Photo: Right to RemainThere was a strange sense of disconnect as attendees gathered in the foyer for the beginning of Right to Remain's annual conference in London last weekend. On one hand, many were buoyed by the recent shift in tone towards migrants emitting from media outlets and decision-makers, a large number of whom had previously staked their lot on nefariously misrepresenting the very same peoples. The outpouring of public concern for those desperately seeking safety from persecution across Europe was also a cause for real, genuine hope. One local grassroots activist lamented that it had taken suffering of such epic proportions to correct Popular Opinion's moral compass, but noted that even his habitually xenophobic aunt had said she had signed up to go on Sunday's #RefugeesWelcome march – “things must be changing”, he grinned in conclusion.
Closer to home, however, it felt like there was little to smile about. Walking in to the conference, a member of the Freed Voices group called to say he couldn't attend because the Home Office had thrown him out of his Section 4 accommodation last night, leaving him destitute, again, for the third time this year. Gathered around their morning coffees, some self-advocates spoke anxiously about the devastating cuts proposed for asylum support, whilst others updated one another on the recent spate of immigration raids across South and East London. Activists from the Midlands could be heard reflecting on the Home Office's 'Right to Rent' pilot rolled out across their region, with its very specific designs to turn landlords into immigration officers and pit members of the community against each other.
Taking my seat before the first session began, I still had time to commiserate with a member of Beyond Borders Tyneside about the recently released immigration statistics. These new figures had shown little indication that the government is doing anything to address the moral bankruptcy, wanton inefficiency or financial flatulence of the detention estate, revealing instead that the number of people going into detention had risen by 10% from last year, up to 32,053; that, with no time-limit here in the UK, 187 people had been held in detention between 1-2 years in the year ending June 2015, with 29 held for 2 years or longer; and that one man had been incarcerated (without trial, remember) for over five years. All this only a few days after the news of another death in detention – this time of a 30-year old Ugandan asylum seeker, with a family and children based here in the UK.
