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17th Nov 2011 UKBA ACHIEVE NONE OF HMIP RECOMMENDATIONS In
July 2011 Her Majesty's Inspectorate of Prisons made an unannounced follow up inspection
of Haslar IRC to assess the centre’s progress on recommendations made by HMIP in
2009. The new
report revealed significant concerns, stating
that NONE of the previous recommendations on immigration casework had been achieved by
UKBA. Particularly the report highlighted
that the procedures in place to safeguard vulnerable detainees in Haslar IRC were
not robust enough. It was noted that one detainee recently held
at Haslar had been
found to be a child, he
was subsequently released. However
in
general detainees did report feeling safe and incidents in the centre were low. For the full report use the link below:
26th
August 2011 Robert is a gay asylum seeker,
who has been jailed and tortured, in his home country of Uganda. A medical report, by Dr
Frank Arnold, that an Immigration Judge agreed was fair and balanced states; “The
abuse he suffered included being: a) beaten with batons
and metal objects b) whipped with wires c) burnt with molten material from a plastic
container suspended above him”. Despite this the UK Border
Agency has rejected Robert’s claim on the grounds that they are not convinced that he
is gay. In Robert’s appeal determination the Immigration Judge states that:
“Even if I am wrong as regards to the Appellant’s homosexuality I see no reason
to depart from current country guidance in JM which states:- Although there is legislation
in Uganda which criminalises homosexual behaviour there is little if any, objective
evidence that such is in fact enforced….the evidence does not establish in general
there is persecution of homosexuality in Uganda”. The country guidance that the Judge referred to was
replaced on 15th April 2011. The current UKBA Uganda Country of Origin
Information quotes Amnesty’s 2010 Report I Can’t Afford Justice published
on 6 April 2010- “police and other law enforcement officials subject lesbian, gay,
bisexual and transgender (LGBT) people in Uganda to arbitrary arrest and detention often
resulting in torture or other cruel, inhuman and degrading treatment.” A
highly respected psychologist Professor Cornelius Katona has written a medical report
which states in his professional opinion, Robert is gay and that he is suffering
post-traumatic stress disorder from his treatment in http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=s5_NvRMzz14 Robert's latest removal scheduled on 17th August was
deferred by the Home Office less than an hour before he was due to be flown to Uganda. HVG
Trustee John Bosco Nyombi, who is also a Ugandan and gay, says: "When I met him face
to face, it was obvious that Robert is gay ….[he told] me what he has been through
and from my experience I knew it did happen to him as it happened to me.” Until he
was detained last month Robert regularly attended the All Saints drop-in in Up to date news of Robert’s case can be found at: http://madikazemi.blogspot.com/2011/08/action-alert-help-save-gay-ugandan.html ------------------------------------------ 3rd August 2011 INCIDENTS IN DETENTION ESTATE There has been a spate of incidents in the detention estate lately. A prison at Morton Hall in Lincolnshire has been converted into an Immigration Removal Centre. Shortly after opening as an IRC, there were two escapes from the centre. Elsewhere in the detention estate, there have been three reported deaths with the last 31 days. In Colnbrook IRC which is near Heathrow Muhammed Shuket from Pakistan died on 2nd July and another detainee in Colnbrook died on Sunday 31st July. As yet there are no details of the man’s identity or nationality. Just yesterday, there was a further death in Campsfield House in Cambridge. Reports from the Guardian newspaper say that the man detained at Campsfield House became anxious in the hours leading up to his deportation. Please follow the link from the Guardian newspaper for more details. Matthew Taylor, guardian.co.uk, Tuesday 2 August 2011 ------------------------------------------ -
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