1st January, 2018

Pope Francis's message for the 51st World Day of Peace

Migrants and refugees: men and women in search of peace

Bishop Nolan reflects with Marian Pallister, vice chair of Justice and Peace Scotland, on his recent visit to Calais to meet with refugees and those who help them.

Radio Alba, week commencing 31st December. Magazine 8:20 pm.

The Refugee Survival Trust's bus pass scheme is a lifeline for destitute refugees and asylum seekers who cannot afford to buy their own tickets. Something as simple as access to public transport can be the reason that an individual is able to attend important meetings, go to the food bank, or even meet friends. Being mobile is crucial to the asylum application process and to integration into life in Scotland.

Scotland has met its target to provide homes for 2,000 Syrian refugees three years ahead of schedule.

BBC

UNHCR

 

 

 

Justice and Peace Netherlands have produced a booklet A welcoming Europe: exploring local solidarity with refugees on local initiatives to welcome refugees. It features a number of countries, including Scotland.

They have also made animations  which highlight the different country chapters in the publication: 

Scotland; Switzerland; Spain

Pope Francis Message - 1 JANUARY 2018

Migrants and refugees: men and women in search of peace

Would you or someone you know be interested in volunteering in Calais?  Many volunteers are needed to guarantee the distribution of warm food, clothing and sleeping bags.  No matter what skills you have or how long you can stay there is something you can do!  Here is how to get in touch.

The Tablet has reported on our recent delegation to Calais. 

Bishop Bill Nolan, President of Justice and Peace Scotland, argues for legal means to be made available so that migrants do not have to use illegal means to seek entry to Britain.  

Following a visit to the Calais migrant camp in France, by Bishop William Nolan, President of the Justice & Peace Commission of the Bishops’ Conference of Scotland and Bishop Paul McAleenan, Lead Bishop for Asylum & Migration, of the Catholic Bishops’ Conference of England and Wales, both Bishops have issued a joint statement addressed to the UK Government, calling on them to do more to assist and support the migrants, particularly, unaccompanied minors.
 

The photo shows food distribution at the Calais camp

Linda Fabiani MSP has raised the following Parliamentary Motion in the Scottish Parliament today, Tuesday 28th November 2017, to mark the visit to Calais of Bishop William Nolan, President of Justice and Peace Scotland, accompanied by Danny, our Socical Justice Coordinator.  

Scottish Faiths Action for Refugees is looking for 3 enthusiastic and dedicated individuals from different faith, religion and belief backgrounds who would like to contribute to and shape an integration project for refugees, asylum seekers and new migrants in Edinburgh.

 

The situation in Greece is critical. Scottish Faiths Action for Refugees is ecouraging people to write to their MPs and have produced a briefing on the situation.

 

Report from the Refugee Rights Data Project finds child refugees harassed and intimidated by police as well as local citizens.

Read More

The Presidents of the Bishops’ Conferences of Scotland and England & Wales have thanked pro-life politicians for their commitment to protecting human life from the moment of conception and urged them to continue to seek reform of current abortion legislation.

More information

Pope Francis has designated a World Day of the Poor on the 19th November.

The Holy Father is encouraging Catholics to do something practical to help those marginalised in our society.

One year since the 'jungle' camp in Calais was demolished, the lead Catholic Bishop for migration and asylum has called on the UK government to do more to resettle unaccompanied child refugees.

Read more in the Independent Catholic News

Seeking Sanctuary reports that numbers of desperate migrants are building up in the Calais area. Some are unaccompanied children. In addition, the weather is getting colder. Secours Catholique and two Calais warehouses have launched appeals for supplies.
Details on the Seeking Sanctuary website 
 

A Guardian Article reports that Councils have 280 unfilled places for lone minors even though there are at least 8,000 eligible children in Greece and Italy.

An Environmental Health Assessment of the New Migrant Camp in Calais

As winter looms, migrant children sleep rough in northern France

 

The SFAR October Newsletter is now out.

Click to read and subscribe

Campaigners are calling for the closure of a migrant detention centre, after a man died there last Tuesday.

Read full article

Watch Justice and Peace Scotland's short film on Dungavel

Pope Francis has launched a campaign to encourage Catholics to build bridges with migrants and refugees.

Titled ‘Share the Journey,’ the idea is to eliminate the stigma surrounding migrants and refugees alike, in order to make them feel accepted in both society and in the Catholic community.

Read more in The Scottish Catholic Observer

Share the Journey

Glasgow Campaign to Welcome Refugees

 

On Tuesday morning a Chinese man was found dead at Dungavel Detention Centre. This is the second suicide at a detention centre in the last fortnight. It also comes hard on the heels of the Panorama expose of conditions within Harmomdsworth Detention Centre. 
An emergency demonstration has been organised for Saturday 24th September.

Dungavel House Immigration Removal Centre
Strathaven ML10 6RF
12:30 PM - 3:30 PM

Further details on Facebook
 

 

It is two year's since the photograph of 3 year old Alan Kurdi prompted moral outrage and political reaction.  The Prime Minister at the time, David Cameron, announced that the UK would offer direct resettlement to up to 20,000 vulnerable Syrians living in refugee camps over a five year period reports SFAR.  

Scottish Faith Action for Refugees are reporting in their current newsletter how His Holiness Pope Francis has issued a message in preparation for the 104th World Day of Migrants and Refugees on 14 January 2018, Welcoming, protecting, promoting and integrating migrants and refugees.

The Independent Catholic News reports that the future for lone child refugees in Europe “surrounded by sex traffickers and people smugglers” looks grim unless the British government acts quickly. 

Read the full report and please take action.

Safe Passage

People granted asylum in the UK are routinely driven immediately into homelessness and destitution according to research conducted for the Guardian.

Read the full article.

 

There are two new J&P videos available on our YouTube channel.

Give me Five Campaign. This is the campaign to petition the Scottish government to add £5 per week per child to Child Benefit. This short video covers the main points of the campaign,
 

Responding to Refugees and Migrants.  As you know, Pope Francis has issued a 20-point action plan to governments on refugees and migrants. This short video puts these points into an easily accessible format.

 

Report from Westminster J&P visit

 

On a wet, cold, end-of-August day, four members of Westminster Justice and Peace left London for the Catholic Worker house in Calais.

Read their experiences

Last week Safe Passage UK showed Lord Alf Dubs around Calais,  the first time he has visited since the Jungle was demolished 10-months ago.

He was shocked to still find 100s of unaccompanied minors still sleeping rough with the constant threat of police violence. 

Watch the interview with him

 

Community groups brought together by the Interfaith Food Justice Network in Glasgow invite you all to come along to George Square on Sunday 3rd September to share some free food and a blether at One Big Picnic!

This is a free event open to the general public to celebrate the diversity of Glasgow’s residents and bring people from all different backgrounds together.

The event is being organised by a group of local people from diverse backgrounds including Muslim, Christian, Sikh, Humanist, Buddhist and non-religious who are working together to deliver One Big Picnic in order to promote dignity, community and food justice.

The Guardian reports that Pope Francis has issued a 20-point action plan to governments on refugees and migrants to try to galvanise their response to an issue seen by the Vatican as one of the biggest global challenges of the 21st century.

Click on linbk for the text of the Action Plan

 

 

Pope Francis' message for the World Day of Migrants and Refugees was released on Monday 21st August.

In the message the Holy Father says that providing aid to migrants and refugees is a "great responsibility, which the Church intends to share with all believers and men and women of good will, who are called to respond to the many challenges of contemporary migration with generosity, promptness, wisdom and foresight, each according to their own abilities."

Text of Message

By closing the Dubs scheme, the Government has left unaccompanied children at the mercy of traffickers.

Scottish Refugee Council have produced this very helpful list of Refugee-led community organisations across Scotland with details on how you can be in touch with them.  Please share with community groups where you live.  

List of Refugee-led Community Organisations

 

 

IT should be making more headlines but it isn’t. There are many good reasons why it should be all over our news pages, and very few to justify why it’s not. The most obvious reason as to why this story should have greater news prominence is that more than 20 million lives hang in the balance, among them 1.4 million children of whom 600,000 could die in the next three to four months. It’s not as if there has been any shortage of warnings either.  In March this year Stephen O’Brien, United Nations Under-Secretary General for Humanitarian Affairs, spelt out the magnitude of the crisis.

Pope Francis called for increased efforts to end human trafficking on Sunday 30th July 2017. The Holy Father’s appeal came in remarks following the Angelus prayer with pilgrims and tourists gathered in St Peter’s Square and the World Day against Trafficking in Persons, sponsored by the United Nations.

Police abuses against child and adult migrants in Calais.

 

Nine months after French authorities closed the large migrant camp on the edge of Calais, between 400 and 500 asylum seekers and other migrants are living on the streets and in wooded areas in and around the city.

A report by Human Rights Watch documents their conditions. It is based on interviews with more than 60 asylum seekers and migrants in and around Calais and Dunkerque, and with two dozen aid workers working in the area. It reports police abuse of asylum seekers and migrants, their disruption of humanitarian assistance, and their harassment of aid workers.

Download report

Report from the Human Trafficking Foundation into the situation of child refugees. It makes for grim reading and concludes that instead of protecting children who have fled to Europe for safety, the Government is failing them. Police violence has taught these children to fear the authorities who should be protecting them, leaving the way open for smugglers and those who want to exploit them, including traffickers.

Download the report here.

A report by Seeking Sanctuary in the Independent Catholic News outlines the current situation in France and encourages supporters to keep the pressure on government to address the situation with more compassion.

For more information and what you can do to help, please see the Seeking Sanctuary website

In our interconnected world, it is such a truism that everyone has a story to tell that we rarely ask to hear them. We should. Both sides would benefit.

