Detention Ctrs for Asylum Seeking Women

Detention Centres for Asylum Seeking Women By Sofia Bassani

In 2019 the then immigration minister, Caroline Nokes, promised to introduce schemes that would reduce the number of vulnerable female refugees and asylum seekers in UK immigration detention centres and instead house them in the community. The vow seemed like a step in the right direction towards a more humane British immigration system. Now, however, Priti Patel, the Home Secretary, has gone back on that promise and new detention centres for women are being built all over the country. The first is to open in County Durham in autumn on the site of a former youth prison. This news comes amidst a range of other recent proposals by the government to send asylum seekers abroad to be processed; a move which has been said could have “grave humanitarian consequences” by Mike Adamson, the Chief Executive of the British Red Cross. These new plans signify a worrying hardening in the UK government’s response to immigration after our withdrawal from the EU, making us even more isolationist than before.

In 2016 the Shaw Review was carried out which laid out some recommendations on how to improve the UK immigration system and as recently as 2018, Sajid Javid, the former Home Secretary, took these recommendations on board and promised to get vulnerable refugee women ‘a programme of support and care in the community’ instead of in detention centres. This would have meant that women could live in flats, houses, hostels or bed and breakfasts while receiving a weekly allowance from the government and also having access to the NHS. Yarl’s Wood, a detention centre for women, was emptied just last year and the detention of women was at a historic low. It seemed like change was on the horizon and that the British government was finally viewing refugees and asylum seekers as humans rather than statistics.

Nevertheless, the reversal of the promise to house women in the community has shattered this trust in the government to treat refugees in a compassionate manner. These women are some of the most vulnerable in society. Many may have fled from unstable countries and suffered gender based violence which has resulted in a high prevalence of mental health problems. Putting them into detention centres rather than housing them in safe spaces within the community only serves to make these mental health problems worse as there is inadequate access to healthcare. Agnes Tanoh claimed asylum in the UK after spending three months locked up inside Yarl’s Wood and has now started a petition to stop the new detention centres as she has seen how ‘detention destroys a women’ as they ‘become depressed and suicidal’ due to the inhumane conditions that they are forced to live under. These are the people who the UK should prioritise rather than imprison. To risk your life escaping persecution is something which no human should have to go through. When refugees reach what is supposed to be a safe country they should be treated with the utmost care and sensitivity rather than being put into detention centres that only meet the most basic of their needs.

A study was carried out into the effects that detention has on the mental health of refugees and asylum seekers and the results are clear – detention is extremely damaging to mental health (Werthern et al., 2018). The most commonly reported mental health problems were anxiety, depression and post-traumatic stress disorder and they found that ‘detention duration was positively associated with severity of mental symptoms’. This finding is especially worrying due to the fact that there is no time limit on immigration detention in the UK, unlike in most other European countries, meaning that mental health problems that refugees may face are being allowed to continue getting worse and worse. Furthermore, non-detained refugees who were living in the community had lower symptom scores than those in detention centres, showing that it is the detention centres themselves which are extremely damaging.

Prompted by calls from activists and charities, the government released many of those in detention centres into the community in May 2020 due to fears of Covid spreading rapidly through the centres. This was the perfect opportunity for the government to trial alternative methods of housing refugees and asylum seekers. Now that we have seen that these centres can be emptied quickly and easily it is shocking that Priti Patel has still chosen to continue building new detention centres for women. Werthern’s study also found that greater trauma exposure prior to detention was associated with symptom severity. The gender based violence that many female asylum seekers have been through will, therefore, continue to negatively affect these women far more severely in detention than if they had been housed in the community – a fact which Priti Patel has willingly accepted. These women need to be protected and it is extremely embarrassing to be a British citizen under a government that refuses to do so.

