Act & Resist.1 STOP DEPORTATIONS 'It only takes one passenger to refuse to be seated to stop a deportation happening. Stand up against deportations.' Campaigns like this are taking place in Australia, Britain and other European countries. Protesters in the Netherlands favour more extreme methods -- such as sitting on top of the plane to stop it taking off (see picture). Generally, passengers are urged to inquire about deportation policy when booking tickets and to boycott lines that help deport de·port tr.v. de·port·ed, de·port·ing, de·ports 1. To expel from a country. See Synonyms at banish. 2. To behave or conduct (oneself) in a given manner; comport. . Some lines, such as Virgin, have an anti-deportation policy. Lobbying of airline personnel -- from baggage handlers to pilots -- can also work. Deportees have even foiled deporting authorities -- and caused no small degree of embarrassment -- by stripping naked as a desperate last measure. A combination of direct action, local campaigns for specific individuals or families and more conventional legal appeal processes mean that thousands of deportations are prevented each year. Links and contacts: General: www.deportation-alliance.com Australia: xborder on www.antimedianet/xborder/; Web: www.rac-vic.org Refugee Action Collective: Tel:(0)3 9659 3505 Britain: National Coalition of Anti-Deportation Campaigns. Tel: (0161) 740 5197. Web: www.ncadc.org.uk Canada: Le Comite d'action des sansstatut. Tel: (514) 996-2597 E-mail: cassdz@hotmail.com 2 CLOSE DETENTION CENTRES Some of the most daring actions against the detention of refugees -- often imprisoned im·pris·on tr.v. im·pris·oned, im·pris·on·ing, im·pris·ons To put in or as if in prison; confine. [Middle English emprisonen, from Old French emprisoner : en- for years -- have taken place at Woomera woom·er·a also wom·er·a n. A hooked wooden stick used by Aboriginal peoples of Australia for hurling a spear or dart. [Dharuk wamara. , Australia. Protesters Cut through the fences and razor wire in a dramatic break-out of detainees in March 2002. Detainees have held powerful protests -- even sewing up their lips to express their despair at being detained indefinitely. Repeated actions have resulted in the escape of asylum seekers. In Britain a nine-year campaign to close Campsfield detention centre bore fruit this year with the announcement that the centre would close in 2003. But other larger detention centres are to be opened. In the US too there are official plans to build a series of privately run prisons for 'undocumented aliens' in Arizona. Links and contacts: Aotearoa/NZ: Human Rights foundation Aotearoa New Zealand New Zealand (zē`lənd), island country (2005 est. pop. 4,035,000), 104,454 sq mi (270,534 sq km), in the S Pacific Ocean, over 1,000 mi (1,600 km) SE of Australia. The capital is Wellington; the largest city and leading port is Auckland. . Email: humanrightsfoundation@xtra.co.nz. Web: www.humanrights.co.nz Australia: No-One is Illegal. Email: nooneisillegal@netscape.net.au Tel: (0)418 140 387 www.antimedia.net/nooneisillegal Britain: Barbed Wire barbed wire, wire composed of two zinc-coated steel strands twisted together and having barbs spaced regularly along them. The need for barbed wire arose in the 19th cent. Britain at www.barbedwirebritain.org.uk Canada: Inter-Church Committee for Refugees. Tel: (416) 921-9967 US: Coalition for the Human Rights of Immigrants. Email: iccr@web.net Tel: (212) 254-2591. Email: chri@itapnet.org Web: www.itapnet.org/chri 3 SANCTUARY AND DEFENCE Escaping persecution or poverty is itself a dangerous business for refugees. They may encounter considerable risks -- from the elements, from violence at the hands of border patrols or anti-immigration vigilantes vigilantes (vĭjĭlăn`tēz), members of a vigilance committee. Such committees were formed in U.S. frontier communities to enforce law and order before a regularly constituted government could be established or have real authority. or abandonment by people smugglers. Thousands die each year. On the Mexican-US border alone, about 2,000 undocumented immigrants have died from drowning, dehydration, accidents or attacks since 1995 -- and the number of fatalities is increasing every year. In a bid to save lives, water tanks have been erected by the Sanctuary Movement The Sanctuary movement was a religious and political movement of approximately 500 congregations in the U.S. that helped Central American refugees by sheltering them from Immigration and Naturalization Service authorities. The movement flourished between 1982 and 1992. in Arizona, on both sides of the border with Sonora, Mexico. The tanks are placed near the desert tracks where, in summer, temperatures routinely exceed 100 degrees Farenheit (40 degrees