Refugee report – June


Refugees continue to generate considerable political tension in the UK

June 2023

We are pleased present our monthly refugee report thanks to group member Andrew for preparing it. Refugees, immigration and the boat people continue to generate a considerable degree of political and media heat in the country.

The latest immigration figures for 2022 give a total of 606,000 arrivals, but most of these are legal, and mainly students. There were 7,000 applications for asylum (by 91,000 people). In the first quarter this year 3,793 applications were received, compared to 4,548 last year. It is worth noting that the numbers are higher in France, Germany and Spain. Arrivals in the UK amount to just 7% of the European total.

Arrivals to the UK are just 7% of the European total

20,000 claimants were in detention in March, 20% fewer than last year, but the average period of detention was longer.

Few forced returns based on asylum claims have taken place, the majority of them being to Albania, where the new agreement has resulted in 90% of arrivals from Albania being returned there.

The Illegal Migration Bill is this week in committee stage in the House of Lords, and a vast number of amendments are being debated. The largest bone of contention currently is the lack of an economic impact assessment of the measures, which the government has said it will produce “in due course”. The BBC has claimed that the cost of the new rules will be up to £6 billion over the next two years. The Refugee Council have more precisely reckoned it at £8.7 to 9.5 billion over 3 years. The Home Office have admitted that numbers would have to be below 10,000 for the Act to be operational. On the plus side for the Government, former senior judge Lord Sumption has argued that justification for overruling their Rwanda plan by the ECHR would be “slender.” On this point, the Sun is reporting that the Home Office think they can make their first flight to Rwanda in September if the Court of Appeal rules in their favour.

The Prime Minister, on his visit to Dover this week, claimed that his policies were working, as the number of asylum seekers arriving in small boats was down 20% this year. Others have suggested this has had more to do with the weather in the English Channel, and the fact that most crossings take place between July and September.

It is reported that the two new vessels commissioned to house asylum seekers are cruise liners. Apart from the plan for a barge to be moored at Portland, other locations are presently unknown.

The Refugee Council has been protesting this week about the size of the accommodation made available to claimants. Operation Maximise is a deliberate initiative to cram as many claimants as possible into the available accommodation. The leader of Westminster Council has said it “defies common sense and basic decency.”

The UNHCR has produced an audit of the UK asylum system and declared it to be “flawed and inefficient.”  The report particularly points to a lack of training at the Home Office, inadequate information on claimants, lack of skill in interviewing, and an inability to assess children’s ages accurately.

An article in Coda Media has drawn attention to the EU’s International Centre for Migration Policy Development, a shady body based in Vienna that has been supplying Maghreb governments with material to aid disempowering boats aiming to cross the Mediterranean.

AH

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Death penalty report – May June


June 2023

We are pleased to attach the monthly death penalty report thanks to group member Lesley for her work in compiling it. It covers a number of events in America as well as other countries such as Saudi and Iran. As ever it contains no information from China which is believed to execute more of its citizens than the rest of the world combined but details of which are a state secret.

Report May June (Word)Download
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Apartheid in Israel


Report of our forthcoming talk on this subject in the Salisbury Journal and elsewhere

June 2023

Past event

In today’s (8 June 2023) copy of the Salisbury Journal is a piece about our forthcoming talk and it refers readers to this site to get details of the published reports about the apartheid system in operation in Israel. A link to those reports and some further background can be found here. The talk takes place on 13th June starting at 7:30 pm in the United Reform Church in Fisherton Street. It is free with a parting collection.

There is another post with a link to the UN report.

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Covid enquiry objections


June 2023

The Conservative party has made no secret of its desire to either abolish the Human Rights Act or to replace with it with a Bill of Rights, removing some of the protections within the HRA. Some members of government want to go further and withdraw us from the European Court of Human Rights largely connected with its desire to deport immigrants to Rwanda. At least three of their election manifestos have made plain their distaste for the act.

Both our local MPS – Messrs John Glen and Danny Kruger – have spoken against the act and the analysis of their voting records by They Work for You shows that they generally vote against human rights issues.

So it comes as a surprise to discover that in the current row about the release of information and WhatsApp messages etc to the Covid enquiry, the government is deploying … the Human Rights Act, the very act they want abolished.

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People in the Park


May 2023

Members of the group took part in this event for the second time. The sun shone and there was a respectable interest in our activities. Friendly passers by signed the 40 letters of petition (on behalf of Vladimir Kara Murza)  produced by group member Tony, so that we had to get another 10 printed making 50.

Three people expressed interest in the group and gave emails.

