the new measures, adding that it expected France to contribute “significantly more funding”. France did not provide any cost estimates.

    British Prime Minister Rishi Sunak and French President Emmanuel Macron said at a news conference after meeting in Paris that the two sides had agreed to work more closely together.

    “It is time for a new start,” Macron said.

    Sunak, who took office in October 2022, said the two countries shared “the same beliefs” and had “taken cooperation to an unprecedented level”.

    “Criminal gangs should not get to decide who comes to our country. Within weeks of my coming into office, we agreed our largest ever small boats deal and today we’ve taken our cooperation to an unprecedented level to tackle this shared challenge,” he said.

    The two leaders also discussed further cooperation on defence, as well as the joint training of Ukrainian troops.

    Sunak has made stopping boat arrivals one of his five priorities after the number of people arriving on the south coast of England increased to more than 45,000 last year.

    Camille Le Coz, an analyst at the Migration Policy Institute, told Al Jazeera that in terms of policy, “what we are seeing is more of the same.”

    UK-French cooperation over controls at their shared borders has been formalised in the past through a series of bilateral agreements.

    “What the UK really wants is to be able to return people to France, and this is something that has not been agreed and won’t be agreed by France,” Le Coz said.

    Al Jazeera’s Natacha Butler, reporting from Paris, said ties between the two countries have been rocky since the UK voted to leave the European Union in 2016, but have been fortified by the countries’ support for Ukraine since Russia’s invasion last year.

    Friday’s summit was the first in five years, Butler said, and the realignment was partly due to “a common sense of purpose” forged by the ongoing conflict.
    UK plan to stop Channel crossings

    The new deal came on the heels of criticism in the UK of new draft legislation – dubbed the “Illegal Migration Bill” – barring the entry of asylum seekers arriving by unauthorised means, such as in small boats across the Channel.

    The legislation would enable the detention of people without bail or judicial review for the first 28 days after arrival.

    It would also disqualify people from using modern slavery laws to challenge government decisions to remove them in the courts.

    Sunak said the government would “take back control of our borders, once and for all”.

    Diane Abbott, a member of Parliament with the main opposition Labour Party, said the bill was “mistreating migrants and their rights” and would not work “in the real world”.

    Ylva Johansson, the European Union’s commissioner for home affairs, said she believed the plans breached international law.

    Opposition parties and rights organisations have questioned the morality and practicality of the government’s longstanding migration policies, including deporting some asylum seekers to Rwanda.

    UK home secretary Suella Braverman admitted on Tuesday that the government had “pushed the boundaries of international law”.

    https://www.aljazeera.com/news/2023/3/10/uk-to-fund-france-detention-centre-as-leaders-agree-migration-deal

    #UK #Angleterre #France #Channel #migrations #asile #militarisation_des_frontières #frontières #drones #rétention #détention_administrative #externalisation #accord

  • Royaume-Uni : plus d’un million de colis alimentaires distribués aux enfants en un an, du jamais vu Le figaro
    https://www.lefigaro.fr/flash-eco/royaume-uni-plus-d-un-million-de-colis-alimentaires-distribues-aux-enfants-

    Le recours aux banques alimentaires a atteint des sommets l’an dernier au Royaume-Uni, qui traverse une profonde crise du coût de la vie, avec pour la première fois plus d’un million de colis distribués à des enfants, selon une association caritative mercredi 26 avril. Près de trois millions de colis alimentaires d’urgence ont été distribués entre avril 2022 et mars 2023 par l’association caritative Trussell Trust, qui gère un vaste réseau de banques alimentaires dans le pays. Il s’agit du plus grand nombre de colis jamais distribués en une année par l’association.

    Plus d’1,1 million de ces colis d’urgence ont été distribués à des enfants, soit une hausse de 36% sur un an, souligne-t-elle. « Ces nouveaux chiffres sont extrêmement inquiétants et montrent qu’un nombre croissant de personnes n’ont d’autre issue que de se tourner vers des organisations caritatives (...) et ce n’est pas juste », a réagi Emma Revie, directrice générale de Trussell Trust, citée dans un communiqué.

    « Les aides sociales ne reflètent pas les coûts essentiels »
    Cette dernière juge « inadapté » le système d’aides sociales conçu pour soutenir les plus modestes. « Les aides sociales ne reflètent pas les coûts essentiels (d’un foyer) et en conséquence les gens sont poussés plus profondément encore dans la misère », insiste-t-elle.

    Selon l’association, plus de 760.000 personnes ont eu recours à une banque alimentaire pour la première fois entre avril 2022 et mars 2023, preuve selon elle de l’ampleur de la crise que subissent les ménages britanniques confrontés à une inflation supérieure à 10% depuis des mois. Toutes les régions du Royaume-Uni sont concernées, avec une hausse des colis distribués d’au moins 28% dans chaque région, et qui a atteint 54% dans le Nord-Est plus déshérité.

    « Une augmentation sans précédent »
    « Nous connaissons une augmentation sans précédent du nombre de personnes venant dans les banques alimentaires, en particulier des gens avec un emploi et dont le revenu ne permet pas de suivre la hausse du coût de la vie », constate ainsi Brian Thomas, responsable d’une banque alimentaire à South Tyneside dans le nord-est du pays, cité dans le communiqué.

    L’association appelle le gouvernement à « agir maintenant pour renforcer le système de sécurité sociale ». En plus des aides sociales habituelles, le gouvernement a débloqué des mesures exceptionnelles dans le contexte de crise, notamment pour cette année une aide de 900 livres (environ 1.000 euros) pour les ménages les plus modestes ou encore un paiement de 300 livres pour aider les retraités à payer leurs factures d’énergie.

    #enfants #angleterre #capitalisme #néolibéralisme #pauvreté #banques_alimentaires #crise

  • UK-Rwanda migration deal expanded

    THE United Kingdom’s Home Secretary, Suella Braverman, and Rwanda’s Minister of Foreign Affairs, Vincent Biruta, on Saturday, March 18, signed an addendum that will expand the scope of the existing UK-Rwanda Migration and Economic Development Partnership.

    Braverman made the announcement at a press briefing in Kigali.

    She did not reveal details about the addendum.

    “Today, we have signed an addendum to the Migration and Economic Development Partnership, which will expand the provision of support to people being relocated to Rwanda,” she said.

    In April 2022, UK and Rwanda signed a migration and economic development partnership that seeks to give a dignified life to people who leave their countries to seek asylum in European countries.

    Under the deal, some of these people will be relocated to Rwanda where they will be empowered through different initiatives.

    “There is a global migration crisis. Many countries around the world are grappling with unprecedented numbers of illegal migrants and I sincerely believe that this world leading partnership between two allies and two friends, the United Kingdom and Rwanda, will lead the way in finding a solution which is both humanitarian and compassionate and also fair and balanced,” said the UK Home Secretary.

    Earlier, she visited Norrsken Africa, a regional tech hub based in Kigali and Bwiza estates to assess the skills, services and the welfare program the migrants would be accorded upon arrival in Rwanda.

    “I’ve been incredibly impressed with my visit today, both to meet local innovators and entrepreneurs and to see the job and wealth creation going on in the vibrant economy of Rwanda. Also, I have been impressed with Bwiza estates; its extensive construction work, some of which (the estates) will be used for the resettlement and integration of migrants coming from the UK,” she said.

    Biruta believes the partnership between the two countries will contribute to addressing the global migration crisis.

    “This innovative partnership represents an important development in our efforts to address irregular migration and we are glad to be working closely with the UK on this. The UK is investing in Rwanda’s capability to offer better opportunities for migrants and Rwandans as well,” he said.

    In 2022, the UK received 45,000 migrants which reflected a 60 per cent increase compared to the previous year.

    “We look forward to working together to create a new model which helps to address the root causes of the global migration crisis. This will not only help dismantle criminal human smuggling networks but also save lives and contribute to correcting the global imbalance in human development opportunities,” he said.

    Under the UK-Rwanda migration deal, those who will benefit from the partnership will have the option of applying for asylum, locally, and be facilitated to resettle in Rwanda or to be facilitated to return to their home countries, having received support through the programme.

    The UK will fund the programme, initially releasing an upfront investment of £120 million, which will fund invaluable opportunities for the migrants and Rwandans as well.

    This includes “secondary qualifications, vocational and skills training, language lessons, and higher education.”

    The UK will also support in terms of accommodation prior to local integration and resettlement.

    According to the deal, they will be entitled to full protection under Rwandan law, equal access to employment, and enrollment in healthcare and social care services.

    https://www.newtimes.co.rw/article/5888/news/rwanda/uk-rwanda-migration-deal-expanded

    #Angleterre #UK #asile #migrations #réfugiés
    #offshore_asylum_processing #externalisation #Rwanda

    –—

    voir la métaliste sur la mise en place de l’#externalisation des #procédures_d'asile au #Rwanda par l’#Angleterre :
    https://seenthis.net/messages/966443

    • #Addendum to the #Memorandum_of_Understanding

      Addendum to the Memorandum of Understanding

      Between

      The Government of the United Kingdom of Great Britain and Northern Ireland

      And

      The Government of the Republic of Rwanda

      For the Provision of a Partnership Arrangement to strengthen shared international commitments on the protection of refugees and migrants

      This document is an addendum to the Memorandum of Understanding between the Government of the United Kingdom of Great Britain and Northern Ireland (the “United Kingdom”) and the Government of the Republic of Rwanda (“Rwanda”), together the Participants and in singular the Participant, signed on 13th April 2022. The Participants,

      WISHING to continue the excellent bilateral relations between both countries and to develop new and evolving ways of addressing the illegal migration challenge, including bridging gaps in human capital, in order to counter the business model of the human smugglers, preventing people from taking dangerous journeys thereby preventing injury and loss of life, and protecting the most vulnerable;

      REAFFIRMING the commitments of both Participants under the arrangement to facilitate co-operation between the Participants in order to contribute to the prevention and combating of illegally facilitated and unlawful cross border migration, in a way that will also allow anyone with genuine protection needs to seek and be provided with safety and supported with opportunities to build a new life;

      HAVING regard to the Participants’ commitment to upholding fundamental human rights and freedoms without discrimination, as guaranteed by the Participants’ national legislation, by their strong histories of implementing the 1951 Convention Relating to the Status of Refugees and the 1967 Protocol Relating to the Status of Refugees and by their other respective international legal obligations;

      CONSIDERING the United Kingdom’s desire to encourage asylum seekers to claim asylum in the first safe country they reach and deter dangerous onward travel and subsequent illegal entry;

      CONSIDERING the United Kingdom’s desire to respond to the current challenges presented by illegal migration and apply the principle of the partnership to all individuals who enter or arrive in the UK illegally regardless of whether they have made a protection claim, human rights claim or claim to be a victim of modern slavery or human smuggling and have not come directly from a territory where their life and freedom was threatened;

      REAFFIRMING the commitment to support people in need of protection through safe and legal routes, the United Kingdom will seek to maintain such routes and create more to redress the balance between illegal and legal migration routes;

      CONSIDERING Rwanda’s commitment to finding long-term solutions to the major challenge of illegal migration caused by the global imbalance in human capital that drive economic migrants to make perilous journeys. Rwanda will be providing development opportunities to migrants and Rwandans through sustainable bilateral partnerships;

      DECIDED as follows:
      1 Introduction, Definitions and Interpretations

      1.1 In this Addendum Arrangement:

      a. “Addendum Arrangement” means this Addendum Memorandum of Understanding to the Arrangement.

      b. “Arrangement” means the Memorandum of Understanding between the United Kingdom and Rwanda signed on 13th April 2022.

      c. “Joint Committee” means the committee established under paragraph 21 of the Arrangement.

      d. “Relocate” means the removal of an individual from the United Kingdom to Rwanda under this Addendum Arrangement.

      e. “Relocated Individual” means an individual who is being or has been removed from the United Kingdom and that the Participants have agreed is to be or has been relocated to Rwanda under the provisions of this Addendum Arrangement.

      1.2 References to the singular include the plural, and vice versa.

      1.3 References in this Addendum Arrangement to Paragraphs are references to the clauses and sub-clauses of this Addendum Arrangement unless otherwise specified.

      1.4 The headings in this Addendum Arrangement are for ease of reference only and will not affect the interpretation or construction of the Addendum Arrangement.

      1.5 Any references to policy bulletins, enactments, orders, statutes, rules, regulations or other similar instruments will be construed as a reference to the policy bulletin, enactment, order, statute, rules, regulation or instrument as amended or replaced by any subsequent policy bulletin, enactment, order, statute, rules, regulation, or instrument.

      1.6 This Addendum Arrangement will not be binding in international law.
      2 Objectives

      2.1 The objective of this Addendum Arrangement is to create a mechanism for the relocation to Rwanda of individuals arriving illegally in the United Kingdom, who do not make an asylum claim or raise a formal application for protection in the United Kingdom, with the aims of:

      2.1.1 deterring dangerous and illegal journeys which are putting people’s lives at risk;

      2.1.2 disrupting the business model of people smugglers who are exploiting vulnerable people;

      2.1.3 providing an option for people who desire asylum or protection to make such a claim in Rwanda or otherwise make another type of immigration application in accordance with Rwandan domestic law, the Refugee Convention, current international standards, including in accordance with international human rights law.

      2.2 For the avoidance of doubt, the commitments set out in this Addendum Arrangement are made by the United Kingdom to Rwanda and vice versa and do not create or confer any right on any individual, nor shall compliance with this Addendum Arrangement be justiciable in any court of law by third-parties or individuals.
      Part 1 : Relocation arrangements
      3 Details of relocation arrangements

      The Participants will make arrangements for the relocation of Relocated Individuals under this Addendum Arrangement in the same manner as provided for individuals in Part 1 of the Arrangement.
      Part 2: Responsibilities of the participants
      4 Application of the terms of the Arrangement

      4.1 Paragraphs 4 to 8, 11, 12, 14 and 17 of the Arrangement will apply in respect of Relocated Individuals and their relocation under this Addendum Arrangement in the same manner as those provisions apply in respect of those relocated and their relocation under the Arrangement, except that the reference in paragraph 5.1 to “asylum seekers” will be read as “individuals”.

      4.2 Personal data shared between the Participants for the purpose of relocation of individuals or to give effect to this Addendum Arrangement will be subject to the same controls and safeguards as personal data shared under the Arrangement. In particular, Part 3 and Annex A of the Arrangement will have effect.
      5 Assurances as to treatment of Relocated Individuals under this Addendum Arrangement

      5.1 Rwanda will provide Relocated Individuals arriving under the terms of this Addendum Arrangement with information detailing how to raise a claim for asylum or humanitarian protection upon arrival and adequate opportunity to raise such a claim.

      5.2 In the case of a Relocated Individual who raises an asylum or humanitarian protection claim once they have arrived in Rwanda, the assurances and processes set out in paragraphs 9.1.1 to 9.1.3 and paragraph 10 of the Arrangement will be followed in the case of the Relocated Individual.

      5.3 In the case of a Relocated Individual who does not raise an asylum claim or a protection claim in Rwanda, Rwanda will:

      5.3.1 offer an opportunity for the Relocated Individual to apply for permission to remain in Rwanda on any other basis in accordance with its domestic immigration laws and ensure the Relocated Individual is provided with the relevant information needed to make such an application;

      5.3.2 ensure the Relocated Individual has the same rights as other individuals making an application under Rwandan immigration laws;

      5.3.3 provide adequate support and accommodation for the Relocated Individual’s health and security until such a time as their status is regularised or they leave or are removed from Rwanda; and

      5.3.4 for those Relocated Individuals who have no basis upon which to remain in Rwanda, only remove such a person to a country in which they have a right to reside. If there is no prospect of such removal occurring for any reason Rwanda will regularise that person’s immigration status in Rwanda.
      6 Monitoring of assurances

      6.1 Implementation of the assurances in this Addendum Arrangement will be monitored by the Joint Committee and the Monitoring Committee established under the Arrangement in the same way those Committees monitor the implementation of the assurances in the Arrangement.

      6.2 The access and other arrangements in paragraph 13 of the Arrangement will apply equally to monitoring of the relocation of Relocated Individuals under this Addendum Arrangement.
      Part 3: Financial arrangements
      7 Financial arrangements

      The Participants will make financial arrangements in support of the relocation of individuals prior to any relocations under this Addendum Arrangement.
      Part 4: Other arrangements
      8 Amendments to the Addendum Arrangement

      This Addendum Arrangement may be amended by the written consent of both Participants.
      9 Disputes

      The Participants will make all reasonable efforts to resolve between them all disputes concerning this Addendum Arrangement. Neither Participant will have recourse to a dispute resolution body outside of this.
      10 Duration and Effect

      10.1 This Addendum Arrangement will last for the duration of the Arrangement, unless it ceases to have effect by virtue of paragraph 10.3.

      10.2 During any period referred to in paragraph 23.3.1 and paragraph 23.3.2 of the Arrangement, the terms of this Addendum Arrangement will continue to apply in relation to a Relocated Individual who has been relocated in accordance with its provisions.

      10.3 This Addendum Arrangement will cease to have effect upon agreement by both Participants.
      11 Coming into effect

      This Addendum Arrangement will come into effect upon signature by both Participants.

      In witness whereof, the undersigned, being duly authorised thereto by the respective Governments, have signed this Arrangement.

      Signed in Kigali, 18 March 2023
      The Government of the United Kingdom of Great Britain and Northern Ireland

      The Rt Hon Suella Braverman MP, Secretary of State for the Home Department
      The Government of the Republic of Rwanda

      Vincent Biruta, Minister for Foreign Affairs and International Co-Operation

      https://www.gov.uk/government/publications/memorandum-of-understanding-mou-between-the-uk-and-rwanda/addendum-to-the-memorandum-of-understanding

  • #Home_Office planning to house asylum seekers on disused cruise ships

    Exclusive: Ministers facing growing anger from Tory backbenchers over use of hotels in their constituencies

    The Home Office is planning to use disused cruise ships to house asylum seekers amid growing anger from Conservative backbenchers over the use of hotels in their constituencies.

    Ministers are looking at possible vessels including a former cruise ship from Indonesia, which would be moored in south-west England, the Guardian understands.

    During the Conservative leadership campaign last summer, Rishi Sunak proposed putting illegal immigrants on cruise ships moored around the country but was warned it could be illegal under the Human Rights Act and the European convention on human rights.

    Downing Street confirmed he had dropped the idea to use the ships to house asylum seekers, which critics said would amount to arbitrary detention, once he became prime minister last October.

    Sources suggested, however, that the cruise ships could be registered as hotels rather than detention centres to get around possible legal challenges.

    The immigration minister, Robert Jenrick, is due to make an announcement on Wednesday regarding asylum accommodation amid speculation that it will include the use of boats and military barracks. It could also disclose plans to make use of a clause in the levelling up bill to force councils to accept large-scale accommodation for those seeking asylum.

    Multiple reports on Tuesday night suggested a plan to house asylum seekers on giant barges normally used for offshore construction projects could also be announced.

    The barges are built to house hundreds of people, although a government source told the Times that plans were at an “early stage” and had significant practical issues that needed to be addressed.

    The disclosure comes as the Home Office admitted nearly 400 hotels across the country were being used to accommodate more than 51,000 people at a reported cost of more than £6m a day.

    Sunak is under pressure to come up with alternatives as Conservative MPs, including members of his own cabinet, object to plans to move some people from hotels into former military bases.

    Suella Braverman, the home secretary, is expected to announce alternatives to hotel accommodation as soon as this week. They are expected to be used for new arrivals initially, rather than to rehouse people who are in hotels.

    The prime minister managed to face down a potentially big rebellion on Monday as up to 60 Tory MPs attempted to amend the new illegal migration bill by giving UK courts the power to ignore rulings by Strasbourg judges.

    Whitehall sources confirmed that the government had “in recent months” examined plans including using cruise ships from across the world, which could be brought to the UK and then used to house asylum seekers.

    The ships would be moored off the coast, emulating an approach by the Scottish government, which housed Ukrainian refugees in two 700-cabin ships. They were docked in Glasgow and Edinburgh and could hold 1,750 people each.

    Braverman said she would not rule out the use of former cruise ships when questioned in December by a House of Lords committee. “We will bring forward a range of alternative sites, they will include disused holiday parks, former student halls – I should say we are looking at those sites – I wouldn’t say anything is confirmed yet.

    “But we need to bring forward thousands of places, and when you talk about vessels all I can say is – because we are in discussion with a wide variety of providers – that everything is still on the table and nothing is excluded,” she said.

    It comes amid a Tory backlash over hotels in constituencies being used to house asylum seekers.

    Ministers had also drawn up plans to use two military bases that were identified to house asylum seekers earlier this year – RAF Scampton, the Dambusters’ base in Lincolnshire, and MDP Wethersfield in Braintree, Essex. But they are facing opposition from local Conservative politicians. Council leaders in Braintree are taking legal action to stop up to 5,000 people being moved to the site over the space of a year.

    James Cleverly, the foreign secretary, who is the local MP, wrote on his Facebook page that Wethersfield was inappropriate as an asylum camp because of “the remote nature of the site, limited transport infrastructure and narrow road network”.

    The local council in Scampton is seeking listed status for the Lincolnshire base, while historians and RAF veterans have written to the government asking for the plans to be halted.

    One government source, asked about the possible use of cruise ships, said ministers were working to end the use of hotels and bring forward a range of alternative sites for longer-term accommodation. But they would not discuss details of individual sites or proposals that could be used for bridging or asylum accommodation.

    A government spokesperson said: “We have always been upfront about the unprecedented pressure being placed on our asylum system, brought about by a significant increase in dangerous and illegal journeys into the country.

    “We continue to work across government and with local authorities to identify a range of accommodation options. The government remains committed to engaging with local authorities and key stakeholders as part of this process.”

    https://www.theguardian.com/politics/2023/mar/28/home-office-planning-to-house-asylum-seekers-on-disused-cruise-ships
    #hébergement #asile #réfugiés #migrations #bateaux #bateaux_de_croisière #bateau_de_croisière #Angleterre #UK

    –—

    ajouté à la métaliste sur la Bibby Stockholm :
    https://seenthis.net/messages/1016683

    ajouté à la métaliste #migrations et #tourisme :
    https://seenthis.net/messages/770799

    • Air force bases set to be used to house migrants as ministers hunt for cheaper alternatives to hotels

      The Government are reportedly also considering a former cruise ship from Indonesia, which would be moored in south-west England, as a possible site

      Migrants will be housed at two air force bases in a bid to cut down on the use of hotels and deter people from crossing the Channel on small boats, the immigration minister is expected to announce on Wednesday.

      #RAF_Scampton in Lincolnshire, the former home of the Dambusters and Red Arrows, and #RAF_Wethersfield in Essex are expected to be among the accommodation sites for asylum seekers confirmed by Robert Jenrick, despite local opposition.

      The announcement is being made with the aim of ending the use of hotels for migrants – a pledge the Prime Minister, Rishi Sunak, has made. More than 51,000 people are being housed in 395 hotels, according to the BBC, at an estimated cost of £5.6m a day. Holiday parks and student halls are not expected to be included on the initial list of new sites.

      The Foreign Secretary, James Cleverly, has found himself at odds with his own government over plans to house asylum seekers at RAF Wethersfield, which is in his constituency.

      Braintree District Council is taking legal action against the Home Office in an attempt to secure an injunction against plans to house 1,500 migrants at RAF #Wethersfield.

      Veteran Tory MP Sir Edward Leigh has meanwhile raised concerns that using RAF Scampton to house asylum seekers could put at risk a £300 million investment plan for the site.

      A plan to turn a former RAF base in Linton-on-Ouse, in the constituency of Mr Sunak’s close ally Kevin Hollinrake, into a processing centre for asylum seekers, was meanwhile ditched under Liz Truss.

      During the Tory leadership contest last summer, the Prime Minister pledged to use “cruise ships” as part of efforts to “end the farce of millions of pounds of taxpayers’ money being spent every day on housing illegal migrants in hotels”.

      Downing Street did not respond to a question on whether that meant the prospect of using cruise ships has now been shelved.

      The Guardian reports that the Government was considering a former cruise ship from Indonesia, which would be moored in south-west England, as a possible site.

      According to The Sun, an announcement on nautical accommodation will be made in the coming days.

      There are reports ministers are said to be considering obtaining accommodation barges – typically used for offshore construction projects with only basic facilities – which could house hundreds of migrants who are currently in hotels.

      The plan is at an “early stage”, The Times reported, with ministers not yet decided on where the barge or barges will be stationed, though they are expected to be stationed at port, rather than at sea.

      A source told The Times the Government was aware of “significant practical issues” with these vessels, and it was not clear how safety would be dealt with, though a source told the newspaper: “It’s a row we’re prepared to have.”

      The Government is said to be keen on the idea as a way to discourage people from crossing the Channel and is pointing to countries like France housing refugees in floating vessels.

      Meanwhile, right-wing Tory rebel Jonathan Gullis said it would be “perfectly acceptable” to house asylum seekers in tents while they await for deportation, amid concerns about the cost of hotels.

      During a debate on the Illegal Migration Bill, ministers were also urged to give “serious assurances” they will not return to the “barbaric days” of detaining children in immigration centres.

      Conservative former minister Tim Loughton led calls for the Government to confirm it would not place migrant children in indefinite detention if they come to the UK by unauthorised means.

      Centrist Tories were joined by MPs from across the political spectrum who are worried that a coalition government-era policy not to detain children could be overturned.

      The announcement comes after months of pressure from Tory MPs over the use of hotels for asylum seekers, at a cost of £5.6m a day.

      But it will also be a test of the Government’s ability to override local opposition to build new asylum sites.

      Plans for alternative sites have however triggered a backlash from some Tory MPs over now-abandoned plans to house asylum seekers in Pontins holiday parks in Southport and Camber Sands.

      https://inews.co.uk/news/politics/rishi-sunak-plan-house-asylum-seekers-cruise-ships-shelved-for-now-2239548
      #bases_aériennes #Scampton

    • Au Royaume-Uni, des #barges pour parquer les réfugiés qui traversent la Manche

      Le gouvernement britannique multiplie les annonces censées dissuader les migrants de traverser. La dernière innovation prévoit d’installer les demandeurs d’asile sur d’anciennes embarcations, dans les ports, le temps de leur procédure. Le premier ministre se targue d’avoir déjà fait baisser le nombre de passages depuis la France.

      LeLe feuilleton au Royaume-Uni se poursuit. Les exilé·es, qui en sont les actrices et acteurs principaux, ne sont pour autant jamais consulté·es. On parle d’elles et d’eux comme des « indésirables » qu’il faudrait éloigner, tantôt en usant de machines capables de générer des vagues en mer, tantôt en les parquant sur des ferrys hors d’usage en mer.

      Il y a eu ensuite l’accord non officiel signé entre le Royaume-Uni et le Rwanda, visant à acter le projet de sous-traitance des demandes d’asile à un pays tiers. Un accord décrié et vivement critiqué par les membres de la société civile, mais aussi des chercheurs et chercheuses, qui soulignaient combien cette externalisation venait saboter le droit d’asile.