Image by Getty Images

BAME affected by COVID 19 -FMB Radio By Kitty Luscombe

COVID-19 has been part of everyone’s lives for over a year now, however, the BAME community has been hit dramatically by the virus. According to Public Health England “After accounting for the effect of sex, age, deprivation and region, people of Bangladeshi ethnicity had around twice the risk of death than people of White British ethnicity. The risk also increased for people of Pakistani, Indian and Mixed ethnic groups. People of Chinese, other Asians, Black Caribbean and other Black ethnicity had between 10 and 50% higher risk of death when compared to White British.”

There are numerous shocking figures such as a report that found that 15.2% and 9.7% of critically ill patients were from Asian and Black ethnic groups, respectively. ONS analysis showed that, when taking age into account, Black males were 4.2 times more likely to die from a COVID-19-related death than White males. These stats show the devastating impact that COVID-19 is having. Scientists have come up with a variety of explanations why this may be the case. Firstly, members of the BAME community are more likely to live in urban areas, for example in London, where 40% of the population are BAME. The impact of living in cites is that there are more people within certain areas. This can be due to the use of transport networks and supermarkets. This increases the chances of contracting the virus as many members live-in urban areas. Secondly, some BAME members live in households with many other family members, which means that there is more chance of a large group of people contracting the virus if it is in within one home. Normally this is also with grandparents, which puts them at even higher risk thereby increasing the chance of catching the virus. Another reason may be attributed to lack of access to important services such as health facilities and other key places as a result of language, cultural and other barriers. By such, they may not be able to access the help or support that they need during this time. Also, many of them work in frontline jobs that expose them to direct contact with people such as the NHS, security sector and production lines. A disproportionate number of BAME doctors and other healthcare workers died of COVID-19 and according to the Health Service Journal, it is reported that a shocking figure of 95% of medical staff that died during the pandemic are from the BAME community. The British Medical Association have put in place many actions such as calls for the government to develop an action plan on how it will protect BAME communities going forward and for greater consideration of the role that structural discrimination plays in how COVID-19 affects people from BAME backgrounds differently. This demonstrates that people are aware of the situation and the fact that BAME communities are more effected. It further strengthens the argument that the vaccine is crucial within the BAME community in order to reduce the death rates, minimise infections and protect the community. However, after all the data above, the BAME community groups are less likely to want the COVID-19 vaccine, and even if they accept to have the vaccine, how much of an impact will it have on them considering the above argued reasons.

´The husband stitch¨ By Maria Escarda Granados

It is not commonly known, but if you have searched the internet you may have come across the ‘husband stitch’, also referred to as the ‘daddy stitch’. It is a surgical practice in which, after childbirth, some specialists sew the vagina, adding one more stitch than necessary. During child labour, doctors usually cut the perineum, which is the skin and muscle between the vagina and anus, so that the baby can emerge from the enlarged vaginal opening. The cut is usually between two and seven centimetres long, and the wound is closed after delivery. However, while repairing it, some doctors add an extra stitch without the woman’s consent, thinking that this would mean greater sexual enjoyment for the male partner.

The ‘husband stitch’ is not widespread, but neither is it an urban legend or a myth. There is a small amount of data available, showing how many women have been affected by this practice. Furthermore, there is no straightforward method of assessment for how prevalent the practice is in obstetrics. However, what is clear is the number of women sharing their experiences and their testimonies in the media.

Some women claimed that their doctors told them that their vaginas would look better than ever. Some even went so far as to stress the procedure’s benefit without fully explaining what this benefit entailed. Unfortunate statements made in delivery rooms ranged from “I’m going to leave it as if nothing had happened”. To an incident involving a gynaecologist who, with a wink, told them that he would “leave them as a virgin”. They did not discover until later that this meant that he had narrowed the vaginal opening. In reality, these expressions are just another way of insinuating that women are to be perceived as defective after giving birth and ought to be returned as soon as possible to their pre...form. Despite the name, it is crucial to make clear that in most cases, it was not an express request from the partner of the woman who gave birth but an initiative of the specialists themselves. The gynaecologists would comment on it, almost as a joke, explaining that he would leave the vagina as if his wife had not given birth by sewing.