A new article in The Independent highlights that several children granted rights to live in the UK are "leading a hand to mouth existence wandering around France"

An independent advocacy service could be a first step in a new preventative approach to tackling the destitution facing asylum seekers in Scotland.

What is World Refugee Day?
Every year on June 20, people around the world get together to mark World Refugee Day. It is a powerful way to come together with others to show that we care about refugees and that we want people seeking refugee protection to be treated fairly and with dignity.

Homeless immigrants are being told they can secure housing for their children but not themselves, effectively forcing them to break up their family or sleep rough with their children.

Phil Kerton from Seeking Sanctuary visited Calais on 30 May, taking clothing, cash and bedding donated by various groups and individuals. He found a situation that was superficially calm, yet worrying: worries that have since been confirmed as correct.

“Destitution is built into the UK asylum process”. This is the stark message of a report issued today by MSPs on the Scottish Parliament’s Equalities and Human Rights Committee.  The Committee is calling for a Scottish anti-destitution strategy to alleviate the situation of hundreds of people with insecure immigration status in Scotland. Destitution that often results in exploitation, ill health and misery.

As the Church celebrates the 100th anniversary of the Fatima apparitions – Aid to the Church in Need, an international Catholic charity dedicated to Our Lady of Fatima is celebrating its 70th anniversary.

Care4Calais was founded by a group of volunteers with the aim of supporting the people of the Calais refugee camps, providing fresh meals, warm clothing, heating and important legal and medical support.

In Its latest report, it comments there are no signs of improvement to the refugee crisis.

 

An Edinburgh Imam who met Pope Francis last Month has said the Holy Father is building a friendship between Christianity and Islam.

Peer criticises ‘shocking mistake’ as ministers say ‘administrative error’ meant they underestimated available places.

When it comes to solving the immigration crisis, the media need to stop perpetuating negative stereotypes and start explaining the big picture, shedding light on the causes behind migration.

The Right to Remain Toolkit is a guide to the UK immigration and asylum system. It gives an overview of the legal system and procedures, with detailed information on rights and options at key stages, and actions you can take in support of your claim, or to help someone else.

In a message to the Alliance against Trafficking in Persons Conference in Vienna, Pope Francis called Human Trafficking "a form of slavery, a crime against humanity, a grave violation of human rights, and an atrocious scourge"

Text of Message

Justice and Peace Europe appeals for amending the Catechism of the Church

Press release from Justice and Peace Europe

 

 

Highly critical report from Council of Europe says current system is unable to cope with sheer number of children fleeing conflict

News from those working in Calais is that things have never been so tough. The French 'welcome centres' distributed across the country may have provided a solution for some people, but for those where it didn't, conditions are worse than the Jungle ever was.

The next solidarity gathering at Dungavel will take place on Sunday 26th March, Mothering Sunday.  We are gathering at the bottom of the driveway leading to Dungavel at 12.45. 

Trying to understand what happened in the news?

We go beyond the headlines to try and make sense of the issues.
This time – what was happening in Hungary last week”

Women for Refugee Women challenges the injustices experienced by women who seek asylum in the UK. Latest report.

Biggest Catholic Youth Event Set to Light Up Wembley Arena

This Saturday, 11 March, up to 10,000 Catholics will attend Flame 2017 and share stories of faith and hope from across the world.  Our Social Justice Co-ordinator, Danny Sweeney, will be there.  Look out for picutres and updates from Danny.

Foreigners and British citizens without passports, particularly those from ethnic minorities, are being discriminated against in the private rental housing market as a result of the Right to Rent scheme designed to crack down on irregular immigration, according to a new report by the Joint Council for the Welfare of Immigrants (JCWI).

1 Day Without Us is a National Day of Action on 20th Feb 2017 to celebrate the contribution of migrants to the UK, to coincide with UN World Day of Social Justice.

For 24 hours, migrants from inside and outside the European Union, and everyone who supports them, are invited to celebrate the contribution that migrants make.

Details of Scottish events here

The UK is failing in its responsibility to protect some of the world's most vulnerable people, says the Catholic Church in England and Wales.

Independent Catholic News

Cardinal Vincent Nichols Statement

 

We were shocked and disappointed to learn that the UK Government intends to terminate the implementation of Section 67 of the Immigration Act 2016 – the “Dubs amendment” to resettle unaccompanied asylum seeking children from Europe. To have stopped this programme at fewer than 12% of the original commitment of 3,000 children is reprehensible.

The Government has decided to terminate the implementation of Section 67 of the Immigration Act 2016 – the “Dubs amendment” to resettle unaccompanied asylum seeking children from Europe. 

• BBC
• Guardian
• Huffington Post UK

On Sunday, 5 February, Cardinal Vincent, spoke on the BBC Radio 4 Westminster Hour about the executive order issued by President Trump which suspends the refugee acceptance programme for 120 days, prioritises refugee claims of religious-based persecution and imposes a travel ban on nations from a countries of 'particular concern' (seven, predominantly Muslim, countries have been named).

Full details on Independent Catholic News website

And the the lead bishop for migrants, Bishop Paul McAleenan, an auxiliary of Westminster Diocese, called on Catholics to oppose Trump’s ban.

Full details in The Tablet

The Home Office has abandoned plans to replace the immigration removal centre at Dungavel House

Details on BBC website

A new report alleges that disabled people are having their human rights violated by the UK government.The findings are contained in a report by Inclusion Scotland, working with colleagues in England and Wales, on how disabled people’s rights are being met. It concludes that there is evidence that the UK government is breaching its obligations under the UN Convention on the Rights of Persons with Disabilities (UNCRPD)

Read the Scottish Report

 

Statement by Justice and Peace Scotland on the Executive Order 'Protecting the nation from foreign terrorist entry into the United States'

US Catholic Bishops respond

President Donald Trump's executive memorandum intended to restrict the entry of terrorists coming to the United States brought an outcry from Catholic leaders across the US.

Read more in The Tablet

 

Danny Sweeney, the Social Justice Coordinator for J&P Scotland reflects on his experiences in the Calais refugee camp

Ways in which Scottish public services can help asylum seekers facing destitution are to be investigated by MSPs on Holyrood’s Equalities and Human Rights Committee. The committee is asking people to submit their views on what more can be done to tackle the issue. 

Further information.

Call for Evidence

27th January, 2017

Further information

Holocaust Memorial Day

Events in Scotland

How can life go on? (film)

In our blog, Alison Clark, Bute resident and former teacher, offers a personal view on the settlement of refugees

 

As I write, it’s exactly a year since our new Syrian residents arrived here on the Isle of Bute. The families celebrated the anniversary by cooking a fabulous lunch for everyone who has been involved in helping them settle, both statutory agencies and volunteers.  

Trafficked and unaccompanied asylum-seeking children are going missing from UK care at an “alarmingly high” rate, leading charities ECPAT UK and Missing People have said in a new report. The report, entitled Heading back to harm: A study on trafficked and unaccompanied children going missing from care in the UK, has found that more than a quarter of all trafficked children and over 500 unaccompanied asylum-seeking children went missing at least once in the year to September 2015, while 207 have not been found.

 

Read the Report

On January 15, 2017, the Catholic Church observes the 103rd World Day of Migrants and Refugees. This year, Pope Francis focuses on refugee children, who are often unaccompanied, vulnerable, and voiceless.  

 

Message of Pope Francis for the World Day of Migrants and Refugees.

Refugees and Migrants: are they part of our common good? Monsignor Robert J. Vitillo, Secretary General of International Catholic Migration Commission.

Welcome Pack Appeal

Refuweegee is a community led project set up to ensure that all refugees arriving in Glasgow are welcomed to the city in true Glaswegian style.  The project should also provide everyone who wishes to make a difference, the opportunity to do so.

The aim is to provide every Refuweegee who arrives in the city with a community built welcome pack.  Each pack will contain three categories of items; essentials, Glasgow welcome and ‘letters from the locals’ and as a result of the final category, each pack will be completely indivdual.

Further details on website.

In our first blog of 2017, Margaret Donnelly, J&P Commissioner for the Diocese of Galloway, gives a personal reflection on a long standing campaign

 

The photo shows Justice and Peace activists at Dungavel

A personal reflection by Grace Buckley

 

Scottish Faiths Action for Refugees – SFAR for short – a bit of a mouthful perhaps but a straightforward title for a network of faith communities seeking to act in support of refugees in Scotland.  It tries to do what it says on the tin.

The Refugee Survival Trust has launched a special festive appeal for their bus pass programme.

As you'll be aware, something as simple as access to public transport can be the reason that a refugee or asylum seeker is able to attend important meetings, go to the food bank, or even to meet friends. Being mobile is crucial to the asylum application process and to integration into life in Scotland. These bus passes are especially important in winter, when Scotland's notorious weather is at its worst!

Please consider donating a £6 bus pass. 

Pensioner presents every MP with collection of refugee stories

 

The Guardian newspaper features Michaela Fryson who has given 650 copies of the anthology A Country of Refuge to UK politicians in a bid to soften the hostile tone of public debate

In our blog, Patricia Ferguson, Outreach Manager for SCIAF, looks at the refugee situation in Lebanon

New initiative from Pax Christi

 

Pax Christi International recently convened a team of 10 young people from all over the world, to train to become peace journalists and report about the lives of refugees and asylum seekers. The training and discussions took place exclusively online. Following their training, each team member interviewed a person in their hometown or area who had to flee their home country.

Details on the Pax Christi website.

New report from W-ASH, Asylum Seeker Housing Project.

The research confirms that living conditions for asylum seekers from 2015 to 2016 have not improved but worsened.

