No Borders network
Demo at Harmondsworth Detention Centre, 10th February.
They are moving. They are crossing mountains, rivers and oceans. Risking their lives in leaving their homes, crossing borders and in entering the UK. Asking for a place to exist and to live with dignity. Yet migrants and refugees who flee poverty, war and injustice throughout the world are deemed illegal forced to work for low wages in precarious conditions and locked in detention centres, deprived of their freedom to move.
But no one is illegal. In making people illegal, governments deny their existence and make them invisible. This invisibility is enforced by a capitalist system that seeks to criminalise and marginalise many of those seeking to survive within it, whilst at the same time depending on their labour and suffering to ensure its survival and keep us all in a state of fear and obedience.
With hunger-strikes, acts of self-harm and protest people are fighting their invisibility. The recent resistance inside the detention centres joins with the thousands of other people worldwide who demonstrate, riot, light fires and destroy compounds in protest against and in defiance of their incarceration. It shows that people, regardless of their desperation, will always struggle for their human dignity.
The problem with detention centres is not how badly they are run but that they exist in the first place. Private companies make huge profits from the incarceration and removal of hundreds of people every week. Migrant workers and those inside the centres are often exploited by the same companies. Kalyx, the business that operates Harmondsworth, is part of a catering company called Sodhexo, whose massive profits are based on the low wages of their mainly migrant workforce. Similarly the company which operates Colnbrook, Serco, is a large private security company who use cheap migrant labour to maximize their profits.
Its time to say 'Enough!'. We support migrants' and refugees' struggles to work, live and stay in this country. On 10th February, we intend to join their struggle and take action in solidarity with our sisters and brothers inside the detention centres. Join us!
We demand:
- Close All Detention Centres
- Stop Deportations
- No Immigration Controls
Coaches will leave central London at 10.00am, from opposite University of London Union (ULU), Malet Street, WC1E 7HY. To book your seat ring 07983 274 568. Tickets will cost £6 asylum seekers free and no one turned away.
Directions: take a tube to Heathrow, then take the U3 bus to Harmondsworth.
A de-brief meeting will be held in central London following the demonstration. No Borders will be putting on a benefit gig in the evening. Food and drink will be available.
Website: www.noborders.org.uk