Though the intended reason behind this, the extra stitch is to increase the sexual pleasure of men. The result for most women who have gone through the ‘husband stitch’ after childbirth is extreme discomfort and pain during intercourse. Some are even afraid of having sex because it is too painful for them. Therefore, the reality is that the aftermath of the ‘husband stitch’ can affect sexual life and negatively impact a couple’s relationship. In addition to anxiety symptoms, there are physical consequences such as pain during penetration, urinary or faecal incontinence, or recurrent pain in the vulva. In many cases, these physical consequences do not receive the necessary care and treatment. For instance, some mothers take years to consult a pelvic floor specialist, and even fewer might receive adequate psychotherapeutic treatment.

The inability to decide, be fully informed can constitute a gynaecological assault on your self-concept, your selfesteem and your sexuality, as well as a form of obstetric violence. In 2014, the WHO spoke about obstetric violence for the first time, stating: “Throughout the world, many women suffer disrespectful and offensive treatment during childbirth in health centres, which not only violates the rights of women to respectful care but also threatens their rights to life, health, physical integrity and non-discrimination”. This type of violence exceeds the physical and verbal. It is also institutional, which often leads to it going unnoticed.

Why is it that there exists this horrible need to put men first at women’s expense constantly? At a time so crucial for a woman as her child’s birth, some professionals still find a second to think about the male’s enjoyment and pleasure. The bottom line is as follows: the “husband stitch” is an abusive procedure. Additional suturing is done without the wife’s consent. The mother is objectified, degraded and patronized. This horrible practice also testifies to a general lack of understanding of female sexuality. The vagina will not become narrower after the procedure, so the “husband” and his “stitch” have no purpose other than to control the female body and sexuality.

The white saviours of Lesvos - By Ophelie Lawson

Back in Lesvos, I met with many volunteers and humanitarian workers.

The reality is: most of them were actually white.

Volunteer trips have always been popular, if one thing, it is because they are appealing to a broad audience; whether it’s people looking for a great boost on their cv; or a university student seeking a “life-changing experience”, or those looking for an exciting opportunity to feel better about themselves through helping others.

For most of them, the decision to volunteer is led by self-interest, with little or no experience in humanitarian work nor any prior understanding of the complexity and gravity of the situation for refugees and asylum seekers. Most of them are importantly unaware of their white privileges.

They won’t recognize themselves, or know, deep down, but will deny: the ‘white saviours of Lesvos’. Those volunteers who claim they are there to ‘save the refugees or to ‘bear witness to the situation’, and so on.

They do not identify with the refugee population, instead they place a huge gap between themselves and ‘those in need of their help’. They see them as people that need ‘saving’, not as humans who could be their neighbour, family member, friend.

Being a black activist on the island, fully identifying with the black refugee and asylum seekers population, I spotted the white saviours easily.

And as a black European on the island, I was constantly the victim of racial profiling (the act of suspecting or targeting a person on the basis of assumed characteristics or behavior of a racial or ethnic group) so I experienced first hand how these people act.

The discriminatory practice was coming from everywhere. From the police, the locals, and far too often from the white volunteers. In my presence, they would act mostly as if I was stupid, always in need of something from them. I often refrained from saying that I was not a refugee or an asylum seeker, I did this because:

1. What would that say? That because I have a European passport, papers, I am better than the rest of my black communities or the refugee and asylum seekers population?

2. Because if people were capable of acting with me in such a way based on someone’s skin colour - in this case mine - quite frankly I just didn’t want to have anything to do with them.

I saw no difference between black refugees, asylum seekers and I. They could have easily been my brothers or sisters. I treated them like they were and even met a few that came from the same country half of my family was born in.

I was not there trying to ‘save’ anyone but rather engage with some of the most marginalized black communities in Europe and support these communities as much as I could using my own privileges as a Black European. And since I was fully identifying with them, it also meant that the emotional impact of seeing people living in those conditions was somehow stronger on me, making my work more impactful and more honest.