On hearing of the proposed replacement  centre for Dungavel it struck me that the description of it as a "short term holding facillity" indicated an intention to get asylum seekers out of Scotland quickly. If this is the intention it is indeed very worrying and perhaps detrimental to them being given a proper chance to have the necessary legal representation and protection. I add my voice therefore to those who question this proposed new holding centre and it's probable detrimental effects on asylum seekers who have sought refuge in Scotland.

With all good wishes 
+ Joseph Toal

Photo shows Justice and Peace activists at their regular Dungavel solidarity gathering. 
Photo courtesy Carol Clark

An article in the Guardian states that figures obtained through FoI reveals the scale of desperation among asylum seekers in UK.

Seeking Sanctuary has published a briefing on the Home Office Guidance on young people.  The government has retrospectively changed to criteria for processing their claims. More than half of them will not even see a start to consideration of their situations. For more information and how to take action, see the Seeking Sanctuary website.

No to Racism: protecting rights, defending communities
Join us for the march and rally. Details on STUC website.

ACAT - Action by Christians Against Torture. The 2016 list of prisoners to whom you might want to send a greetings card has now been issued.  See their website for further details.

CSW - Christian Solidarity Worldwide. The list is available for downloading from the website.

A statement from the European Justice and Peace Commissions
Europe is at a crossroads: Will it show leadership based on its commitment to the values of human rights and solidarity, or will it choose to exclude refugees from access to dignified and safe life, giving way to nationalist and populist agendas? The Conference of European Justice and Peace Commissions (“Justice and Peace Europe”) is calling upon the European institutions, EU Member States and other European countries to take responsibility in granting refugees access to asylum and a decent standard of living.

With two months still to go, deaths of refugees and migrants crossing the Mediterranean so far this year have hit a record high, the UN Refugee Agency, UNHCR detailed today. Expressing alarm at the situation, UNHCR reported that 3,740 lives had been lost so far in 2016, just short of the 3,771 reported for the whole of 2015. (UNHRC 25/10/16)

'hildren with disabilities are constantly left at the very back of the queue, and the impact on both individuals and economies can be disastrous'. At least half of the world's 65 million school-age children with disabilities are kept out of the classroom because little to no money is budgeted for their needs, disability rights groups said in a report on Monday 17/10/2016. (Zoe Tabary, Thomson Reuters Foundation)

The Scottish Government have opened a Consultation on a Human Trafficking and Exploitation Strategy for Scotland. Human trafficking and exploitation are abhorrent crimes, as well as abuses of human rights and dignity. They involve trading adults and children as commodities and exploiting them for profit or personal benefit and they happen in Scotland today.

Please ask your MP to sign this EDM
That this House expresses its outrage at the bombing of a UN aid convoy on the outskirts of the Syrian city of Aleppo, killing an estimated 20 civilians and destroying 18 UN trucks and their cargo of vital supplies destined for communities in areas controlled by opponents of the Assad regime; further expresses particular concern at evidence that this was a revenge attack by Russian or Syrian government forces for an air strike the previous weekend by the US-led coalition against Daesh

Build bridges of justice rather than walls of fear
The Final Declaration from the European Justice and Peace Commission, International Workshop and General Assembly, Luxembourg, 30 Sept-3 Oct 2016

The Home Office has refused to respond to official requests from the French authorities to accept unaccompanied child refugees stranded in Calais who are eligible to come to Britain, the British Red Cross has said. With the planned demolition of Calais’s refugee camp only weeks away, the Red Cross says the Home Office is turning down “take charge” requests by the French on often pedantic grounds. (Mark Townsend, Guardian)

Work recently began on a wall in Calais, funded by the UK government, to prevent migrants and asylum seekers from crossing the Channel to Britain. Nearly simultaneously, the government announced that it would increase immigration tribunal fees by over 500%, erecting a different type of barrier—to access to justice. It was claimed that doing so would bring in an estimated £34 million in income annually and preserve the functioning of the tribunals. (Justine Stefanelli, UK Human Rights Blog)

Britain is one of the worst countries in Europe at integrating asylum seekers into the labour market, unnecessarily increasing their dependency on the welfare system, a report has found. (Patrick Kingsley, Guardian,) 

Ten situations deteriorated in August 16 according to the latest CrisisWatch report. Deteriorated Situations:  CAR, DR Congo, Zimbabwe, Mali, Korean Peninsula, Kashmir, Bosnia/Herzegovina, Azerbaijan, Syria, Libya

Closure of Dungavel centre and lack of planning mean people will be taken away from support networks, campaigners say. Vulnerable asylum seekers are at risk of being “funnelled” out of Scotland and away from family, friends and legal representation under detention plans that are being challenged by politicians and campaigners. (Libby Brooks, The Guardian, 29 Sept)

In early September, the new Immigration Minister Robert Goodwill announced the closure of Dungavel, the only detention centre in Scotland.  The centre will be replaced in late 2017 by a short-term holding facility at Glasgow Airport, where migrants will be held for a few days just before removal. (Jerome Phelps, Justice Gap,)

It has been announced that the Home Office is re-evaluating the national ‘dispersal’ scheme after calls from local councils that it is not operating fairly enough. If successful, it should result in refugees being dispersed more evenly across different areas of Britain.

Statement by Justice and Peace on the closure of Dungavel Removal Centre

Greek police routinely lock up unaccompanied children in small, overcrowded, and unhygienic cells for weeks and months, Human Rights Watch said in a new report released today.  The 27-page report, 'Why Are You Keeping Me Here?’: Unaccompanied Children Detained in Greece,' documents arbitrary and prolonged detention of children in violation of international and Greek law.

ASYLUM seekers face rapid removal from Scotland and restrictions on their right to appeal deportation under plans to replace the notorious Dungavel holding centre with a "short-term" unit near Glasgow Airport, campaigners warn. (Kate Devlin, Herald Scotland) 

The Home Office has announced that it is to close Scotland's Dungavel Immigration Removal Centre in 2017 and that it will build a new short-term holding facility near Glasgow Airport. Gary Christie, Scottish Refugee Council's Head of Communications, said: "Indefinite detention for immigration purposes is a UK scandal. While we are pleased to hear that this will no longer take place in Scotland, an end to long-term immigration detention must happen across the whole of the UK.

The years of campaigning to get Dungavel closed have finally paid off. Great news!  We'll need to keep a close eye on its replacement holding centre near Glasgow Airport, though.  Anything designed to make deportations quicker and easier has to be legally and morally dubious.  Reading between the lines, it looks like a cost-saving exercise by the Home Office rather than anything designed to make their treatment of asylum seekers any less oppressive.

Work is about to begin on 'a big, new wall' in Calais as the latest attempt to prevent refugees and migrants jumping aboard lorries heading for the Channel port, the UK’s immigration minister has confirmed. Robert Goodwill told MPs on Tuesday that the four-metre high wall was part of a £17m package of joint Anglo-French security measures to tighten precautions at the port. (Alan Travis and Angelique Chrisafis, Guaridan)

11th September - Paisley
Scottish Churches Racial Justice Sunday Celebration 2016. Wallneuk North Church, Abercorn Street PAISLEY PA3 4AB .  Sunday 11th September 2016 4pm -6:30pm. Speaker: Rev Iliya Shterev Roma Society Scotland.  Join in the  conversation in workshops. and continue the conversation over an international meal.

Please ask your MP to sign this EDM
That this House is aware of UN estimates that approximately 17,000 children in our world are forced to flee their homes everyday due to wars, in the process experiencing haphazard and dangerous refuge, often having to miss out on their schooling, social welfare and health needs;

Nine Situations Deteriorated in August 16: Central African Republic, Gabon, Ethiopia, Zimbabwe, Pakistan, Thailand, Turkey, Syria, Yemen. Improved Situations: Philippines, Colombia

A new guide to ensure refugees’ right to quality accommodation is upheld has been issued to housing professionals. Published by the Scottish Refugee Council with the support of the Scottish government and the Chartered Institute of Housing Scotland, the updated guide aims to ensure that all refugees and asylum seekers in Scotland are treated with dignity and fairness.

Pope Francis has created a new Dicastery to better minister to the needs of the men and women the Church is called to serve. The new “Dicastery for Promoting Integral Human Development” was instituted in a Motu Proprio published on Wednesday in the Osservatore Romano. The dicastery will come into effect as from 1 January 2017 and will be especially “competent in issues regarding migrants, those in need, the sick, the excluded and marginalized, the imprisoned and the unemployed, as well as victims of armed conflict, natural disasters, and all forms of slavery and torture”. (Vatican Radio)

Asylum applications in the UK from main applicants increased by 41% to 36,465 in the year ending June 2016, the highest number of applications since the year ending June 2004 (39,746). Numbers of asylum applications in the first two quarters of 2016 (8,228 in January to March and 7,810 in April to June) have been considerably lower than in the last two quarters of 2015 (10,231 in July to September and 10,196 in October to December), although still higher than the same quarters a year earlier.

Please sign the UNHCR petition

Forest fires are raging in an indigenous territory on the edge of the Brazilian Amazon, threatening to wipe out uncontacted members of the Awá tribe. Forest fires started by loggers destroyed over 50 per cent of the forest cover in the territory in late 2015. The Environment Ministry has stated that the situation is “even worse this year.” (Ekklesia)

Destitute asylum-seeking and migrant families are increasingly being told that their young children and babies can only be accommodated if they are taken into care, according to charities working to support them. (Karin Goodwin, The National)

A reflection by Marian Pallister
From the beginning of his Papacy, Pope Francis has urged the world to respect the Muslim faith and to honour the dignity of its adherents (a stance which echoes the 1964 document Lumen Gentium, and indeed, Pope Paul VI’s Populorum Progressio).

