Scottish campaigners challenging Johnson government's abuse of migrants and asylum seekers

Last May, images of Kenmure Street in Glasgow went around the world.A peaceful protest he blocked the Home Office van (the British Ministry of the Interior), which arrived to pick up two immigrants.People continued to flock throughout the day, until the two were released.

Nothing is more beautiful than solidarity.

In response to a Home Office immigration raid during Eid, the people of Glasgow mobilised, fought back and got their neighbors released 💕pic.twitter.com/OnQscqN6Dr

— Zarah Sultana MP (@zarahsultana) May 13, 2021

Similar mobilizations do not arise suddenly, due to a surge of solidarity and word of mouth through social media.Instead, they arise from front-line community activism to support asylum seekers and migrants, and against the practice of surprise raids – the dawn raids. Already since the end of April, the Scottish Refugee Council in Glasgow raised the alarm about the possibility that the raids were being used as an eviction tactic, thus affecting those asylum seekers who, due to the pandemic, are hosted in emergency facilities.

The raids are formally legal, and fall within that political vision which since 2012 has taken the significant name of Hostile environment:a set of immigration rules and practices aimed at creating a "hostile environment" against anyone who is not legal.As Blue suitcase we heard about this from Tatora Mukushi, immigration lawyer and member of the Scottish Equality and Human Rights Commission.

“The Home Office has the power to detain and deport people who are here illegally,” he tells us.«These may also be people with whom the Home Office is unable to have any contact.But it can also concern people who live here and have requested asylum, or another type of residence permit, and have been refused.While waiting for a final decision, they may find themselves in what is called "temporary admission", which means the Home Office can decide when to withdraw their residency rights.And if the Home Office believes there is a danger of flight, then it can resort to a raid."

However, it is a degrading and traumatic practice."It's one of the worst ways to treat a person, almost inhumane," Mukushi points out."These people are taken at dawn while they sleep, they have no opportunity to take their possessions, perhaps medicines they need, say goodbye to friends, relatives or speak to a lawyer, a doctor."There may therefore be aspects that can potentially be legally challenged if the relationship between client and lawyer is interrupted, thus compromising the principle of fair trial, or the European Convention on Human Rights is violated.

From a political point of view, this is a complex discretionary area:being in a situation of irregularity can be a bureaucratic fact, without malicious intent.But in the event of errors, inefficiencies or abuses, every consequence is passed on to the individual.At best, it is as if those who migrate or apply for refugee status must prove that they are not criminals through long and exhausting tests.

There are therefore many organizations that, in various cities in the United Kingdom, oppose abuses against migrants and asylum seekers.Only in Glasgow are there Unity Centre, whose headquarters are about one hundred meters away from the local section of the Home Office, and therefore can monitor the departures of the vans, the aforementioned Scottish Refugee Council, and collectives like No Eviction Network.

«The activists come from all social classes» explains Savan Nelson, a member of No Eviction Network for about six months, when we ask him about the composition of the collective.«When you have a humanitarian context, people tend to feel involved, and forget about social status.So you have people with PhDs, or high-paying jobs, working-class people, or middle-class people.It is a combination that reflects real society."

The transversality of the militants is associated with another characteristic, the coordination between territory and digital networks.For example, when a Home Office van is spotted, or there are reports of a raid, accounts like No Eviction Network raise the alarm via tweet, calling people to gather on site.Once the alarm is over, the tweet is deleted.

Another area is providing useful information.After the Kenmure Street action, for example, A post was circulating on Instagram which suggested who to contact and what to respond in the event of arrest or detention.There are also tips and suggestions that are aimed across the broad spectrum at anyone who wants to collaborate within a community, without there being actual militancy.For example, just last May information was disseminated on the rights to be exercised, and how avoid providing information to Home Office agents engaged in checks and raids.This is because, when looking for irregular people about whom they have partial information, very often the people in charge turn to people who live in the search area, or to shopkeepers.

Being connected to other realities in other cities allows collectives like No Evictions to broaden their range of action when it comes to raising public awareness.«We work together in many aspects – says Savan – for example we organized a campaign on the treatment of asylum seekers housed in hotels and other facilities».The campaign saw, among other things, the creation of a satirical site disguised as a real estate agency, Asylum Landlords.Instead of apartments and reviews, we find images and videos of the degrading conditions of those hosted, in addition to the testimonies collected.

Material is also made available online for those who want to create a group in their city.Here another characteristic of this activism comes into play:the idea of ​​transmitting nonviolent struggle practices as much as possible, always combining them with strong responsibility.This is how you can find it online Foia models easily used to apply pressure at a local level.In the guide How to Set Up An Anti-Raids Group, created by Haringey Anti-Raids, goes from how to open a stall to recommendations on avoiding as much as possible actions that lead to legal problems:“If your group – we read – blocks a raid through direct action, but then has to suspend all activities for a year to provide legal support, this may not be the most effective approach.”