The white saviours: they travel to serve the poor, hungry and sick. Though they think that they have the best of intentions to help, their focus is on the refugee community instead of facing the core of the problem created by those that come from their communities; white, Western and Christian. They are often driven by the idea that those they are trying to support are in need of rescue from people who look like them.

Read More here - shorturl.at/eDY57

Interview with Ahmed. President of the Togolese

Community - By Ophelie Lawson

Ahmed arrived in Greece in September 2019, leaving his wife and 3 children behind him. Now President of the Togolese community within Moria camp, he talks about his role and the responsibilities that come with it, as well as the every day realities people from Togo face, from the minute they arrive in Greece asking for asylum to the way they get treated every day.

Inside Moria 2.0, after rain, January 9th

Ahmed : “Most of us [Togolese people] when we arrive in Greece we are sent directly to prison. After 3 months, you get released. This is when I step in and become responsible for them. When they go out, I have to direct them through the application for asylum process. I first sent them toward Eurorelief or Info point so that they can register and have a tent. Us Togolese people we used to be all put next to each other.

After that, they immediately have to go towards the asylum services offices (EASO) to do the rest of the registration and get documents. They also have to go to UNHCR for the monthly financial support. Fingerprints are also taken when people first arrive. There are a number of steps to follow for new arrivals. the [old] camps but there were always too many people (for the size). Sometimes you could be queuing for 4 to 5 hours.

In the new camp, when we first moved in there were no containers, we were not together anymore. For instance, in my tent, it is only three of us, mixed with Sudanese people. Others are with Somalians or Congolese people, but we are not together anymore.

O : What made you want to become president of your community ? Knowing you were already vulnerable when you arrive ?

Ahmed : Our old president was moved to Mytilini, meaning he couldn’t really always access the camp straight away to help when there are new arrivals. And you really need someone who is really present for the whole process. If you don’t have the help of someone who knows everything you really can’t do anything, this is why I voluntarily said I will take over to help our brothers arriving and those in prison. I am vulnerable but you need the help of others.

O : What’s the biggest difficulty being the president of that community ?

Ahmed : Being a leader is not easy and you can never please everyone. Some will be aggressive, others will treat you as if it was you who brought them to Greece. When some have problems with the police, it is your duty to go there to discuss with them, but the police always look for problems ‘go malaka, go go, go your countries”.

This is a real issue for us presidents of communities, we represent but have no protections. There was one time one of the leaders of one of our black communities was harassed by Afghan people, he lost one tooth. We are not protected.

I represent Togolese people in front of the authorities if they have a problem but also if they have a rejection of their asylum, I must help them with making an appeal. I have to help them find a lawyer, volunteers mostly because we don’t have money. But they are really busy because they have too many clients. So sometimes we have to wait like 2-3 months to get an appointment, but you have only 10 days to make an appeal. So you have to run everywhere, beg everyone to help us, help people of my community. Being the representative is not easy.

O : Is the Togolese community a minority in the camp ?

Ahmed : Yes, we are in minority. This is why the Greek state tends to not grant us asylum

Ahmed cooking a meal for him and other Togolese people

Read More here - shorturl.at/hCNVX

By Ophelie Lawson

Colonisation and the process of decolonisation

Colonisation, in simple words, is the process by which one power settles among and establishes control over the people of an area against their will. It is the action of appropriating a place or domain for one’s own use. Establishing itself in an area that is not ours and reclaiming it as ours.

Decolonisation is the ‘freeing of minds from colonial ideology’ in particular by challenging the ingrained and deep rooted idea that to be colonised was to be inferior. Decolonisation critiques positions of power and dominant culture. It is a process in which we rethink and reconstruct ideas that preserve the Europe-centred, colonial lens and withdraw political, military and governmental rule imposed by invaders on a colonised land.

Colonisation erases, from the society under its control, entire ways of life, replacing indigenous social structures with supposedly ‘enlightened’ governance. Through the creation of deadly stereotypes and stigmas, as well as preconceived overtly racist ideas of others, the colonisers justify their invasion, enslavement and genocide. It takes deep root in the subjugated people’s thoughts and ideas.