Pope Francis prays for all exploited women and girls just three days after visiting a group of young women rescued from the sex trade. Pope Francis celebrated the feast of the Assumption by praying for all exploited women and girls. (The Tablet)

Labour MP Yvette Cooper has written to the home secretary about the plight of child refugees at risk in French camps. Around 20 of the estimated 88,000 unaccompanied child refugees in Europe have so far arrived in the UK, a tiny figure that has prompted harsh criticism. (Jessica Elgot the Guardian)   

A year after hundreds of thousands of refugees snaked their way across South Eastern Europe and onto global television screens, the roads through the Balkans are now clear, depriving an arguably worsening tragedy of poignant visibility. Europe's migrant crisis is at the very least numerically worse than it was last year. More people are arriving and more are dying. But the twist is that, compared with last year, a lot of it is out of sight. (Reuters)

SNP and Labour MPs have called on Theresa May to visit asylum seekers’ accommodation in Glasgow, following allegations vulnerable people are being housed in "horrific" conditions. In her six years as Home Secretary the Prime Minister did not inspect any of the properties used across the UK. Now members of the Commons Home Affairs Select Committee have urged her to make the journey before a multi-million pound contract is extended. (Kate Devlin, The Herald)

5 August 2016 – The United Nations human rights chief has deplored the execution of 20 people in Iran this week for purported terrorism-related offences. “The application of overly broad and vague criminal charges, coupled with a disdain for the rights of the accused to due process and a fair trial have in these cases led to a grave injustice,” UN High Commissioner for Human Rights Zeid Ra'ad Al Hussein said in a news release.

A new report published by the Home Affairs Select Committee, on 27 July 2016, an influential group of MPs have backed the Refugee Council’s call for child refugees who have reached Britain by themselves to be allowed to reunite with their parents.

Most asylum seekers arrive in the UK to escape their country of origin for fears of persecution, where the idea of state protection is unrealistic and or internal relocation is a possibility. Many have no intent or motive to come to the UK and only consider where they will be safe away from their perpetrators. They hope for a better future but instead, some spend their years in the UK stuck in an inefficient administrative process, in receipt of minimal support and suffering from emotional stress as a result of their traumas coupled with their inability to ever return to a life of normality. (Sangeetha Vairavamoorthy)

The UK is shirking its responsibility to care for thousands of unaccompanied migrant children, dismissing them as “somebody else’s problem”, a report has concluded. Unaccompanied migrant children have been systematically failed by the EU and its member states, including the UK, and as a result, thousands are living in “squalid” conditions, treated with suspicion by authorities and preyed upon by traffickers and people smugglers, according to the House of Lords EU home affairs subcommittee report. (Amelia Gentleman, Guardian)

One of the Coalition government’s first - and best - policies was to end the detention of children in immigration removal centres. But now it looks like May’s government is about to reverse that process. A written ministerial statement yesterday announced the closure of Cedars, a removal centre for families run by the charity Barnardo’s. Instead, the people who would have been sent there will be moved to a “discrete unit” at Tinsley House removal centre, near Gatwick. Discrete or not, the children of those families will be back in an immigration detention centre.

Almost 5,600 refugees and asylum seekers have been destitute in the UK in the first half of this year, according to British Red Cross figures released on 8 July. The number of people supported by the charity’s destitution services, which include the provision of food parcels, clothing and small amounts of emergency cash, has risen by 16% since the same period in 2015, during which 4,679 people were helped.

Last month, the High Court made an important ruling which could transform the futures of unaccompanied children arriving in the UK. Refugee Council Policy Manager Judith Dennis explains what happened and why the ruling is so important.

Shot by refugees fleeing to Europe to be broadcast on BBC 2, 11-13 July at 9pm.
A ground breaking new documentary gives cameras to refugees fleeing to Europe. The resulting three-part film takes you with them every step – from suburban flat to leaky dinghy to suffocating container. (The Guardian)

A Conservative minister has pledged to investigate reports of the ill-treatment of asylum seekers in Glasgow. Home Office minister James Brokenshire said that he would probe claims that some cannot lock the doors of their accommodation. The vow came as SNP MP Chris Stephens raised concerns about what have been described as 'horrific' conditions. (Kate Devlin, The Herald Scotland)

Five situations deteriorated in June 16: Central African Republic, Niger, Nigeria, South Sudan, Turkey. Improved Situations: Colombia 

In Paris on 25 June 2016, United Nations Secretary-General Ban Ki-moon called on the countries of Europe as well as the international community at large to work towards a compassionate and humane solution to the problem of refugees and migrants, emphasizing that he counts on the European Union and Britain to continue as strong partners of the UN on development and humanitarian issues. (Human Wrongs Watch)

Much has been made of the impact the Brexit vote is likely to have on EU migrants and their free movement in and out of Britain. But the impact on refugees, often the most vulnerable migrants of all, should not be ignored. (Lucy Gregg Politics.co.uk)

UNHCR Global Trends report finds 65.3 million people, or one person in 113, were displaced from their homes by conflict and persecution in 2015.

A joint statement from Scotland’s faith communities
On International Refugee Day 2016 we offer our solidarity to those seeking sanctuary, and we encourage and commend faith communities who work with refugees to provide hospitality and to seek to build mutual understanding.

Grace Buckley J&P Scotland's European Representative, recently took part in a Working Party on Human Rights and Migration, in Athens. This was two days of work and discussion and a day of visits to Caritas Greece/Athens refugee projects. Here Grace tells of one aspect of the visit

Deteriorated Situations: Guinea-Bissau, Haiti, Libya, Mali, Nigeria, Turkey, Venezuela.  Improved Situations: None

Please ask your MP to sign this EDM
That this House notes with considerable concern the Government's continued support for the government of Saudi Arabia; is dismayed by continuing serious and systematic human rights violations in Saudi Arabia, such as the severe restriction of freedom of expression, association and assembly, the use of the death penalty and flogging, and the lack of basic rights for women and immigrant workers;

A group of MPs has made a series of recommendations calling on the Government to improve the support and protection it gives to asylum seekers and refugees. In its latest commentary on the quarterly immigration statistics, the Home Affairs Select Committee make a number of criticisms of the way the Government is currently treating asylum seekers and refugees. Among these criticisms is a call for the Home Office to rethink the way they treat unaccompanied asylum seeking children when they reach 18, with the Committee saying children should not be sent back to dangerous countries. (Ekklesia)

Published Thursday 26th March 2016
Asylum applications from main applicants increased by 38% to 34,687 in the year ending March 2016, the highest number of applications since the year ending September 2004 (36,305). The largest number of applications for asylum came from nationals of Iran (4,305), followed by Eritrea (3,321), Iraq (2,805), Sudan (2,769), Pakistan (2,669) and Syria (2,539). Including dependants, the number of asylum applications increased by 30% to 41,563 in the year ending March 2016. There was around 1 dependant for every 5 main applicants.

On 12 May 2016, the Immigration Bill 2015-16 received Royal Assent, which means it now becomes the 2016 Immigration Act. In those words, a great deal is bound up. What’s been won, and what’s been lost. Read the 'Right to Remain' blog on the Immigration Act.

Please sign the petition to the UK Govt.
The Government has proposed a massive increase in the fees that immigrants and asylum seekers pay to have their immigration/asylum cases heard in court. This huge rise in fee (eg. from £140 to £800 for a hearing in court) will prevent individuals from being able to take their cases to court.
If the Home Office makes an incorrect decision on someone's case, this can usually be appealed in court.

THE “scandal” of refugee children made destitute after winning the right to stay in Scotland has been laid bare in new figures.  The Refugee Survival Trust (RST) awards lifeline grants to asylum seekers and refugees cut off from support. (Kirsteen Paterson, The National)

Much is expected of Aung San Suu Kyi, who in April of this year became the leader of Myanmar’s first democratically elected government since 1962. In a country where Buddhist, Muslim and Christian have a troubled shared history, it is surely asking the miraculous (as the New York Times’ editorial board did on May 9) to present to the world a policy that can immediately pour oil on troubled waters.

Call on Qatar to take action on forced labour - Walk Free email action
Narayan Nepali knows the horror of forced labour in Qatar first-hand. He travelled from Nepal on the promise of a well-paid job. When he arrived his passport was confiscated by an employer and his nightmare began. Unfortunately, as construction for the football World Cup 2022 intensifies, more migrant workers will be vulnerable to forced labour than ever before.

Deteriorated Situations: Afghanistan, Bangladesh, Gambia, Iraq, Macedonia, Nagorno-Karabakh (Azerbaijan), Republic of Congo, Syria. April saw fighting escalate again in Syria and Afghanistan, and erupt in Nagorno-Karabakh between Armenian-backed separatists and Azerbaijani forces.

Campaigning does work - thanks to all who emailed their MP and signed the petition
PM climbs down, saying he will not stand in way of amendment for UK to take in unaccompanied children already in Europe. David Cameron has given in to calls for the UK to accept unaccompanied refugee children from Greece, Italy and France in a bid to avoid defeat in the House of Commons. (The Guardian)

Three years ago on 24 March the Rana Plaza building in Dhaka, Bangladesh, came crashing down in what remains the worst industrial accident in the global garment industry. Over 1,134 people were killed and thousands more left seriously injured. Heartbreaking images of limbs, dust, rubble and tangled reams of brightly coloured fabrics made headlines worldwide, the ruined remains of the lives of thousands of Bangladeshi garment workers. (The Huffington Post) #FashionRevolutionDay

Please email your MP
After a narrow defeat in the House of Commons by 18 votes on Monday 25 April, an amendment to the immigration bill will return to the House of Commons most probably the week beginning 9 May. Please email your MP immediately asking them to support this amendment, which will ask the Government to resettle “a specified number” of children in consultation with local councils.

Please sign this petition as a matter of urgency. The Government should accept the call to give sanctuary to child refugees who are alone and at risk in Europe.