      Faute de pouvoir encore les envoyer au Rwanda – l’accord a fait l’objet d’un recours devant la Cour européenne des droits de l’homme (CEDH), puis devant la justice britannique fin 2022 –, le gouvernement a décidé plus récemment d’installer une barge au sud-ouest du pays pour y parquer les demandeurs et demandeuses d’asile qui parviendraient à rejoindre le Royaume-Uni de manière irrégulière.

      L’objectif ? Dissuader les personnes exilées de tenter la traversée de la Manche, alors que le nombre de traversées n’a jamais été aussi élevé en 2022, et qu’un terrible naufrage survenu le 24 novembre 2021 ayant coûté la vie à au moins 27 migrant·es est venu souligner les défaillances du secours en mer.

      Satisfait des résultats de son « plan », le premier ministre britannique, Rishi Sunak, a annoncé l’installation de deux nouvelles barges pour l’accueil de demandeurs et demandeuses d’asile, d’une capacité de 500 personnes chacune, d’ici cet été. Le gouvernement entend ainsi réduire de moitié la facture correspondant à l’hébergement des migrant·es dans les hôtels du pays, qui s’élèverait à 6 millions de livres (soit environ 7 millions d’euros) par jour.
      Un « plan » qui fonctionnerait déjà

      La toute première barge, baptisée Bibby Stockholm, a fait l’objet d’une rénovation à Falmouth et sera installée au port de Portland, une petite île située au sud-ouest de Londres. Elle devrait accueillir 500 personnes pour un total de 200 chambres, et sera surveillée en permanence dans l’objectif de préserver la population locale, avancent les autorités.

      La barge aurait coûté, selon le journal The Times, près de 20 000 livres (soit 23 000 euros), et le dispositif coûterait « nettement moins cher que les hôtels », a affirmé Rishi Sunak. La ministre de l’intérieur britannique, Suella Braverman, avait déjà affirmé le souhait de freiner l’hébergement des demandeurs et demandeuses d’asile dans les hôtels, compte tenu du coût que cela engendrait « pour le contribuable ».

      Le 5 juin, le premier ministre a tenu un discours particulièrement dur à leur endroit, renvoyant dos à dos les difficultés économiques rencontrées par les Britanniques dans un contexte d’inflation et le coût de l’accueil des migrant·es.

      « Notre plan commence à fonctionner. Avant que l’on ne le mette en place en décembre, le nombre de personnes ayant traversé illégalement la Manche avait quadruplé en deux ans. Mais en cinq mois, les traversées ont baissé de 20 % par rapport à l’an dernier », a-t-il rassuré. Ce serait la première fois, insiste Rishi Sunak, qu’une baisse des arrivées serait observée sur la période de janvier à mai.

      « Je ne me reposerai pas tant que les bateaux ne sont pas stoppés », a-t-il poursuivi, indiquant utiliser « tous les outils à disposition » ; à commencer par la diplomatie, puisque le partenariat avec la France aurait permis d’empêcher 33 000 traversées en 2022, soit une hausse de 40 % des interceptions.

      L’accord signé avec l’Albanie en décembre dernier, pour réduire les migrations depuis « un pays sûr, européen », aurait lui aussi porté ses fruits. Alors que les Albanais·es représentaient un tiers des arrivées en small boats (lire nos reportages ici et là), Rishi Sunak se vante d’avoir ainsi fait baisser ce chiffre de près de 90 %, et d’avoir expulsé 1 800 ressortissant·es albanais·es en l’espace de six mois.

      « C’est bien la preuve que notre stratégie de détermination peut fonctionner. Quand les gens savent qu’en venant ici illégalement, ils ne pourront pas rester, ils ne viennent plus. »

      Pour « sortir » les demandeurs et demandeuses d’asile du schéma classique d’hébergement dans les hôtels, le gouvernement compte par ailleurs se servir de lieux « alternatifs », comme des bases militaires situées à Wethersfield et à Scampton, où des centaines de personnes devraient être transférées d’ici à cet été, et 3 000 d’ici à l’automne. Celles et ceux restant dans les hôtels pourront être amenés à partager une même chambre avec plusieurs personnes, « lorsque c’est approprié ».
      L’externalisation toujours d’actualité

      « Et je dis à ces migrants qui protestent : ceci est plus que juste. Si vous venez ici illégalement, en quête d’une protection après avoir fui la mort, la torture ou la persécution, alors vous devriez pouvoir partager une chambre d’hôtel, payée par le contribuable, dans le centre de Londres. »

      À l’avenir, le gouvernement britannique mise aussi sur la réforme de la loi sur l’immigration et espère, une fois tous les recours en justice « terminés », pouvoir mettre en pratique la nouvelle loi sur la migration, qui permettrait de placer en détention toute personne arrivée illégalement sur le territoire, avant de l’expulser, soit vers son pays d’origine, soit vers un pays tiers comme le Rwanda, avec lequel un accord a été signé en ce sens.

      « Nous voulons que les choses soient claires, a martelé Rishi Sunak lors de son discours empli de fermeté. Je sais que ce sont des mesures difficiles. Et je ne m’en excuserai pas. »

      Dans un rapport rendu public le 11 juin, le comité mixte des droits de l’homme du Parlement britannique a exhorté le gouvernement à « ne pas enfreindre ses obligations légales envers les réfugiés, les enfants et les victimes de l’esclavage moderne », et à « jouer son rôle dans le système international de protection des réfugiés ». Invitée à répondre aux questions des membres de ce comité, la ministre de l’intérieur n’a pas donné suite.

      Le rapport final, qui contient une liste de recommandations telles que le respect effectif du droit d’asile ou du droit européen (comme les mesures de la CEDH), le non-recours à la détention des migrant·es et la protection des mineur·es non accompagné·es et autres publics vulnérables, appelle le gouvernement à répondre dans les deux mois.

      Celui-ci n’y répondra sans doute pas, considérant que la lutte contre la « migration illégale » est une priorité urgente pour laquelle tous les moyens sont permis.
      La société civile ne cesse de dire son inquiétude

      « Nous sommes profondément inquiets de voir que le gouvernement prévoit d’héberger un nombre grandissant de demandeurs d’asile dans des lieux totalement inadaptés à leurs besoins », avait dénoncé dans un tweet le Refugee Council, une organisation venant en aide aux personnes migrantes et réfugiées en Angleterre, réagissant à l’annonce de l’installation de la première barge.

      Sans compter la portée symbolique associée au fait de loger des personnes ayant traversé la Manche – et potentiellement d’autres eaux – à bord d’une embarcation qui, bien qu’elle soit à quai, ne peut que raviver le souvenir d’un parcours migratoire souvent dangereux et des vies que la mer emporte régulièrement, quand elle ne renforce pas le sentiment d’insécurité lié à une potentielle expulsion.

      Le Royaume-Uni a finalement réinventé le concept de « zone d’attente », mais pour les demandeurs et demandeuses d’asile. Reste à savoir dans quelle mesure leur liberté de circulation sera respectée ou non.

      Si le gouvernement britannique assure que la portée dissuasive de son discours et de ses mesures « fonctionne », il serait bon de se pencher sur les résultats concrets d’une telle politique, qui pousse les personnes exilées à davantage de précarité : celles qui n’osent effectivement plus tenter la traversée n’ont que la perspective des camps et de la rue pour horizon, à l’heure où l’État maintient une politique « zéro point de fixation » pour éviter que la jungle de Calais ne se reforme et où l’accueil des migrant·es est toujours plus décousu.

      Celles qui tentent toutefois de rejoindre le Royaume-Uni en small boat prennent de plus en plus de risques, partant désormais de communes plus éloignées des côtes anglaises pour éviter les contrôles et patrouilles des forces de l’ordre, dont les effectifs sont particulièrement présents aux abords des plages servant de points de départ.

      L’association Utopia 56, très présente sur le littoral pour venir en aide aux exilé·es, n’a d’ailleurs pas tardé à réagir aux annonces de Rishi Sunak. « Pourtant, ces quatre derniers jours, 1 519 personnes ont traversé la Manche et nos équipes ont reçu douze appels d’embarcations en détresse. Rishi Sunak, Gérald Darmanin, malgré les effets d’annonce, vos politiques violentes ne mènent à rien, sinon à pousser les personnes à risquer leur vie », a tweeté l’organisation le 14 juin.

      https://www.mediapart.fr/journal/international/160623/au-royaume-uni-des-barges-pour-parquer-les-refugies-qui-traversent-la-manc
      #Bibby_Stockholm

    • Government quietly awards travel firm £1.6bn contract for asylum barges and accommodation

      Fury over astonishing sum to operate barges and run services to house asylum seekers in Britain

      An Australian travel firm previously slammed for its handling of Covid quarantine hotels has been quietly handed a £1.6bn contract covering the UK’s new asylum accommodation ships, The Independent can reveal.

      #Corporate_Travel_Management (#CTM) was put in charge of the lucrative two-year arrangement in February, weeks before the government revealed it would use a barge as its first offshore accommodation for asylum seekers.

      The contract was awarded directly to CTM without competition, and a lawyer with knowledge of the system said the government had pushed a wider deal originally drawn up for official travel “beyond what it was intended to be used for”.

      Ministers have repeatedly refused to detail the projected cost of Rishi Sunak’s controversial asylum vessels, while insisting they will be cheaper than using hotels that are currently costing £6m a day.

      This week, Suella Braverman told parliament’s Home Affairs Committee she could not predict the cost of the new Illegal Migration Bill, because there are “many unknown factors”.

      Three vessels so far have been announced, with a barge named the “Bibby Stockholm” due to arrive in Portland, Dorset later this month and a further two ships set for undisclosed locations.

      Richard Drax, the Conservative MP for South Dorset, said the public “should know how much is being paid” on the barge set-up and said the spending he was aware of so far was “alarmingly high”.

      “The point is this is taxpayers’ money,” he told The Independent. “This contract might actually be separate to what the ports are being paid.

      “Then on top of that, the police want money, the health authority wants money, of course the council wants money, and yet the government continues to insist that this is cheaper than hotels. The overall figure will be alarmingly high.”

      Yvette Cooper, Labour’s shadow home secretary, said the Home Office has “serious questions to answer”.

      “The Tories are spending more and more taxpayers’ money on their total failure to fix the asylum backlog they have created,” she added.

      “This is an incredibly expensive contract with no clarity on whether proper procedures have been followed, and the barges come on top of costly hotels, not instead of them, because of the government failure to take asylum decisions or get any grip.”

      The CTM contract, published under the title “provision of bridging accommodation and travel services”, states that it has an estimated value of £1,593,535,200 over two years and could be extended beyond 2025.

      The Home Office refused to answer The Independent’s questions on what portion of the contract covers barges, and parts of official documents headed “pricing details” have been redacted in full because of “commercial interests”.

      John O’Connell, chief executive of the Taxpayers’ Alliance, said: “This murky contract leaves taxpayers in the dark. The migrant crisis may require an urgent response, but bungled procurement has cost a fortune in recent years.

      “Ministers must ensure transparency and value for money when tendering services.”

      Answering a parliamentary question on the Bibby Stockholm in May, immigration minister Robert Jenrick said it would be managed “by a specialist and experienced provider, which has a strong track record of providing this kind of accommodation”. He added that the provider had “managed two vessels [housing Ukrainian refugees] in Scottish ports for the past year”.

      On its website, CTM describes itself as “a global provider of innovative and cost-effective travel solutions spanning corporate, events, leisure, loyalty and wholesale travel”.

      The firm says it was established in Brisbane in 1994 and has since grown from a “two-person start-up into one of the world’s most successful travel management companies”, operating across Australasia, Asia, the Americas, Europe, the Middle East and Africa. It has two UK offices in London and Manchester.

      The firm’s most recent financial report hailed record profits, having taken A$292m (£160m) in revenue over the last six months of 2022.

      A notice to its shareholders celebrated the new contract’s “significant impact” on financial growth, adding: “This work involves highly complex services and logistic support… CTM has both the experience and specialised knowledge to support this work.”

      The government placed the new barges under a pre-existing agreement with CTM for “travel and venue solutions”, which previously covered official bookings for conferences, flights, train tickets, hotels and vehicle hire for ministers and civil servants.

      A source familiar with the drawing up of the overarching framework accused the government of “pushing the scope beyond what it was intended to be used for”.

      “If products and services are outside scope there’s a procurement failure and the contract has been awarded without following the rules,” they told The Independent. “It doesn’t look like the right vehicle for this kind of contract and it looks like they’ve done it to minimise visibility.”

      The remit of CTM’s government work was widened during the pandemic and its general manager for northern England, Michael Healy, was made an OBE in the 2021 New Year honours list over the repatriation of British nationals stranded abroad during the Covid pandemic.

      A report by parliament’s Foreign Affairs Committee found that the operation was “too slow and placed too much reliance on commercial providers”, but CTM was then handed a contract for operating quarantine hotels and mandatory testing.

      In a series of angry Google reviews that dragged the company’s rating down to 1.4 stars, one person called CTM “incompetent”, while another wrote: “Shame on the Tory government UK, on whoever decided to give them this contract.”

      Several MPs raised their constituents’ poor experiences in parliament, with one presenting a formal petition demanding compensation and saying the way the contract was awarded “avoided due process or competition”.

      CTM was later involved in operations to transport Afghans and Ukrainians to the UK, and operated two cruise ships used to temporarily house Ukrainian refugees in Scotland.

      That contract, which was also awarded without competition under the same framework as the new barges, covered two ships and hotels, and had an estimated value of £100m.

      CTM declined to comment and did not answer The Independent’s request for details of what the contract covered.

      A Home Office spokesperson said: “The pressure on the asylum system has continued to grow and requires us to look at a range of accommodation options, which offer better value for money for taxpayers than hotels. It is right that we explore all available options.

      “CTM was awarded the contract to deliver accommodation for the Home Office after an extensive procurement process and has a strong track record of providing this kind of accommodation.

      “We are pleased that they will be providing management for Bibby Stockholm, the two additional vessels announced by the prime minister, as well as bridging accommodation and travel services.”

      https://www.independent.co.uk/news/uk/home-news/barge-australia-asylum-contract-travel-b2354578.html

    • Le “prigioni galleggianti”: il nuovo piano del Regno Unito per la prima accoglienza

      L’intervista a Tigs Louis-Puttick, fondatrice dell’ONG Reclaim The Sea, arrestata nei giorni scorsi durante una protesta

      Fanno discutere in UK, e non solo, le “prigioni galleggianti” volute fortemente dal primo ministro britannico Rishi Sunak e il ministro dell’Interno Suella Braverman. Una misura per risparmiare sul costo della prima accoglienza che ora prevede la sistemazione in albergo dei richiedenti asilo.

      “Bibby Stockholm” è il nome della chiatta marittima che per i prossimi 18 mesi sarà utilizzata dal governo britannico per “ospitare” fino a 506 richiedenti asilo uomini, tra i 18 e i 56 anni, in attesa che si concluda l’iter della domanda di accoglienza nel Paese.

      Abbiamo parlato del nuovo piano del governo britannico e della campagna “No floating prisons” in questa intervista a Tigs Louis-Puttick, fondatrice dell’ONG Reclaim The Sea. L’attivista il 18 luglio scorso è stata arrestata «per essermi fermata in strada davanti al Ministero degli Interni con un cartello che diceva ‘Refugees Welcome’ e ‘No all’Immigration Bill, No Floating Prisons‘», ha dichiarato Tigs Louis-Puttick 1.

      Nello stesso giorno la “Bibby Stockholm” attraccava nel porto di Portland.

      Il nuovo piano del governo britannico prevede la prima accoglienza di 500 persone richiedenti asilo in una gigantesca chiatta-alloggio ancorata in un porto nel Canale della Manica, violando la libertà di movimento e il diritto alla privacy.

      Il 5 aprile 2023 l’Ufficio degli Interni britannico (Home Office) ha annunciato l’avvio di un piano per “accogliere” le persone migranti su una gigantesca chiatta-alloggio (la Bibby Stockhom), che giacerà all’interno del porto dell’isola di Portland, nel Canale della Manica. Secondo quanto dichiarato, la decisione è stata presa per “(…) ridurre l’insostenibile pressione sul sistema d’asilo britannico e ridurre l’onere economico che pesa sui contribuenti, causato dall’aumento significativo degli attraversamenti del Canale della Manica” 2. Da quanto emerge dalle dichiarazioni ufficiali dell’Home Office, la Bibby Stockholm diventerà operativa da luglio per un periodo iniziale di 18 mesi, e ospiterà fino a 500 richiedenti asilo uomini, tra i 18 e i 65 anni. La chiatta giacerà in un’area cosiddetta “protetta” del porto, da dove sarà possibile uscire e accedere al centro abitato solamente tramite un servizio autobus dedicato. A bordo, sarà presente un servizio di lavanderia, un catering per i pasti e degli spazi comuni. Sebbene sarà permesso scendere e accedere terra ferma, al momento, per gli ospiti, non è prevista l’erogazione di alcun servizio relativo all’accoglienza al di fuori del porto 3.

      È più che evidente come, l’Home Office miri alla limitazione della libertà di movimento delle persone migranti, riducendola ai minimi termini. Secondo quanto stimato da The Independent lo spazio che ogni persona avrà a disposizione sulla chiatta sarà di appena 15 metri quadri, “la misura di un posto auto”.

      Richard Drax, esponente del partito Conservatore britannico, l’ha definita una “quasi-prigione”, dove le persone saranno lasciate “sedute a girarsi i pollici”. Secondo James Wilson, direttore dell’organizzazione Detention Action (che fornisce supporto all’interno dei centri di detenzione per l’immigrazione illegale), non è che “(…) una chiatta angusta e simile ad una prigione” 4. E, a ragion del vero, è lo stesso Home Office, in diverse dichiarazioni ufficiali, a dichiarare esplicitamente la propria intenzione di “minimizzare l’impatto sulle comunità locali”, come dichiarato nel comunicato stampa del 5 aprile 2023, e ribadito, a più riprese nella Scheda Informativa disponibile sul proprio sito ufficiale.

      Di fronte all’ennesimo scenario di un sistema d’accoglienza sempre più restrittivo e non curante dei diritti delle persone richiedenti asilo, c’è chi non è rimasto indifferente e, anzi, ha dato il via ad una vera e propria lotta per i diritti delle persone migranti. In un’intervista per Melting Pot, parla Tigs Louis-Puttick, fondatrice dell’ONG Reclaim The Sea, che, fornendo lezioni di nuoto e surf alle persone migranti, ha l’obiettivo di accrescere la loro qualità di vita, e aiutarle trasformare il mare da un evento traumatico a uno spazio di libertà e guarigione. A maggio, Reclaimthesea ha redatto una lettera aperta a Suella Braverman, Segretaria di Stato per gli Affari Interni, domandando l’abbandono del progetto, firmata da 706 individui e 91 organizzazioni e collettivi, tra cui Medici Senza Frontiere UK e Sea-Watch. Lo scorso 21 maggio, insieme all’ONG Europe Must Act, Reclaimthesea ha guidato una protesta di fronte all’Home Office, e dato il via alla campagna “No floating prisons” (No alle prigioni galleggianti), che comprende una serie attività ed eventi di protesta e sensibilizzazione.

      https://twitter.com/Reclaim_The_Sea/status/1657692409671630849

      «Abbiamo deciso di chiamare la campagna di protesta No floating prisons per l’approccio generale che ne rispecchia il carattere di questi luoghi. L’attuale processo di ristrutturazione della chiatta prevede l’aumento dei posti da 220 a 500, il che vorrà dire stipare le persone in pochissimo spazio, violando la loro privacy e il diritto allo spazio personale. Il piano è che, direttamente al loro arrivo, le persone saranno sistemate sulla chiatta, che pare non sarà nemmeno attraccata alla terraferma. Inoltre, Portland è un porto chiuso, recintato, non si può entrare ed uscire liberamente. Le autorità potrebbero arbitrariamente decidere di negare il permesso a lasciare il porto e, siccome è un porto privato, non abbiamo controllo sulle decisioni delle autorità, ne possiamo essere certi che daranno informazioni».

      Sui rischi delle prigioni galleggianti, Tigs dice: «La quasi totalità delle persone migranti presenti nel Regno Unito, hanno dovuto affrontare un attraversamento in mare, che sia dalla Libia all’Italia, dalla Turchia alla Grecia o il Canale della Manica. Molti di loro, hanno vissuto qualche tipo di trauma legato al mare. Per ciò, l’idea di farli stare ancora in una barca equivale letteralmente a relegarli nel reale, fisico luogo del trauma. Inoltre, solo il 25% degli uomini e il 18% delle donne provenienti dall’Africa Orientale (area di provenienza di molti dei richiedenti asilo nel Regno Unito) sa nuotare. Dunque, se per qualsiasi motivo qualcuno dovesse cadere in acqua dalla barca o dal molo, rischierebbe seriamente la morte, anche per via delle temperature gelide. Infine, molti hanno vissuto momenti di prigionia nei loro paesi d’origine o nei paesi transito. Arrivano qui e ciò che li aspetta è praticamente un’altra prigione».

      La preoccupazione delle prigioni galleggianti è anche legata all’accordo tra Regno Unito e Rwanda, che prevede la ricollocazione permanente dei richiedenti asilo arrivati irregolarmente nel Regno Unito al Rwanda, affinché la loro domanda d’asilo venga esaminata lì 5. «E’ sostanzialmente una sala d’attesa per chi sarà portato in Rwanda, che non è un paese sicuro, poiché ci sono già tantissimi rifugiati e poche risorse. Come si può pensare di portare qualcuno, che per esempio viene dall’Afghanistan, in Rwanda? Cosa faranno lì? Tutto ciò è solo un’esternalizzazione in stile coloniale delle responsabilità del Regno Unito verso il diritto all’ asilo. Ci preoccupa davvero il fatto che queste persone, possano essere spinte al suicidio, perché capiranno che stanno aspettando solo di essere deportate».

      Infine, secondo Tigs «ciò che sta facendo il Regno Unito fa parte di una tendenza più ampia che sta nascendo in Europa, copiata da Grecia e Italia, quando tenevano le persone in quarantena su una nave durante la pandemia. Nel 2021 ho preso parte ad una missione di soccorso con Sea Watch, siamo arrivati al porto di Trapani con 200 persone a bordo, dopo 12 giorni di navigazione, e un’enorme nave ci stava aspettando, per trasferire le persone dalla nostra imbarcazione. Le persone non volevano andare. Volevano scendere a terra. Avevano paura di cosa avrebbero trovato, di restare in acqua, di sentirsi male».

      In conclusione, sebbene sia la prima volta che il Regno Unito decida di adottare un sistema del genere, tenere le persone migranti il più possibile segregate rispetto alla popolazione locale, riducendo il loro spazio vitale al minimo, operare a risparmio sull’accoglienza ed esternalizzare le frontiere non rappresenta alcuna novità. Al contrario, è solo l’ennesimo triste passo verso una tendenza consolidata, dei democraticissimi stati europei, di lavarsi le mani dal dovere di salvare vite umane, accogliere, e rispettare il diritto all’asilo.

      E’ possibile seguire la campagna e donare per sostenere la campagna contro le prigioni galleggianti e avviare un’azione legale contro lo stato britannico a questo link: https://tr.ee/74EHZPD4rz .

      https://www.meltingpot.org/2023/07/le-prigioni-galleggianti-il-nuovo-piano-del-regno-unito-per-la-prima-acc

    • ‘Cabins slightly larger than a prison cell’: life aboard the UK’s barge for asylum seekers

      Home Office tour of asylum seeker Bibby Stockholm barge emphasises no-frills features including TVs that don’t work

      Each two-person cabin in the Bibby Stockholm barge, which is set to start accommodating asylum seekers imminently, has a small flat-screen television screwed to the wall opposite the bunk beds. Residents will not, however, be able to watch them because they have not been wired to anything.

      The timeline for the arrival of the first group of 50 asylum seekers has slipped from next week to “the coming weeks”, with the Home Office aiming to increase the number of occupants (or “service users”, as barge staff term them) to 500 by the autumn.

      Organising tours for journalists on Friday of the 222-cabin barge moored in Portland Port, Dorset, presented government officials with a PR conundrum.

      To underline that reliance on expensive hotel accommodation was being reduced, conditions needed to be shown to be less luxurious than hotels but not so austere that the barge could be classified as a floating prison.

      Officials have refused to provide any detail about the figures behind their assertion that the barge accommodation will be considerably cheaper than hotel rooms.

      When the facility finally opens, arrivals will make their way on to the barge via a gangplank, and through airport-style security. In line with the Home Office’s prevailing dislike of friendly murals and pictures, asylum seekers will be greeted by plain, undecorated walls, though a simple laminated A4 sheet stating “welcome” has been stuck on the wall of the reception room.

      Windowless corridors, narrow enough to trail your fingers along both walls as you walk through them, circle the perimeter of the barge, with about 50 rooms on the long edges. Empty of inhabitants, the very confined space feels clean and cool, with an atmosphere vaguely reminiscent of a faded cross-Channel ferry.

      Single-person cabins have been refitted with bunk beds to double the potential capacity of the vessel. Each cabin is slightly larger in size than a prison cell, a bit smaller than the most basic university accommodation, and is fitted with a shower and toilet, a cupboard, mirror, desk and (staff are keen to point this out as a positive feature) a window.

      There was a subtle difference in approach taken by the Home Office employees giving tours to journalists and the representatives of the firm subcontracted to manage the barge.

      Government officials were keen to emphasise the barge’s low-cost appeal, but staff working for the Miami-based Landry & Kling, which has been subcontracted by the Australian firm Corporate Travel Management (CTM) to run the vessel on behalf of the Home Office, wanted to highlight the “dignified” treatment that would be provided: a 24-hour snack bar, planned visits to local allotments, proposed walks and cycle trips for residents.

      Joyce Landry, the firm’s cofounder, valiantly described the Bibby Stockholm in an interview earlier this week with the Herald as “actually quite lovely”.

      In the centre of the barge there are two smallish outdoor areas where nets are soon to be installed to allow people to play volleyball or netball and possibly a very contracted form of football. There is a small gym with two running machines, and an education room with just eight seats.

      “The thing that puts this vessel above many others is that every room has a window. You won’t feel claustrophobic. The windows open, unlike in some hotels. There’s enough public space to have a sense of freedom and openness,” said a Landry & Kling staff member.

      The windows offer views of high metal fencing and naval works units. Whether or not residents, single men aged 18-65, who will be held here for up to nine months, will agree that there is a sense of freedom and openness is a moot point. Security staff are being trained to manage conflict on board.

      In the street by the port’s entrance local protesters have been displaying their anger about the barge all week, with some furious at the arrival of large numbers of asylum seekers so close to the small tourist town, and others protesting that asylum seekers should not be held on barges at all.