The history of African colonisation by the western world is a long and complex one. It created detrimental biases about what it means to be African and black in the western world.

Colonisation, and its tool of racism, deeply embedded an idea that anyone of African descent in Europe is an imposter and that they are inferior. This deadly idea lives in many of the white westerners’ minds. Anti-black racism is a concept deeply internalised in the western world. This racist discriminative social construct works by referring to different types of human bodies and from there determining what they are entitled to.

The African Diaspora has made lasting contributions to the western world. Part of the African European diaspora are largely the descendants of enslaved people who were brought from their African homelands to the Western world by force to help build Europe and the US. These contributions often go intentionally unrecognised and people of African descent have long been denied economic, social, and political equality. coming to Europe to steal opportunities .This narrative can survive in the western world due to the distinct lack of acknowledgement of how much wealth from Africa lives in western cities. So much unacknowledged theft has happened that many westerners are unaware of what their governments, countries, have stolen, and corporations continue to steal. It has often never occurred in the eyes of the Westerners that people coming from Africa were not migrants by choice but rather forced migrants. They cannot see how the comfort of the white man was built upon the back of the Black man’s suffering.

Governance of terror

What the white man did to Africa is more than just create economic hardship and commit theft. The systems they put into place corrupted African governments to serve the white man’s interest, it also created an environment of fear in which most opposition was met with violence, suppressed, and countered with systemic political murder.

The effect of this in the citizens of many African countries was a total breakdown of the social fabric of their society. The lack of trust gave way to a culture of paranoia.

The same tactics imposed by Stalin in Eastern Europe were exported by the enemies of Stalin for use in Africa. A society of political repression, paranoia and clandestine murders was the enemy against which The West so righteously struggled. During the time of their “righteous fight,” they had no qualms about instituting the same policies upon the people of Africa. Europe had learned very well the effectiveness of terror in controlling populations. In such an environment the continual exploitation of a nation’s natural resources is easy.

The breakdown of the social fabric due to colonisation is identical to the breakdown of the social fabric due to civil war, or any kind of war.

Their nation has been taken from them whether it’s from war or colonisation, in either case, through violence.

Most of the time, even in the case of an African living upon the land of their ancestors, through the process of colonisation they have become a stateless person.

By Ophelie Lawson

Decolonizing the way we see refugees. Raising awareness to the abuse lived by black asylum seekers/ refugees Black communities idolize white people

Black people have internalised inferiority

Black boys feel entitled and proud when they have white friends

Lesvos: a hellhole for black refugees and asylum seekers

How does institutional racism impact refugees/ and asylum seekers on Lesvos? How black asylum seekers and refugees are experiencing racism even in the most hostile and inhuman living conditions and what racism and anti-blackness actually are and how our institutions are shaped by it.

Guest speakers: Prince, a former resident of Moria camp who has now been granted refugee status and his very aware of the racists dynamics on his island.

1. Introduction: Prince - Ophelie

2. Prince’s own experience of racism as an asylum seeker and now refugee: “I am tired of white people trying to save me” and “they always feel and act like they need to save us”, How was your experience as an asylum seeker shaped by your colour ? What it means to be a black asylum seeker.

From asking for asylum to opportunities for integration and work to interactions with the authorities (fear of being stopped by the police based on their racism) and police harassment, and insecurity.

Black people are constantly the target of police, Why you never walk in the street with a big group of black people because you will always be annoyed by the police

How you are careful about what you say because you feel you are not free and are always under the control of the white Greek man who, although granted you asylum, is still controlling you

3. Internalised racism amongst black asylum

seekers/refugees population: (a form of internalised oppression; Internalized Racism: Internalized racism is defined as “the acceptance, by marginalized racial populations, of the negative societal beliefs and stereotypes about themselves” (Williams & Williams-Morris, 2000, p. 255; Taylor & Grundy, 1996). Individuals may or may not be aware of their own acceptance of these negative beliefs.