Thirteen aid and development agencies have come together to say that 'while the UK government has been a leader in providing assistance to countries hosting large numbers of refugees, it has fallen short of its moral responsibility to provide safe routes to protection for people seeking refuge in the UK, and has failed to advocate for an approach that protects the rights of all people on the move'.

Europe’s leading human rights body has issued a stinging indictment of the EU’s refugee deal with Turkey, which it said at worst exceeds the limits of what is permissible under international law. A report from the Council of Europe’s assembly listed numerous concerns on human rights, from keeping migrants in overcrowded and insanitary detention centres on the Greek islands to inadequate legal protection for people seeking to appeal against rejection of an asylum claim. (Jennifer Rankin, Guardian, 20/04/2016)

In the desert, the smugglers lace their water with petrol so the smuggled won’t gulp it down and cost more. Sometimes the trucks they’re packed into stall crossing the Sahara; they have to jump out to push, and some are left behind when the trucks drive off again.  (Anders Lustgarten The Guardian)

Contact your MP to ask them to support two key Lords Amendments on detention
The Immigration Bill continues to make its way through Parliament and on 25 April returns to the House of Commons where MPs will consider amendments made during its passage through the House of Lords. There are two key amendments regarding detention: Lords Amendment 84 and 85. (Scottish Detainee Visitors)

At least 95,000 unaccompanied children applied for asylum in Europe last year, four times the numbers for 2014, Bureau research can reveal. The huge increase was discovered by the Bureau during an investigation into the level of migration among unaccompanied under-18 year olds in Europe and the stark inconsistencies in the way they are treated. (Source: Bureau of Investigative Journalism)

The Government has deported three times as many teenagers to countries ravaged by war and poverty than ministers have previously admitted, figures seen by The Independent reveal. Charities and politicians have warned the 'life or death' decisions of whether to deport young people are being mishandled by a 'callous' Home Office without a grip on the facts. (Jon Stone The Independent) 

'2015 was a year of fear and insecurity in Europe. The conflict in eastern Ukraine and on going economic malaise were overshadowed by a sense of vulnerability to terrorist threats and panic at the apparent inability to cope with the influx of asylum seekers'. Nils Muižnieks, Council of Europe Commissioner for Human Rights, 18/04/2016.

The Home Office has proposed a new policy to protect vulnerable people including pregnant women (‘Adults at Risk’ policy), but there are concernsthat it is very similar to the previous policy, which failed to protect pregnant women. We believe the only way to make sure pregnant women are not detained is to implement Stephen Shaw’s recommendation and to introduce an absolute ban on them being detained.

Labour Behind the Label's recent report on M&S and H&M looks into the stories behind two leading high-street brands who have made claims to be ensuring a fair living wage is possible for their workers. The results? Low wages, slum housing and little evidence of change.

This year (2016) has seen Saudi Arabia execute 82 people so far, according to new research by the international human rights organisation Reprieve – which suggests the Kingdom is on course to behead twice as many prisoners as last year. (Ekklesia)

Eight Deteriorated Situations in March 2016:  Belgium, Burundi, Côte d’Ivoire, Libya, Pakistan, Tunisia, Turkey, Western Sahara

The Scottish Refugee Council is calling on politicians to build a better future for refugees in Scotland. Their recently published manifesto, sets out five recommendations for the new Scottish Government to be elected in May 2016.

At the recent  special summit on Syrian refugees, the UK Government shamefully failed to respond to the UN’s call to offer more Syrian families safe passage. But it’s not over yet.

Ethical Consumer has joined forces with the Rainforest Foundation in a ground-breaking collaboration to respond to the threat now facing the Congo rainforest. Their research is now powering the campaign to encourage consumers to buy the best rated products, forcing companies to use more sustainably sourced palm oil.

The Council of Europe Commissioner for Human Rights has published a Memorandum addressed to the UK Immigration Minister, James Brokenshire, in which he condemns the use of anti migrant language and rhetoric by Ministers including David Cameron and Theresa May, criticises discriminatory and disproportionate measures against migrants and expresses disappointment with the UK’s lack of solidarity with other EU Member States

The world was battered in 2015 by overlapping crises that fuelled xenophobic sentiment in democratic countries, undermined the economies of states dependent on the sale of natural resources, and led authoritarian regimes to crack down harder on dissent. These unsettling developments contributed to the 10th consecutive year of decline in global freedom.

Email your MP now
Imagine you and your family were fleeing war and terror but you had no legal way to escape your country and find safety. No other country would give you a visa for travel and that would mean you couldn’t simply get on a plane and escape. This is the reality many refugees searching for safety are faced with. They have virtually no options for safe, legal international travel.

Eight Deteriorated Situations in February 2016: Afghanistan, Chad, Korean Peninsula, Mozambique, Somalia, Turkey, Venezuela, Zimbabwe

Join Justice and Peace at the Stand Up To Racism March and Rally on March 19th. Assemble at 11am at George Square, Glasgow. There will be a number of speakers on the day.

Asylum seekers in Scotland have allegedly been locked out of their homes in breach of agreed eviction guidelines. An ex-employee of housing provider Orchard & Shipman (O&S) said this "brutal" practice can leave them destitute and homeless. BBC Scotland has also seen company emails instructing staff to "remove individuals" from specific addresses. The housing company has strongly denied breaching guidelines. (BBC Scotland)

Please ask your MP to sign this EDM
That this House expresses its serious concern about the allegations in The Times Scotland on Thursday 18 February of dehumanising treatment, neglect and poor standards of accommodation for those seeking asylum in the UK who have been dispersed to Glasgow; notes that these allegations pertain to Orchard and Shipman in particular, who have been sub-contracted by Serco, itself under contract from the Home Office

Detention/Adults: The number of people entering detention in 2015 increased by 7% to 32,446 from 30,364 in the previous year. Over the same period there was a 12% increase in those leaving detention (from 29,674 to 33,189). As at the end of December 2015, 2,607 people were in detention, 25% lower than the number recorded at the end of December 2014 (3,462). The fall may be partially attributed to the closure of Dover IRC in October 2015 and changes to the detained fast track asylum process.

The United Nations refugee agency has expressed concern at recent restrictive practices adopted in a number of European countries that are placing additional undue hardships on refugees and asylum-seekers across Europe, creating chaos at several border points, and putting particular pressure on Greece as it struggles to deal with larger numbers of people in need of accommodation and services. (Ekklesia) 

Please ask your MP to sign this EDM
That this House condemns serious and systematic human rights violations resulting from natural resource extraction operations around the world, as highlighted recently in a conference organised by the Latin American Mining Monitoring Programme; recognises that mining, oil and gas extraction projects are often a source of considerable conflict, threatening indigenous and other communities living on the land; believes that women from affected communities are at particular risk from irresponsible mining practices, as they can face dispossession, displacement and sexual and gender-based violence

The Scottish Refugee Council has called for an investigation into allegations about the way asylum seekers are treated and housed in Glasgow. It follows claims in The Times newspaper that refugees have been kept in dirty and dangerous homes and have felt threatened and humiliated. The allegations include the case of a mother and baby housed in a cockroach-infested property in Glasgow.

Increasingly complex and widening conflicts have taken a huge toll on children in much of the Middle East in 2015, with parts of Africa and Asia facing protracted and relapsing wars that show no signs of abating, a senior United Nations child rights official said Monday 15th February 2016. Describing in her annual report to the UN Human Rights Council how extreme violence affected countries such as Afghanistan, Iraq, Nigeria and Syria, the Special Representative of the Secretary-General for Children and Armed Conflict, Leila Zerrougui, stressed that groups perpetrating extreme violence particularly targeted children.

Action by Chritians Against Torture campaign
This is an invitation to send a message of support and greeting to endangered or persecuted Christians at Easter time. They focus especially on those who have been tortured and/or are still threatened with abuse. ACAT hope that you can give these names wide coverage and also send them Easter Greetings.

Labour Behind the Label's new report, shows that despite M&S's commitment to ensure suppliers would be able to pay a living wage to workers by 2015, workers in all of their main production countries continue to live in poverty. (Sarah Butler, theguardian.com)

Ask David Cameron to save lives by giving refugees safe routes to protection
3,772 people drowned last year while trying to find safety in Europe and 410 have died already in 2016. Refugees in Europe are stuck at borders in the freezing cold waiting for protection, families are separated and 10,000 children have gone missing. The world is facing the biggest refugee crisis since the Second World War and the number of refugees worldwide is continuing to rise.

Thousands of young people who sought refuge in Britain as unaccompanied child asylum-seekers have been deported to repressive regimes and countries partly controlled by Isis and the Taliban, the Home Office has admitted. Over the past nine years 2,748 young people – many of whom had spent formative years in the UK, forging friendships and going to school – have been returned to countries including Afghanistan, Iraq, Iran, Libya and Syria. (Maeve McClenaghan, The Independent)

Walk Free Email Action
Excited for a new opportunity and the chance to help her family financially, Sara was brought to the UK by a family to work as a domestic worker in their home. But far from the life she imagined, she found herself locked in the house, working round the clock, with no-one to turn to for help. With support from a neighbour, Sara was able to escape, and now she is doing everything she can to help domestic workers still trapped in slavery

Deteriorated Situations: Burkina Faso, Cameroon, Guinea-Bissau, Haiti, Korean Peninsula, Yemen

A Light Against Human Trafficking
This is the 2nd World Day of Prayer 2016. We are asked to renew our encounter and  join together the values, choices and everyday actions that favour the end of all forms of exploitation and trafficking in persons. We devote a bit of our time to pray and reflect, to think and dream about the dignity and freedom of every person.