      Landry has spent the past three nights sleeping on the barge to experience conditions. A windy night prompted staff to request extra tethering to fix the barge to the shore.

      Landry & Kling staff said the Home Office had requested that the TVs (previously used by construction workers recently accommodated on the barge) should not be wired up.

      The Home Office staff said they wanted “to promote socialisation” by forcing people out of their rooms to watch television together in the two communal TV rooms.

      But the presence of non-functioning TVs may also signal a determination by the Home Office to show that its latest solution for housing asylum seekers is merely “basic and functional” and will offer no frills to residents.

      Before it housed oil and construction workers, the Bibby Stockholm was used in the 2000s by the Netherlands to house asylum seekers. An Amnesty report from 2008 documented the psychological trauma experienced by residents.

      The rare Home Office tour of facilities was designed to showcase progress away from housing 51,000 asylum seekers in hotels at a cost of £6m a day to a cheaper alternative.

      However, plans have only been laid out for alternative accommodation for 3,000 people who they now hope will be moved to new, ex-military facilities and the barge by the autumn.

      https://www.theguardian.com/uk-news/2023/jul/21/life-aboard-bibby-stockholm-asylum-seeker-barge-home-office-tour

    • ‘No timeframe’ on delayed opening of Bibby Stockholm asylum barge

      Transport minister says barge in Portland going through final checks amid row over safety concerns

      A UK government minister has said he “cannot put a timeframe” on when the Home Office will open a controversial giant barge meant to house asylum seekers, which has been further delayed for checks.

      The initial plan had been to move people on to the Bibby Stockholm in Portland, Dorset, from this week, with numbers due to rise over the coming months until the vessel held about 500 men.

      Asked on Sky News when the barge would be available, the transport minister Richard Holden said: “It’s going through its final checks at the moment. It’s right that … whatever accommodation we provide is safe and secure as well. I can’t put a timeframe on it.”

      Asked if safety concerns were delaying the opening, he said: “It’s going through final checks at the moment. With anything you would want them to be properly checked out.”

      The Guardian reported on Monday that the first asylum seekers were due to be moved onboard the vessel on Wednesday but that seems to have been delayed further with the minister now unwilling to put a timeframe on the move.

      Asked if it would be delayed as long as the Rwanda policy had taken to implement, Holden added: “I can’t comment on the ongoing process of checks and things that have to take place but it is my understanding (it is) in its final checks.”

      Fears had been expressed that the barge could become a “floating Grenfell” and endanger the lives of vulnerable people who have fled hardship and war as it has not received the relevant safety signoff.

      About 40 claimants staying in other Home Office accommodation had received transfer letters saying they would be moved to the 222-cabin vessel in Dorset, Whitehall sources said.

      More than 50 national organisations and campaigners, including the Refugee Council, Asylum Matters and Refugee Action, have called the government’s plan “cruel and inhumane”. They said the vessel was “entirely inappropriate” and would house traumatised migrants in “detention-like conditions”.

      People are meanwhile expected to be moved this week on to another site that has become a focus for protest, the disused RAF base in Wethersfield, Essex.

      Local people who attended an event convened by the Home Office in the village complained on Monday night of coming away even more frustrated because of what they said was a lack of answers.

      “It was actually embarrassing. They didn’t pass a microphone around and it seemed to be really badly organised so people just ended up shouting to be heard,” said Michelle Chapman, of the Fields Association, a residents group involved in a campaign against the centre.

      “It ended up being quite heated and people just came away feeling frustrated. If there was one answer it was a pledge that they would not bring in any more than 50 people in one go, but there is still confusion here and genuine anxiety.”

      The meeting, held in the village hall, was addressed by senior police officers as well as Home Office officials. Local council officials were also present at the meeting, where Chapman said there was standing room only.

      A Home Office spokesperson said that delivering accommodation on surplus military sites and vessels would provide cheaper and more suitable accommodation for those arriving in the UK in small boats.

      They added: “The first asylum seekers have now been accommodated at Wethersfield and we are working with stakeholders on a carefully structured plan to increase the number staying there in a phased approach.”

      https://www.theguardian.com/uk-news/2023/aug/01/no-timeframe-on-delayed-opening-of-bibby-stockholm-asylum-barge

    • Transfer of asylum seekers to ‘floating coffin’ Bibby Stockholm postponed

      Nicola David of campaign group One Life to Live documents the reasons why Bibby Stockholm is being recognised as a potential death trap

      With the first asylum seekers due to step aboard Bibby Stockholm this week, the controversy surrounding the Home Office’s decision to contain people on the barge has further escalated. Serious safety questions are being raised about the barge’s setting, a berth at the Langham Industries-run Portland Port. As a direct consequence, the initial transfer of 40 vulnerable adults to Bibby Stockholm has been postponed. I calculate that delays to date have already cost the taxpayer over £3mn.

      This is the first time that asylum seekers are to be contained on a barge in the UK, and the scheme is already mired in misery. There were significant delays in dry dock, where rotten sections of the hull needed replacing. And my report found that keeping people on the barge won’t cost less than in hotels, which is the crux of the Home Office’s strategy.

      Now, I have found that the 47-year-old vessel has not yet passed fire safety checks, and there are grave concerns over serious and unresolved (and potentially unresolvable) safety and fire risks. There also appears to be confusion over which safety regulations will apply, given that the site straddles the sea and land and the engine-less vessel is effectively a hotel.

      Clear evidence is emerging that the decision to transfer vulnerable adults onto Bibby Stockholm was premature at best – and potentially negligent at worst. And politically, if safety concerns require the Home Office to significantly reduce the number of people on board, the cost per head would be a humiliating blow to the prime minister and home secretary, who are counting on large-scale containment sites such as this to put an end to the daily asylum seeker hotel bill.
      Bibby Stockholm: a disaster waiting to happen

      Bibby Stockholm was designed to hold 222 people in single cabins, but was recently reconfigured to hold 506 asylum seekers in multiple-occupancy rooms along with 40 resident staff. A further 20 staff will live off the barge; with some of these on duty, around 550 people could be on board at any time.

      This is 248% of the intended capacity – and more than the previous maximum of 472 asylum seekers held when the same vessel was used as an immigration detention centre in Rotterdam in 2005. I am also left wondering whether the barge’s insurers can have extended its cover to this permit this level of overcrowding, and whether they would refuse public liability claims for injury, death or damage from asylum seekers, staff or the port.

      Asylum seekers sharing small cabins will have “less living space than an average parking bay”, according to the Independent. The mayor of Portland, Carralyn Parkes, measured the cabins and found that those for two people averaged “about 10ft by 12ft”. This could lead to serious problems with exiting rooms, using corridors, and accessing fire exits – and it is not clear whether there are sufficient fire exits for the new, higher population.

      The width of the corridors on board is not publicly known, but following a tour of the barge the Guardian reported that they are “narrow enough to trail your fingers along both walls as you walk”. Given the excess numbers of people, this could result in deadly delays, bottlenecks, and trampling of fallen people.

      Bibby Stockholm has three floors and all of the corridors are configured in the same way. There are no external windows in the corridors, and in an emergency – particularly if smoke and/or dim lighting affect visibility – it is easy to imagine that people might become disoriented or be unable to locate the bow, stern, port or starboard sides. This could cause delays and increase panic.

      Factors that would impede escape

      Asylum seekers may have prior injuries relating to war, conflict or persecution, or may sustain injuries as direct result of an incident on the barge. In 2005, when a fire broke out at a Dutch detention centre in which 11 people died and 15 were injured, one man “suffered injuries to his neck, shoulders and chest when he fell from his bed … in panic after realising that the detention centre was on fire”. Either type of injury could impede escape in a major incident. Additionally, those suffering from the mental trauma of war, conflict or persecution may be less able to process evacuation and safety instructions.

      Local councillors who visited the barge on 27 July reported that there were also no lifejackets on the vessel. The windows on board can be opened, but it is understood that this is restricted and would not allow a person to escape in an emergency. Barge operator Landry & Kling also told journalists that there would be no fire drills on Bibby Stockholm.

      Any emergency would be further compounded by the presence of asylum seekers whose first language is not English, or who speak no English, and may struggle to understand verbal evacuation and safety instructions, especially in a state of panic.
      Access for emergency vehicles

      I am very concerned about the capacity of the small quayside compound, which could not possibly hold 550 people in an evacuation. To prevent asylum seekers leaving the site or walking around on the port, this compound is surrounded by a fence at least 15 feet high and is accessible only via two sets of locked gates. In a crush, people simply couldn’t get out. There is significant potential for a Hillsborough-like crush situation.

      The only way for emergency vehicles to access the vessel would be via this compound. Locked gates could be a problem; even with access, how would first-responders and ambulances get through large numbers of panicked people crowding into the enclosed area?

      Physical condition of Bibby Stockholm

      Bibby Stockholm was built in 1976. According to a recent FT article:

      “The hull was rotten … in places the steel hull had decayed to the point where it was dangerously thin, necessitating the replacement of entire sections … Bibby Stockholm was late out of Falmouth for good reasons, mostly age-related.”

      The repair work done at Falmouth may have fixed the localised problems, and the barge may (as the FT found) have passed its Lloyd’s inspections, but the rot and repairs may have undermined the overall structural integrity of the hull.

      This could leave the barge open to being adversely affected by extreme weather, including being knocked against the berth, or by the weight of the additional residents plus the commensurate additional furniture and stores.
      Complexity around safety

      The barge scheme straddles both water and land, rendering safety inspections and certification more complex and potentially confusing. At least five agencies are involved:

      Lloyd’s Register of Shipping
      The Maritime and Coastguard Agency
      Dorset Council, which regulates the safety of the barge
      The Health and Safety Executive (HSE), which regulates the surrounding quayside
      Dorset & Wiltshire Fire and Rescue Service.

      Health and safety concerns

      In the week commencing 24 July, the HSE visited the berth at Portland Port. It found that “a lot” of work was still required to be done by both Bibby Marine and Landry & Kling, the US-based subcontractor for operations.

      Landry & Kling co-founder Joyce Landry has claimed in an interview in The Herald that “fears about the conditions on board have been caused by a lack of accurate information,” and that Bibby Stockholm is “actually quite lovely”.

      Mark Davies, head of communications and campaigns at the Refugee Council, expressed concern, saying:

      “Like most people in the UK, we believe people seeking asylum – the vast majority of whom are refugees fleeing unimaginable horrors – should be treated with decency, respect and humanity. These are values people in Britain hold dear.”

      A 27 July report in the Guardian, highlighting some of these safety concerns, includes a statement from Dorset & Wiltshire Fire and Rescue Service which indicates that they are not yet satisfied with arrangements at the barge. They said they had “conducted visits to review fire safety arrangements on the Bibby Stockholm” and were continuing to liaise with other authorities “to ensure that appropriate fire safety measures under relevant legislation are in place”.
      Questions for the home secretary

      On 18 July it was reported that Chris Loder, MP for West Dorset, has said:

      “For months, I have been asking for sight of the safety risk assessments that should have been done to allow the Bibby Stockholm to be used in Portland Harbour … But visibility or assurances that adequate safety risk assessments have been completed have not been received.”

      Loder has written to the home secretary Suella Braverman and transport minister Baroness Vere to ask that they either stop the scheme or provide the necessary safety risk assessments confirming that the vessel can cope with double the weight that it was designed to bear.

      In May 2023, a caller named Mark told David Lammy MP on LBC Radio: “What they are effectively doing here is they are creating a potential Grenfell on water, a floating coffin … If there is a fire, people will die. In this case, people won’t die from the smoke or the flames, they will die from the stampede.”
      A failure both of competence and humanity

      The Home Office announced its intention to create a series of asylum seeker containment sites last year, but failed at the first hurdle with the cancelled plans for Linton-on-Ouse. The RAF Scampton and RAF Wethersfield sites now have permission to push ahead with a judicial review. Regardless, Scampton has been delayed until October, since the Home Office has failed for five months to survey the accommodation buildings and to engage tradespeople.

      At Wethersfield (the only large-scale site to have received any asylum seekers so far) there are cases of tuberculosis, scurvy and scabies. Legal action on human rights grounds is certain to follow at all sites, involving misery for individuals and a burden for the public purse.

      The Home Office appears to be embarrassingly unable to set up and manage these sites, or to show any humanity towards deeply vulnerable people. It certainly cannot deliver value for money. It is time for the Home Office to hire more asylum caseworkers to process the shameful backlog, and to put an end to large-scale containment – before we start to see them shifting into concentration-like detention centres.

      https://yorkshirebylines.co.uk/news/home-affairs/transfer-of-asylum-seekers-to-floating-coffin-bibby-stockholm-po
      #sécurité

    • Bibby Stockholm: First asylum seekers to board UK’s controversial barge despite safety warnings

      Fire Bridges Union (FBU) have brand Bibby Stockholm a ’potential deathtrap,’ while leaked health document warns of a potential diphtheria outbreak.

      The first 50 asylum seekers will board the controversial Bibby Stockholm barge “imminently," the British government told the BBC’s Radio 4 Today programme.

      The announcement comes just days after the Fire Bridges Union (FBU) raised concerns about overcrowding and fire exit access in a letter to the Home Secretary.

      The Bibby Stockholm, a 222-cabin barge moored off Portland port in Dorset, is anticipated to accommodate double its original capacity, with bunkbeds squeezed into single cabins.

      Narrow corridors, a lack of life jackets, and locked gates could create a “Hillsborough-type crush” and make it a “potential deathtrap,” the FBU warned.

      The evacuation point, a compound on the quayside, has been described by Dorset councillors as “completely inappropriate".

      “Firefighting operations on vessels such as the Bibby Stockholm provide significant challenges and require specialist training and safe systems of work. The diminished safety provisions only exacerbate our operational concerns,” Ben Selby, the assistant general Secretary of the FBU wrote.

      A leaked internal health document has also warned of the potential for “a significant outbreak” of diphtheria aboard the boat.

      It also highlighted the risk of the spread of a number of other infectious diseases including TB, Legionnaires’ disease, norovirus, salmonella, and scabies.

      The first group of asylum seekers was initially intended to arrive last Tuesday, but the date was pushed to this week amid health and safety concerns.

      The Home Office had already been forced to delay the first arrivals onto the vessel in order to carry out last-minute fire safety checks, after an intervention by health and safety officials.

      On Sunday, Shadow Immigration Minister Stephen Kinnock said the opposition Labour Party would have “no choice” but to continue housing asylum seekers on barges if it forms the next government.

      The news comes amid a raft of new anti-migration measures including a huge increase in fines for landlords and employers who house or employ undocumented migrants, and the revival of plans to fly asylum seekers to Ascension Island.
      Floating prisons

      The move to house asylum seekers on the barge in “detention-like conditions” has been condemned by over 50 national organisations and campaigners for being “cruel and inhumane".

      “(This) floating prison is very quickly going to turn into an overcrowded camp like Manston,” a member of Action Against Detention and Deportations (ADD) told MEE, referring to the short-term facility in Kent that was dangerously overcrowded.

      “There’s also a concern about how this might affect deportation,” they said.

      “We know that the Home Office cuts a lot of different admin procedures where they can, any route they can go through to detain people easily, they will do so… having that number of people in unsafe conditions… is a big concern.”

      It is the first time a large floating structure has been used as long-term housing for asylum seekers in the UK. In 2008, Algerian national Rachid Abdelsalam died from heart failure aboard the Bibby Stockholm when it was deployed in the Netherlands.

      Reportedly, guards were warned of his deteriorating condition and treated his heart irregularities with cough syrup.

      In 2022, also in the Netherlands, a major typhoid outbreak aboard an ageing cruise liner infected 52 asylum seekers and saw 20 staff members hospitalised after raw sewage contaminated the drinking water.
      No basic protections

      In the same letter, the FBU also expressed concerns about the government’s plans to exempt asylum seeker accommodation from requirements for a Houses in Multiple Occupation (HMO) license.

      In May this year, the Guardian reported the government plans to exempt asylum seeker accommodation from basic protections that govern HMOs in order to empty hotels of thousands of asylum seekers and transfer them to the private rented sector.

      The proposed changes would lift restrictions on electrical safety and minimum room sizes, and exempt landlords renting to multiple asylum seekers from requiring an HMO license for two years.

      “To strip away the very basic protections currently in place is appalling, allowing rogue landlords to house vulnerable men, women, and children in dangerous accommodation," a Refugee Council spokesperson told MEE.

      Care4Calais CEO Steve Smith told MEE that the plans treated asylum seekers as “second-class citizens.”

      “HMO licences exist for a reason,” Smith said.

      “Without them, people’s lives would be placed in the hands of unscrupulous landlords who are driven by money rather than providing safe and secure housing for tenants.”

      https://www.middleeasteye.net/news/bibby-stockholm-uk-asylum-seekers-board-controversial-barge

    • First occupants of Bibby Stockholm barge taken onboard

      First asylum seekers to be housed on floating accommodation in Portland, Dorset, have arrived

      The first group of asylum seekers due to be housed on the Bibby Stockholm barge in Portland, Dorset, have been taken onboard.

      Buses were seen arriving at Portland on Monday morning as activists gathered at the entrance with “welcome” signs. About 50 asylum seekers are expected on Monday.

      The UK government wants to use barges and former military bases to accommodate some asylum seekers after the cost of housing them in hotels soared to £1.9bn pounds last year.

      Their arrival came amid confusion over the government’s immigration policies at the start of Rishi Sunak’s “small boats week”, during which the government is planning a series of eye-catching announcements.

      A Home Office minister indicated that up to 500 asylum seekers could be onboard by the end of the week. But No 10 appeared to suggest that the minister had misspoken. The same minister indicated that the Home Office was examining proposals to send asylum seekers to a UK territory in the south Atlantic. However, Whitehall sources said the proposal was not being pursued.

      The Bibby Stockholm was docked off the Dorset coast nearly three weeks ago and had been empty since due to health and safety concerns.

      The minister for safeguarding, Sarah Dines, told BBC Radio 4’s Today programme that while only a small number of asylum seekers were expected to be housed on the barge at first, it could increase rapidly to its capacity of about 500.

      Pressed on whether all of them could be onboard by the end of the week, Dines said: “Yes, quite possibly it will be 500. We are hoping.”

      She said the increase in the number of people on the ship would be gradual, despite concerns from the Fire Brigades Union that the vessel “is a deathtrap”.

      Later, the prime minister’s official spokesperson said: “Numbers will increase over time as you would expect for any new asylum facility. My understanding is that the Bibby Stockholm has an upward capacity of 500. We are looking to [reach] that number over time – I don’t think we are aiming to do it by the weekend.”

      Dines also claimed that ministers were “looking at everything” when asked about headlines in national newspapers claiming the government was looking again at sending asylum seekers to Ascension Island.

      Whitehall sources have indicated the plans are not being pursued. The prime minister’s official spokesperson would not comment on “speculation”.

      Ministers have repeatedly said the barge will be better value for British taxpayers and more manageable for local communities – a claim challenged by refugee charities. There has been local opposition to the plan because of concerns about the asylum seekers’ welfare, as well as the potential impact on local services.

      The refugee charity Care4Calais said it had stopped 20 people from being forced to board the barge so far, with referrals coming in from hotels by the hour.

      “None of the asylum seekers we are supporting have gone to the Bibby Stockholm today as legal representatives have had their transfers cancelled,” Steve Smith, the charity’s CEO, said.

      “Among our clients are people who are disabled, who have survived torture and modern slavery and who have had traumatic experiences at sea. To house any human being in a ‘quasi floating prison’ like the Bibby Stockholm is inhumane. To try and do so to this group of people is unbelievably cruel.”

      More than 15,000 asylum seekers have arrived in the UK so far this year after crossing the Channel, official figures show.

      On Friday and Saturday 339 people made the journey after an eight-day hiatus amid poor weather conditions at sea, taking the provisional total for 2023 to date to 15,071.

      Amnesty International UK condemned using the barge to house asylum seekers. Steve Valdez-Symonds, the charity’s refugee and migrant rights director, said: “It seems there’s nothing this government won’t do to make people seeking asylum feel unwelcome and unsafe in this country.

      “Reminiscent of the prison hulks from the Victorian era, the Bibby Stockholm is an utterly shameful way to house people who’ve fled terror, conflict and persecution. Housing people on a floating barge is likely to be re-traumatising and there should be major concerns about confining each person to living quarters the typical size of a car parking space.”

      The government hopes the use of the barge and former military bases to house asylum seekers will reduce the cost of hotel bills.

      https://www.theguardian.com/uk-news/2023/aug/07/first-occupants-of-bibby-stockholm-barge-taken-onboard?CMP=share_btn_tw

    • Bibby Stockholm: Asylum seekers describe life on barge

      Some of the first group of men to board the Bibby Stockholm have described their first 24 hours on the barge.

      One asylum seeker told the BBC it was like a prison and felt there wasn’t enough room to accommodate up to 500 people onboard, as the government plans.

      The Home Office says the barge will provide better value for the taxpayer as pressure on the asylum system from small boats arrivals continues to grow.

      Moored in Portland Port, Dorset, it is the first barge secured under the government’s plans to reduce the cost of asylum accommodation.

      Monday saw the first 15 asylum seekers board the Bibby Stockholm after a series of delays over safety concerns. It will house men aged 18 to 65 while they await the outcome of their asylum applications.

      An Afghan asylum seeker, whom the BBC is not identifying, said: "The sound of locks and security checks gives me the feeling of entering Alcatraz prison.

      “My roommate panicked in the middle of the night and felt like he was drowning. There are people among us who have been given heavy drugs for depression by the doctor here.”

      He said he had been given a small room, and the dining hall had capacity for fewer than 150 people.

      “Like a prison, it [the barge] has entrance and exit gates, and at some specific hours, we have to take a bus, and after driving a long distance, we go to a place where we can walk. We feel very bad,” the man added.

      There is 24/7 security in place on board the Bibby Stockholm and asylum seekers are issued with ID swipe cards and have to pass through airport-style security scans to get on and off.

      Asylum seekers are expected to take a shuttle bus to the port exit for security reasons. There is no curfew, but if they aren’t back there will be a “welfare call”.

      The Home Office has said it would support their welfare by providing basic healthcare, organised activities and recreation.

      The first group of men arrived on Monday. The Care4Calais charity said it was providing legal support to a further 20 asylum seekers who refused to move to Portland and are challenging the decision.

      On Tuesday, Economic Secretary to the Treasury, Andrew Griffiths, said that moving to the barge was “not a choice” and if people choose not to comply “they will be taken outside of the asylum support system”.

      “Many of us entered Britain nine to 11 months ago, by airplane. Some of us applied for asylum at the airport. We did not come by boat,” the Afghan man said.

      "It has been two weeks since we received a letter in which they threatened that if we do not agree to go, our aid and NHS will be cut off.

      “There are people among us who take medicine. We accepted. We waited for two weeks and didn’t even have time to bring clean clothes.”

      Another man who boarded the vessel on Monday told the BBC he had arrived in the UK on an aircraft, had a wife still in Iran and had been in Britain for six months.

      The man - whom the BBC is not identifying - said he had eaten a “good” breakfast which included “eggs, cheese, jam and butter”.

      The government says it is spending £6m per day housing more than 50,000 migrants in hotels.

      A Home Office spokesperson said: “This marks a further step forward in the government’s work to bring forward alternative accommodation options as part of its pledge to reduce the use of expensive hotels and move to a more orderly, sustainable system which is more manageable for local communities.”

      “This is a tried-and-tested approach that mirrors that taken by our European neighbours, the Scottish government and offers better value for the British taxpayer,” they added.

      The Home Office says that by the autumn, they aim to house about 3,000 asylum seekers in places that aren’t hotels - such as the barge, and former military sites Wethersfield, in Essex, and Scampton, in Lincolnshire.

      https://www.bbc.com/news/uk-66444120

    • Moment Bibby Stockholm barge migrants are EVACUATED amid fears of Legionnaires’ disease - just DAYS after asylum seekers moved aboard in Dorset

      - All 39 asylum seekers onboard Bibby Stockholm barge were evacuated today
      - It comes after first 15 men boarded vessel in Portland, Dorset, just four days ago

      This the moment asylum seekers were driven away from the Bibby Stockholm after deadly legionella bacteria was found in the migrant barge’s water system.

      All 39 migrants onboard the controversial vessel were evacuated today - just four days after the first 15 men stepped onto it in Portland, Dorset - and are being moved to the same hotel, according to The Independent.

      A 40-seater coach, which had been shuttling migrants to and from Weymouth, was seen leaving today. Inside were two men sat in the middle who turned their faces away from onlookers at the port.

      Other footage of the Bibby Stockholm showed people arriving and leaving this afternoon - with ten people seen walking up a ramp and entering while others left.

      Routine tests of the barge’s water supply were reportedly carried out on July 25 but the results only came back when asylum seekers began boarding the barge on Monday, according to Sky News. The results showed levels of legionella bacteria ’which require further investigation’.

      Home Office sources say they were not made aware of the results until Wednesday, with further tests being carried out on Thursday.

      The UK Health Security Agency (UKHSA) advised the Government on Thursday evening to remove all six people that arrived on the Bibby Stockholm that day, but the Home Office decided to evacuate all 39 as a precaution.

      The harmful bacteria can cause a serious lung infection called Legionnaires’ disease, which can happen when breathing in tiny droplets of water containing the bacteria.

      Although nobody onboard had shown symptoms of the disease, officials insisted that all migrants be disembarked while further assessments are carried out.

      A letter from the Home Office that was leaked to the Guardian has reportedly informed asylum seekers that they will be tested for Legionnaires diseases if they do begin to show symptoms.

      The migrants will be taken to hotels which are said to be far from Weymouth, where few rooms are available during the height of the school summer holidays.

      One Syrian migrant onboard the barge told MailOnline this afternoon that he had not been given any information and had not been told to leave. He said: ’The place is very empty but no one has said anything to us. We will have to wait and see, but it is worrying.’

      But the migrants were later told they would be evacuated. It comes after health officials ordered six new arrivals to be removed yesterday.

      Immigration Minister Robert Jenrick is said to be holding meetings to discuss the barge, which the Government hoped would house up to 500 migrants. Local councillors have vowed not to see the boat back in use.

      With a capacity of up to 506, the Government is still hoping that use of the Bibby Stockholm, together with former military bases, will help reduce the £6million a day it is spending on hotel bills for asylum seekers.

      But opponents have claimed the barge is unsafe and a ’floating prison’, while lawyers of some migrants due to board this week have successfully argued to allow them to stay in hotels.

      It was only four days ago that the first 15 men were taken onboard the vessel.

      Support workers, who have spoken to some on board, claimed the asylum seekers were not being kept informed about what was happening.

      Heather Jones, of the Portland Friendship Group which is supporting the migrants, said: ’I have had texts and phone conversations from some of them and they are still on board, they haven’t been evacuated yet.

      ’Nobody has told them anything. They have had to ask me what the problem is. One of them was really concerned because he had just drunk a glass of water and he was asking me if he was going to be OK.

