This article is from the source 'guardian' and was first published or seen on . It last changed over 40 days ago and won't be checked again for changes.
You can find the current article at its original source at http://www.theguardian.com/commentisfree/2016/mar/09/detaining-women-refugees-imprisonment-britain-asylum-seekers
The article has changed 2 times. There is an RSS feed of changes available.
Previous version
1
Next version
| Version 0 | Version 1 |
|---|---|
| Detaining women refugees is imprisonment, plain and simple | Detaining women refugees is imprisonment, plain and simple |
| (6 months later) | |
| Freedom should be enjoyed by all. This is a comforting and simple enough idea that we like to take as a given. We sometimes qualify it by adding “except of course those who break the law”, but those are the usual parameters. | Freedom should be enjoyed by all. This is a comforting and simple enough idea that we like to take as a given. We sometimes qualify it by adding “except of course those who break the law”, but those are the usual parameters. |
| Assuming the judicial process is fair, most of us vaguely understand that when a crime is committed, the (potential) criminal may be charged, judged as deserving of punishment and, finally, punished. This is what we call due process. Countries that lack due process are viewed as functioning outside the “civilised” world – unless we’re desperate to sell them arms. They are, we like to think, invariably led by corrupt, totalitarian dictators. It’s not, crucially, how we like to see ourselves. | Assuming the judicial process is fair, most of us vaguely understand that when a crime is committed, the (potential) criminal may be charged, judged as deserving of punishment and, finally, punished. This is what we call due process. Countries that lack due process are viewed as functioning outside the “civilised” world – unless we’re desperate to sell them arms. They are, we like to think, invariably led by corrupt, totalitarian dictators. It’s not, crucially, how we like to see ourselves. |
| Nevertheless, in the United Kingdom in 2016, this does happen. People seeking asylum are regularly detained indefinitely, without a charge or trial. Their crime, presumably, is daring to seek asylum in the first place. Doesn’t this have a whiff of the feudal about it? Distinguishing one particular group – one of the most vulnerable – as criminal for simply being in the UK is, yes, draconian. It gets worse when we remember that these are people fleeing conflict and persecution. | Nevertheless, in the United Kingdom in 2016, this does happen. People seeking asylum are regularly detained indefinitely, without a charge or trial. Their crime, presumably, is daring to seek asylum in the first place. Doesn’t this have a whiff of the feudal about it? Distinguishing one particular group – one of the most vulnerable – as criminal for simply being in the UK is, yes, draconian. It gets worse when we remember that these are people fleeing conflict and persecution. |
| It’s chilling to think that as a nation we are comfortable with dehumanising treatment like this | It’s chilling to think that as a nation we are comfortable with dehumanising treatment like this |
| Yesterday the campaign charity Women for Refugee Women launched an action outside the Home Office to mark International Women’s Day. As part of the #SetHerFree campaign, the charity delivered 99 signed postcards from women – I was one of them – with messages in support of refugee women. The number 99 represents the number of pregnant women held in detention centres in 2014. A woman flees persecution, manages to survive the dangers inherent in crossing borders, reaches the UK and is summarily locked up. It’s chilling to think that as a nation we are comfortable with dehumanising treatment like this. | Yesterday the campaign charity Women for Refugee Women launched an action outside the Home Office to mark International Women’s Day. As part of the #SetHerFree campaign, the charity delivered 99 signed postcards from women – I was one of them – with messages in support of refugee women. The number 99 represents the number of pregnant women held in detention centres in 2014. A woman flees persecution, manages to survive the dangers inherent in crossing borders, reaches the UK and is summarily locked up. It’s chilling to think that as a nation we are comfortable with dehumanising treatment like this. |
| This coming Saturday, another campaign group, Movement for Justice, led by women who have themselves been detained, will hold an action outside Yarl’s Wood detention centre. They will be standing in solidarity with women on the other side of the perimeter fence, who are behind windows that open just enough to allow small arms to wave makeshift flags fashioned out of scraps of material. All that matters is that the woman locked within will be able to communicate to people who agree with her that her detention is really imprisonment by any other name and is wrong. | This coming Saturday, another campaign group, Movement for Justice, led by women who have themselves been detained, will hold an action outside Yarl’s Wood detention centre. They will be standing in solidarity with women on the other side of the perimeter fence, who are behind windows that open just enough to allow small arms to wave makeshift flags fashioned out of scraps of material. All that matters is that the woman locked within will be able to communicate to people who agree with her that her detention is really imprisonment by any other name and is wrong. |