'Forward to Freedom' Exhibition in Scotland. This exhibition on the history of the Anti-Apartheid Movement will be touring Scotland over the next few months, starting 1st to 5th February - in the Scottish Parliament in Edinburgh

In the 659-page World Report 2016, its 26th edition, Human Rights Watch reviews human rights practices in more than 90 countries. In his introductory essay, Executive Director Kenneth Roth writes that the spread of terrorist attacks beyond the Middle East and the huge flows of refugees spawned by repression and conflict led many governments to curtail rights in misguided efforts to protect their security. At the same time, authoritarian governments throughout the world, fearful of peaceful dissent that is often magnified by social media, embarked on the most intense crackdown on independent groups in recent times.

In our time, migration is growing worldwide. Refugees and people fleeing from their homes challenge individuals and communities, and their traditional ways of life; at times they upset the cultural and social horizons which they encounter. Increasingly, the victims of violence and poverty, leaving their homelands, are exploited by human traffickers during their journey towards the dream of a better future. If they survive the abuses and hardships of the journey, they then have to face latent suspicions and fear.

First, the Government accept Mr Shaw’s recommendations to adopt a wider definition of those at risk, including victims of sexual violence, individuals with mental health issues, pregnant women, those with learning difficulties, post-traumatic stress disorder and elderly people, and to recognise the dynamic nature of vulnerabilities. It will introduce a new “adult at risk” concept into decision-making on immigration detention with a clear presumption that people who are at risk should not be detained, building on the existing legal framework.

An independent review into the welfare of immigration detainees commissioned by the home secretary has called for ministers to reduce “boldly and without delay” the 30,000 people detained each year. The report by Stephen Shaw, the former prisons and probation ombudsman, calls for a complete ban on the detention of pregnant women in immigration centres such as Yarl’s Wood. He says there should also be a “presumption against detention” of victims of rape and sexual violence, people with learning difficulties, and those with post-traumatic stress disorder.

A record number of asylum seekers in Britain are being left destitute, and planned legislation could plunge thousands more into poverty,  according to the British Red Cross.The charity said it had supported more than 9,000 refugees and asylum seekers who were destitute last year, compared with 7,700 in 2014. The youngest was less than one year old and the oldest was 81

email Action
Modern day slavery is everywhere: from the cotton farms of Uzbekistan, to domestic workers in Mauritania and cattle ranches in Paraguay; from the fisheries in the Philippines, to the World Cup construction sites in Qatar. The production chain of the clothes you wear, the food you eat, the World Cup that you'll watch on TV is hiding a harsh reality for millions of workers. Call on the government to ratify the protocol to end forced labour.

5 actual or potential conflict situations around the world deteriorated and none improved in December 2015, according to CrisisWatch 149. Deteriorated Situations: Afghanistan, Burundi, Djibouti, Ethiopia, Niger

 The United Nations' (UN) International Migrants Day a global observance is annually held on December 18 to recognize the efforts, contributions and rights of migrants worldwide. The number of international migrants has increased from 75 million to about 200 million in the past 30 years and migrants can be found in every part of the world. This year, 2015, marks the 25th anniversary of the UN's International Convention on the Protection of the Rights of All Migrant Workers and Members of Their Families (commonly referred to as the Migrant Worker’s Convention or Migrant Rights Convention). It was approved by the UN General Assembly on Dec. 18, 1990.

"On Human Rights Day, let us recommit to guaranteeing the fundamental freedoms and protecting the human rights of all." United Nations Secretary-General Ban Ki-moon

The 2015 Immigration Bill, which is currently making its way through parliament, could have grave implications for asylum-seeking families if passed without amendment. One of the central proposals is to remove all means of welfare support from families refused asylum. (Katie Bales, Open Democracy)

G4S profits from Israel's brutal occupation of Palestine. So why is the UN giving them $22 million? Waging violence is bad enough. Profiting from it? That’s even worse. But that’s what G4S, a British 'defence' conglomerate, does everyday. They run for-profit prisons and detention centres in occupied Palestine -- and with over 1800 Palestinian men, women, and children arrested in the last 2 months, business is booming.

The government of Saudi Arabia is preparing to execute some 52 prisoners at once, including several juveniles arrested at protests, according to reports.  Several Arabic media outlets have this week reported official sources as saying that 52 prisoners are set to be executed in the near future. The reports appear to suggest that among those executed will be six youths arrested at protests in the country’s Eastern Province – including juveniles Ali al Nimr, Dawoud al-Marhoon and Abdullah al-Zaher. All three were tortured into bogus ‘confessions’ that would be used to convict them. (Ekklesia)

Eight actual or potential conflict situations around the world deteriorated and two improved in November 2015, according to CrisisWatch 148. Deteriorated Situations: Bangladesh, France, Kosovo, Lebanon, Nepal, Syria, Turkey, Venezuela

Children in Detention: The number of children entering detention in the year ending September 2015 increased slightly to 154 from 151 in the previous year. This was an 86% fall compared with the beginning of the data series in 2009 (1,119). In the third quarter of 2015, 31 children entered detention, compared with 32 in the third quarter of 2014 and 72 in the third quarter of 2013. Of the 31 children, 14 were initially detained at Tinsley House (Family Unit) immigration removal centre (IRC), 7 at Cedars pre-departure accommodation (PDA) and 10 at other IRCs and short-term holding facilities (STHFs).

The Parliamentary and Health Service Ombudsman investigated 158 complaints against the Home Office and agencies last year, and upheld 69% of them.  That is more than double the average for the public sector. In one case, a teenage refugee had to wait nearly 10 years before he was allowed to stay.

On the 1st of December MPs will be voting on making changes to the rules which would which would allow more refugee families to live together. Ask your MP to support the reunion of refugee families.  Please email your MP before 1st December

If you would like to send greeting cards to prisoners of conscience this Christmas, Action by Christians Against Torture have lists of prisoners who are, victims of torture, persecuted Christians, or members of human rights groups. Please make sure you follow the guidelines when sending your cards

Deteriorated Situations: Central African Republic, Israel/Palestine, Macedonia, Republic of Congo, South China Sea, Turkey. As armed conflicts in Afghanistan, Iraq, Nigeria, South Sudan, Syria, Yemen, and elsewhere continued to inflict much suffering and instability around the world, the heads of the UN and International Committee of the Red Cross issued an unprecedented joint warning about the impact of today’s conflicts on civilians and called on states to redouble their efforts to find sustainable solutions to conflicts

Choked by gas pollution from a factory; Forced to leave your home to make way for a plantation; Threatened with violence if you question what is going on. This is what is happening to some of the world’s poorest and most vulnerable people because of the activities of some UK-linked companies. We wouldn’t find this acceptable – so why should they?

Several organisations, have published the report “Public services under attack. TTIP, CETA, and the secretive collusion between business lobbyists and trade negotiators.”

Saturday 28 November - Glasgow
Gather Glasgow Green 10:30, March off 11.00 Rally GFT 12noon

Please ask your MP to sign this EDM
That this House notes that refugees have a legal right under UK and international law to be reunited with their families; further notes that refugees seeking reunion are often faced with extreme levels of stress and anxiety, which are only worsened by separation and isolation from their loved ones who remain frequently in desperate and dangerous circumstances overseas;

Hundreds of thousands of people fleeing war-ravaged Syria and other countries in crisis are making desperate choices to seek safety in Europe. More than half of them are landing by boat on the Greek island of Lesbos. (International Rescue Committee)

The Commons Library has produced a briefing paper reviewing the provisions of the Immigration Bill which is due to have its second reading in the Commons on 13 October 2015.  The Bill sets out proposed changes relating to access to services, facilities, licences and work.

A major drive to limit the right to claim asylum in Britain has been announced by the home secretary, Theresa May, prompting criticism from some business leaders and refugee groups. Outlining her “tough new plan for asylum”, May made clear that asylum claims for people affected by war and oppression should be processed in neighbouring countries, rather than the UK offering asylum to those wealthy and fit enough to make it to the country. (Alan Travis, Guardian, 06/10/2015)

The Refugee Council and the Scottish Government launch new online hub for people who want to help with refugee crisis

10 Actual or potential conflict situations around the world deteriorated and 3 improved in September 2015, according to CrisesWatch 146. Deteriorated Situations: Afghanistan, Burkina Faso, Burundi, Central African Republic, Mozambique, Somalia, Syria, Tajikistan, Turkey, Yemen. Conflict Risk Alerts: Afghanistan, Burkina Faso, Central African Republic

Please sign the Petition
The National Coalition of Christian Organisations in Palestine and the Palestine Israel Ecumenical Forum of the World Council of Churches invite you to sign the petition. Stop the illegal Separation Barrier!

European Union leaders meeting on September 23, 2015, focused on how to stem the flow of asylum seekers instead of strategies for a responsible, humane response to the crisis at its borders. The meeting produced a statement that makes a nod to full implementation of the common European asylum system – a set of binding laws to ensure harmonized procedures, recognition rates, and reception conditions. But the reality is that asylum seekers face a protection lottery in the EU due to wide disparities in standards and conditions.  Human Rights Watch, 24/09/2015

Please ask your MP to sign this EDM
That this House is pleased to note the vigil in George Square, Glasgow, which took place on 12 September 2015 to show solidarity with refugees fleeing Syria; considers that those attending the vigil also called for the Government to increase vastly the number of refugees it proposes to settle in the UK who have fled conflict and an increasingly desperate humanitarian crisis;

Tuesday, 29 September 2015 from 19:00 to 21:00 (Doors will open at 18.00 for refreshments before the event. Sir Charles Wilson Building, 1 University Avenue, G12 8NN Glasgow.