Celsius). Local churches have played a prominent role in the Sanctuary Movement for many years; the Catholic diocese spans the border. Links and contacts: Aotearoa/NZ: Refugees as Survivors (RAS (1) See network access server. (2) (Remote Access Service) A Windows NT/2000 Server feature that allows remote users access to the network from their Windows laptops or desktops via modem. See RRAS and network access server. ) Centres Auckland. Tel: (09) 270 0870 Fax: (09) 270 056. Email:auckrascentre@xtra.co.nz Australia: The Professional Alliance for the Health of Asylum Seekers and their Children www.racp.edu.au/hpu/policy/asylumseekers/alliance.htm Tel: (02) 9256 9600. Britain: Committee to Defend Asylum Seekers. Tel: 07941 566163. Email info@defend-asylum.org Web: www.defend-asylum.org Canada: Canadian Friends Service Committee. Tel: (416) 920-5213 Email: cfsc.office@quaker.ca US: Sanctuary Movement. Web: www.humaneborders.org 4 NO BORDER! From Mexico to Poland to Australia, the No Border Movement in growing worldwide. The actions usually take place on international frontiers or at detention centres and involve setting up camps of hundreds or thousands of activists. This year there have been camps in Strasbourg in France, Jena in Germany, Wizajny in Poland, Imatra in Finland, and Woomera in Australia. Demonstrations against tightening border controls took place in Montreal -- where 1,000 Algerians were threatened with deportation due to new rules -- London and many other major cities. The main demand of the No Border movement is recognition of the human right to freedom of movement. Links and contacts: General: No Border Network. Web: www.noborder.org 5 TACTICAL ART & MEDIA TOOLS Using art and media, refugees and activists are challenging hostile and inaccurate portrayals of refugees with eye-opening events and representations. In Australia tactical media Tactical media can be defined as the appropriation of mass media in order to oppose and criticize a target which often occupies a certain position of power. This modern form of activism can be recognized by its use of current technology and its ‘hit-and-run tactics’ activists, in an exhibition called Borderpanic, projected a galleon galleon, oceangoing warship used by the European naval powers in the 15th and 16th cent. A large, cumbersome vessel, the galleon was three-masted and square-rigged, usually with two decks, and with its main batteries in broadsides. on to Sydney Opera House Sydney Opera House Performing-arts centre on the harbour in Sydney, Australia. Its dynamic, imaginative design by Danish architect Jørn Utzon (b. 1918) won a competition in 1957 and brought Utzon international fame. to underline the message that (bar Aboriginal people) 'We are all boat people'. In Europe, movements like the francophone Sans Papiers or The Voice in Germany are refugee-run and control expression of their own issues. In Britain PhotoVoice gives refugee groups training in journalism and documentary photography. Their work includes working with Bhutanese youngsters living in refugee camps in the Eastern lowlands of Nepal as well as unaccompanied un·ac·com·pa·nied adj. 1. Going or acting without companions or a companion: unaccompanied children on a flight. 2. Music Performed or scored without accompaniment. teenage refugees in East London. The aim is to shift the media bias, train potential refugee journalists and to syndicate their work. Some journalists are also working within the mainstream media to raise awareness and combat scapegoating. PressWise is a media ethics charity which has posted a worldwi de, country by country, code of journalistic ethics. Meanwhile refugees from Exiled Writers Ink are using the Internet to disseminate their work. Links and contacts: Borderpanic. Exiled Writers Ink at www.exiledwriters.co.uk Web: www.boat-people.org Email: dkellysocialchange@yahoo.com PressWise: Refugees, asylum seekers and the Mass Media Project at www.ramproject.org.uk PhotoVoice www.photovoice.org 6 WORKERS UNITE Increasingly support for asylum seekers and economic migrants is coming from trade unions -- some of which in the past would have been primarily concerned that migrants might take jobs away from their members. In the US the American Federation of Labour and Congress of International Organizations (AFL-CIO AFL-CIO: see American Federation of Labor and Congress of Industrial Organizations. AFL-CIO in full American Federation of Labor-Congress of Industrial Organizations U.S. ) campaigns for legalization LEGALIZATION. The act of making lawful. 