      ’I told him it is probably a precautionary measure but they shouldn’t be hearing it from me.

      ’They don’t know where they are being taken to. Hopefully it will be back to the hotels where they have come from.’

      There was a small group of campaigners from Stand Up To Racism at the port entrance holding placards saying ’Legionella death trap’ and ’human rights’.

      Lynne Hubbard, from the group, said: ’The Home Office have admitted they carried on admitting asylum seekers on the barge even though they found out about legionella on Monday.

      ’They would have been drinking the water and showering in it. That shows pretty clearly what the Government thinks of asylum seekers and how much they value their lives. They are heartless.

      ’An asylum seeker in there we are in contact with told us to get in touch with his family in case he dies of Legionella. That’s how frightened they are.’

      A local Portland councillor slammed the health crisis as a ’farce’ this afternoon.

      Paul Kimbdr, an independent councillor, said he thought the outbreak would mean the end of the barge being used to house asylum seekers.

      ’I just can’t see it being back in use. It’s all been a bit of a farce really,’ he told MailOnline.

      A Home Office spokesman told MailOnline today: ’The health and welfare of individuals on the vessel is our utmost priority.

      ’Environmental samples from the water system on the Bibby Stockholm have shown levels of legionella bacteria which require further investigation.

      ’Following these results, the Home Office has been working closely with UKHSA (the UK Health Security Agency) and following its advice in line with long established public health processes, and ensuring all protocol from Dorset Council’s Environmental Health team and Dorset NHS is adhered to.

      ’As a precautionary measure, all 39 asylum seekers who arrived on the vessel this week are being disembarked while further assessments are undertaken.

      ’No individuals on board have presented with symptoms of Legionnaires’, and asylum seekers are being provided with appropriate advice and support.

      ’The samples taken relate only to the water system on the vessel itself and therefore carry no direct risk indication for the wider community of Portland nor do they relate to fresh water entering the vessel. Legionnaires’ disease does not spread from person to person.’

      Mr Jenrick has previously described the barge as ’perfectly decent accommodation’, but asylum seekers who have spent four nights onboard have contrasting views.

      While one Afghan compared it to the former US maximum security prison Alcatraz, others have said it was ’cramped but comfortable’ with lots of facilities.

      MailOnline understands that the legionella bacteria is believed to have come from the pipes on the vessel – with tests of the water at point of entry coming back with no indication of legionella.

      Six asylum seekers arrived on the barge yesterday, and the UK Health Security Agency last night advised the Home Office to remove this group.

      Home Office sources have insisted that the removal of everyone was a ’further temporary precaution’ aimed to ’reduce the health risk as much as possible’.

      The Home Office is now awaiting the results of follow-up tests which have been carried out on the water system by Dorset Council environmental health officers.

      The UK Health Security Agency will then provide additional advice.

      Sources added that it was not unusual to identify legionella bacteria in warm water systems, which is why they are often subject to regular testing in buildings.

      A Dorset Council spokesman said: ’Dorset Council’s environmental health team and Public Health Dorset are advising the Home Office and its contractors, alongside the UK Health Security Agency and NHS Dorset, following notification of positive samples of Legionella bacteria in the water system on the Bibby Stockholm barge.

      ’No individuals have presented symptoms of Legionnaires’ disease, and there is no health risk to the wider community of Portland.’

      It is understood that the Home Office is managing the search for alternative accommodation for the asylum seekers.

      Dr Laurence Buckman, former chairman of the British Medical Association’s GP Committee, told GB News today: ’If you’re unlucky and your immunity isn’t really tip-top, there is a risk that you will get legionella pneumonia and die from it.

      ’It’s potentially treatable but of course you have to diagnose it first. It lives in water supplies. It lives in sink traps, so a U-bend of a sink will be a problem, and it lives in air conditioning units.

      ’That’s why we have what are called ’scrubbers’ in air conditioning units to wipe out the legionella before the air gets blown onto other people, and why hospitals that get legionella in their sinks have a really big problem. At worst, they have to take the sinks out and replace them and the pipework that goes with them.’

      Steve Smith, chief executive of the charity Care4Calais, said: ’We have always known our concerns over the health and safety of the barge are justified, and this latest mismanagement proves our point.

      ’The Bibby Stockholm is a visual illustration of this Government’s hostile environment against refugees, but it has also fast become a symbol for the shambolic incompetence which has broken Britain’s asylum system.

      ’The Government should now realise warehousing refugees in this manner is completely untenable, and should focus on the real job at hand - processing the asylum claims swiftly, so refugees may become contributing members of our communities as they so strongly wish.’

      Meanwhile Fire Brigades Union general secretary Ben Selby said the outbreak suggested it was ’only a matter of time before either lives are lost or there is serious harm to a detainee.’

      He said: ’The Fire Brigades Union warned the Home Secretary that forcibly holding migrants on this barge was a huge health and safety risk.

      ’This outbreak of Legionella suggests that it’s only a matter of time before either lives are lost or there is serious harm to a detainee.’

      And Alex Bailey, a spokesman for the No To The Barge campaign group, told MailOnline: ’This has become Fawlty Towers at sea.

      ’This was inevitable because of the poor advance planning and preparation, the rush and people in power with little knowledge and pushing the experts to break the rules.

      ’This is just another example of the incompetent way our Government has approached this scheme from start to finish. Robert Jenrick promised the country Bibbly Stockholm was safe. That is not the case.’

      Shadow home secretary Yvette Cooper said: ’Across the country, most people want strong border security and a properly managed and controlled asylum system so the UK does its bit alongside other countries to help those who have fled persecution and conflict, while those who have no right to be here are swiftly returned.

      ’Under this Government, we have neither as gangs are undermining our border security and the asylum system is in chaos.’

      And Kolbassia Haoussou, director of survivor empowerment at Freedom from Torture, said: ’The presence of life-threatening bacteria onboard the Bibby Stockholm is just another shocking revelation that we’ve seen unfold over the past few weeks. This Government’s punitive policies and deliberate neglect of the asylum system is not just cruel, it’s dangerous.’

      Yesterday the Home Office denied the barge was a ’floating prison’ and insisted that those onboard would be ’free to come and go as they want’.

      Gardening in nearby allotments and hiking tours of the area are among the activities which could be offered to those onboard.

      Security measures include 18 guards trained to military standard who work around the clock.

      In total, about 60 staff including cooks and cleaners will be on board the barge run by Landry and Kling, a sub-contractor of Corporate Travel Management (CTM) which also managed vessels in Scotland housing Ukrainians.

      Spaghetti with meatballs, roast turkey, Irish stew and beef pie are on the sample menu to be served in the canteen by Dubai-headquartered offshore firm Connect Catering Services, alongside breakfast and a selection of snacks available 24 hours a day.

      The gym, equipped with treadmills and weights, is still awaiting delivery of rowing machines and exercise bikes. Volleyball, basketball, netball and football can all be played in one of two outside courtyards.

      Most of the 222 bedrooms have twin bunk beds, with cupboard space, a desk, en-suite bathroom, heating and windows which open. But there are also 20 larger rooms which would sleep four people, and two rooms housing six people.

      The bedrooms all have televisions which the operator was told to disconnect but were too costly to remove so can be used only as monitors.

      Instead, residents will be encouraged to socialise or watch programmes and films in one of four communal TV rooms, and can also learn English in a classroom and worship in a dedicated space. A small number of laptops are also available and there is Wi-Fi throughout the barge.

      https://www.dailymail.co.uk/news/article-12397201/All-migrants-housed-Bibby-Stockholm-barge-removed.html
      #maladie #légionellose #maladie_du_légionnaire #évacuation

    • Asylum seekers say Bibby Stockholm conditions caused suicide attempt

      Thirty-nine people who were briefly onboard write to Suella Braverman describing their fear and despair

      Thirty-nine asylum seekers who were briefly accommodated on the Home Office’s controversial Bibby Stockholm barge in Dorset have said conditions onboard were so bad that one was driven to attempt suicide.

      A three-page letter sent to the home secretary, Suella Braverman, also sets out the asylum seekers’ fear and despair at being trapped on the barge and appeals to her to help them in their search for safety and freedom in the UK.

      They describe the barge as “an unsafe, frightening and isolated place” but said that as law-abiding people they were fearful of not obeying Home Office instructions. The asylum seekers described the barge as “a place of exile” and said the conditions were “small rooms and a terrifying residence”.

      Some of the asylum seekers have told the Guardian they are too traumatised to return to the barge in Portland.

      According to the letter some people fell ill on the barge.

      The letter says: “Also in a tragic incident one of the asylum seekers attempted suicide but we acted promptly and prevented this unfortunate event. Considering the ongoing difficulties it’s not unexpected that we might face a repeat of such situations in the future.

      “Some friends said they even wished they had courage to commit suicide. Our personal belief is that many of these individuals might resort to this foolishness to escape problems in the future.”

      They said they were the last people to be informed about the legionella bacteria found on the barge and announced by the Home Office on 11 August.

      They said their brief stay on the barge had led to a deterioration in their mental health. “Currently we are staying in an old and abandoned hotel. The sense of isolation and loneliness has taken over us and psychological and emotional pressures have increased significantly.”

      The letter to Braverman concludes with a plea to consider their situation as a priority. “We are individuals who are tired of the challenges that have arisen and no longer have the strength to face them.”

      An Iranian asylum seeker among the 39 has vowed never to return there. He said many of the other men who spent a few days onboard felt the same way.

      “If I had had to stay even one more day on the barge I would have had suicidal thoughts. When I got on to the barge the smell and the stench of seawater was overwhelming,” he said.

      “I developed stomach pains and felt dizzy but I was too scared to refuse to get on. Being on the barge made us feel like criminals and second-class citizens.”

      He added that nobody from the Home Office properly explained the legionella situation to them. “I had to search on Google to find out what it is. Everyone who was on the barge are now all together in one hotel. A few people are coughing and everybody is afraid. When I was having a shower on the barge the water was burning my eyes.

      “Being on that barge will always be a horrific memory in my brain. It’s a completely unfit place. We’re all feeling very upset but are even more upset that the Home Office want to return us to this horror show.

      “I want to ask a question of the people who made the decision to put us on the barge. ‘Would you put a member of your family there even for one day?’ We came to the UK to escape persecution but are facing more persecution here.”

      In response to the letter the Home Office said: “We are following all protocol and advice from Dorset council’s environmental health team, UK Health Security Agency and Dorset NHS, who we continue to work closely with.

      “Further tests are being conducted and we intend to re-embark asylum seekers only when there is confirmation that the water system meets relevant safety standards. The safety of those onboard remains the priority.”
      Bibby Stockholm timeline

      Monday 7 August: The first group of asylum seekers, all men, are taken to the barge by the Home Office. Some lawyers successfully challenged their clients being put onboard. New arrivals said they were shocked by the high walls of the barge, which felt like a ‘floating prison’ and the overwhelming stench of seawater onboard.

      Tuesday 8 August : The reality of life onboard the barge starts to be understood by the men. “My feeling about this ship is negative,” said one. “Right now my strongest feeling is of being humiliated and captured. The government takes revenge on every useful brain and heart. What I mean by revenge is that the British government intends to cover up its political and economic failures by using asylum seekers as an excuse.”

      Thursday 10 August: By this time all the agencies involved with the barge were aware that tests had confirmed legionella onboard the barge on Monday. Dorset council said its officials informed barge contractors the same day they received the test results and that a meeting was held on Tuesday with officials including one from the Home Office. The men continued to shower and use water taps onboard, oblivious to any potential risks to their health.

      Friday 11 August: At 1.54pm the men started seeing messages on social media “that there is a disease problem on the barge and we will need to evacuate”. At about 2pm a text was received that the asylum seekers believed to be from staff onboard the barge telling them not to use the showers for two hours as the shower heads needed to be replaced. At 5pm, a copied text was received from the Home Office describing the bacteria found on the barge and informing the men that they would be leaving the barge at 7pm by bus.

      Saturday 12 August: Relocation to a “disused” hotel. The men begin to process the despair their experience on the barge had left them with. Some said previously they had put their trust in the Home Office to provide them with safety after fleeing danger in their home countries but their time on the barge has destroyed that. “All our hopes are gone. We think now the Home Office is not there to help us. It abandons us to uncertain destiny. The barge has sabotaged hope, trust. Morale among us is at zero.”

      https://www.theguardian.com/uk-news/2023/aug/25/asylum-seekers-bibby-stockholm-conditions-suicide-attempt

    • Home Office Faces Legal Challenge Against ‘Appalling’ Use of Bibby Stockholm Barge to House Refugees

      “Human beings do not belong in barges or camps. The correct way to house people is to house them in communities.”

      A Labour mayor has launched a legal challenge to Home Secretary Suella Braverman’s use of the Bibby Stockholm barge to accommodate around 500 male asylum-seekers at Portland Port in Dorset, without obtaining planning permission.

      Carralyn Parkes is a Portland Town Councillor and Mayor of Portland, bit is acting in a personal capacity as a local resident. Dorset Council and Portland Port Limited have backed the claim as “interested parties”, meaning that they will have the opportunity to make submissions, file evidence and participate in the case.

      It comes after a deadly legionella strain was found onboard the Bibby Stockholm. It was detected on the first day people boarded on 7 August, with officials evacuating all 39 people onboard that day, the Guardian reported.

      Parkes is asking the Court to declare that the Home Office’s use of the barge as asylum accommodation is capable of constituting ‘development’ under the Town and Country Planning Act 1990, and therefore that it may amount to a breach of planning control and possible enforcement action by Dorset Council.

      Her claim argues that the Home Office is attempting the ‘technical wheeze’ of using a boat as asylum accommodation in order to circumvent normal planning rules, which would apply if the barge was instead installed on land.

      As a result, local residents’ ability to raise objections to the barge and its use in Portland, via their local authority, is “severely hampered”, her legal team says. It also places the barge outside the reach of “important” legal protections such as limits on overcrowding.

      Carralyn Parkes told Byline Times: “In the 21st century, it’s appalling to think that we’ve even considered housing the most vulnerable people in the world on a barge. The accommodation is wholly unsuitable.

      “If the government had put this through a planning procedure, I’m convinced it would have been denied, as the port is a closed area.”

      She added that infrastructure in Portland is “stretched to breaking point” while the barge was originally produced for 220 people. “Now they’re talking about 500 people. It’s completely overcrowded and there’s no fire safety certificate,” Parkes said.

      “It’s just terrible to think that our country would do something like this to vulnerable people, and to ride roughshod over communities…Human beings do not belong in barges or camps. The correct way to house people is to house them in communities.”

      “Portland is not averse to housing asylum seekers. It’s the actual conditions of housing asylum seekers on the barge that is appalling.”

      Asked if she thought the legal challenge stood a strong chance, she said: “I wouldn’t be doing this if I didn’t think it’s a chance of being successful. I’m a private individual taking this on board. It’s a huge and daunting task to take on the whole mechanism of the state, the Home Secretary and the Home Office.”

      While she is launching the legal challenge as a private individual rather than a Labour mayor, she added she had support from Labour colleagues locally.

      Parkes also argues that the Home Office has not complied with its environmental impact assessment duties. An appraisal branded “inadequate” by campaigners was only conducted after asylum seekers had been moved onto the barge, and several months after the Home Office had declared its intention of using the barge for that purpose.

      The claim also argues that the Home Office has not complied with its Public Sector Equality Duty under the Equality Act 2010, which includes prohibition on discrimination on the basis of race, and a duty to foster good relations between those who share a protected characteristic (such as race), and those who do not.

      Parkes and her team argue that the Equality Impact Assessment, conducted only days before the barge came into use, is “woefully inadequate” as it fails to consider the impact of the barge’s operation in radicalising far-right extremism, or the equality impact of segregating rather than integrating asylum seekers into communities.

      A spokesperson for Deighton Pierce Glynn Solicitors said: “Our client is taking a brave stand against the Home Office’s attempts to circumvent important planning rules and protections to use the Bibby Stockholm barge to accommodate vulnerable asylum seekers.

      “She is asking the Court to rule that proper procedures should be followed and that local people and authorities should be given the opportunity to have their say.”

      Carralyn Parkes is represented by Deighton Pierce Glynn Solicitors. She is continuing to crowdfund to cover her legal costs and to cover the risk that costs are awarded against her. So far Parkes has raised more than £20,000.

      The next step is for the defendant, the Home Office, and the Interested Parties (Dorset Council and Portland Port Limited) to respond. If they wish to do so, the deadline is 4 October. After that the Court will make a decision on whether Parkes has permission for her judicial review.

      https://bylinetimes.com/2023/09/12/home-office-faces-legal-challenge-against-appalling-use-of-bibby-stockh

    • Bibby Stockholm gets ‘satisfactory’ test results for legionella

      Results revealed in FoI data follow other tests that found unsatisfactory levels of the bacteria on barge

      The Bibby Stockholm barge has had “satisfactory” test results for legionella, after tests initially found the presence of the potentially deadly bacteria, the Guardian has learned.

      The Home Office, which hopes to hold hundreds of people seeking asylum on the barge in Portland, received the most recent legionella results on 4 September and government sources said they were not planning to make the results public. The Guardian obtained the results in freedom of information data from Dorset council.

      In these most recent results, all the water samples tested for legionella were deemed “satisfactory”, although some of the bacteria were identified in two of the samples. In three previous sets of tests, at least some of the samples tested were found to be “unsatisfactory” for legionella.

      The worst results related to samples from 9 August, two days after asylum seekers were briefly put on the barge. They were removed after just four and a half days. In these results, eight of the 11 samples taken were unsatisfactory and three were borderline. Some of the bacteria found was the deadliest strain, legionella pneumophila serogroup 1.

      A second freedom of information request, to Cornwall council, revealed that the barge was not inspected for legionella while in Falmouth for checks and repairs before it was moved to Portland.

      A third freedom of information request revealed that the Home Office has used water safety risk assessments for the Bibby Stockholm that are more than six years out of date. The Home Office said a more up-to-date risk assessment had subsequently been signed off.

      Apart from the legionella bacteria found on the barge, concerns have been raised about planning, fire safety and plumbing breaches. Legal actions are under way relating to these issues.

      A spokesperson for the Home Office barge contractor CTM confirmed that repairs to the plumbing were under way after an inspection by Wessex Water found failings.

      In media interviews on Wednesday, the home secretary, Suella Braverman, said “various procedures” needed to be completed before people could return to the Bibby Stockholm but that government had done “really well” with its work on the barge.

      Beyond Borders Totnes & District, an organisation that is supporting some of the men taken off the barge, said none wanted to return there. “They found the barge intolerable and claustrophobic. It is utterly prison-like,” a spokesperson said.

      The Home Office said: “We are pleased to confirm that the latest tests have shown that there are no health risks from legionella on the Bibby Stockholm, with individuals set to return to the barge in due course.

      “The welfare of asylum seekers is of paramount importance. It is right we went above and beyond UK Health Security Agency advice and disembarked asylum seekers as a precautionary measure whilst the issue was investigated.”

      Home Office sources added that an agreed programme of work including a complete flush and chlorination of the water had been undertaken and that a water control plan was in place with regular water testing to continue.

      https://www.theguardian.com/uk-news/2023/sep/22/bibby-stockholm-gets-satisfactory-test-results-for-legionella

  • Retraites : une banderole géante « Désolé Charles » déployée face aux côtes anglaises Le figaro

    « Sorry Charles, see you later » : une centaine de syndicalistes ont déployé jeudi une banderole géante sur un cap du littoral nord face aux côtes anglaises, ironisant sur l’annulation de la visite en France du monarque britannique pour cause de mobilisation contre la réforme des retraites.
    . . . . .

    Source : https://www.lefigaro.fr/social/retraites-une-banderole-geante-desole-charles-deployee-face-aux-cotes-angla

    #France #Angleterre #humour #manifestations #retraite #emmanuel_macron

  • Lecture d’un extrait du livre « Double V » de Laura Ulonati, paru aux éditions Actes Sud, en 2023.

    http://liminaire.fr/radio-marelle/article/double-v-de-laura-ulonati

    Deux sœurs. Deux personnalités. Deux destins bien différents. Laura Ulonati explore dans ce récit subjectif les multiples facettes de la relation entre sœurs et plus précisément, celle qui unissait Vanessa et Virginia Stephen, plus connues sous les noms de Vanessa Bell et Virginia Woolf. Ce roman est centrée sur Vanessa, la peintre, la sœur ainée, sur sa difficulté à se faire une place et à la conserver auprès de Virginia Woolf qui va connaitre un succès grandissant. Vanessa connait en effet une carrière prolifique en tant que peintre et des débuts prometteurs mais tombe peu à peu dans l’oubli et surtout, dans l’ombre de sa cadette. (...) #Radio_Marelle / #Écriture, #Langage, #Livre, #Lecture, #En_lisant_en_écrivant, #Podcast, #Littérature, #Mémoire, #Art, #Angleterre, #Peinture, #VanessaBell, #VirginiaWoolf (...)

    http://liminaire.fr/IMG/mp4/en_lisant_double_v_laura_ulonati.mp4

    https://www.actes-sud.fr/catalogue/litterature/double-v

  • Le compteur prépayé, machine de misère énergétique des Britanniques pauvres Tristan de Bourbon Correspondant de La Libre à Londres

    Quelque 3,2 millions de Britanniques détenteurs de ce type d’appareil ont vu leur gaz ou leur électricité coupés l’an dernier. Ils n’avaient plus les moyens financiers d’approvisionner leur compte.

    Bien que le thermomètre ne dépasse pas deux degrés, Richard Betts sort de chez lui en chaussettes. Ce chauffeur de taxi londonien de 50 ans va inspecter d’urgence son compteur à gaz, situé dans une armoire blanche, à côté de la porte de sa maison. “Il reste… 3,29 livres sterling” (3,75 euros), annonce-t-il après avoir appuyé sur le bouton rouge du compteur. “Cela ne tiendra pas jusqu’à ce soir, il va falloir que je sorte bientôt pour remettre de l’argent.”

    La famille Betts possède un compteur prépayé pour sa consommation de gaz. Ses membres doivent donc se rendre régulièrement dans un commerce voisin pour remettre des crédits sur la carte donnée par l’entreprise SSE, leur fournisseur de gaz. La carte doit ensuite être insérée dans la fente du compteur pour que leur crédit soit comptabilisé. “Cela fait beaucoup pour un jeudi soir, vu que j’ai déjà payé 60 livres (69 euros) depuis lundi”, maugrée-t-il en sortant trois fiches de paiement de son portefeuille. L’inflation navigue entre 9 % et 11,1 % depuis le mois d’avril 2022, avec un tarif du gaz payé par les particuliers multiplié par 3,4 et celui de l’électricité par 2,2 depuis septembre 2021.

    Installation obligatoire pour les ménages endettés
    Avec deux salaires, le couple ne se dit pas à plaindre. “Nous ne partirons pas en vacances cette année et, en raison de la hausse folle des prix de l’alimentation. J’épluche les sites des supermarchés pour savoir lequel fait des promos sur les produits dont nous avons besoin”, précise Kelie, 46 ans, qui travaille à mi-temps comme caissière dans un grand magasin et comme aide-soignante auprès de handicapés. L’inflation des produits alimentaires s’est élevée à 16,8 % en décembre 2022, selon le Bureau national des statistiques. “Néanmoins, les enfants ont de quoi manger et nous pouvons payer nos factures.” Mais pas à n’importe quelle condition : “J’éteins le chauffage pendant la journée et je positionne le thermostat à 18 degrés lorsque nous rentrons du travail ou les enfants de l’école. Et si j’ai froid le soir lorsque je lis sur le canapé, je branche la couverture électrique.”

    Nombre de concitoyens de la famille Betts ne bénéficient pas de telles conditions, aussi spartiates paraissent-elles. En particulier, une grande partie des près de 10 millions de Britanniques qui disposent aussi d’un compteur prépayé, pour le gaz ou l’électricité, parfois les deux. Leur nombre augmente d’ailleurs constamment : 160 000 personnes devraient se faire installer un compteur prépayé contre leur volonté avant la fin de l’hiver par suite de la requête judiciaire de leur fournisseur d’énergie, selon un rapport de l’organisation caritative Citizens Advice. Ils étaient déjà 600 000 dans ce cas en 2022.

    Les fournisseurs d’énergie imposent en effet l’installation, payante, d’un compteur prépayé lorsque leurs clients contractent une dette trop importante vis-à-vis d’eux et qu’ils ne parviennent pas à la rembourser. Ce compteur a une conséquence immédiate : le gaz ou l’électricité de ces foyers s’arrêtent automatiquement peu après que leur crédit est épuisé. “Les clients utilisant des compteurs prépayés sont beaucoup plus susceptibles de rationner leur énergie, en reportant le rechargement de leur carte pour économiser de l’argent au détriment du chauffage et de la nourriture”, explique Peter Hutton, l’un des responsables de l’organisation caritative StepChange.

    Front commun contre les compteurs prépayés
    De fait, 3,2 millions de personnes ont vu leur électricité ou leur gaz coupés en 2022 parce qu’ils étaient financièrement incapables de remettre des crédits sur leurs cartes, dont 600 000 pendant plus de vingt-quatre heures, toujours selon Citizens Advice. Enfin, 860 000 sont coupés au moins une fois par semaine. Concrètement, ils ne peuvent alors plus se chauffer, cuisiner, se laver, garder leur réfrigérateur allumé,... Le rapport de Citizen Advice détaille des exemples concrets, comme celui d’un homme coupé d’électricité pendant une semaine alors que l’insuline nécessaire à son diabète doit être réfrigérée. Ou encore de une femme célibataire et ses deux enfants, restés sans gaz et donc sans chauffage pendant quatre jours.

    Les fournisseurs ne sont pas autorisés à imposer un compteur prépayé à un foyer où réside un malade de longue durée ou un handicapé et ils se sont engagés à ne pas couper l’accès à l’énergie cet hiver aux familles avec enfants. Ces obligations et ces promesses ne sont pourtant pas respectées. Ainsi, 130 000 foyers incluant un malade ou un handicapé ont vu leur accès à l’énergie coupé au moins une fois par semaine, selon Citizens Advice. Ces abus expliquent les appels de nombreuses organisations caritatives, de plusieurs députés, du parti travailliste, mais aussi du tabloïd The Sun à interdire l’installation forcée de compteurs prépayés cet hiver. Sans que le gouvernement conservateur de Rishi Sunak juge nécessaire de répondre à leurs inquiétudes : le Premier ministre estime que l’État a déjà fait tout son possible après que son prédécesseur Boris Johnson a attribué une aide annuelle exceptionnelle de 400 livres (455 euros) à tous les Britanniques, qui s’élève jusqu’à 1 200 livres (1 365 euros) pour les plus pauvres.