4. Black people being denied asylum because

considered economic migrant: comment etre accepter. Considered economic migrants; Coming from countries that are not at war, and not considered a failed state, yet they return their lives are under threat. Also they are victims of colonisation

5. Black people always portraying an incorrect

image of their reality as asylum seekers in Europe on social media to maintain their reputations back home, rather than speaking about the reality of living in the camps which is nothing like they expected and how this is linked to the fake European dream that doesn’t apply to black asylum seekers and refugees and feed into a fake narrative of Europe being the dream

6. White saviorism: White people trying to save black people from the consequences of what they have done to us

(https://www.dw.com/en/inside-morias-africanneighborhood/a-19570092)

o Most if not all refugees* from African countries that spoke to DW feel that they are being mistreated by the asylum services at the camp who - they claim - do not take their asylum claims into serious consideration and instead prioritize the cases of refugees from the Middle East.

o The asylum process is slow and refugees believe they are being discriminated against based on the countries of their origin. “The major problem is that people who examine asylum claims at the asylum services do not know refugee law and they do not know how to interview people. And the refugee themselves don’t have any idea about what refugee law is. So it’s an impossible situation,” said Dr Harrel-

Bond.

BLACK SINGLE MOTHERS, ASYLUM SEEKERS, IN LESVOS, GREECE: A NEGLECTED HARSH REALITY

Some of the most vulnerable and neglected asylum seekers on the Island of Lesvos, Greece, home of the biggest refugee camp of Europe, are black single mothers and women. Here, Blackness seemed to be tied to the idea of something meaningless, and people, the authority, many locals, volunteers and humanitarian workers, seem to be unable to recognise the humanity in Black communities as in the same way that they do with other communities. According to the UNHCR, women represent 23% of the population on the island. They are exposed to a multitude of dangers; from gender based violence to police sexual harassment, whilst often being subject to neglect by the authorities and NGOs.

For years many NGOs have denounced and condemned the dangers of the Greek refugee camp for women and girls. They have asked the Greek Government to take immediate action to ensure their security and provide humane conditions, initiatives such as the Human Rights Watch. However, things continue to worsen and those at the worst end of the spectrum are Black women.

Inside of Moria 2.0’s containers, where families are accommodated

Black women are exposed not only to the dangers of being women and/ or single mothers in these camps, but also to anti-black racism.

By Ophelie Lawson

In simple terms, Anti-Black racism includes attitudes, behaviours, beliefs, stereotypes and prejudices or discrimination that is directed at people of African descent. It is rooted in Western history and a direct result of enslavement and colonisation of African people by white Europeans. It is deeply embedded in Western institutions, policies, and practices. It is quite simply part of the system.

The impact and consequences of White Supremacy in Africa and western history of colonisation has created systemic barriers and discriminative social constructs. These have been put in place to prevent black people from fully integrating and participating in all parts of society. To hear directly from those at the receiving end of this reality I spoke with Christine, a single mother from Congo RDC. Christine arrived in Lesvos on the 18th December 2019, she arrived already 9 months pregnant; Moria 2.0 camp, officially called Mavrovouni Temporary Reception and Identification Centre “I was supposed to give birth on the 26 of December but when I went inside the camp it just didn’t happen. I had high blood pressure. I gave birth on the 4th of January instead. I spent one day inside the camp before social workers took me to a house.” Christine’s story reflect the struggles of many Black single mothers. Her story is a heartbreaking one. After fleeing her country to seek safety in Europe, she came to Lesvos only to experience severe neglect and hardship. Crossing on a boat across the Meditteranean to come to Europe she was pregnant and in distress. “I came here expecting something else but the reality was otherwise” says Christine “The life in the camp while pregnant was so hard I couldn’t manage. My anxiety and high blood pressure were very high.” “The day I gave birth, when I started feeling the contractions, I went to the police inside the camp. After a while they called an ambulance. There were about 5 pregnant women inside the ambulance. I had to stand up while having contractions. When we arrived at the hospital they told me to go wait outside. I was the last to be seen.” Read More here - shorturl.at/ gmwNX