| They will be protesting the fact that a third of women seeking asylum will be detained as a matter of course. 43% of those will be held for more than a month and some for as long as a year. Keeping a woman in a detention centre for a year costs more than £37,000. Given that less than a third of the women who are detained are then deported, the process seems indifferent to efficiency. There are cheaper, community-based alternatives to detention that do not criminalise the individual and rob them of their dignity. | They will be protesting the fact that a third of women seeking asylum will be detained as a matter of course. 43% of those will be held for more than a month and some for as long as a year. Keeping a woman in a detention centre for a year costs more than £37,000. Given that less than a third of the women who are detained are then deported, the process seems indifferent to efficiency. There are cheaper, community-based alternatives to detention that do not criminalise the individual and rob them of their dignity. |
| Last September I wrote about the national outpouring of sympathy triggered by the death of Alan Kurdi, the three-year-old Syrian boy who drowned in the Mediterranean Sea. It seemed then that the image of his little body on that beach would shift public opinion, making it more sympathetic to what we had been reluctant to call a “refugee crisis” (the word “migrant” doesn’t have quite the same emotional tug). | Last September I wrote about the national outpouring of sympathy triggered by the death of Alan Kurdi, the three-year-old Syrian boy who drowned in the Mediterranean Sea. It seemed then that the image of his little body on that beach would shift public opinion, making it more sympathetic to what we had been reluctant to call a “refugee crisis” (the word “migrant” doesn’t have quite the same emotional tug). |
| After a summer of witnessing the perilous journey refugees were forced to make in order to seek asylum, the hope had been that, collectively, we would push our government to rethink its policies. This shift was also to be reflected in transforming our treatment of the asylum seekers who are currently within UK borders. | After a summer of witnessing the perilous journey refugees were forced to make in order to seek asylum, the hope had been that, collectively, we would push our government to rethink its policies. This shift was also to be reflected in transforming our treatment of the asylum seekers who are currently within UK borders. |
| Six months on, and with the EU referendum looming, the public debate has reverted back to discussing asylum seekers within the framework of the country being “full”. Last month David Cameron warned that Brexit could result in Britain facing an “influx of 50,000 asylum seekers”. This is a low blow from a desperate campaign willing to invoke the language of swarms and imminent danger in order to bolster its arguments. It is, too, recognition that the ratcheting up of anti-immigration sentiment by Ukip, our popular press and the Tories themselves over the last decade has left many seeing Brexit as the best possible chance of securing our borders. The dominant discussion is that we are already too full and, once again, EU migrants, refugees and asylum seekers have become indistinguishable. | Six months on, and with the EU referendum looming, the public debate has reverted back to discussing asylum seekers within the framework of the country being “full”. Last month David Cameron warned that Brexit could result in Britain facing an “influx of 50,000 asylum seekers”. This is a low blow from a desperate campaign willing to invoke the language of swarms and imminent danger in order to bolster its arguments. It is, too, recognition that the ratcheting up of anti-immigration sentiment by Ukip, our popular press and the Tories themselves over the last decade has left many seeing Brexit as the best possible chance of securing our borders. The dominant discussion is that we are already too full and, once again, EU migrants, refugees and asylum seekers have become indistinguishable. |
| My message to the Home Office yesterday was, “seeking asylum isn’t an offence”. Yet the fact that yesterday’s action was centred around pregnant refugee women shows that the act of seeking asylum is generally viewed as being criminal. It is inhumane to lock up any asylum seeker, but the pragmatic approach has been to focus on the most disadvantaged, to shame our government into recognising the plight of women who are victims of torture, sexual violence and those that are pregnant. These groups tug at our heart strings and are more likely to move us to outrage. But why should we need such stark examples to recognise the injustice? | My message to the Home Office yesterday was, “seeking asylum isn’t an offence”. Yet the fact that yesterday’s action was centred around pregnant refugee women shows that the act of seeking asylum is generally viewed as being criminal. It is inhumane to lock up any asylum seeker, but the pragmatic approach has been to focus on the most disadvantaged, to shame our government into recognising the plight of women who are victims of torture, sexual violence and those that are pregnant. These groups tug at our heart strings and are more likely to move us to outrage. But why should we need such stark examples to recognise the injustice? |
| Rather than continue to mete out brutalising policies, policymakers should be looking at how we can help refugee women gain a foothold in our society. The default position needs to change from seeing these women as liars and frauds before all else. Despite the fear and violence that has forced them here, their sense of hope has carried them across borders in the most dangerous of conditions. We should be celebrating their bravery and tenacity. | Rather than continue to mete out brutalising policies, policymakers should be looking at how we can help refugee women gain a foothold in our society. The default position needs to change from seeing these women as liars and frauds before all else. Despite the fear and violence that has forced them here, their sense of hope has carried them across borders in the most dangerous of conditions. We should be celebrating their bravery and tenacity. |
Previous version
1
Next version