Still We Rise

The invasion of Ukraine has caught the UK public's gaze in a way that no other recent war has. Syria, Afghanistan and Yemen’s brutal wars have resulted in the displacement of millions of people, and yet some have had to seek sanctuary by risking their lives, not least on flimsy dinghies on the channel. Not only do they face a hostile welcome, but a Nationality and Borders Bill that seeks to criminalise them but not so for Ukrainian Refugees. They’ve had empathy on a scale Britain hasn’t seen before, the mainstream media has framed their plight with compassion and humanity. We speak to Steve Valdez Symonds from Amnesty International, they have a proud record of advocating for the rights of all Refugees and Migrants. Most of the people they work with have had to endure an inhumane hostile welcome all over Europe.

We ask, what’s changed? So why are Ukrainian Refugees seen as different? 

This week we speak to the Refugee Council Chief Executive, Enver Solomon who is unequivocal, the Nationality and Borders Bill is an attempt to ‘drive a coach and horses through the Refugee Convention’ and will create a two tier system of deserving and undeserving Refugees. 

So are some Refugees more equal than other Refugees ? Listen.

Back in 2012, the then Prime Minister Theresa May, when setting out a remarkable new policy position on Border Enforcement, said, ‘ The aim is to create, here in Britain, a really hostile environment for illegal immigrants. This policy resulted in the deportation of British Citizens from the Windrush generation who came to this country to rebuild the NHS but could not provide paperwork to prove their legal status. This shameful policy and the legislation that underpins it has not been repealed, but rather its tentacles have within their grasp people who've come to this country to seek sanctuary. We speak to the people who are working to dismantle it. It's a challenging listen, Solidarity.

What is life like as an Asylum Seeker?

Why does Britain have an inhumane Asylum system? Why will Britain not expend all the patience and care and thought she possesses to help people in fear for their lives? The dynamics of prejudice, dehumanisation and maltreatment are hardly without historical precedent, they can be traced back to centuries of the slave trade, colonialism and Imperialism authored on this island.

So it’s not so much that any of this is new, it is the realisation that the deliberate and calculated nature of the mistreatment serves an incendiary electoral purpose. Beneath the ‘taking back control’ slogans and toughening up the border regime is an inconvenient historical truth. When Britain led the drafting of the 1951 Refugee Convention in the aftermath of the horrors of the second world war, they didn’t envisage that those who’d be arriving on its shores to seek protection would come from outside Europe, hence its initial temporal and geographical restriction, this changed when African, Asian and some Middle Eastern countries signed the 1967 protocol.

What Governments of every colour have demonstrated through hostile Immigration rules is their uncomfortable with this reality,  but rather than be grounded in truth, they’ve over two decades created a hostile and inhumane Asylum system.

So what is one confronted with when they arrive on Britains shores to claim Asylum?

We speak to three young women whose lived experience is harrowing. The system is broken and no one should have to endure the hostility and indignity.

In this episode, we lift the veil on life inside the controversial Napier Barracks. Some members in society are systemically denied the right to basic rights, deprived of the right to a private space to sleep, denied the liberty to contribute economically, not seen as worthy enough to be protected from Covid infection, literally reduced to a Number!

Amir was known in Napier Barracks by his room Number, dehumanised in the land of Magna Carta, his movements were surveilled day and night, merely because he fled to Britain to seek protection. He gives a harrowing instructive account of Britain stepping to the edge of the precipice, thank goodness He survived to share his Lived experience of abuse at the hands of an overreaching Home Office.

If this doesn’t prompt you to start an action to close these Barracks, perhaps you’re part of the problem. 

Shut Down Napier Barracks Now!

Will Priti Patel really Criminalise Asylum Claims?

Colin Yeo is unequivocal, Priti Patel plans to jail people who arrive through irregular means or without Pre Authorisation. The Nationality and Borders Bill currently going through Parliament and it makes the most extraordinary changes to how Refugees can claim Asylum in Britain. Stark and inconceivable! How will this affect the prison system?

Colin Yeo a Barrister at Garden Court Chambers and founding Editor of the Free Movement Blog, breaks the Bill down to its simplest elements. A Must Listen!!!

Visit https://www.freemovement.org.uk/author/colinyeo for more of his work.

We speak to Bella Sankey, Director of Detention Action, in this episode, we discuss the harsh detention and deportation scheme the UK enforces on people seeking asylum. Last year 24 748 people were subject to indefinite Immigration Detention. 

How did we get here?

https://detentionaction.org.uk/

Daniel Trilling spent six months interviewing politicians, civil servants, frontline staff, lawyers, judges, campaigners and ordinary people caught up in the system to ask one simple question:

What's up with the Home Office?

It culminated in this Guardian Article Long Read article titled. 

Cruel, paranoid and failing: Inside the Home Office. 

We spoke to him about this seminal piece of journalism.

In this conversation with Sonya Sceats Chief Executive of Freedom from Torture, we discuss the Nationality and Borders Bill which makes the most far-reaching changes to the UK Asylum System.

Sonya is clear that these changes represent a fundamental challenge to the principle of Refugee protection as provided for by the Geneva Refugee Convention of 1951.

She asserts that this Bill breaches International Law and its two-tier system is an affront to fundamental tenets of International Human Rights and a regrettable regressive step.

We discuss the return of Institutionalised Asylum Accommodation, criminalisation of vulnerable people merely seeking Sanctuary not least the appalling and incendiary proposals on offshoring.

For more info please visit - https://www.freedomfromtorture.org/

COVID‑19 vaccines are intended to provide acquired immunity against severe acute respiratory syndrome coronavirus 2. The COVID‑19 vaccines are widely celebrated for their role in reducing the spread, severity, and death caused by COVID-19 but some communities are still hesitant to take the vaccines. We speak to Dr Maisun Elftise a General Practitioner about Vaccine Education and hesitancy in our Communities. It’s informative and Instructive.

A must listen.

Sponsored by.

NHS Coventry & Warwick Clinical Commissioning Group

Coventry City Council Community Resilience Team