    Source : https://www.lalibre.be/international/europe/2023/01/29/le-compteur-prepaye-machine-de-misere-energetique-des-britanniques-pauvres-D

    #Angleterre #pauvreté #énergie #électricité #gaz #compteur #compteur_prépayé #dette

  • #Air_Partner: the Home Office’s little-known deportation fixer

    International travel megacorp #Carlson_Wagonlit_Travel (#CWT) holds a £5.7 million, seven-year contract with the Home Office for the “provision of travel services for immigration purposes”, as it has done for nearly two decades. However, a key part of its work – the chartering of aircraft and crew to carry out the deportations – has been subcontracted to a little-known aviation charter outfit called Air Partner.

    Summary

    Digging deeper into Air Partner, we found a company which has been quietly organising mass deportations for the Home Office for years. We also learnt that:

    It likely arranged for the airline #Privilege_Style to carry out the aborted flight to #Rwanda, and will seek another airline if the Rwanda scheme goes ahead.
    It has organised deportation logistics for the US and several European governments.
    It is currently one of four beneficiaries of a €15 million framework contract to arrange charter deportations for the European Coast Guard and Border Agency, #Frontex.
    The company grew off the back of military contracts, with profits soaring during the ‘War on Terror’, the Arab Spring, and the Covid-19 pandemic.
    Its regular clients include politicians, celebrities and sports teams, and it recently flew teams and fans to the FIFA World Cup in Qatar.
    Air Partner was bought in spring 2022 by American charter airline, Wheels Up, but that company is in troubled financial waters.

    Air Partner: Home Office deportation broker

    In Carlson Wagonlit’s current contract award notice, published on the EU website Tenders Electronic Daily, the “management and provision of aircraft(s) charter services” is subcontracted to Air Partner – a detail which is redacted in documents on the UK government’s procurement site. In other words, when the Home Office wants to carry out a mass deportation flight, the task of finding the airline is delegated to Air Partner.

    The contract stipulates that for each charter flight, Air Partner must solicit bids from at least three potential airlines. Selection is on the basis of value for money. However, the contract also states that “the maximum possible flexibility “ is expected from the carrier in terms of dates and destinations. The winning bidder must also be morally comfortable with the work, although it is not clear at what point in the process a first-time deportation airline is fully informed of the nature of the task.

    The contract suggests that airlines like #Privilege_Style, #Titan_Airways, #Hi_Fly and #TUI, therefore, owe their entry into the UK deportation business to Air Partner, which effectively acts as gatekeeper to the sector. Meanwhile, #Carlson_Wagonlit books the tickets, oversees the overall operation, arranges deportations on scheduled flights, and liaises with the guards who physically enforce the expulsion (currently supplied by the company that runs Manston camp, Mitie, in a Home Office escorting contract that runs until 2028).

    The latest deal between the Home Office and Carlson Wagonlit was awarded in 2017 and runs until 31st October 2024. It is likely that Air Partner makes money through a commission on each deportation flight.

    Flying for Frontex

    Yet Air Partner isn’t just the UK government’s deportation dealer. Its Austrian branch is currently one of four companies which organise mass expulsions for the European Coast Guard and Border Agency, Frontex, in a €15 million framework contract that was renewed in August 2022. A framework contract is essentially a deal in which a few companies are chosen to form a pool of select suppliers of particular goods or services, and are then called upon when needed. The work was awarded without advertising, which Frontex can do when the tender is virtually identical as in the previous contract.

    Frontex organises deportation charter flights – either for multiple EU states at a time (where the plane stops to pick up deportees from several countries) – or for a single state. The Agency also arranges for individuals to be deported on regular commercial flights.

    Air Partner’s work for Frontex is very similar to its work for the Home Office. It sources willing aircraft and crew, obtains flight and landing permits, and organises hotels – presumably for personnel – “in case of delays”. The other beneficiaries of the framework contract are #Air_Charter_Service, #Professional_Aviation_Solutions, and #AS_Aircontact.

    Air Charter Service is a German company, sister of a Surrey-based business of the same name, and is owned by Knightsbridge private equity firm, #Alcuin_Capital_Partners. Professional Aviation Solutions is another German charter company, owned by #Skylink_Holding. Finally, Norwegian broker AS Aircontact is a subsidiary of travel firm #Aircontact_Group, ultimately owned by chairman #Johan_Stenersen. AS Aircontact has benefited from the Frontex deal for many years.

    The award was given to the four companies on the basis of lowest price, with each bidder having to state the price it was able to obtain for a range of specified flights. The companies then bid for specific deportations, with the winner being the one offering best value for money. Air Partner’s cut from the deal in 2021 was €2.7 million.

    The contract stipulates the need for total secrecy:

    [The contractor] Must apply the maximum discretion and confidentiality in relation to the activity… must not document or share information on the activity by any means such as photo, video, commenting or sharing in social media, or equivalent.

    The Frontex award effectively means that Air Partner and the other three firms can carry out work on behalf of all EU states. But the company’s involvement with deportations doesn’t stop there: Air Partner has also profited for years from similar contracts with a number of individual European governments.

    The company has done considerable work in Ireland, having been appointed as one of its official deportation brokers back in 2005. Ten years later, the Irish Department of Justice was recorded as having paid Air Partner to carry out a vaguely-described “air charter” job (on a web page that is no longer available), while in 2016 the same department paid Air Partner €240,000 for “returns air charter” – government-speak for deportation flights.

    Between August 2021 and February 2022, the Austrian government awarded the company six Frontex-funded deportation contracts, worth an estimated average of €33,796.

    The company also enjoys a deportation contract with the German government, in a deal reviewed annually. The current contract runs until February 2023.

    Finally, Air Partner has held deportation contracts with US Immigration and Customs Enforcement (ICE) and has been involved in deporting Mexican migrants to the US as far back as the early 2000s.1
    Relationship with the airlines

    In the first half of 2021, 22 of the EU’s 27 member states participated in Frontex flights, with Germany making far greater use of the ‘service’ than any other country. The geographic scale of Air Partner’s work gives an indication of the privileged access it has as gatekeeper to Europe’s lucrative ‘deportation market’, and ultimately, the golden land of government contracts more generally.

    For example, British carrier Titan Airways – which has long carried out deportations for the Home Office – only appears to have broken into this market in Germany and Austria in 2018 and 2019, respectively. As Corporate Watch has documented, other airlines such as Privilege Style, #AirTanker, #Wamos and #Iberojet (formerly, #Evelop) regularly run deportation flights for a number of governments, including the UK. We can assume that Air Partner’s relationships with the firms are key to these companies’ ability to secure such deals in new markets.

    Some of these relationships are clearly personal: #Alastair_Wilson, managing director of Titan Airways, worked as trading manager for Air Partner for seven years until he left that firm for Titan in 2014. By 2017, Titan was playing a major role in forcible expulsions from the UK.

    The business: from military money to deportation dealer

    Air Partner’s origins are in military work. Founded in 1961, the company started its life as a training centre which helped military pilots switch to the commercial sector. Known for much of its history as Air London, it has enjoyed extensive Ministry of Defence deals for troop rotations and the supply of military equipment. Up until 2010, military contracts represented over 60% of pre-tax profits. However, in recent years it has managed to wean itself off the MOD and develop a more diverse clientele; by 2018, the value of military contracts had dropped to less than 3% of profits.

    The company’s main business is in brokering aircraft for charter flights, and sourcing planes from its pool of partner airlines at the request of customers who want to hire them. It owns no aircraft itself. Besides governments and wealthy individuals, its current client base includes “corporates, sports and entertainment teams, industrial and manufacturing customers, and tour operators.”

    Its other source of cash is in training and consultancy to government, military and commercial customers through three subsidiaries: its risk management service Baines Simmons, the Redline Security project, and its disaster management sideline, Kenyon Emergency Services. Conveniently, while the group’s main business pumps out fossil fuels on needless private flights, Kenyon’s disaster management work involves among other things, preparing customers for climate change-induced natural disasters.

    Despite these other projects, charter work represents the company’s largest income stream by far, at 87% of the group’s profits. Perhaps unsurprisingly, the majority of this is from leasing large jets to customers such as governments, sports teams and tour operators. Its second most lucrative source of cash is leasing private jets to the rich, including celebrities. Finally, its freight shipments tend to be the least profitable division of its charter work.

    The company’s charter division continues to be “predominantly driven by government work”.2 It has been hired by dozens of governments and royal families worldwide, and almost half the profits from its charter work now derive from the US, although France has long been an important market too.

    Ferrying the mega-rich

    Meanwhile, Air Partner’s work shuttling politicians and other VIPs no doubt enables the company to build up its bank of useful contacts which help it secure such lucrative government deals. Truly this is a company of the mega-rich: a “last-minute, half-term holiday” with the family to Madeira costs a mere £36,500 just for the experience of a private jet. It was the first aircraft charter company to have held a Royal Warrant, and boasts of having flown US election candidates and supplying George W Bush’s press plane.3

    The “group charter” business works with bands and sports teams. The latter includes the Wales football team, Manchester City, Manchester United, Chelsea and Real Madrid, while the Grand Prix is “always a firm fixture in the charter calendar”.4 It also flew teams and fans to the controversial 2022 FIFA World Cup in Qatar.5

    Crisis profiteer: the War on Terror, the Arab Spring & Covid-19

    Air Partner has cashed in on one crisis after the next. Not only that, it even contributes to one, and in so doing multiplies its financial opportunities. As military contractor to belligerent Western forces in the Middle East, the company is complicit in the creation of refugees – large numbers of whom Air Partner would later deport back to those war zones. It feeds war with invading armies, then feasts on its casualties.

    The company reportedly carried at least 4,000t of military supplies during the first Gulf War. The chairman at the time, Tony Mack, said:

    The Gulf War was a windfall for us. We’d hate to say ‘yippee, we’re going to war’, but I guess the net effect would be positive.6

    And in its financial records over the past twenty years, three events really stand out: 9/11 and the ‘War on Terror’, the Arab Spring, and the Covid-19 pandemic.

    9/11 and the subsequent War on Terror was a game changer for the company, marking a departure from reliance on corporate customers and a shift to more secure government work. First – as with the pandemic – there was a boom in private jet hire due to “the number of rich clients who are reluctant to travel on scheduled services”.7

    But more significant were the military contracts it was to obtain during the invasions of Afghanistan and Iraq. During the occupation of Afghanistan, it “did a lot of freighting for the military”,8 while later benefiting from emergency evacuation work when coalition foreign policy came to its inevitably grim conclusion in 2021.

    It enjoyed major military assignments with coalition forces in Iraq,9 with the UK’s eventual withdrawal resulting in a 19% drop in freight sales for the company. At one point, Air Partner lamented that its dip in profits was in part due to the temporary “cessation of official hostilities” and the non-renewal of its 2003 “Gulf contracts”.

    9/11 and the aggression that followed was a boon for Air Partner’s finances. From 2001-02, pre-tax profits increased to then record levels, jumping 85% from £2.2 million to £4 million. And it cemented the company’s fortunes longer-term; a 2006 company report gives insight into the scale of the government work that went Air Partner’s way:

    … over the last decade alone, many thousands of contracts worth over $500m have been successfully completed for the governments of a dozen Western Powers including six of the current G8 member states.

    Two years on, Air Partner’s then-CEO, #David_Savile, was more explicit about the impact of the War on Terror:

    Whereas a decade ago the team was largely servicing the Corporate sector, today it majors on global Government sector clients. Given the growing agenda of leading powers to pursue active foreign policies, work levels are high and in today’s climate such consistent business is an important source of income.

    Profits soared again in 2007, coinciding with the bloodiest year of the Iraq war – and one which saw the largest US troop deployment. Its chairman at the time said:

    The events of 9/11 were a watershed for the aviation industry…since then our sales have tripled and our profitability has quadrupled. We now expect a period of consolidation… which we believe will present longer term opportunities to develop new business and new markets.

    It seems likely that those “new markets” may have included deportation work, given that the first UK charter deportations were introduced by the New Labour government in 2001, the same year as the invasion of Afghanistan.

    Another financial highlight for the company was the 2011 Arab Spring, which contributed to a 93% increase in pre-tax profits. Air Partner had earlier won a four-year contract with the Department for International Development (DfID) to become its “sole provider of passenger and freight air charter services”, and had been hired to be a charter broker to the Foreign and Commonwealth Office Crisis Centre.

    As people in Libya, Egypt, Bahrain and Tunisia took to the streets against their dictators, the company carried out emergency evacuations, including for “some of the largest oil companies”. A year later, it described a “new revenue stream from the oil & gas industry”, perhaps a bonus product of the evacuation work.

    Finally, its largest jump in profits was seen in 2021, as it reaped the benefits of converging crises: the pandemic, the evacuation of Afghanistan, and the supply chain crisis caused by Brexit and the severe congestion of global sea-shipping routes. The company was tasked with repatriation flights, PPE shipments, and “flying agricultural workers into the UK from elsewhere in Europe”, as well as responding to increased demand for “corporate shuttles” in the UK and US.10 Pre-tax profits soared 833% to £8.4 million. It made a gross profit of approximately £45 million in both 2021 and 2022. The company fared so well in fact from the pandemic that one paper summed it up with an article entitled “Air Partner takes off after virus grounds big airlines”.

    While there is scant reporting on the company’s involvement in deportations, The Times recently mentioned that Air Partner “helps in the deporting of individuals to Africa and the Caribbean, a business that hasn’t slowed down during the pandemic”. In a rare direct reference to deportation work, CEO Mark Briffa responded that it:

    …gives Wheels Up [Air Partner’s parent company] a great opportunity to expand beyond private jets…It was always going to be a challenge for a company our size to scale up and motor on beyond where we are.

    Yet Briffa’s justification based on the apparent need to diversify beyond VIP flights looks particularly hollow against the evidence of decades of lucrative government work his company has enjoyed.

    When asked for comment, a spokesperson from the company’s PR firm TB Cardew said:

    As a policy, we do not comment on who we fly or where we fly them. Customer privacy, safety and security are paramount for Air Partner in all of our operations. We do not confirm, deny or comment on any potential customer, destination or itinerary.

    The parent company: Wheels Up

    Air Partner was bought in spring 2022 for $108.2 million by Wheels Up Experience Inc, a US charter airline which was recently listed on the New York Stock Exchange. The company calls itself one of the world’s largest private aviation companies, with over 180 owned or long-term leased aircraft, 150 managed fleet (a sort of sharing arrangement with owners), and 1,200 aircraft which it can hire for customers when needed.

    In contrast to Air Partner, its new owner is in deep trouble. While Wheels Up’s revenues have increased considerably over the past few years (from $384 million in 2019 to $1.2 billion in 2022), these were far outweighed by its costs. It made a net loss in 2021 of $190 million, more than double that of the previous year. The company attributes this to the ongoing impact of Covid-19, with reduced crew availability and customer cancellations. And the situation shows no sign of abating, with a loss of $276.5 million in the first nine months of this year alone. Wheels Up is responding with “aggressive cost-cutting”, including some redundancies.

    #Wheels_Up is, in turn, 20% owned by #Delta_Airlines, one of the world’s oldest and largest airlines. Mammoth asset manager Fidelity holds an 8% share, while Wheels Up’s CEO #Kenneth_Dichter owns 5%. Meanwhile, the so-called ‘Big Three’ asset managers, BlackRock, Vanguard and State Street each hold smaller shareholdings.

    Among its clients, Wheels Up counts various celebrities – some of whom have entered into arrangements to promote the company as ‘brand ambassadors’. These apparently include Jennifer Lopez, American football players Tom Brady, Russell Wilson, J.J. Watt, Joey Logano, and Serena Williams.

    Given Wheel’s Up’s current financial situation, it can be safely assumed that government contracts will not be easily abandoned, particularly in a time of instability in the industry as a whole. At the same time, given the importance of Wheels Up as a brand and its VIP clientele, anything that poses a risk to its reputation would need to be handled delicately by the company.

    It also remains to be seen whether Wheels Up will use its own fleet to fulfil Air Partner’s contracting work, and potentially become a supplier of deportation planes in its own right.
    Top people

    Air Partner has been managed by CEO #Mark_Briffa since 2010. A former milkman and son of Maltese migrants, Briffa grew up in an East Sussex council house and left school with no O or A levels. He soon became a baggage handler at Gatwick airport, eventually making his way into sales and up the ladder to management roles. Briffa is also president of the parent company, Wheels Up.

    #Ed_Warner OBE is the company’s chair, which means he leads on its strategy and manages the board of directors. An Oxbridge-educated banker and former chair of UK Athletics, Warner no doubt helps Air Partner maintain its connections in the world of sport. He sits on the board of private equity fund manager HarbourVest, and has previously been chairman of BlackRock Energy and Resources Income Trust, which invests in mining and energy.

    #Kenny_Dichter is founder and CEO of Air Partner’s US parent company, Wheels Up. Dichter is an entrepreneur who has founded or provided early investment to a list of somewhat random companies, from a chain of ‘wellness’ stores, to a brand of Tequila.

    #Tony_Mack was chairman of the business founded by his parents for 23 years and a major shareholder, before retiring from Air Partner in 2014. Nowadays he prefers to spend his time on the water, where he indulges in yacht racing.

    Some of Air Partner’s previous directors are particularly well-connected. #Richard_Everitt, CBE held the company chairmanship from 2012 until 2017. A solicitor by training, prior to joining Air Partner Everitt was a director of the British Aviation Authority (BAA) and chief executive of National Air Traffic Services (Nats), and then CEO of the Port of London Authority (PLA). Since leaving the PLA, he has continued his career on the board of major transport authorities, having twice been appointed by the Department of Transport as chair of Dover Harbour Board, a two-day per week job with an annual salary of £79,500. He also served as a commissioner of Belfast Harbour.

    One figure with friends in high places was the Hon. #Rowland_John_Fromanteel_Cobbold, who was an Air Partner director from 1996 to 2004. Cobbold was the son of 1st Baron Cobbold, former Governor of the Bank of England and former Lord Chamberlain, an important officer of the royal household. He was also grandson of Victor Bulwer-Lytton, 2nd Earl of Lytton and governor of Bengal, and younger brother of 2nd Baron Cobbold, who was a crossbench peer.

    #Lib_Dem peer #Lord_Lee of Trafford held significant shares in Air Partner from at least 2007 until the company was bought by Wheels Up in 2022. Lord Lee served as parliamentary undersecretary for MOD Procurement under Margaret Thatcher, as well as Minister for Tourism. In 2015 the value of his 113,500 shares totalled £446,000. His shares in the company were despite having been Lib Dem party spokesman on defence at the time. Seemingly, having large stakes in a business which benefits from major MOD contracts, whilst simultaneously advocating on defence policy was not deemed a serious conflict of interest. The former stockbroker is now a regular columnist for the Financial Times. Calling himself the “first ISA millionaire”, Lee published a book called “How to Make a Million – Slowly: Guiding Principles From a Lifetime Investing”.

    The company’s recent profits have been healthy enough to ensure that those at the top are thoroughly buffered from the current cost of living crisis, as all executive and non-executive directors received a hefty pay rise. Its 2022 Annual Report reveals that CEO Mark Briffa’s pay package totalled £808,000 (£164,000 more than he received in 2021) and outgoing Chief Financial Officer Joanne Estell received £438,000 (compared with £369,000 in 2021), not to mention that Briffa and Estell were awarded a package in spring 2021 of 100% and 75% of their salary in shares. Given the surge in Air Partner’s share price just before the buyout, it’s likely that the net worth of its directors – and investors like Lord Lee – has significantly increased too.

    Conclusion

    What really is the difference between the people smugglers vilified daily by right-wing rags, and deportation merchants like Air Partner? True, Air Partner helps cast humans away in the opposite direction, often to places of danger rather than potential safety. And true, smugglers’ journeys are generally more consensual, with migrants themselves often hiring their fixers. But for a huge fee, people smugglers and deportation profiteers alike ignore the risks and indignities involved, as human cargo is shunted around in the perverse market of immigration controls.

    In October 2022, deportation airline Privilege Style announced it would pull out of the Rwanda deal following strategic campaigning by groups including Freedom from Torture and SOAS Detainee Support. This is an important development and we can learn lessons from the direct action tactics used. Yet campaigns against airlines are continuously being undermined by Air Partner – who, as the Home Office’s deportation fixer, will simply seek others to step in.

    And under the flashing blue lights of a police state, news that an airline will merely be deporting refugees to their countries of origin – however dangerous – rather than to a distant African processing base, might be seen as wonderful news. It isn’t. Instead of becoming accustomed to a dystopian reality, let’s be spurred on by the campaign’s success to put an end to this cruel industry in its entirety.
    Appendix: Air Partner Offices

    Air Partner’s addresses, according to its most recent annual report, are as follows:

    - UK: 2 City Place, Beehive Ring Road, Gatwick, West Sussex RH6 0PA.
    - France: 89/91 Rue du Faubourg Saint-Honoré, 75008 Paris & 27 Boulevard Saint-Martin, 75003 Paris.
    - Germany: Im Mediapark 5b, 50670 Köln.
    - Italy: Via Valtellina 67, 20159 Milano.
    - Turkey: Halil Rıfatpaşa Mh Yüzer Havuz Sk No.1 Perpa Ticaret Merkezi ABlok Kat.12 No.1773, Istanbul.

    Footnotes

    1 Aldrick, Philip. “Worth teaming up with Air Partner”. The Daily Telegraph, October 07, 2004.

    2 “Air Partner makes progress in the face of some strong headwinds”. Proactive Investors UK, August 27, 2021.

    3 Aldrick, Philip. “Worth teaming up with Air Partner”. The Daily Telegraph, October 07, 2004.

    4 Lea, Robert. “Mark Briffa has a new partner in aircraft chartering and isn’t about to fly away”. The Times, April 29, 2022

    5 Ibid.

    6 “AirPartner predicts rise in demand if Gulf war begins”. Flight International, January 14 2003.

    7 “Celebrity status boosts Air Partner”. Yorkshire Post, October 10, 2002.

    8 Baker, Martin. “The coy royal pilot”. The Sunday Telegraph, April 11, 2004.

    9 Hancock, Ciaran. “Air Partner”. Sunday Times, April 10, 2005.

    10 Saker-Clark, Henry. “Repatriation and PPE flights boost Air Partner”. The Herald, May 6, 2020.

    https://corporatewatch.org/air-partner-the-home-offices-deportation-fixer
    #avions #compagnies_aériennes #Home_Office #UK #Angleterre #renvois #expulsions #business #complexe_militaro-industriel

    via @isskein

  • Décembre 2022 : Immigration : la justice britannique valide le projet d’expulser des demandeurs d’asile au #Rwanda

    En avril, le gouvernement de #Boris_Johnson avait conclu un #accord avec Kigali pour faire accueillir les candidats réfugiés arrivés illégalement sur le sol britannique.

    La #Haute_Cour_de_Londres a jugé, lundi 19 décembre, « légal » le projet, hautement controversé, du gouvernement britannique d’expulser vers le Rwanda les demandeurs d’asile arrivés illégalement au Royaume-Uni. Une décision qui survient au moment où le nombre de traversées de la Manche par des migrants n’a jamais été aussi élevé.

    « La Cour a conclu qu’il est légal pour le gouvernement britannique de mettre en place des dispositions pour envoyer des demandeurs d’asile au Rwanda et que leur demande d’asile soit examinée au Rwanda plutôt qu’au Royaume-Uni », selon un résumé du jugement publié par la Haute Cour. Celle-ci a estimé que les dispositions prévues par le gouvernement ne contrevenaient pas à la Convention de 1951 relative au statut des réfugiés.

    « Bâtir une nouvelle vie »

    Le Rwanda s’est félicité de cette décision, par la voix de la porte-parole du gouvernement, Yolande Makolo. « Nous saluons cette décision et sommes prêts à offrir aux demandeurs d’asile et aux migrants l’occasion de bâtir une nouvelle vie au Rwanda », a-t-elle déclaré, en parlant d’une mesure « positive » pour résoudre la crise mondiale des migrations.

    En avril, le gouvernement de Boris Johnson avait conclu un accord avec Kigali pour expulser vers le Rwanda des demandeurs d’asile arrivés illégalement sur le sol britannique. Une politique destinée à décourager les traversées de la Manche à bord de petites embarcations.

    Aucune expulsion n’a encore eu lieu – un premier vol prévu en juin a été annulé après une décision de la #Cour_européenne_des_droits_de_l’homme (#CEDH) –, mais le gouvernement de #Rishi_Sunak poursuit cette politique.

    La décision rendue lundi porte sur le recours d’associations d’aide aux migrants, comme Care4Calais, Detention Action et Asylum Aid, ainsi que de la Public and Commercial Services Union (ou PCS), le syndicat des services publics et commerciaux.

    Le Haut-Commissariat pour les réfugiés des Nations unies était même intervenu dans le dossier, arguant que « les composantes minimales d’un système d’asile fiable et juste » font défaut au Rwanda et qu’une telle politique mènerait à de « graves risques de violations » de la Convention de l’ONU sur le statut des réfugiés.

    « Immoral et illégal »

    En septembre, avant le début de l’audience, le secrétaire général de la PCS, Mark Serwotka, avait jugé l’expulsion de migrants vers le Rwanda « non seulement immorale mais illégale ». Il avait exhorté le ministère de l’intérieur à « abandonner son approche hostile envers les réfugiés ». Pour l’association Care4Calais, ce projet est « cruel » :

    « Les réfugiés qui ont subi les horreurs de la guerre, de la torture et de la persécution seront désormais confrontés à l’immense traumatisme de l’expulsion et à un avenir inconnu. Cela leur causera une peur, une angoisse et une détresse incommensurables. »

    A l’audience, les avocats du gouvernement avaient affirmé que l’accord avec le Rwanda assurait aux personnes qui y seraient expulsées de bénéficier d’une procédure de détermination de leur statut de réfugiés « sûre et efficace ».

    Au début d’octobre, la très à droite ministre de l’intérieur, #Suella_Braverman, avait partagé son « rêve » pour Noël : « Voir (…) un avion décoller pour le Rwanda. » « Je souhaite sincèrement que nous soyons en mesure de mettre en œuvre le programme du Rwanda », a-t-elle dit dans un entretien au Times samedi. Plus tôt dans la semaine, le premier ministre, Rishi Sunak, avait rappelé que son gouvernement reprendrait ce projet, à l’occasion de l’annonce d’un éventail de mesures destinées à résoudre la crise du système d’asile, actuellement débordé.

    Son message aux migrants est « clair », selon Mme Braverman : « Si vous venez ici (…) illégalement sur de petits bateaux, en enfreignant nos règles, vous n’aurez pas le droit d’être hébergé ici indéfiniment à la charge du contribuable. Il y aura une réponse très rapide à votre arrivée ici. Détention suivie d’un renvoi. » « On peut légitimement se demander si ce cadre international est adapté à la situation alors que nous assistons à une crise migratoire mondiale », a-t-elle encore déclaré au Times.