2. By legalization, is also understood the act by which a judge or competent officer authenticates a record, or other matter, in order that the same may be lawfully read in evidence. Vide Authentication. and rights of undocumented immigrant workers as does the Service Employees International Union and United Farm Workers The United Farm Workers of America (UFW) is a labor union that evolved from unions founded in 1962 by César Chávez, Philip Vera Cruz, Dolores Huerta, and Larry Itliong. This union changed from a workers' rights organization that helped workers get unemployment insurance to that of . Elsewhere teaching and public sector unions, along with aid agencies, charities and student groups, have been prominent in challenging the scapegoating of refugees and their children. Journalist unions have worked hard to tackle racism and anti-immigrant prejudice in the media. Links have been made with refugee trade unionists -- who can raise awareness in the unions of their host countries. Links and contacts: Australia: Trade Unionists for Refugee Rights (TUR tur: see ibex. ). Britain: Unison. Web: www.vthc.org.au/campaigns/ Tel: (0202) 7388 2366. Student Action for Refugees (STAR) Web: www.unison.org.uk Canada: Canadian Labour Congress Canadian Labour Congress (CLC) Nationwide association of labour unions in Canada. The CLC was formed in 1956 by the merger of the Canadian counterparts to the American Federation of Labor and the Congress of Industrial Organizations, which merged in the same year (see Anti-Racism and Human Rights Department, Web: www.star-network.org.uk Email: anti-racism@clc-ctc.ca 2841 Riverside Drive, Ottawa, ON K1V 8X7 US: AFL-CIO, 815 16th Street, NW Washington, DC 20006. Tel: (202) 637-5000. Web: 7 ORGANIZATIONS FOR REFUGEES www.aflcio.org/immigrantworkers There are hundreds. Good starting points are: Aotearoa: Refugee Council of New Zealand, 147 Great North Rd, Grey Lynn, Auckland New Zealand. Tel: (09) 376 9680 Web: www.refugee.nz Human Rights Foundation Aotearoa New Zealand, PO Box 106343, Downtown Auckland Email: humanrightsfoundation@xtra.co.nz Website: www.humanrights.co.nz Australia: Refugee Council of Australia, PO Box 946, Glebe GLEBE, eccl. law. The land which belongs to a church. It is the dowry of the church. Gleba est terra qua consistit dos ecclesiae. Lind. 254; 9 Cranch, Rep. 329. In the civil law it signified the soil of an inheritance; there were serfs of the glebe, called gleboe addicti. , 2037, NSW NSW New South Wales Noun 1. NSW - the agency that provides units to conduct unconventional and counter-guerilla warfare Naval Special Warfare , e-mail rcoa@cia.com.au Web: www.refugeecouncil.org.au Aslysm Seeker Resource Centre, 207 & 211 Nicholson Street Footscray, Melbourne, Victoria, 3011. Tel: (03) 9689 5075. Email: asrc_footscray@yahoo.com Web: http://home.vicnet.net.au/~asrc Britain The Refugee Council, 3 Bondway, London SW8 1SJ. Tel:(020) 7820 3000 Fax: (020) 7582 9929. Web: www.refugeecouncil.org.uk Asylum Support. Web: www.asylumsupport.info Canada: Canadian Council for Refugees, 6839 Drolet 302, Montreal, Quebec, H2S H2S Hydrogen Sulfide H2S How to Succeed in Business Without Really Trying (Also abbreviated H2$) H2S Heart to Soul (song) 2T1 Tel: (514) 277-7223 Fax: (514) 277-1447. Email: ccr@web.net Web:www.web.net/~ccr Ireland: Irish Refugee Council, 40 Lower Dominick St, Dublin 1. Tel: (353) 1 8730042. Fax: (353) 1 8730088. Email: refugee@iol.ie Web: www.irishrefugeecouncil.ie US: National Network for Immigrant and Refugee Rights, 310-8th Street, Ste. 303 Oakland, CA 94607 Tel: (510) 465 1984 Fax: (510) 465 1885. Email: nnirr@nnirr.org Web: www.enirr.org International: United Nations High Commissioner for Refugees Headquartered in Geneva, Switzerland, the Office of the UN High Commissioner for Refugees (UNHCR) (established December 14, 1950) protects and supports refugees at the request of a government or the United Nations and assists in their return or resettlement. , CP 2500, CH-1211, Geneva Geneva, canton and city, Switzerland Geneva (jənē`və), Fr. Genève, canton (1990 pop. 373,019), 109 sq mi (282 sq km), SW Switzerland, surrounding the southwest tip of the Lake of Geneva. 2. Tel: +41 (22) 739 7367 Web: www.unhcr.ch US Committee for Refugeees, 11717 Massachusetts Avenue, NW Suite 200, Washington DC 20036-2003. Tel: +1 (800) 307 4712. Web: www.refugees.org Amnesty International Amnesty International (AI,) human-rights organization founded in 1961 by Englishman Peter Benenson; it campaigns internationally against the detention of prisoners of conscience, for the fair trial of political prisoners, to abolish the death penalty and torture of , 1 Easton Street, London WC1X 0DWI An abbreviation for driving while intoxicated, which is an offense committed by an individual who operates a motor vehicle while under the influence of alcohol or Drugs and Narcotics. . Tel: +44 (020) 7814 6200 Web: www.amnesty.org |
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