In a letter to Scotland’s First Minister, Nicola Sturgeon, the President of Scotland’s Catholic Bishops’ Conference has offered to assist the Scottish Government in accepting refugees. Archbishop Philip Tartaglia has written in support of the First Minister’s response and "inspired by Pope Francis" to "offer the assistance of the Bishops’ Conference of Scotland in any plans that may emerge in the months to come to support and assist the new arrivals to our country"

Please ask your MP to sign this EDM
That this House notes with extreme concern the ongoing refugee crisis being witnessed in Europe and across the Mediterranean Sea; understands that the International Organisation for Migration (IOM) estimates that more than 350,000 migrants have attempted to cross the Mediterranean Sea between January and August 2015; considers it a tragedy that over 2,600 refugees and migrants have died or gone missing whilst undertaking this perilous journey and that at least a further 1,000 have lost their lives along various other migration routes, including the Sahara Desert and South Asia's Bay of Bengal;

It is natural to be moved by the sight of thousands of displaced people clamouring to get away from war and oppression. It is natural but it is not enough. It takes more than a disorganised sense of compassion to arrange to care for and to help these people. The undoubted good will and energy needs to be mobilised and channeled for optimum effect. The immediate needs of charity, however, also need to be balanced by looking at the root causes of these events in the structures of injustice which have given rise to this displacement.

The European Union and its 28 member states should act immediately to address the human rights crisis resulting from years of mismanaging migration and asylum, Human Rights Watch said today. With a humanitarian crisis on the Greek islands, a dysfunctional asylum system in Hungary, thousands of new arrivals in need of protection, and many deaths at EU borders, bold steps are needed at an EU summit on September 14, 2105.

The images we have seen in recent days of the plight of refugees trying to seek asylum in Europe have been heart breaking. Justice and Peace Scotland suggests that we continue to ask the Westminster Government to respond in a humane way to the situation, and to continue to pray for all those whose lives are endangered, whose homes are lost, and whose quest to find safety for their families is thwarted by bureaucracy and a less than compassionate reaction from some governments.

In light of recent events, we share the editorial of our current magazine.

9 Actual or potential conflict situations around the world deteriorated and 3 improved in August 2015, according to CrisisWatch 145. Deteriorated Situations: Afghanistan, Burundi, Central African Republic, Colombia/Venezuela, Guatemala, Kashmir, Lebanon, Nepal, Yemen

For many years European countries have been warned about the inadequacy of their immigration and asylum systems. Now, with increased refugee arrivals and more frequent tragedies, this system is showing all its weaknesses. But refugee arrivals are not the real cause of this collapse. The real reason is political. Nils Muižnieks, EU Commissioner for Human Rights  02/09/2015

The Home Office has put out a consultation reforming support for failed asylum seekers and 'illegal migrants'. Contrary to the media reporting which has so far focused on families with children, it appears that migrants in detention are one of the key targets of these cuts.  The proposal is to abolish support under Section 4(1) of the 1999 Act, which is the provision that allows people in detention to access bail addresses.

Refugees in Scotland face waiting up to a year for their asylum applications to be heard after the UK government slashed the number of cases which can be heard at Scotland's only immigration court.  Immigration lawyers say the number of courts sitting has been reduced from five or six a day to only two following moves by the Ministry of Justice.  (Herald 16/08/2015)

Torture has long been used in Sri Lanka to persecute minorities, crush dissent and stifle civil society. It is deeply entrenched in the fabric of the state and has persisted across the decades regardless of changes in political leadership. (Freedom from Torture )

"Yarl's Wood has deteriorated since its last inspection and the needs of the women held have grown. In my view, decisive action is needed to ensure that women are only detained as a last resort. Other well-respected bodies have recently called for time limits on administrative detention, and the concerns we have identified provide strong support for these calls." said Nick Hardwick, Chief Inspector of Prisons as today he published the report of an unannounced inspection of the Immigration Removal Centre (IRC) in Bedfordshire.

The charities have joined forces to claim the cuts would make it almost impossible for refugees to afford to feed and clothe their families. Tens of thousands of asylum-seekers with children will be pushed deeper into poverty by “cruel” cuts to their support payments which come into force on 10 August, leading charities including the British Red Cross are warning. (The Independent 10 August 2015)

There is little sympathy for the refugees languishing in inhumane conditions in Calais, either from the mainstream press or much of British public opinion. "Migrant Runs 30 Miles Through Channel," booms the Express, referring to a Sudanese refugee who almost made it through the entire Channel tunnel. "We kept out Hitler," offers the ever level-headed Daily Mail. "Why can't our feeble leaders stop a few thousand exhausted migrants?" (Owen Jones, Guardian, 07/08/2015)

Please sign the E Petition
There’s now hope of a brighter future for the millions of out-of-school children trapped in conflict and emergency situations around the world. After receiving 8 million signatures, world leaders recently made a firm commitment to establish a fund for education in emergencies with Norway being the first to pledge funds. If these promises are fulfilled, children in these situations will be less vulnerable to being trafficked, exploited or abused.

Deteriorated Situations: Cameroon, Chad, Egypt, Kashmir, Turkey, Yemen. July saw a worsening of the situation in Yemen, where nearly 2,000 civilians have been killed since the war started in March, while in Turkey a dramatic escalation in violence led to the collapse of the state's two-year-old ceasefire with Kurdish insurgents

The Scottish Churches Anti-Human Trafficking Group (SCAHTG) are working in partnership with Edinburgh Presbytery and Stop the Traffik to host UN Gift Boxes during the Edinburgh Fringe Festival from the 19th – 21st of August and are looking for volunteers to help.

Recent figures indicate an increase in the number of victims of human trafficking and modern-day slavery in the UK. Yet a recent report from the Human Trafficking Foundation has accused the government of failing to provide adequate protection to individuals who have been trafficked, often leaving them exposed to further exploitation or vulnerability.

Please ask your MP to sign this EDM
Parliament is now in recess, but your MP might be able to sign the motion electronically, or can sign it when Parliament resumes. That this House condemns the 30 per cent cut in the daily allowance of asylum seeking children from £7.50 to £5.20; notes that this cut goes against the High Court judgment of 9 April 2014 that the Government assessment omitted the cost of essential items such as nappies; deplores this disregard for children's welfare.

Political and media debates on Roma migration have become recurrent in several European countries.  Since the eastward expansion of the European Union in 2004 and 2007, and the lifting of employment restrictions regarding Romanian and Bulgarian citizens in a number of EU member states in 2014, fears of Roma migration have often triggered uninformed and inflammatory discourse.

Thousands of asylum seekers with children will have to live on £73.90 a week from August as a result of cuts of up to 30% in their support payments, the UK Home Office has announced. Ministers said the cuts, which would affect more than 27,800 destitute asylum seekers, were being made because the current payment system resulted in families with children in particular receiving "significantly more cash than is necessary" to meet their essential living needs.

The Council of Europe has been fighting for children's rights since the UN Convention on the Rights of the Child came into force 25 years ago-and even before. In that time there have been huge strides forward, not only in terms of the many special protections now in place for children, taking into account their unique vulnerability.

Report of an unannounced inspection
A report by the UK's chief prison inspector has highlighted concerns about the detention of vulnerable asylum seekers at Dungavel immigration removal centre. Good outcomes have been maintained for detainees at Dungavel and detainees were positive about their treatment but there were concerns about casework processes, said Nick Hardwick, Chief Inspector of Prisons. The report of an unannounced inspection of the immigration removal centre was published  on Tuesday 7th July 2015

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Nicaragua is planning a new canal for container ships and oil tankers. While the project is economically important for China – the apparent driving force behind the canal – it would mean clear-cutting rainforests, mass resettlement and the destruction of Lake Nicaragua’s ecosystem.

Deteriorated Situations: Afghanistan, Chad, Kuwait, Myanmar, Tunisia. Extremist violence again dominated the month, with deadly attacks hitting Tunisia, Kuwait and Chad, while in Afghanistan the Taliban made further territorial gains and launched an unprecedented number of attacks.

The Court of Appeal on Friday 26th June 2015, finally brought to a halt the Detained Fast Track appeals process for asylum-seekers in detention. The Court of Appeal has lifted with immediate effect the stay on the High Court Order of 12 July 2015 ruling that the Fast Track appeals process is unlawful.

Vigil of Prayer for Victims of Torture
As in previous years the UK Branch of Action by Christians Against Torture will join with Christians around the world to keep a Vigil of Prayer victims of torture. Many European ACATs hold will be holding a prayer vigil during at least part of the night of 26th to 27th but others will be holding services or vigils at the weekend (28th ). This year’s theme is: What are mere mortals that you are mindful of them – human beings that you care for them?”  Psalm 8 v.5

Almost 60 million people worldwide were forcibly uprooted by conflict and persecution at the end of last year, the highest ever recorded number, the U.N. refugee agency said on Thursday, warning that the situation could deteriorate further. More than half the displaced from crises including Syria, Afghanistan and Somalia were children, UNHCR said in its annual Global Trends Report. (Joseph D'Urso, Thomson Reuters Foundation)

A historic vote on the biggest trade deal ever negotiated between the EU and the US has had to be postponed after the European Parliament descended into chaos.  Our MEPs - were meant to have a series of votes on the deal. But after never-before-seen levels of pressure on MEPs from members of the public across Europe, politicians behind the deal were so worried about losing the votes that they cancelled them.

Hundreds of millions of girls and boys throughout the world are engaged in work that deprives them of adequate education, health, leisure and basic freedoms, violating their rights. Of these children, more than half are exposed to the worst forms of child labour such as work in hazardous environments, slavery, or other forms of forced labour, illicit activities such as drug trafficking and prostitution, as well as involvement in armed conflict.

According to an investigation by the International Consortium of Investigative Journalists, in just the ten years to 2013, 3.4 million people were displaced by World Bank-funded projects around the globe: land grabs, dam projects, mines, power plants which leave a trail of broken livelihoods and broken promises of resettlement. These refugees of globalisation, along with refugees from war and persecution, make up the hundreds of thousands who, denied visas, denied boarding on any safe or legal means of transport, are risking their lives on the migrant boats in the Mediterranean in search of security and dignity in Europe. Verified deaths in the Mediterranean went from 600 in 2013 to 3,419 in 2014 and over 1,800 so far this year.