    Ce serait « impardonnable si nous ne réglions pas ce problème » des migrants, a affirmé la ministre, alors que les travaillistes sont au plus haut dans l’opposition. « Le vote du Brexit portait en partie sur la migration, le contrôle de nos frontières et le retour de la souveraineté sur la question de savoir qui entre dans notre pays », a-t-elle admis, avant de reconnaître un échec : le gouvernement n’a « pas repris le contrôle » des frontières.

    https://www.lemonde.fr/afrique/article/2022/12/19/la-justice-britannique-valide-le-projet-d-expulser-des-migrants-au-rwanda_61
    #Angleterre #UK #asile #migrations #réfugiés
    #offshore_asylum_processing #externalisation #justice #légalité

    Cette phrase :
    « Si vous venez ici (…) illégalement sur de petits bateaux, vous n’aurez pas le droit d’être hébergé ici indéfiniment à la charge du contribuable » —> est un copier-coller du #modèle_australien et de sa #Pacific_solution qui inclut la loi sur l’#excision_territoriale :
    https://seenthis.net/messages/901628#message901630

  • Linton Kwesi Johnson en cinq dubs
    https://pan-african-music.com/linton-kwesi-jonhson-dub

    PAM rend hommage à la légende vivante de la dub poetry, en revisitant cinq poèmes du maître jamaïcain. Tous sont porteurs d’une critique sociale acérée, posée sur des basses profondes et un rythme intemporel.

    #musique #poésie #LKJ #Linton_Kwesi_Johnson #reggae #bass_culture #dub_poet #dub #musique_et_politique #Dennis_Bovell #police #violences_policières #Angleterre #Brixton #histoire

  • Delhi Outram Estate, Islington

    Just north of London Kings X lies the “#Delhi_Outram_Estate” in #Islington, a council estate built in the late 1970s which appears to commemorate the Indian Rebellion of 1857 (& its brutal suppression by the British) with streets named after those associated with its key events.

    Some of the streets predate the estate itself, presumably having been named soon after the suppression of the Mutiny and the establishment of the Raj proper. Delhi Street was named after the Mughal capital of India, whose fall to the British was a significant event, in 1871.

    Similarly Outram Place would seem to run along the erstwhile Outram St, recorded in the 1861 Census, and named after “General Sir James Outram, who along with Havelock, relieved Lucknow”

    Sir Henry Havelock, who died of dysentery a few days after the Siege of Lucknow ended, also got a street named after him pretty much contemporaneously. Havelock St seems to have been laid out between 1856-9.

    But some of the names of streets in the estate seem to date from the redevelopment of this area into the present council estate, in the late 1970s. Vibart Walk, named in 1980, May be named after Edward Vibart, who was an EIC army officer who chronicled the events of 1857…

    … or his father, Major Edward Vibart, who was executed on June 27, 1857 by the rebels after being captured in Kanpur. Who knows? But Islington Council did name this “walk” after this “hero” of 1857 as late as 1980.

    And then we have Brydon Walk, named after William Brydon, an EIC Army Surgeon who was one of the few of 4,500 men & 12,000 accompanying civilians to survive the “long retreat” from Kabul to Jalalabad in 1842 & survived the siege of the Lucknow Residency (a survivor, this one!)

    Then, we have Campbell Walk, named in 1980 after Sir Colin Campbell, Baron Clyde, who was commander of the British forces in India during the Rebellion. He “never married or fathered any children”…. Hmm.

    Finally, there’s Lawrence Place, named after Sir Henry Lawrence, who died during the siege of Lucknow. Also named in 1980. Incidentally, his son was created 1st Baronet Lawrence of Lucknow, in 1868. The Baronetcy survives; their apparent is one Christopher Cosmo Lawrence, a visual effects supervisor who won an Oscar for his work on Gravity in 2013 & has been nominated thrice since. Anyway, thought Islington Council naming streets after colonial celebrities as late as 1980 was … fascinating.

    All the information on street names and dates comes from the wonderful “Streets With a Story: The Book of Islington” by Eric A Willats, which I found online.

    https://twitter.com/sd268/status/1597333942361018368
    #Londres #UK #Angleterre #toponymie #toponymie_politique #colonialisme #colonisation #Inde

    ping @cede

  • En Angleterre, ils sauvent leur village grâce à l’autogestion
    https://reporterre.net/En-Angleterre-ils-sauvent-leur-village-grace-a-l-autogestion

    Confrontés aux fermetures, les habitants d’un village anglais ont repris le centre social, la bibliothèque, l’épicerie et le pub. Faisant de Trawden le seul village autogéré de Grande-Bretagne.

    Trawden (Lancashire, Angleterre), reportage

    En 2014, Trawden a bien failli devenir une cité-dortoir comme tant d’autres dans cette région verdoyante du nord-ouest de l’Angleterre. Commerces fermés, services publics supprimés, ce village de 2 500 âmes semblait voué au déclin avec la crise du textile [1]. La fermeture du centre social a eu l’effet d’un électrochoc. « Nous avons senti que c’était une ligne rouge. Il fallait réagir. Notre esprit communautaire n’y survivrait pas », raconte Steven Wilcock, figure locale du village qui a pris la tête de la fronde.

    Ça me rappelle un peu l’histoire de l’île Eigg
    https://www.geo.fr/voyage/ecosse-eigg-l-ile-rachetee-par-ses-habitants-190304

    Trente kilomètres carrés, 105 habitants, une seule route… ce petit bijou des Hébrides intérieures est devenu propriété de ses résidents en 1997. Vingt ans après, ils ont inventé un mode de vie bien à eux. Direction l’île d’Eigg, en Ecosse.

    #autogestion

  • From GPS tagging to facial recognition watches: expanding the surveillance of migrants in the UK

    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.

    This is just the latest intrusive electronic monitoring (EM) technology to be used on migrants, after the Home Office moved from ‘traditional’ radio frequency tags (which measure the distance between the tag and the subject’s home) to GPS tags (which monitor the subject’s precise location 24/7). Electronic monitoring has been a key part of criminal justice for many years throughout the world, operational in many US states since the 1980s and implemented in England and Wales under the Criminal Justice Act 1991. It was introduced to address prison overcrowding and the rising costs of incarceration by diverting offenders from custody, but it is doubtful whether EM actually shrinks the size of prison populations or simply expands criminal justice interventions through a ‘net-widening effect’ – a 2016 comparative study found that high use of imprisonment is linked to high use of EM.[i] England and Wales now has the highest number of offenders subjected to this technology in the world,[ii] and has extended its use to immigration enforcement, through the Asylum and Immigration (Treatment of Claimants, etc) Act 2004. (In the US, it was extended to immigration control in about 2002.) As far as we know, Britain is the only state in Europe to use EM in the migration arena.

    EM is used as a condition by the Home Office for people released from immigration detention on bail, added to conditions such as reporting to the immigration authorities or staying at the property stated on the bail application, for those the Home Office considers at risk of absconding. One of the key differences in the use of EM within the criminal justice and immigration systems is time: whilst criminal sentences involving EM are determinate in nature, the immigration system uses it with no upper limit nor clear guidelines around time. Home Office guidance says tags are most likely to be used on individuals posing a ‘high risk of harm to the public’, but it is not just foreign nationals who have completed their sentences who are tagged: a 12-month pilot scheme began in June to test electronic monitoring on any asylum seekers who arrive in the UK by ‘unnecessary and dangerous’ routes.
    Alternative to detention?

    It is now well-known that detention centres are harmful, exacerbating mental distress and anxiety amongst those confined, leading too often to suicide and self-harm. EM has been described as an alternative to detention, and its use may seem attractive to certain anti-detention activists for humanitarian reasons. However, EM (and other alternative measures, such as signing at the reporting centres) represent a net-widening of interventions. More importantly, although tagging is not supposed to be punitive – it is an ‘administrative measure’ enforced by the Home Office and the immigration tribunal, not the criminal courts – it is experienced as punishment and deprivation of liberty by those subjected to it. Less intrusive alternatives have an equally high compliance rate: after the US Family Case Management Program (FCMP) was implemented, in which families received caseworker support without having to wear an ankle monitor, they had 99 per cent compliance with court appearances and ICE appointments. A similar pattern was noted across other initiatives where the compliance rate was 100 per cent and rate of absconding 0 per cent. And in the UK, an FOI request to the Home Office revealed that in 2019 only three percent of those released from detention without EM absconded, and only one percent in 2020. As Bail for Immigration Detainees noted, ‘With rates of absconding so low, [EM] is designed to solve a problem that does not exist.’
    Mental distress

    Bhatia’s research on the impact of EM on mental health[iii] revealed that migrants consider EM as punishment, triggering the feeling of perpetual confinement and the constant feeling of being watched. The individuals were not able to carry on with their daily activities and they were perceived as ‘dangerous’ (non-white) persons in public spaces. The criminalising, dehumanising and degrading effects of EM resulted in deeper exclusion and isolation, and mental distress. As one research participant explained: ‘I felt in prison with that thing [i.e. tag] . . . they came every week to check the tag. I was very upset and thinking, I keep talking to myself: “what has happened to me?”. All I did was smoke drugs, take pills at house and fall asleep. So much pressure and depression and no freedom . . . I have not done anything wrong. I just wanted life. This is shit life, this is no life. Whenever I don’t take drug, I felt like suicide.’

    Total surveillance

    When Bhatia did his research on the impact of EM on migrants’ mental health, monitoring of migrants relied on traditional radio frequency tags rather than GPS tags. In 2021, the Home Office introduced GPS tagging for immigration bail. While ‘traditional’ radio frequency tags merely measure the distance between the tag and a base station in the subject’s home, usually in order to enforce a curfew, GPS tags monitor subjects’ precise location 24/7, generating a considerable volume of ‘trail data’, which is stored for years. Trail data is highly sensitive – it provides deep insight into intimate details of an individual’s life, revealing a comprehensive picture of everyday habits and movements, permanent or temporary places of residence, hobbies and other activities, social relationships, political, religious or philosophical interests, health concerns, consumption patterns, etc – data that is absolutely unnecessary and disproportionate to the stated purpose of monitoring bail compliance and preventing absconding.

    The Home Office can access the entire trail data every time a breach of bail conditions is detected by the tag (eg, breaching a curfew, entering an exclusion zone, or failing to charge the tag’s battery). It has also claimed the right to review trail data in order to assess tagged individuals’ claims to private and family life (a way to resist removal through human rights law). This use of trail data falls entirely outside the scope of the legislation, and arguably violates not just privacy and data protection but other rights too – the knowledge that every single movement is monitored, and may be used to justify refusal of applications, is a serious limitation on freedom of movement, assembly and association. This is why in August 2022, Privacy International filed a complaint with the UK Information Commissioner’s Office, on the grounds of breaches of data protection and human rights law.
    Errors and discrimination

    Tagging is operated exclusively by the private sector in England and Wales, and the EM market is highly oligopolistic, with only four or five companies bidding for lucrative government contracts. Despite the sparse or inconclusive evidence around the effectiveness of the technology, and ongoing Serious Fraud Office investigations of G4S, one of the main players in the market, the company was awarded a £22 million contract in May 2022 by the government. Serious concerns have been raised over the lack of independent oversight of the EM industry and insufficient monitoring by government bodies.

    This is particularly concerning given that the technology involved in GPS tags is prone to failures and inaccuracies, leading to wrongful accusations of breach of bail conditions and inaccurate compliance records. GPS location data can be inaccurate, sometimes by 100 metres or more, depending on the surrounding environment – for example, highly built-up areas will cause a GPS signal to ‘drift’ and record inaccurate locations. In addition, the tags used by the Home Office have been reported to suffer from serious battery issues, with people reporting having to charge them multiple times a day. This is a serious problem, as battery depletion is usually deemed a breach of bail conditions – it therefore triggers an alert and entitles the Home Office to review all trail data. In addition, applications based on family and private life may be wrongfully refused on the basis of such inaccurate trail data. In August 2022, Privacy International filed a complaint with the UK’s Forensic Science Regulator about systemic failures in relation to the quality and accuracy of data extracted from the devices.

    Facial recognition smartwatches are meant to be ‘less invasive’ and ‘more proportionate’ than GPS ankle tags – but in fact are likely to cause more harm to non-white people. Facial recognition is known to be a discriminatory technology that regularly misidentifies people of colour and is disproportionately used against minorities. Facial recognition algorithms are usually trained on non-representative datasets of faces, and their design is often infused with existing racial biases – meaning that non-white people are more often misidentified. This will inevitably cause additional levels of anxiety to non-white people who have to wear these, and to false allegations and excessive enforcement against them.
    Fighting Back

    Over 40 human rights groups condemned the introduction of GPS tags (without consultation) in June 2021, as ‘an extension of immigration detention beyond the physical walls of detention centres and prisons’. Labour MP Bell Ribeiro-Addy, vice-chair of the all-party parliamentary group on immigration detention, described 24/7 tracking via GPS tags as ‘a Trojan horse which would grant the Home Office expansive new surveillance powers which would extend well beyond their stated purpose’. A number of legal challenges have been launched, in addition to Privacy International’s complaints. As Rudy Schulkind of Bail for Immigration Detainees said, ‘This is a thoroughly dehumanising policy designed to ensure that certain people can never be allowed to enjoy a moment of peace, dignity or community.’ The race to acquire invasive surveillance technologies leads a considerable amount of public funds to line the pockets of tech companies, instead of spending these funds on support for vulnerable migrants, dealing with the backlog of immigration applications, and generally useful, respectful and lawful policies.

    [i] A. Hucklesby et al., ‘Creativity and effectiveness in the use of electronic monitoring: a case study of five European jurisdictions’, European Commission briefing paper, 2016.

    [ii] Ibid.

    [iii] Bhatia, M, ‘Racial surveillance and the mental health impacts of electronic monitoring on migrants’, Race & Class, 2021 62(3):18-36. doi:10.1177/0306396820963485

    https://irr.org.uk/article/from-gps-tagging-to-facial-recognition-watches-expanding-the-surveillance-of

    #surveillance #migrations #asile #réfugiés #UK #Angleterre #reconnaissance_faciale #AI #IA #GPS #géolocalisation #surveillance_électronique

    ping @isskein

  • Firm managing hotels for UK asylum seekers posts bumper profits

    Three directors of #Clearsprings_Ready_Homes share dividends of almost £28m, as profits rise sixfold

    A company contracted by the UK Home Office to manage hotels and other accommodation for asylum seekers increased its profits more than sixfold last year, with its three directors sharing dividends of almost £28m.

    Clearsprings Ready Homes has a 10-year contract to manage asylum seeker accommodation in England and Wales, a mix of hotel accommodation that the #Home_Office says is costing it more than £5m a day, and shared housing.

    Clearspringsboosted its profits from £4,419,841 to £28,012,487 to the year ending 31 January 2022, with dividends jumping from £7m to £27,987,262.

    It has been reported that the home secretary, Suella Braverman, allowed numbers to increase at Manston, the Home Office’s processing centre in Ramsgate, Kent, instead of moving people to hotels. However, hotel use is still high. Home Office accommodation providers get better terms on their contracts once the asylum seeker population rises above 70,000, as it has been for more than a year.

    Asylum seekers in hotels receive just over £1 a day, £8.24 a week, to buy essentials.

    Clearsprings’ latest annual accounts provide a buoyant financial forecast for the company in its Home Office contract, which runs until September 2029.

    The annual accounts report states: “Demand for accommodation has remained high, contingency including hotels has increased.”

    The reportadds that turnover and operating profits were boosted this year by an increase in the number of people seeking asylum. It says: “The number of arrivals per year is expected to continue at a high level for the foreseeable future. Due to the long-term nature of the contract and the pre-agreed rates the price risk is considered minimal.”

    Graham O’Neill, the policy manager at the Scottish Refugee Council, condemned the steep rise in profits for #Clearsprings and said public money could be better used.

    “The Home Office is effectively passing billions of the Treasury’s monies for asylum accommodation to private bodies with no plan to grip this. Much of this money ends up as bumper profits and dividends for private companies, directors and shareholders.

    “By definition this profit is not going where it should: into good social housing in communities, into local services so they may support refugees and local people. It is blindingly obvious that this is neither sustainable nor in the public interest. We need swift high-quality asylum decisions and public monies for public good into communities; not into private profit and dividends. The new PM [Rishi Sunak] needs to grip this as that is the solution.”

    Clearsprings and Home Office have been approached for comment.

    https://www.theguardian.com/uk-news/2022/oct/31/firm-managing-hotels-for-uk-asylum-seekers-posts-bumper-profits

    #business #accueil #privatisation #asile #migrations #réfugiés #UK #Angleterre #hôtels #hébergement #dividendes #profit #prix #coût

    ping @isskein @karine4

  • Airline hired for UK’s #Rwanda deportations pulls out of scheme

    Exclusive: #Privilege_Style causes problem for Home Office as it bows to pressure from campaigners

    A charter airline hired to remove people seeking refuge in the UK to Rwanda has pulled out of the scheme after pressure from campaigners.

    A plane operated by Privilege Style first attempted to fly asylum seekers to the east African country in June but was grounded by an 11th hour ruling by the European court of human rights.

    The Mallorca-based carrier had become known as the UK government’s “airline of last resort” for its willingness to conduct deportation flights that other airlines refused.

    But after an email campaign by torture survivors and refugee organisations, Privilege Style has said it will no longer operate flights to Rwanda.

    The development will leave the UK government in a fix. Two other charter airlines that previously conducted deportation flights, Titan Airways and AirTanker, have already ruled themselves out of the scheme.

    In a letter to the charity Freedom from Torture, which has led the campaign under the hashtag #StopTheFlights, Privilege Style said it “hereby wishes to communicate the following: that it will not operate flights to Rwanda in the future. That it has never flown to Rwanda since the one flight scheduled for June 2022 (which is the reason for this controversy) was suspended.”

    The UK signed a £120m deal with the Rwandan government in April to outsource the UK’s asylum system as it sought to find a solution to a growing number of refugees entering the UK via small boats in the Channel.

    The deal meant people who had arrived in the UK by irregular means, such as by small boat, could be forced on to charter planes and flown to the east African country.

    It was criticised by human rights organisations because of Rwanda’s record as an authoritarian state that repeatedly imprisons, tortures and murders alleged political opponents.

    Privilege Style’s statement followed an escalation in public protests against it by campaigners. Last week, activists from Freedom from Torture presented the firm with “worst airline of the year” award at the carrier’s headquarters in Palma in front of the media.

    According to the carrier, its VIP customers include several Spanish companies and top Spanish football clubs.

    Campaigners targeted Privilege Style outside the Real Madrid v Barcelona match last week in Madrid, holding banners reading: “Don’t fly with Privilege Style while they profit from refugees’ pain.”

    No flights have taken off yet to Rwanda because of legal challenges in the high court.

    On 14 June, a Privilege Style Boeing 767 was due to take seven asylum seekers to Kigali from a military airport at Boscombe Down, Wiltshire. The day before it had taken tourists from Tenerife, Spain, to Düsseldorf.

    But the flight, which cost the UK taxpayer about £500,000, was cancelled at the last minute following a decision by the European court.

    Liz Truss, the outgoing prime minister, had pledged to continue the scheme. Candidates considering running to be prime minister – including Rishi Sunak, Penny Mordaunt and Boris Johnson – are expected to support the deportations.

    Last month, a detailed review by the charity Medical Justice found many asylum seekers threatened with removal to Rwanda may have been tortured or trafficked into the UK.

    Kolbassia Haoussou, a torture survivor and a director at Freedom from Torture, said: “This is a victory for people power – for thousands who took action and for the torture survivors who stood up against the UK government’s cruel ‘cash for humans’ Rwanda scheme.

    “When I fled torture and persecution in central Africa, the UK gave me sanctuary and a chance to rebuild my life. It breaks my heart to see the government turning their back on people like me in their hour of need, and that private companies are profiting from their suffering.

    “Privilege Style’s decision to no longer fly torture survivors to Rwanda sends a message to the aviation industry: if you try and cash in on the pain of refugees, you will be held to account.”

    A Home Office spokesperson said: “We remain committed to our world-leading Migration Partnership with Rwanda, which will see those who come to the UK through dangerous, illegal and unnecessary routes relocated to Rwanda to rebuild their lives there.

    “Rwanda is a safe and secure country with a strong track record of supporting asylum seekers and we will continue to robustly defend the partnership in the courts. We do not comment on operational matters.”

    https://www.theguardian.com/uk-news/2022/oct/21/airline-hired-uk-rwanda-deportations-pulls-out-privilege-style
    #UK #Angleterre #procédure_d'asile #externalisation_de_la_procédure #pays_tiers #Rwanda #asile #migrations #réfugiés
    #avions #compagnie_aérienne

    –—

    ajouté à la métaliste sur la mise en place de l’#externalisation des #procédures_d'asile au #Rwanda par l’#Angleterre :
    https://seenthis.net/messages/966443

  • Anti-colonialist #sculpture unveiled in London’s #Trafalgar_Square

    Samson Kambalu’s post-colonial sculpture “#Antelope” was unveiled on Wednesday as the new sculpture on the empty Fourth Plinth of London’s Trafalgar Square.

    The bronze resin sculpture features Baptist preacher and educator #John_Chilembwe, who led an uprising in 1915 against British colonial rule in #Nyasaland — now #Malawi.

    He was later killed by colonial police and is commemorated in Malawi on John Chilembwe Day, which marks the beginning of the Malawi independence struggle.

    The sculpture is the latest in a rolling programme overseen by the mayor of London that began in 1998 to showcase contemporary art on the empty plinth.

    Previous installations have included a giant ship in a bottle and a swirl of replica whipped cream, topped with a sculpted cherry, fly and drone.

    At Chilembwe’s side in Kambalu’s sculpture is his friend and supporter, the European missionary John Chorley.

    The artist said it was designed to shed light on Britain’s colonial legacy in southern Africa.

    “People present colonialism as a kind of conqueror and victim (story),” Kambalu told AFP at the unveiling.

    “But actually, it’s more complex than that. There are heroes on both sides. There is dignity on both sides.”

    Chorley is life-sized, while Chilembwe is “larger than life” — elevating the pastor’s story and Britain’s colonial past into the public eye.

    “There’s a lot to be addressed,” said Kambalu.

    Kambalu said that by highlighting what he said was Britain’s failure to address its colonial legacy in southern Africa, such as Malawi, he hoped his work would shed light on this “hidden history”.

    Both figures in the sculpture wear hats — a banal feature at a first glance but evoking the colonial prohibition which barred African men from wearing hats in front of a white person.

    “Antelope” is the 14th commission in the programme.

    “It sparks conversation with the general public. Everyone loves to have an opinion about the Fourth Plinth. It generates debate,” said Justine Simons, deputy mayor for culture and the creative industries.

    The sculpture will be succeeded in 2024 by Teresa Margolles’ “850 Improntas” (850 Imprints), which features casts of the faces of 850 transgender people from around the world.

    Recent calls by MPs and others have urged the Mayor of London to feature a statue of the late Queen Elizabeth II on the Fourth Plinth.

    “That will be a decision for His Majesty the King, at the appropriate moment,” said Simons.

    "It’s a programme that’s been going for 20 years, and we’ve got at least another four years of sculptures already commissioned.”

    https://www.rfi.fr/en/people-and-entertainment/20220928-anti-colonialist-sculpture-unveiled-in-london-s-trafalgar-square
    #monument #Londres #colonialisme #anti-colonialisme #UK #Angleterre #Samson_Kambalu #histoire #historicisation #mémoire #passé_colonial #villes

    ping @cede @reka

  • Le spectre de l’Allemagne se lève (Consortium News) Diana JOHNSTONE - Le Grand Soir
    https://consortiumnews.com/2022/09/12/diana-johnstone-the-specter-of-germany-is-rising
    https://www.legrandsoir.info/le-spectre-de-l-allemagne-se-leve-consortium-news.html

    L’Union européenne se prépare à une longue guerre contre la Russie qui semble clairement contraire aux intérêts économiques et à la stabilité sociale de l’Europe. Une guerre apparemment irrationnelle - comme beaucoup le sont - a des racines émotionnelles profondes et revendique une justification idéologique. Il est difficile de mettre fin à de telles guerres parce qu’elles sortent du cadre de la rationalité.


    Olaf Scholz, chancelier fédéral d’Allemagne, rencontre Volodymyr Zelenskyy, président de l’Ukraine, à Kiev, le 14 février 2022.

    Pendant des décennies après l’entrée de l’Union soviétique à Berlin et la défaite décisive du Troisième Reich, les dirigeants soviétiques se sont inquiétés de la menace du « revanchisme allemand ». Puisque la Seconde Guerre mondiale pouvait être considérée comme une revanche allemande pour avoir été privée de la victoire lors de la Première Guerre mondiale, l’agressivité allemande Drang nach Osten ne pouvait-elle pas être ravivée, surtout si elle bénéficiait du soutien anglo-américain ? Il y a toujours eu une minorité dans les cercles de pouvoir américains et britanniques qui aurait voulu achever la guerre d’Hitler contre l’Union soviétique.

    Ce n’était pas le désir de répandre le communisme, mais le besoin d’une zone tampon pour faire obstacle à de tels dangers qui constituait la principale motivation de la répression politique et militaire soviétique permanente sur l’ensemble des pays, de la Pologne à la Bulgarie, que l’Armée rouge avait arrachés à l’occupation nazie.

    Cette préoccupation s’est considérablement atténuée au début des années 1980, lorsqu’une jeune génération allemande est descendue dans la rue pour manifester pacifiquement contre le stationnement d’"euromissiles" nucléaires qui pourraient accroître le risque de guerre nucléaire sur le sol allemand. Ce mouvement a créé l’image d’une nouvelle Allemagne pacifique. Je crois que Mikhaïl Gorbatchev a pris cette transformation au sérieux.

    Le 15 juin 1989, Gorbatchev est venu à Bonn, qui était alors la modeste capitale d’une Allemagne de l’Ouest faussement modeste. Apparemment ravi de l’accueil chaleureux et amical, Gorbatchev s’est arrêté pour serrer les mains tout au long du chemin dans cette ville universitaire paisible qui avait été le théâtre de grandes manifestations pacifistes.

    J’étais là et j’ai pu constater sa poignée de main inhabituellement chaleureuse et ferme et son sourire enthousiaste. Je ne doute pas que Gorbatchev croyait sincèrement en une « maison européenne commune » où l’Europe de l’Est et l’Europe de l’Ouest pourraient vivre en harmonie côte à côte, unies par une sorte de socialisme démocratique.


    Gorbachev on June 13, 1989 in the market-square in Bonn. (Jüppsche/Wikimedia Commons)

    Gorbatchev est mort à l’âge de 91 ans il y a deux semaines, le 30 août. Son rêve de voir la Russie et l’Allemagne vivre heureuses dans leur « maison européenne commune » a rapidement été mis à mal par le feu vert donné par l’administration Clinton à l’expansion de l’OTAN vers l’est. Mais la veille de la mort de Gorbatchev, d’éminents politiciens allemands réunis à Prague ont anéanti tout espoir d’une telle fin heureuse en proclamant leur volonté de diriger une Europe vouée à la lutte contre l’ennemi russe.