Refugee factsheet March 2023Download
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May minutes


May 2023

We are pleased to attach a copy of the minutes of the May meeting, thanks to group member Andrew for compiling them. They contain details and links to current activities and concerns including immigration, the current laws being processed through parliament to limit campaigning activity and the forthcoming talk about apartheid in Israel . The People in the Park event took place after the meeting.

May minutes (Word)Download
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Israel apartheid talk


This evening – 7:30

May 2023

Further details of the planned talk on 13th June are available

Garry Ettle, a prominent human rights activist is coming to speak in Salisbury at the invitation of the Salisbury group of Amnesty International (AI) and Sarum Concern for Israel Palestine (SCIP). The evening meeting is the latest in a long series of events designed to fulfil the request of the residents of Bethlehem to ‘Come and see, go and tell.’

The Nakba 75 commemoration, in May, which included an address by the Dean of Salisbury, filled the Quaker Meeting House to capacity.

Garry Ettle, a committed and highly principled human rights activist has opposed the Israeli authorities’ system of apartheid for years. 

Peter Curbishley, from the AI group based in Salisbury said that the talk would be based on the Amnesty report on the apartheid system in operation against the Palestinians in Israel. The Amnesty report is detailed and follows other reports by B’Tselem and Human Rights Watch on the same subject. There will be an opportunity to ask questions.

  • The talk APARTHEID AGAINST PALESTINIANS? will take place at the United Reformed Church in Fisherton Street, Salisbury on Tuesday 13 June starting at 7:30pm – free with a parting collection.

   Zaytoun Fair Trade produce will be on sale.

The crime against humanity of apartheid is perpetrated when particular serious human rights violations are committed with the purpose of establishing and maintaining’ a system of domination by one racial group…..over another and systematically oppressing them.

  • UN apartheid convention 1973

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Apartheid talk planned


Talk on the Amnesty report on Apartheid in Israel planned

May 2023

The Salisbury group, in partnership with Salisbury Concern for Israel Palestine SCIP, are planning a talk on the Amnesty report on the apartheid system in operation against the Palestinians in Israel. The Amnesty report is detailed and follows other reports by B’Tselem and Human Rights Watch on the same subject. There is also a UN report which comes to the same conclusion.

The talk will take place at the United Reform Church in Fisherton Street, Salisbury on 13 June starting at 7:30 and will be given by the Amnesty’s country coordinator for the area. There will be an opportunity for questions after the talk. The event is free with a parting collection.

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Monthly death penalty report


Monthly report for mid April – May

May 2023

We are pleased to attach the latest report thanks to group member Lesley for the work in compiling it. Note that although China appears briefly, it remains the country thought to execute more of its citizens than the rest of the world combined but details are a state secret.

April May report (Word)Download
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Richard Glossip’s execution stayed


The execution of Richard Glossip in Oklahoma has been stayed by the Supreme Court

May 2023

Richard Glossip has been on death row in Oklahoma, USA, for 25 years for a murder it seems likely he did not commit. He was accused of the murder of motel owner Barry van Treese in 1997. The conviction was largely based on the plea bargain struck by Justin Sneed, who has a history of mental illness, in a deal which saved his own life.

Two independent investigations have cast doubt on the veracity of the trial. First the only evidence seemed to be the plea bargain by Sneed who in fact admitted committing the murder. Further testimony by prison inmates was not given to the jury. The State withheld evidence and other evidence was either lost or destroyed by the DA’s office.

As Mr Glossip’s execution date of May 18th draws near, there has been a flurry of activity to get it delayed or vacated. On April 7th, the Oklahoma Attorney General Gentner Drummond – a pro death penalty Republican – asked the state Court of Criminal Appeals to vacate the conviction. He said “the only witness to allege Mr Glossip was involved in this case cannot be believed, it is unconscionable for the State to move forward with his execution“.

On April 20th, the Oklahoma Court upholds the conviction. On 26th April the Board of Pardons and Paroles declined to recommend clemency on 2-2 vote which meant the Governor, Kevin Stitt, was unable to do so either.

On May 5th, the Supreme Court of the United States stays the execution pending the disposition of two writs of certiorari. Should they be denied this stay will terminate automatically.

So that is the current position. The case reveals some troubling aspects of the legal system in this instance. Relying on plea bargain evidence should not be the sole justification for a conviction let alone an execution. The failure to present all the evidence to court is also questionable and the loss or destruction of other evidence is also to be deplored. The fundamental problem with the death penalty is that mistakes cannot ever be rectified once the deed is done.

We must hope that the intervention of the Supreme Court will lead to the state authorities to think again.

Sources: Death Penalty Information Centre; Wikipedia; New York Times, Save Richard Glossip Campaign

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