Creating awareness, therefore, is closely linked to training.Still on the No Evictions Network, Savan confirms that «We don't take action if we have doubts, we don't want to jeopardize activists and those who campaign.And when we act, everyone is made aware of the risks they run, we carry out constant updates on the legal aspects."

Compared to other collectives present in the United Kingdom, Scotland presents some peculiarities.First of all, being a country of around five million inhabitants, activism can easily involve the Scottish Parliament directly.Furthermore, opposition to the raids has a consolidated tradition, which was born in 2005, from the experience of Glasgow Girls.That year, a group of 15-year-olds mobilized for a friend, Agnesa Murselaj, who together with her family, made up of Kosovar Roma, was pre-washed at dawn and taken to a detention center, waiting to be deported.

In this group there is also Roza Salih, of Kurdish origin, also the daughter of asylum seekers.The mobilization begins with a petition addressed to students and teachers, and then, through faxes, phone calls and sit-ins, reaches the Scottish Prime Minister Jack McConnell.The dawn raids on homes are thus suspended, Agnesa Murselaj and her family are freed.The success of the campaign is so rampant that the Glasgow Girls, over the years, they will be the subject of two documentaries and even a musical.

Fifteen years later, Roza is still at the forefront of a fairer system for immigrants and asylum seekers.«In Glasgow – he tells Blue suitcase – people are now much more aware of the problems asylum seekers face, such as not being able to work.Ours was the first campaign to shed light on the raids on homes, and the city now knows that there is a large community of refugees and asylum seekers."

An awareness that affects a whole series of political bodies, from city districts to the Edinburgh parliament.After Kenmure Street, in fact, various Scottish parliamentarians - Labor, Greens and members of the Scottish National Party - signed a letter addressed to the Home Office to highlight the fundamental difference in the approach towards immigrants, the "Nova Scots".The letter also asks to abandon the practice of raids to evict people from asylum seeker accommodation.

We've joined with Glasgow colleagues across political parties, from the council & both parliaments to tell the Home Secretary @ukhomeoffice to leave our neighbors alone.We do not support unannounced raids at dawn or any other time. #immigration #asylum #RefugeesAreWelcomeHere pic.twitter.com/3WsosrItt8

— Anne McLaughlin SNP MP (@AnneMcLaughlin) May 21, 2021

The clash, therefore, is also institutional, in a Scotland which after the last elections has a pro-independence parliamentary majority.There is a complex balancing act linked to skills:on immigration, the authority lies with the British government, while the police, which for example intervenes during protests or demonstrations, is a power devolved to the Scottish government. The information site The Ferret revealed that, during the hours in which the protest was mounting in Kenmure Street, emails sent by the Scottish Government were completely ignored by the Home Office.Therefore, beyond specific skills, the scenario conveys a desire for excessive power on the part of London, without being accountable in any way to Edinburgh.

Salih, who came close to winning the election with the SNP in the May elections, has developed a very clear and direct view of this scenario even through the weeks of electoral campaign:«The fact of not having power in this regard is the main problem.The Scots want a different approach, an immigration system based on dignity, and I think it would be a system without detention centres, without raids.If we had a system centered around the Scottish Parliament, where our MPs make decisions, this approach would become viable."

We started from Kenmure Street, and before concluding it is good to return there, to remember that the demonstrators were shouting «they are our neighbors!Let them go!Close to that day, Minister Priti Patel declared, during an event on immigration, that those who demonstrate against the levies and raids protects murderers and rapists.This “Law and Order” rhetoric can take hold the further you are from the heart of dissent, and if you think about the raids in the abstract.

But this is precisely the problem in relations between Scotland and the Johnson government.The idea that an external power breaks into homes, tearing people away from a community, risks being seen as a danger to defend against, thus shifting consensus towards pro-independence.Even just to ironically pursue border control that doesn't pass through London.Ironically, the "take back control"of Brexit could backfire on the Conservatives.

There is also another aspect that risks making theHostile environment, and a whole series of hard-line measures.After Brexit, and in particular after 30 June, European citizens may also find themselves in a gray area of ​​forced detentions, aggressive controls and abuses of power.In the uncertainty of the rules that has characterized the negotiations between Great Britain and the European Union, it is already happened in dozens of cases of European citizens were picked up and detained without was necessary.

What activists have tried to show for years, that is, that criminalizing emigrants in the name of security is an ideological act, that systemic injustices are hidden behind security rhetoric, is something that now also concerns those who, like us Europeans, have always been able to exercise a privilege.

Preview photo away Jerseyeveningpost.com