    Il s’agissait d’hommes politiques issus des mêmes partis - le SPD (parti social-démocrate) et les Verts - qui avaient pris la tête du mouvement pacifiste des années 1980.

    L’Europe allemande doit s’étendre vers l’Est
    Le chancelier allemand Olaf Scholz est un politicien SPD incolore, mais son discours du 29 août à Prague était incendiaire dans ses implications. Scholz a appelé à une Union européenne élargie et militarisée sous la direction de l’Allemagne. Il a affirmé que l’opération russe en Ukraine soulevait la question de savoir « où sera la ligne de démarcation à l’avenir entre cette Europe libre et une autocratie néo-impériale ». Nous ne pouvons pas nous contenter de regarder, a-t-il dit, « des pays libres être rayés de la carte et disparaître derrière des murs ou des rideaux de fer. »
    (Note : le conflit en Ukraine est clairement l’affaire inachevée de l’effondrement de l’Union soviétique, aggravée par une provocation extérieure malveillante. Comme pendant la guerre froide, les réactions défensives de Moscou sont interprétées comme des signes avant-coureurs d’une invasion russe en Europe, et donc comme un prétexte à l’accumulation d’armes).

    Pour répondre à cette menace imaginaire, l’Allemagne prendra la tête d’une UE élargie et militarisée. Tout d’abord, Scholz a déclaré à son auditoire européen dans la capitale tchèque : « Je m’engage à élargir l’Union européenne aux États des Balkans occidentaux, à l’Ukraine, à la Moldavie et, à long terme, à la Géorgie ». Il est un peu étrange de s’inquiéter du déplacement de la ligne de démarcation vers l’ouest par la Russie alors que l’on prévoit d’intégrer trois anciens États soviétiques, dont l’un (la Géorgie) est géographiquement et culturellement très éloigné de l’Europe mais aux portes de la Russie.

    Dans les « Balkans occidentaux », l’Albanie et quatre petits États extrêmement faibles issus de l’ex-Yougoslavie (Macédoine du Nord, Monténégro, Bosnie-Herzégovine et Kosovo largement non reconnu) produisent principalement des émigrants et sont loin des normes économiques et sociales de l’UE. Le Kosovo et la Bosnie sont des protectorats de facto de l’OTAN, occupés militairement. La Serbie, plus solide que les autres, ne montre aucun signe de renoncement à ses relations bénéfiques avec la Russie et la Chine, et l’enthousiasme populaire pour « l’Europe » parmi les Serbes s’est estompé.

    L’ajout de ces États membres permettra de réaliser « une Union européenne plus forte, plus souveraine et plus géopolitique », a déclaré M. Scholz. Une « Allemagne plus géopolitique », plutôt. Alors que l’UE s’élargit vers l’est, l’Allemagne se trouve « au centre » et fera tout pour les rassembler. Ainsi, outre l’élargissement, M. Scholz appelle à « un passage progressif aux décisions à la majorité en matière de politique étrangère commune » pour remplacer l’unanimité requise aujourd’hui.

    Ce que cela signifie devrait être évident pour les Français. Historiquement, les Français ont défendu la règle du consensus afin de ne pas être entraînés dans une politique étrangère dont ils ne veulent pas. Les dirigeants français ont exalté le mythique « couple franco-allemand » comme garant de l’harmonie européenne, principalement pour garder les ambitions allemandes sous contrôle.

    Mais Scholz dit qu’il ne veut pas d’une « UE d’États ou de directorats exclusifs », ce qui implique le divorce définitif de ce « couple ». Avec une UE de 30 ou 36 États, note-t-il, « une action rapide et pragmatique est nécessaire. » Et il peut être sûr que l’influence allemande sur la plupart de ces nouveaux États membres pauvres, endettés et souvent corrompus produira la majorité nécessaire.

    La France a toujours espéré une force de sécurité européenne distincte de l’OTAN, dans laquelle les militaires français joueraient un rôle de premier plan. Mais l’Allemagne a d’autres idées. « L’OTAN reste le garant de notre sécurité », a déclaré Scholz, se réjouissant que le président Biden soit « un transatlantiste convaincu ».

    « Chaque amélioration, chaque unification des structures de défense européennes dans le cadre de l’UE renforce l’OTAN », a déclaré Scholz. "Avec d’autres partenaires de l’UE, l’Allemagne veillera donc à ce que la force de réaction rapide prévue par l’UE soit opérationnelle en 2025 et fournira alors également son noyau.

    Cela nécessite une structure de commandement claire. L’Allemagne assumera cette responsabilité « lorsque nous dirigerons la force de réaction rapide en 2025 », a déclaré M. Scholz. Il a déjà été décidé que l’Allemagne soutiendrait la Lituanie avec une brigade rapidement déployable et l’OTAN avec d’autres forces en état de préparation élevé.

    Servir pour diriger ... où ?


    Robert Habeck speaking at protest before Green Party headquarters, Berlin, Oct. 28, 2020. (Leonhard Lenz/Wikimedia Commons)

    En bref, le renforcement militaire de l’Allemagne donnera corps à la fameuse déclaration de Robert Habeck à Washington en mars dernier : « Plus l’Allemagne servira avec force, plus son rôle sera grand ». Habeck, le Vert, est le ministre allemand de l’économie et la deuxième personnalité la plus puissante du gouvernement allemand actuel.

    La remarque a été bien comprise à Washington : en servant l’empire occidental dirigé par les États-Unis, l’Allemagne renforce son rôle de leader européen. De la même manière que les États-Unis arment, entraînent et occupent l’Allemagne, celle-ci fournira les mêmes services aux petits États de l’UE, notamment à l’est.

    Depuis le début de l’opération russe en Ukraine, la politicienne allemande Ursula von der Leyen a profité de sa position à la tête de la Commission européenne pour imposer des sanctions toujours plus drastiques à la Russie, ce qui a fait planer la menace d’une grave crise énergétique européenne cet hiver. Son hostilité envers la Russie semble sans limite. En avril dernier, à Kiev, elle a appelé à une adhésion rapide à l’UE de l’Ukraine, qui est notoirement le pays le plus corrompu d’Europe et qui est loin de respecter les normes européennes. Elle a proclamé que « la Russie va sombrer dans la déchéance économique, financière et technologique, tandis que l’Ukraine marche vers un avenir européen. » Pour Mme von der Leyen, l’Ukraine « mène notre guerre ». Tout cela va bien au-delà de son autorité pour parler au nom des 27 membres de l’UE, mais personne ne l’arrête.

    Annalena Baerbock, ministre des affaires étrangères des Verts allemands, est tout aussi déterminée à « ruiner la Russie ». Partisane d’une « politique étrangère féministe », Baerbock exprime sa politique en termes personnels. « Si je fais la promesse aux gens en Ukraine, nous sommes à vos côtés aussi longtemps que vous avez besoin de nous », a-t-elle déclaré en anglais lors du Forum 2000 à Prague, parrainé par le National Endowment for Democracy (NED) des États-Unis, le 31 août. « Alors je veux tenir mes promesses, peu importe ce que pensent mes électeurs allemands, mais je veux tenir mes promesses au peuple ukrainien ».

    « Les gens iront dans la rue et diront, nous ne pouvons pas payer nos prix de l’énergie, et je dirai, ’Oui je sais donc nous allons vous aider avec des mesures sociales. [...] Nous serons aux côtés de l’Ukraine et cela signifie que les sanctions resteront en vigueur jusqu’à l’hiver, même si cela devient très difficile pour les politiciens ».

    Certes, le soutien à l’Ukraine est fort en Allemagne, mais peut-être en raison de la pénurie d’énergie qui se profile, un récent sondage Forsa indique que quelque 77 % des Allemands seraient favorables à des efforts diplomatiques pour mettre fin à la guerre - ce qui devrait être l’affaire du ministre des affaires étrangères. Mais Baerbock ne montre aucun intérêt pour la diplomatie, seulement pour un « échec stratégique » pour la Russie - quel que soit le temps que cela prendra.

    Dans le mouvement pacifiste des années 1980, une génération d’Allemands prenait ses distances avec celle de leurs parents et jurait de surmonter les « représentations de l’ennemi » héritées des guerres passées. Curieusement, Baerbock, née en 1980, a fait référence à son grand-père qui a combattu dans la Wehrmacht comme ayant en quelque sorte contribué à l’unité européenne. Est-ce là le pendule générationnel ?

    Les petits revanchards


    Stepan Bandera torchlight parade in Kiev, Jan. 1, 2020. (A1/Wikimedia Commons)

    Il y a lieu de supposer que la russophobie allemande actuelle tire une grande partie de sa légitimation de la russophobie des anciens alliés nazis dans les petits pays européens.

    Si le revanchisme anti-russe allemand a peut-être mis deux générations à s’affirmer, un certain nombre de revanchismes plus petits et plus obscurs ont fleuri à la fin de la guerre européenne et ont été intégrés dans les opérations de guerre froide des États-Unis. Ces petits revanchismes n’ont pas été soumis aux mesures de dénazification ou à la culpabilité de l’Holocauste imposées à l’Allemagne. Au contraire, ils ont été accueillis par la C.I.A., Radio Free Europe et les commissions du Congrès pour leur anticommunisme fervent. Ils ont été renforcés politiquement aux Etats-Unis par les diasporas anticommunistes d’Europe de l’Est.

    Parmi celles-ci, la diaspora ukrainienne est certainement la plus importante, la plus intensément politique et la plus influente, tant au Canada que dans le Middle West américain. Les fascistes ukrainiens qui avaient auparavant collaboré avec les envahisseurs nazis étaient les plus nombreux et les plus actifs, dirigeant le Bloc des nations antibolcheviques qui avait des liens avec les services de renseignements allemands, britanniques et américains.

    La Galicie d’Europe orientale, à ne pas confondre avec la Galicie espagnole, a fait partie de la Russie et de la Pologne pendant des siècles. Après la Seconde Guerre mondiale, elle a été divisée entre la Pologne et l’Ukraine. La Galicie ukrainienne est le centre d’un nationalisme ukrainien virulent, dont le principal héros de la Seconde Guerre mondiale est Stepan Bandera. Ce nationalisme peut être qualifié à juste titre de « fasciste », non pas simplement en raison de signes superficiels - ses symboles, ses saluts ou ses tatouages - mais parce qu’il a toujours été fondamentalement raciste et violent.

    Incité par les puissances occidentales, la Pologne, la Lituanie et l’Empire des Habsbourg, la clé du nationalisme ukrainien était qu’il était occidental, et donc supérieur. Les Ukrainiens et les Russes étant issus de la même population, l’ultra-nationalisme ukrainien pro-occidental s’est construit sur des mythes imaginaires de différences raciales : Les Ukrainiens faisaient partie du véritable Occident , quoi que cela signifie, tandis que les Russes étaient métissés avec des « Mongols » et constituaient donc une race inférieure. Les nationalistes ukrainiens banderistes ont ouvertement appelé à l’élimination des Russes en tant que tels, en tant qu’êtres inférieurs.

    Tant que l’Union soviétique existait, la haine raciale des Ukrainiens envers les Russes avait pour couverture l’anticommunisme, et les agences de renseignement occidentales pouvaient les soutenir sur la base de l’idéologie « pure » de la lutte contre le bolchevisme et le communisme. Mais maintenant que la Russie n’est plus dirigée par des communistes, le masque est tombé, et la nature raciste de l’ultranationalisme ukrainien est visible - pour tous ceux qui veulent la voir.

    Cependant, les dirigeants et les médias occidentaux sont déterminés à ne pas le remarquer.

    L’Ukraine n’est pas un pays occidental comme les autres. Elle est profondément et dramatiquement divisée entre le Donbass à l’Est, des territoires russes donnés à l’Ukraine par l’Union soviétique, et l’Ouest anti-russe, où se trouve la Galacie. La défense du Donbass par la Russie, qu’elle soit sage ou non, n’indique en aucun cas une intention russe d’envahir d’autres pays. Cette fausse alerte est le prétexte à la remilitarisation de l’Allemagne en alliance avec les puissances anglo-saxonnes contre la Russie.

    Le prélude yougoslave


    Cutting firewood in Sarajevo during wars that broke up Yugoslavia, 1993. (Christian Maréchal/Wikimedia Commons)

    Ce processus a commencé dans les années 1990, avec l’éclatement de la Yougoslavie.

    La Yougoslavie n’était pas un membre du bloc soviétique. C’est précisément pour cette raison que le pays a obtenu des prêts de l’Occident qui, dans les années 1970, ont conduit à une crise de la dette dans laquelle les dirigeants de chacune des six républiques fédérées ont voulu refiler la dette aux autres. Cette situation a favorisé les tendances séparatistes dans les républiques slovène et croate, relativement riches, tendances renforcées par le chauvinisme ethnique et les encouragements des puissances extérieures, notamment de l’Allemagne.

    Pendant la Seconde Guerre mondiale, l’occupation allemande avait divisé le pays. La Serbie, alliée de la France et de la Grande-Bretagne lors de la Première Guerre mondiale, a été soumise à une occupation punitive. La Slovénie idyllique a été absorbée par le Troisième Reich, tandis que l’Allemagne soutenait une Croatie indépendante, dirigée par le parti fasciste Oustachi, qui comprenait la majeure partie de la Bosnie, théâtre des combats internes les plus sanglants. À la fin de la guerre, de nombreux oustachis croates ont émigré en Allemagne, aux États-Unis et au Canada, sans jamais abandonner l’espoir de raviver le nationalisme croate sécessionniste.

    À Washington, dans les années 1990, les membres du Congrès ont obtenu leurs impressions sur la Yougoslavie auprès d’un seul expert : Mira Baratta, une Américaine d’origine croate de 35 ans, assistante du sénateur Bob Dole (candidat républicain à la présidence en 1996). Le grand-père de Baratta avait été un important officier de l’Oustachi en Bosnie et son père était actif au sein de la diaspora croate en Californie. Baratta a rallié non seulement Dole mais aussi la quasi-totalité du Congrès à la version croate des conflits yougoslaves rejetant tout sur les Serbes.

    En Europe, les Allemands et les Autrichiens, notamment Otto von Habsburg, héritier du défunt Empire austro-hongrois et député européen de Bavière, ont réussi à présenter les Serbes comme les méchants, prenant ainsi une revanche efficace contre leur ennemi historique de la Première Guerre mondiale, la Serbie. En Occident, il est devenu habituel d’identifier la Serbie comme « l’allié historique de la Russie », oubliant que dans l’histoire récente, les plus proches alliés de la Serbie étaient la Grande-Bretagne et surtout la France.

    En septembre 1991, un politicien chrétien-démocrate et avocat constitutionnel allemand de premier plan a expliqué pourquoi l’Allemagne devrait favoriser l’éclatement de la Yougoslavie en reconnaissant les républiques yougoslaves sécessionnistes slovène et croate. (Rupert Scholz, ancien ministre de la défense de la CDU, lors du 6e symposium Fürstenfeldbrucker pour la direction de l’armée et des affaires allemandes, qui s’est tenu les 23 et 24 septembre 1991).

    En mettant fin à la division de l’Allemagne, Rupert Scholz a déclaré : « Nous avons, pour ainsi dire, surmonté et maîtrisé les conséquences les plus importantes de la Seconde Guerre mondiale... mais dans d’autres domaines, nous sommes toujours confrontés aux conséquences de la Première Guerre mondiale » - qui, a-t-il noté, « a commencé en Serbie. »

    « La Yougoslavie, conséquence de la Première Guerre mondiale, est une construction très artificielle, jamais compatible avec l’idée d’autodétermination », a déclaré Rupert Scholz. Il conclut : « A mon avis, la Slovénie et la Croatie doivent être immédiatement reconnues au niveau international. (...) Lorsque cette reconnaissance aura eu lieu, le conflit yougoslave ne sera plus un problème interne à la Yougoslavie, où aucune intervention internationale ne peut être autorisée. »

    Et en effet, la reconnaissance a été suivie d’une intervention occidentale massive qui se poursuit encore aujourd’hui. En prenant parti, l’Allemagne, les États-Unis et l’OTAN ont finalement produit un résultat désastreux, une demi-douzaine d’îlots étatiques, avec de nombreux problèmes non résolus et fortement dépendants des puissances occidentales. La Bosnie-Herzégovine est sous occupation militaire ainsi que sous le diktat d’un « Haut représentant » qui se trouve être allemand. Elle a perdu environ la moitié de sa population à cause de l’émigration.

    Seule la Serbie montre des signes d’indépendance, refusant de se joindre aux sanctions occidentales contre la Russie, malgré de fortes pressions. Pour les stratèges de Washington, l’éclatement de la Yougoslavie était un exercice d’utilisation des divisions ethniques pour briser des entités plus grandes, l’URSS puis la Russie.

    Bombardements humanitaires
    Les politiciens et les médias occidentaux ont persuadé l’opinion publique que le bombardement de la Serbie par l’OTAN en 1999 était une guerre « humanitaire », généreusement menée pour « protéger les Kosovars » (après que de multiples assassinats perpétrés par des sécessionnistes armés aient provoqué les autorités serbes dans l’inévitable répression servant de prétexte au bombardement).

    Mais le véritable enjeu de la guerre du Kosovo est qu’elle a transformé l’OTAN d’une alliance défensive en une alliance agressive, prête à faire la guerre n’importe où, sans mandat de l’ONU, sous n’importe quel prétexte.

    Cette leçon était claire pour les Russes. Après la guerre du Kosovo, l’OTAN ne pouvait plus prétendre de manière crédible qu’elle était une alliance purement « défensive ».

    Dès que le président serbe Milosevic, pour sauver l’infrastructure de son pays de la destruction par l’OTAN, a accepté de permettre aux troupes de l’OTAN d’entrer au Kosovo, les États-Unis se sont emparés sans cérémonie d’une énorme bande de territoire pour construire leur première grande base militaire dans les Balkans. Les troupes de l’OTAN y sont toujours.

    Tout comme les États-Unis se sont empressés de construire cette base au Kosovo, on savait clairement à quoi s’attendre de la part des États-Unis après avoir réussi en 2014 à installer un gouvernement à Kiev désireux de rejoindre l’OTAN. Ce serait l’occasion pour les États-Unis de reprendre la base navale russe en Crimée. Comme on savait que la majorité de la population de Crimée voulait revenir à la Russie (comme elle l’avait fait de 1783 à 1954), Poutine a pu devancer cette menace en organisant un référendum populaire confirmant son retour.

    Le revanchisme est-européen s’empare de l’UE


     European Parliament in Strasbourg, France. (U.N. Photo/Eskinder Debebe)

    L’appel lancé par le chancelier allemand Scholz en faveur d’un élargissement de l’Union européenne à neuf nouveaux membres rappelle les élargissements de 2004 et 2007, qui ont amené douze nouveaux membres, dont neuf de l’ancien bloc soviétique, y compris les trois États baltes qui faisaient autrefois partie de l’Union soviétique.

    Cet élargissement avait déjà déplacé l’équilibre vers l’est et renforcé l’influence allemande. Les élites politiques de la Pologne, et surtout des trois États baltes, étaient fortement influencées par les États-Unis et la Grande-Bretagne, où beaucoup avaient vécu en exil pendant la période soviétique. Elles ont apporté aux institutions européennes une nouvelle vague d’anticommunisme fanatique, qu’il n’est pas toujours possible de distinguer de la russophobie.

    Le Parlement européen, obsédé par les discours sur les droits de l’homme, a été particulièrement réceptif à l’antitotalitarisme zélé de ses nouveaux membres d’Europe de l’Est.

    Le revanchisme et l’arme mémorielle
    Dans le cadre de la purification anticommuniste, ou purges, les États d’Europe de l’Est ont parrainé des « instituts de la mémoire » chargés de dénoncer les crimes du communisme. Bien entendu, ces campagnes ont été utilisées par les politiciens d’extrême droite pour jeter la suspicion sur la gauche en général. Comme l’explique le chercheur européen Zoltan Dujisin, les « promoteurs de la mémoire anticommuniste » à la tête de ces instituts ont réussi à faire passer leurs activités d’information publique du niveau national à celui de l’Union européenne, en utilisant les interdictions occidentales sur la négation de l’Holocauste pour se plaindre que si les crimes nazis avaient été condamnés et punis à Nuremberg, les crimes communistes ne l’avaient pas été.

    La tactique des promoteurs anticommunistes consistait à exiger que les références à l’Holocauste soient accompagnées de dénonciations du Goulag. Cette campagne a dû faire face à une contradiction délicate puisqu’elle tendait à remettre en cause le caractère unique de l’Holocauste, un dogme essentiel pour obtenir le soutien financier et politique des instituts de mémoire d’Europe occidentale.

    En 2008, le PE a adopté une résolution établissant le 23 août comme « Journée européenne de commémoration des victimes du stalinisme et du nazisme » - adoptant pour la première fois ce qui avait été une équation d’extrême droite assez isolée. Une résolution du PE de 2009 sur « la conscience européenne et le totalitarisme » a appelé à soutenir les instituts nationaux spécialisés dans l’histoire du totalitarisme.

    Dujisin explique : « L’Europe est désormais hantée par le spectre d’une nouvelle mémoire. Le statut singulier de l’Holocauste en tant que formule fondatrice négative de l’intégration européenne, point culminant des efforts déployés depuis longtemps par d’éminents dirigeants occidentaux ... est de plus en plus contesté par une mémoire du communisme qui conteste son caractère unique. »

    Les instituts de mémoire est-européens ont formé ensemble la « Plateforme de la mémoire et de la conscience européennes », qui a organisé entre 2012 et 2016 une série d’expositions sur « Le totalitarisme en Europe : Fascisme-Nazisme-Communisme », voyageant dans des musées, des mémoriaux, des fondations, des mairies, des parlements, des centres culturels et des universités de 15 pays européens, censés « améliorer la sensibilisation et l’éducation du public aux crimes les plus graves commis par les dictatures totalitaires. »

    Sous cette influence, le Parlement européen a adopté le 19 septembre 2019 une résolution « sur l’importance de la mémoire européenne pour l’avenir de l’Europe » qui va bien au-delà de l’assimilation des crimes politiques en proclamant une interprétation nettement polonaise de l’histoire comme politique de l’Union européenne. Elle va jusqu’à proclamer que le pacte Molotov-Ribbentrop est responsable de la Seconde Guerre mondiale - et donc que la Russie soviétique est aussi coupable de la guerre que l’Allemagne nazie.
    La résolution,
    « Souligne que la Seconde Guerre mondiale, la guerre la plus dévastatrice de l’histoire de l’Europe, a été déclenchée comme résultat immédiat du tristement célèbre traité de non-agression entre l’Allemagne nazie et l’Union soviétique du 23 août 1939, également connu sous le nom de pacte Molotov-Ribbentrop, et de ses protocoles secrets, par lesquels deux régimes totalitaires qui partageaient l’objectif de conquête du monde ont divisé l’Europe en deux zones d’influence ; »

    Il ajoute :
    « Rappelle que les régimes nazi et communiste ont perpétré des meurtres de masse, des génocides et des déportations et ont causé une perte de vie et de liberté au XXe siècle à une échelle sans précédent dans l’histoire de l’humanité, et rappelle le crime horrible de l’Holocauste perpétré par le régime nazi ; condamne dans les termes les plus forts les actes d’agression, les crimes contre l’humanité et les violations massives des droits de l’homme perpétrés par les régimes nazi, communiste et autres régimes totalitaires ; »

    Bien entendu, cette résolution n’est pas seulement en contradiction directe avec la célébration russe de la « Grande guerre patriotique » pour vaincre l’invasion nazie, elle s’oppose également aux récents efforts du président russe Vladimir Poutine pour replacer l’accord Molotov-Ribbentrop dans le contexte des refus antérieurs des États d’Europe de l’Est, notamment la Pologne, de s’allier à Moscou contre Hitler.

    Mais la résolution du PE :
    « Est profondément préoccupé par les efforts déployés par les dirigeants russes actuels pour déformer les faits historiques et blanchir les crimes commis par le régime totalitaire soviétique et les considère comme une composante dangereuse de la guerre de l’information menée contre l’Europe démocratique qui vise à diviser l’Europe, et invite donc la Commission à contrer résolument ces efforts ; »

    Ainsi, l’importance de la mémoire pour l’avenir, s’avère être une déclaration de guerre idéologique contre la Russie basée sur des interprétations de la Seconde Guerre mondiale, d’autant plus que les promoteurs de la mémoire suggèrent implicitement que les crimes passés du communisme méritent d’être punis - comme les crimes du nazisme. Il n’est pas impossible que cette ligne de pensée suscite une certaine satisfaction tacite chez certains individus en Allemagne.

    Lorsque les dirigeants occidentaux parlent de « guerre économique contre la Russie » ou de « ruiner la Russie » en armant et en soutenant l’Ukraine, on peut se demander s’ils préparent consciemment la troisième guerre mondiale ou s’ils essaient de donner une nouvelle fin à la deuxième guerre mondiale. Ou bien est-ce que les deux vont fusionner ?

    Dans l’état actuel des choses, avec l’OTAN qui tente ouvertement de « s’étendre » et donc de vaincre la Russie par une guerre d’usure en Ukraine, c’est un peu comme si la Grande-Bretagne et les États-Unis, quelque 80 ans plus tard, avaient changé de camp et rejoint l’Europe dominée par les Allemands pour faire la guerre à la Russie, aux côtés des héritiers de l’anticommunisme est-européen, dont certains étaient alliés à l’Allemagne nazie.

    L’histoire peut aider à comprendre les événements, mais le culte de la mémoire devient facilement le culte de la vengeance. La vengeance est un cercle sans fin. Elle utilise le passé pour tuer l’avenir. L’Europe a besoin de têtes claires tournées vers l’avenir, capables de comprendre le présent.

    Diana Johnstone

    #allemagne #ukraine #guerre #Histoire #europe #union°européenne #ue #otan #usa #Angleterre #olaf_scholz #militarisation #otan #Wehrmacht #occident #racisme #Kosovo #Serbie #guerre_idéologique #guerre_mondiale #revanche #mémoire

  • La rémunération princière des gouverneurs et gouverneuses généraux générales du Canada représentants l’Angleterre Renaud Brossard, Directeur Québec, Fédération canadienne des contribuables - La Presse.Ca ( Publié le 8 juill. 2021 )
    https://www.lapresse.ca/debats/opinions/2021-07-08/la-remuneration-princiere-des-gouverneurs-generaux.php

    Être nommé gouverneur général, c’est un peu comme gagner une succession de tirages à la loterie.

    Il y a le salaire, soit un peu plus de 1,5 million de dollars pour un mandat de cinq ans. Ensuite il y a la maison, l’emploi venant avec une résidence de fonction de 175 pièces et un chalet sur le cap Diamant, à Québec.

    Mais le vrai gros lot, c’est tout ce qui entoure la retraite.

    D’abord, il y a la pension. Dès que vous quittez le poste de gouverneur général, vous devenez automatiquement admissible à une pension d’environ 150 000 $ par année, et ce, quel que soit votre âge ou la durée de votre mandat.


    La salle de bal de Rideau Hall - photo martin roy, archives la presse

    C’est ainsi que l’ex-gouverneure générale Julie Payette, qui a démissionné sur fond de scandale après avoir passé à peine plus de trois ans en poste reçoit une pleine rente depuis son départ.

    Et elle risque de nous coûter cher pendant encore longtemps. Au rythme de 150 000 $ par année, sa pension coûtera plus de 4,8 millions de dollars aux contribuables canadiens si elle vit jusqu’à l’âge de 90 ans. Selon les calculs de la Fédération canadienne des contribuables, les cinq ex-gouverneurs généraux encore en vie récolteront l’équivalent de 18 millions de dollars en pension s’ils vivent jusqu’à l’âge de 90 ans.

    À cela vient s’ajouter une allocation de dépenses à vie, même après la fin de leur mandat. En fait, les ex-gouverneurs généraux peuvent nous facturer leurs dépenses jusqu’à six mois après leur décès.

    Tout ex-gouverneur général peut donc continuer à nous facturer jusqu’à 206 000 $ par année en billets d’avion, repas, hôtels et frais de bureau. Et certains n’hésitent pas à le faire.

    En 2018, le National Post nous a appris qu’Adrienne Clarkson avait profité de ce programme pour facturer plus de 1,1 million de dollars en dépenses aux contribuables depuis la fin de son mandat en 2005. Pour David Johnston, la facture s’élève déjà à 190 000 $ en trois ans.

    Et comme si ce n’était pas encore assez indécent, la tradition veut que le gouvernement leur paye un cadeau, avec votre argent, pour les remercier pour leurs énormes sacrifices. Généralement, cela prend la forme d’une enveloppe de 10 millions de dollars sur 10 ans pour aider à lancer une fondation.

    C’est ainsi que la Fondation Rideau Hall de David Johnston a pu obtenir 10 millions de dollars de l’argent des contribuables au cours des dernières années pour « optimiser l’influence du Bureau du gouverneur général à titre d’institution clé de la démocratie canadienne ».

    Une autre réalité
    Tous ces avantages n’ont aucune commune mesure avec la réalité des contribuables à travers le pays. Si vous allez sur un site de recherche d’emploi, il y a fort à parier que vous ne trouverez rien qui n’arrive même à la cheville de ce que l’on accorde au gouverneur général.

    Et ce n’est pas comme si c’était la norme dans les postes similaires non plus.

    La majorité des lieutenants-gouverneurs provinciaux n’ont plus de résidences de fonction, leur pension dépend du nombre d’années passées en poste, ils n’ont pas d’allocation de dépenses post-retraite ou de cadeau de départ se chiffrant dans les millions de dollars. Cela ne les empêche pas de remplir sensiblement les mêmes fonctions.

    Dans le contexte actuel où le gouvernement fédéral s’endette à un rythme record, il est clair qu’on doit revoir les dépenses. Réduire la rémunération des gouverneurs généraux serait un bon premier pas. Après tout, ce n’est pas parce qu’ils représentent la royauté que les gouverneurs généraux méritent une rémunération princière.

    Avec la collaboration de Franco Terrazzano, directeur fédéral, Fédération canadienne des contribuables

     #inégalités #royauté #canada #angleterre #capitalisme #privilèges #histoire #privilège #politique #domination #démocratie #vampires #royauté #princes #princesses

    Source du lien de l’article : https://www.legrandsoir.info/ce-que-l-histoire-nous-en-saigne.html

    • L’ancienne gouverneure générale du Canada, Julie Payette avait démissionné en Janvier de cette année.
      Une scientifique, administratrice et femme d’État canadienne.
      Astronaute en chef de l’Agence spatiale canadienne entre 2000 et 2007, elle a participé aux missions STS-96 et STS-127.

      Elle (Julie Payette) a démissionné en 2021, suite aux allégations de harcèlement au sein du bureau de la gouverneure générale.

      En 2016, Julie Payette avait déjà démissionné de son poste au Centre des sciences de Montréal « à la suite de plaintes relatives à la façon dont elle traitait ses employés ».

      En 2017, elle avait aussi démissionné du Comité olympique canadien « après le déclenchement [...] de deux enquêtes internes concernant son comportement envers les employés et des allégations de harcèlement verbal ».

      https://fr.wikipedia.org/wiki/Julie_Payette

      https://seenthis.net/messages/921460#message921518

    • la nomination de l’ancienne gouverneure générale du Canada, Julie Payette
      Source : https://www.ledevoir.com/politique/canada/593839/point-de-presse-covid-trudeau-22-janvier-2021

      Le premier ministre Justin Trudeau, qui a téléphoné à la Reine Élisabeth II vendredi matin pour lui apprendre que le juge en chef du Canada remplira les fonctions de gouverneur général de façon intérimaire, a défendu son choix d’avoir nommé l’astronaute en 2017. Pourtant, à ce moment, des employés du Centre des sciences de Montréal, qu’elle avait dirigé jusqu’en 2016, s’étaient déjà plaints d’un climat de travail toxique. En conférence de presse, vendredi, M. Trudeau a promis de « regarder » si le processus de nomination peut être amélioré, même s’il maintient que celui ayant posé son dévolu sur l’ex-astronaute était « rigoureux ».

      #Justin_trudeau

    • Lise Thibault plaide coupable de fraude et d’abus de confiance Alexandre Robillard - lapresse.ca 3 févr. 2015
      https://www.lapresse.ca/actualites/justice-et-affaires-criminelles/proces/201412/08/01-4826149-lise-thibault-plaide-coupable-de-fraude-et-dabus-de-confiance.ph

      Plus de cinq ans après le début des procédures judiciaires, l’ancienne lieutenante-gouverneure Lise Thibault a plaidé coupable, lundi, à des accusations de fraude et abus de confiance envers le gouvernement.

      S’appuyant sur une nouvelle compréhension de la preuve et de la loi, Mme Thibault a ainsi changé le plaidoyer qu’elle avait enregistré, après avoir été sommée de comparaître pour la première fois en septembre 2009.


      En 2007, les vérificateurs généraux du Québec et du Canada avaient conclu que Mme Thibault avait réclamé 700 000 $ de dépenses injustifiées, ce qui avait déclenché des procédures judiciaires qui ont mené à l’ouverture de son procès en avril dernier.

      Des dépenses pour des voyages, des fêtes, des repas, des leçons de golf et de ski ainsi que des cadeaux étaient en cause dans les procédures.

      De retour devant la Cour supérieure pour la première fois depuis août, en raison de problèmes de santé qui avaient interrompu son contre-interrogatoire, Mme Thibault a reconnu sa culpabilité.
      ….
      M. Labelle a affirmé que sa cliente reconnaît avoir réclamé injustement une somme de 310 000 $, alors que la Couronne estime plutôt ce montant à 430 000 $, ce qui nécessite des discussions.
      . . . . . .
      L’ancienne représentante de la Reine au Québec a multiplié les recours devant les tribunaux pour éviter d’être traduite en justice. En 2012, elle a été déboutée en Cour d’appel du Québec sur la question de l’immunité royale totale. Par la suite, en mai 2013, la Cour suprême du Canada a refusé d’entendre sa cause.
      Le gouvernement du Québec a aussi intenté une poursuite civile à l’endroit de Mme Thibault pour lui réclamer 92 000 $ pour des dépenses jugées injustifiées.
      . . . . .
      #vol #fraude #abus_de_confiance #prévarication #femmes

  • Letter of support for #Uju_Anya after she was targeted by Jeff Bezos and her employer for her criticism of the Queen’s commitments to colonial violence

    Dear Supporters of Dr. Uju Anya,

    Dr. Uju Anya is a world-renowned Nigerian-Trinidadian-American Associate Professor of Second Language Acquisition at Carnegie Mellon University. Her groundbreaking research focuses on the experiences of African American students in world language education. She brings attention to systemic barriers that African American students face in accessing world language education and the marginalization they experience in world language classrooms. Yet, her research isn’t only focused on these challenges. Her work points to concrete ways of making world language education more equitable. The significance and quality of her scholarship can be seen in the fact that her widely-cited book, Racialized Identities in Second Language Language: Speaking Blackness in Brazil (https://www.routledge.com/Racialized-Identities-in-Second-Language-Learning-Speaking-Blackness-in/Anya/p/book/9780367197469), was awarded the prestigious 2019 American Association for Applied Linguistics First Book Award (https://www.aaal.org/first-book-award).

    Dr. Anya has also been at the forefront of leading efforts to promote diversity, equity and inclusion in the field of applied linguistics, a field that has struggled to diversify and that remains white dominated. She mentors Black students and other students of color, as well as assume leadership roles in a range of professional organizations, such as the American Association for Applied Linguistics where she amplifies the voices of emerging scholars of color. She has also been able to amass a broad social media presence on Twitter that showcases her love of Black people across the Diaspora, her passion for uplifting the voices LGBTQA+ persons, and a space for collective joy.

    The Issue

    On September 8, 2022, shortly before Queen Elizabeth II died at the age of 96, Dr. Anya tweeted her feelings about the queen’s death. As a Black woman who was born in Nigeria, whose family has been directly harmed by the insidious impacts of British imperialism, genocide, and white supremacy, Dr. Anya expressed her pain on her personal Twitter account. Not only did Queen Elizabeth II sit on a throne of Indigenous and Black blood, embedded in the overall legacy of the British monarchy, her actual government presided over and directly facilitated the genocide that Dr. Anya’s parents and siblings barely survived (https://www.dailymaverick.co.za/article/2020-04-29-how-britains-labour-government-facilitated-the-massacre-). This genocide entailed the massacre of more than 3 million Igbo people, including other family members of Dr. Anya. While within public discourse, the term “colonizer” can appear to be an abstract term that people have only read about in history books, Dr. Anya experienced the reverberations of colonial white supremacy first hand. Thus, Queen Elizabeth II was not figuratively but literally her colonizer, and the colonizer of millions of people across the world—and particularly countries in Africa, the Caribbean, and Indian Ocean territories. As if these atrocities weren’t enough, during her tenure, Queen Elizabeth II oversaw ​​the brutal detainment camps in colonial Kenya (https://www.nytimes.com/2022/09/09/world/africa/queen-africa-british-empire.html), banned ‘’coloured or foreign’ staff in the palace (https://www.theguardian.com/uk-news/2021/jun/02/buckingham-palace-banned-ethnic-minorities-from-office-roles-papers-rev), and committed her career to the “service of our great imperial family’’ in a 1947 speech in South Africa (https://theconversation.com/five-ways-the-monarchy-has-benefited-from-colonialism-and-slavery-1). Over the course of more than 70 years, the imperial reign of Queen Elizabeth II was inextricably tied to the legacy of the British Empire’s commitment to white supremacy and colonialism.

    Dr. Uju Anya’s tweet, again sent from her personal Twitter account, quickly went viral—largely due to an outpouring of global support from others harmed by the British colonial regime. At the same time, there was also a torrent of criticism as well as targeted harassment directed against Dr. Anya. While “going viral” is not an uncommon occurrence for Dr. Anya or any public intellectual, having a tweet picked up by billionaire Amazon founder, Jeff Bezos was however extraordinary. Bezos did not condemn the words and sentiment of Dr. Anya’s tweet, which would’ve been his right to free speech. Instead, he vilified her by suggesting that her pedagogical, activist, and scholarly contributions are “supposedly” not “working to make the world better.” We beg to differ, as would the many students with improved experiences in world language education and the increasing number of African American students entering applied linguistics because they now see themselves within historically white spaces precisely because of the groundwork laid by Dr. Anya. Although this particular tweet would’ve been highly inappropriate from any person in power, it is particularly pernicious as an attack against a Black Nigerian-Trinidadian-American Professor, coming from a man that has amassed his wealth through global domination and exploitation without regard for the most vulnerable and precarious humans on our planet (https://www.theguardian.com/commentisfree/2021/may/26/amazon-workers-are-rising-up-around-the-world-to-say-enough). This is, frankly, not dissimilar to the British monarchy’s colonial project—Bezos simply remixed the colonial schema through neoliberal racial capitalism, exploitation, and greed.

    The strength of Bezos’ platform is no secret either. With over 5 million followers on Twitter, Bezos has the capacity to impress hundreds of millions of people with a single tweet. Bezos also utilizes his reputation and mass fortune to support university projects across the globe. In the last decade Bezos has made donations to countless universities, including Carnegie Mellon University—Dr. Anya’s home institution. This financial paper trail is highly relevant to Professor Anya’s treatment and the university’s subsequent statement. Now, Dr. Anya faces violent threats, harassment, and abuse.

    Reflections on CMU’s Statement on Dr. Anya’s Tweet

    As colleagues at other institutions, one thing that sticks out to us is that universities have nothing to gain by calling out individual employees on free speech—especially when they can be seen doing it selectively—as is the case for CMU. Professor Anya’s twitter clearly states: “Views are mine.” Yet, her institution took up the charge to admonish a Black woman professor, calling her response to her lived experiences of the real and tangible impacts of colonialism and white supremacy, "offensive and objectionable.” This is unacceptable and dehumanizing. Simultaneously, the institution arguing that Professor Anya’s critical reflections were "not representative of the level of discourse at CMU ’’ forces us to ask: Where is the space for this sort of discourse if not within the free speech that academia purports to uplift? Where else is it safe for students, scholars, and thinkers alike to openly express the horrors of white supremacy, colonial atrocities and genocide? “Who is the ‘we’ referenced here?” asks UPenn Professor, Dr. Nelson Flores (https://twitter.com/nelsonlflores/status/1568217467058544643). And, importantly, “What are the standards of discourse when somebody is speaking truth to their oppressors?”

    (https://twitter.com/ProfeRandolph/status/1568238263579693061?s=20&t=zDodej-DbG_rmHMhjurGtg).

    We also note the strikingly different institutional response to the social media activity of Richard Grenell, a CMU-affiliated senior fellow and Trump official who used his Twitter platform to spread hateful messages and conspiracy theories that have been characterized as sinophobic and antisemitic. When student groups and community members expressed outrage and alarm, CMU President Farnam Jahanian refused to condemn Grennell’s statements and instead expressed strong support for his first amendment rights (https://www.cmu.edu/leadership/president/campus-comms/2020/2020-11-18.html).

    As a counter example to CMU’s deplorable response, Syracuse University’s Chancellor and Dean issued a statement in support of their colleague and employee (https://www.insidehighered.com/news/2021/09/14/syracuse-offers-unequivocal-support-targeted-professor), Dr. Jenn Jackson (another Black woman violently threatened and abused after a viral tweet). Her institution immediately denounced the violent threats against her, refused to sanction or discipline her, and honored her right to free speech. While we by no means think this process was or is perfect, we cite this to note that other peer-institutions have responded in more humane and supportive ways to their Black female faculty. CMU had a choice and their response was a deliberate betrayal against one of their own highly regarded and respected scholars. It has further exposed her to threats of violence.

    Forward and Onward

    The British Monarchy and “The Royal Family” are much more than the weddings, the kids, and the racialized intrafamily drama that American pop culture has seen over the past decade. The British Monarchy has caused and is directly responsible for widespread irreparable harm in the past, now in the present, and likely in the future because the impacts of white supremacy and settler colonialism are insidious. It is inappropriate, harmful, and ahistorical to admonish colonized people or “tell them how they should feel about their colonizer’s health and wellness” as University of Michigan tenured professor, Dr. Ebony Elizabeth Thomas astutely tweeted.

    More than our thoughts and prayers, we request actionable support to be shown towards Professor Uju Anya. We ask university officials at CMU to consider what harms are both elided from critical discourse and reproduced in the classroom when they choose to stand on the side of the oppressor. Universities must be intentional about how they respond to public discourse and critically evaluate who they are targeting and/or harming by their response or lack of response. We call on universities to stop being reactive when issues of structural oppression are called to their attention and take seriously its impacts on staff, faculty, students, and families.

    In closing, we echo Dr. Nelson Flores’ tweet from September 9th (https://twitter.com/nelsonlflores/status/1568242131067625472), which asks, “Whose deaths are mourned versus ignored or celebrated,” and who gets to decide?

    Signed,

    Chelsey R. Carter, PhD, MPH (Assistant Professor, Yale University)

    Nelson Flores, PhD (Associate Professor, University of Pennsylvania)

    Sirry Alang, PhD (Associate Professor, University of Pittsburgh)

    Crystal M. Fleming, PhD (Professor, Stony Brook University)

    Dick Powis, PhD (Postdoctoral Fellow, University of South Florida)

    https://docs.google.com/document/u/1/d/e/2PACX-1vRFMu3jSCsN44H13pWc_hkLBNwKLmXvWd63U7nXIu1JYPwygdDS6nWuWHeIcG5HUr8lyw_1W_YUJniJ/pub?urp=gmail_link

    #lettre_ouverte #violence_coloniale #critique #monarchie #Elizabeth_II #UK #Angleterre #colonialisme #colonisation #ne_critiquez_pas_la_monarchie

    ping @cede @karine4 @_kg_

  • British Muslims’ citizenship reduced to ‘second-class’ status, says thinktank

    Recently extended powers to strip people of their nationality almost exclusively targets Muslims, report says

    British Muslims have had their citizenship reduced to “second-class” status as a result of recently extended powers to strip people of their nationality, a thinktank has claimed.

    The Institute of Race Relations (IRR) says the targets of such powers are almost exclusively Muslims, mostly of south Asian heritage, embedding discrimination and creating a lesser form of citizenship.

    The IRR’s report was published on Sunday amid renewed controversy over the case of Shamima Begum, who was smuggled into the hands of Islamic State aged 15, and in the wake of the Nationality and Borders Act – that allowed citizenship to be stripped without notifying the subject, coming on to the statute books.

    Frances Webber, IRR vice-chair and report author, wrote: “The message sent by the legislation on deprivation of citizenship since 2002 and its implementation largely against British Muslims of south Asian heritage is that, despite their passports, these people are not and can never be ‘true’ citizens, in the same way that ‘natives’ are.

    “While a ‘native’ British citizen, who has access to no other citizenship, can commit the most heinous crimes without jeopardising his right to remain British, none of the estimated 6 million British citizens with access to another citizenship can feel confident in the perpetual nature of their citizenship.”

    Webber said before being used against the Muslim preacher Abu Hamza in 2003, no deprivation of citizenship had been authorised for 30 years. But since then there have been at least 217, with 104 removals in 2017 after the collapse of Islamic State in Syria.

    Despite government claims that powers are only used against those who pose a grave threat to national security, or who have committed abhorrent crimes, the “Citizenship: from right to privilege” report argues the effect is that certain people have a “second-class, disposable, contingent citizenship”.

    Webbersaid: “These classes of citizenship were brought in to target British Muslims of south Asian and Middle Eastern heritage. Such divisions act as a constant reminder to minority ethnic citizens that they must watch their step, and reinforce racist messages about ‘undeserving’ racialised groups unworthy of being British.”

    The report describes the criteria for deprivation of citizenship as “nebulous and undefined” and warns of a risk of its use for political purposes, with Webber highlighting Begum’s case as an example. It was recently alleged Begum was rtrafficked into Syria by a spy working for Canadian intelligence.

    “It raises the question: was Begum’s citizenship removed to divert attention from western agencies’ prioritisation of intelligence gathering over safeguarding vulnerable trafficked girls?” said Webber.

    Citing the Prevent counter-terrorism programme, which has been dogged by claims of being a cover to spy on Muslim communities, the report said citizenship-stripping is “just one aspect of measures targeting Muslim communities, in Britain and abroad, in the past two decades, which have helped to turn British Muslims in the UK into a ‘suspect community’”.

    The latest change to citizen-stripping powers in the Nationality and Borders Act, heightened public awareness – and criticism – of the existing rules as well as the additions, provoking public protests, opposition from campaigners as well as some MPs and Lords.

    The Home Office said the legislation did not target ethnic minorities or people of particular faiths, and that the test for deprivation was clearly set out.

    A spokesperson said: “Our priority is to ensure the safety and security of the UK. Deprivation of citizenship only happens after careful consideration of the facts and in accordance with international law. It is used against those who have acquired citizenship by fraud and against the most dangerous people, such as terrorists, extremists and serious organised criminals.

    “We make no apology for doing whatever is necessary to protect the UK from those who pose a threat to our security.”

    https://www.theguardian.com/world/2022/sep/11/british-muslims-citizenship-reduced-to-second-class-status-says-thinkta
    #UK #Angleterre #citoyenneté #musulmans #nationalité #déchéance_de_nationalité #minorités_ethniques

    ping @karine4 @cede

    • Citizenship: from right to privilege

      Citizenship-stripping powers introduced since 2002 have enshrined a ‘second-class citizenship’ in the UK, mainly affecting British Muslims, says a new report from the Institute of Race Relations.

      Written in the wake of the Nationality and Borders Act, Citizenship: from right to privilege shows how outrage against the controversial ‘clause 9’ (now Section 10 of the Act), allowing citizenship to be removed without notice, heightened public awareness of the powers, and provoked a groundswell of opposition amongst campaigners, MPs and Lords.

      Examining the history of nationality and citizenship legislation since the ‘East African Asians’ scandal of 1968, the background paper explains how both Labour and Conservative governments have given ministers successively wider powers to remove citizenship from those with access to another citizenship – who are mainly ethnic minorities – and how the targets are almost exclusively British Muslims of south Asian heritage.

      The power to remove citizenship from those obtaining it fraudulently is not considered contentious, but the stripping of citizenship on other, often vaguer grounds has become controversial. Such deprivation increased heavily following its use against Muslim preacher Abu Hamza in 2003. Before Hamza, no removal of citizenship had been authorised for 30 years, but since then, there have been at least 217 removals of citizenship, with 104 removals in 2017 following the collapse of ISIS in Syria.

      The government claims that only those whose actions pose grave threats to national security, or who have committed abhorrent crimes, will lose their citizenship. But the report’s author, IRR vice-chair Frances Webber believes the powers affect far more people, effectively creating a second-class of largely minority ethnic Britons whose citizenship is disposable and contingent:

      ‘Changes to citizenship law which have created these classes of citizenship were brought in to target British Muslims of south Asian and middle eastern heritage. Such divisions act as a constant reminder to minority ethnic citizens that they must watch their step, and reinforce racist messages about “undeserving” racialised groups unworthy of being British.’

      The Home Office is not required to show objectively reasonable grounds to remove a person’s citizenship, nor does the person need to have been convicted of any offence, with many deprived despite having no criminal convictions. The report argues that the ambiguous, undefined criteria for deprivation increases the likelihood of arbitrary and discriminatory decisions, and warns of the risk of abuse of the powers for political purposes – an apt warning given the disclosure that Shamima Begum, whose citizenship was removed by then home secretary Sajid Javid in 2018, had been trafficked into Syria by a Canadian spy. ‘The recent revelation of how Begum was trafficked, and the collusion of the British authorities in the cover-up, suggests that risk is a reality,’ said Webber. ‘It raises the question: was Begum’s citizenship removed to divert attention from Western agencies’ prioritisation of intelligence gathering over safeguarding vulnerable trafficked girls?’

      The ability to challenge decisions has also been diminished, with the briefing highlighting the case of a British-born domestic abuse victim who lost her appeal against citizenship removal although she had been coerced by her husband into travelling to Syria.

      Webber adds that the legislation is also a threat to racialised communities’ right to dissent or criticise the government, with Muslims turned into a ‘suspect community’. The increased use of the powers, alongside other provisions affecting Muslim communities, including the controversial Prevent duty, has coincided with the government’s shift away from racial and religious equality protections, which new prime minister Liz Truss has described as ‘favouritism’.

      Webber warns that the measures share the same rationale with the infamous Windrush scandal that came to light in 2018:

      ‘The ‘deportation logic’ on which the deprivation powers are based – get rid of them, regardless of family ties, or how long they have lived here– is the logic that deprived the Windrush generation of their livelihoods, their homes, in some cases their freedom and their country.’

      https://irr.org.uk/article/citizenship-from-right-to-privilege

      #rapport #privilège #loi

  • Royaume-Uni : les grèves pourraient s’étendre au secteur public dès septembre- Rapports de Force
    https://rapportsdeforce.fr/linternationale/royaume-uni-les-greves-pourraient-setendre-au-secteur-public-des-sep

    Sur fond d’une inflation à 10 %, le Royaume-Uni a connu des grèves massives dans le secteur privé cet été. Avant l’entrée en grève imminente des postiers et postières, votée à 97 %, nous avons demandé à Marc Lenormand, maître […] L’article Royaume-Uni : les grèves pourraient s’étendre au secteur public dès (...) @Mediarezo Actualité / #Mediarezo

    • Royaume-Uni : démission du patron d’une compagnie ferroviaire en plein chaos Le figaro - afp
      https://www.lefigaro.fr/flash-eco/royaume-uni-demission-du-patron-d-une-compagnie-ferroviaire-en-plein-chaos-

      Je casses tout, je prends l’oseille et je me tire

      Le directeur général d’une des principales compagnies ferroviaires britanniques, Avanti, a démissionné vendredi en pleine controverse, entre bras de fer salarial avec les employés et syndicats, et chaos sur les lignes le mois dernier. Phil Whittingham, directeur général d’Avanti West Coast, va quitter son poste le 15 septembre pour « poursuivre d’autres opportunités » , selon un communiqué d’Avanti publié vendredi.

      Coentreprise de la société britannique FirstGroup et de l’italienne Trenitalia, Avanti West Coast est l’une des compagnies ferroviaires britanniques où sont prévues le plus de grèves pendant les semaines à venir. Mi-août, le syndicat de conducteurs Aslef avait notamment accusé la direction d’Avanti de « mentir » sur les causes de l’annulation en série de trains ayant entraîné du chaos sur ses lignes en pleines vacances estivales.

      Avanti avait fait porter la responsabilité des annulations sur des grèves « non officielles » qui auraient perturbé le service à la dernière minute. Aslef avait répliqué en affirmant que les problèmes venaient d’un nombre insuffisant de conducteurs de trains.

      La principale responsable des transports au parti d’opposition travailliste, Louise Haigh, a commenté le départ de Phil Whittingham en affirmant que « l’échec de cet opérateur a engendré des conditions de voyage misérables pour des millions » de personnes.

      Comme tout le secteur ferroviaire, Avanti a beaucoup souffert de la pandémie et des restrictions sanitaires aux déplacements, avant une reprise hésitante des voyages et un manque de salariés au Royaume-Uni. Le secteur du rail est en proie depuis des semaines à une série de grèves qui vont se poursuivre en septembre. Les cheminots demandent des revalorisations salariales proportionnelles à l’inflation, qui dépasse 10% dans le pays.

      #Angleterre #Gréves #transports #trains #patrons #néolibéralisme #Royaume-Uni #opportunités