The Clean Clothes Campaign (CCC) is delighted to announce a major campaign victory with the confirmation that the Rana Plaza Donors Trust Fund has finally met its target of $30 million, following a large anonymous donation.  The CCC has been campaigning since the disaster in April 2013 to demand that brands and retailers provided compensation to its victims.

In just a few weeks, a World Bank tribunal could decide whether the tiny Central American nation of El Salvador will have to dish out millions to a Canadian-Australian mining giant - just for rejecting a destructive gold mine. OceanaGold is suing El Salvador for a whopping $301 million under investor laws that allow corporations to shamelessly sue countries.

The Government appears to have delayed plans to replace the Human Rights Act with a British Bill of Rights and Responsibilities. While many of the Conservative manifesto commitments were in the legislative agenda, the Queen's speech said only that 'proposals' would be brought forward for a British Bill of Rights. (Ekklesia)

Please ask your MP to sign these EDMs
Early Day Motion 71: Dawn Raids By Border Agency Staff. Early Day Motion 72: Dungavel Immigration Removal Centre. House of Commons: 02.06.2015

10 actual or potential conflict situations around the world deteriorated and 2 improved in May 2015, according to CrisisWatch N°142.  Deteriorated Situations: Afghanistan, Burundi, Colombia, Korean Peninsula, Macedonia, Pakistan, South China Sea, South Sudan, Tajikistan, Yemen

62 workers may lose their lives for each game played during Qatar’s 2022 World Cup, a tournament likely to be sponsored by FIFA partner companies Coke, VISA, McDonald’s, Adidas, Kia and Hyundai. Without sponsorship, this multi-billion dollar tournament couldn’t take place.

The world is in the grip of the greatest refugee crisis in recent memory. Shamefully, our leaders’ response has been to build the walls of fortress Europe ever higher, leaving desperate people dying disgracefully on our doorstep in the Mediterranean Sea. On the 25th of June, European leaders have the chance to take decisive action to save lives and stop the smugglers in their tracks by offering refugees another route to safety. TAKE ACTION TODAY

Saturday 30 May: Demonstration outside Dungavel removal centre. 12 noon. The Scottish Trades Union Congress (STUC) has criticised the Home Office after it refused to allow a delegation of political and religious leaders access to Dungavel detention centre following reports of a hunger-strike. A demonstration has been called for Dungavel on the 30 May which has the support of trade unions, churches and campaign groups. Please join Justice and Peace at this demonstration

There were 25,020 asylum applications in the year ending March 2015, an increase of 5% compared with the previous year (23,803). The number of applications remains low relative to the peak number of applications in 2002 (84,132).  In the year ending March 2015, the largest number of applications for asylum came from nationals of Eritrea (3,552), followed by Pakistan (2,421) and Syria (2,222).

The UN High Commissioner for Human Rights, Zeid Ra'ad Al Hussein, has urged the UK to take action following a recent article in the Sun responding to the huge loss of human life of those attempting to make the crossing to Europe. The Sun article in question compares migrants to cockroaches and refers to them as 'feral humans.' Zeid is now calling on authorities, media and regulatory bodies to curb incitement of hatred.

8 actual or potential conflict situations around the world deteriorated and one improved in April 2015, according to CrisisWatch N°141. Deteriorated Situations: Burundi, Chad, Colombia, Kashmir, Nepal, South Sudan, Ukraine, Yemen

People held in Dungavel detention centre in South Lanarkshire are paid only £1 an hour for work, it has been revealed. Figures obtained by investigative campaign group Corporate Watch and reported in the Sunday Herald show that detainees at the centre in South Lanarkshire worked a total of 52,858 hours over 12 months between 2013 and October 2014 and were paid £52,858 over the same period. The work undertaken includes cooking, cleaning and laundry with detainees doing work to get money to pay for phone credit in order to call legal advisers and friends.

The Home Office has refused to allow religious and refugee representatives into the controversial Dungavel immigration centre in Scotland amid reports of detainees on hunger strike, it is claimed. An emergency motion before the Scottish Trade Union Congress (STUC) AGM on Tuesday condemns the decision and calls for an end to detention within the asylum system.

On 6 April (Easter Monday) a sinister revolution took place in the renewal of Discretionary Leave to Remain. Until 5th April all applicants for renewal had to fill a form with about 15 pages in it, most of them redundant if the person had committed no offences over the 2½ or 3 years since they had been granted DLR. There was no fee - only the postage cost. Overnight applicants have to fill in a 32-page form and also have to pay £649 per individual, including dependant infants, plus a further £600 per person for a brand new "Immigration Health Surcharge".

This week the world will mark the second anniversary of the worst industrial accident in the history of the garment industry. We must always remember and never forget the thousands of people whose lives were lost or forever changed – all for the price of a cheap T-shirt.

Mapping the unfolding controversy of Home Office immigration campaigns
In July 2013, the UK Home Office launched a series of high-profile initiatives  aimed at directing public attention to what the government was doing to control ‘illegal immigration’. The most controversial of these was a billboard which asked ‘In the UK illegally? Go home or face arrest’, which was mounted on a van driven around London boroughs. Our research project is about studying the impact and implications of these initiatives.

Campaigners have welcomed signs of movement around immigration detention - but celebration may be premature. In March 2015, the All-Party Parliamentary Groups (APPGs) on Refugees and Migration produced a strong report whose main recommendation, that immigration detention be severely curtailed and strictly time-limited, echoed the demands made for decades by detainee groups, campaigners and international human rights bodies.

3 actual or potential conflict situations around the world deteriorated and 4 improved in March 2015, according to CrisisWatch N°140.  Deteriorated Situations: Burundi, South Sudan, Yemen. Improved Situations: Colombia, Guinea-Bissau, Myanmar, Nigeria

HOME secretary Theresa May has been urged by the Scottish Government to investigate conditions at Dungavel following hunger strike protests. (Sunday Herald 29 March)

Sign the online petition
The new Home Office rule, coming into force on March 30th, will force asylum seekers to travel to Liverpool if they want to submit new evidence for their case. What's more, there won't be any help for those who can't afford the journey.

There are protests including hunger strikes in the following UK Immigration Removal Centres: Dungavel, Harmondsworth, Colnbrook, Dover. There are about 70 people protesting in Dungavel. They are refusing to go to the kitchen to eat. The only news we have of this is from inside the detention centres. The National ran this article on 18 March

Published by Foreign & Commonwealth Office 12th March 2015
The Human Rights and Democracy Report presents the Foreign & Commonwealth Office (FCO) analysis of the human rights situation in 27 countries where the UK government has wide-ranging concerns.

Please ask your MP to sign this EDM
That this House notes with serious concern that protests, demonstrations and hunger strikes by detainees have taken place in detention centres around the country, including Harmondsworth Detention Centre; and calls on the Home Secretary to launch an independent public inquiry into the grievances of the detainees which have sparked these protests and to bring forward a report on the use of detention overall.

For the first time ACAT-UK is seeking your help and those of your colleagues, friends and parishes to send an Easter card specifically to victims of torture, persecuted Christians, Human Rights groups and individuals under threat.

8 actual or potential conflict situations around the world deteriorated and none improved in February 2015, according to CrisisWatch N°139. Deteriorated Situations: Libya, Myanmar, Niger, Nigeria, Syria, Ukraine, Venezuela, Yemen

Parliamentary Inquiry into the Use of Immigration Detention Concludes
A cross-party group of MPs and Peers has recommended that the next government should introduce a maximum time limit of 28 days on the length of time anyone can be detained in immigration detention. The call comes in a report published on 3 March 2015 following a joint inquiry into the use of immigration detention in the UK by the APPG on Refugees and the APPG on Migration.

This has been a devastating year for those seeking to stand up for human rights and for those caught up in the suffering of war zones, Governments pay lip service to the importance of protecting civilians. And yet the world's politicians have miserably failed to protect those in greatest need.

The Government's tough rhetoric on immigration is alienating migrant communities and causing 'new forms of racism' to break out across the country, a major study will warn today (2 March). Controversial policies such as the use of billboard vans warning illegal immigrants to “go home or face arrest” and the posting of pictures on Twitter showing suspects being led away by officials has led to legal migrants being subjected to racial prejudice, it concluded. (Independent , 01/03/15)

8 actual or potential conflict situations around the world deteriorated and none improved in February 2015, according to CrisisWatch N°139.  Deteriorated Situations: Libya, Myanmar, Niger, Nigeria, Syria, Ukraine, Venezuela, Yemen

Published 26 February 2015 - Summary Points: October to December 2014
Detention: The number of people entering detention in 2014 fell slightly to 30,365 from 30,418 in 2013. Over the same period there was a fall of 1% in those leaving detention (from 30,030 to 29,655).

House of Lords/House of Commons - Joint Committee on Human Rights

"Violence against women and girls is the most pervasive human rights violation we face globally, whether in times of peace, conflict or post-conflict transition". (Ms Rashida Manjoo, UN Special Rapporteur on violence against women, its causes and consequences.)

Please ask your MP to sign this EDM
That this House expresses alarm at yet another tragic loss of life at sea when 300 migrants were feared drowned in the Mediterranean trying to escape through Libya; notes the wholly inappropriate tendency of many to blame the people-traffickers; acknowledges that thousands have died in the Mediterranean fleeing war, poverty and oppression from all over the middle east and north Africa; further acknowledges that current search and rescue operations are underfunded and wholly inadequate;

The home secretary, Theresa May, will today (9/2/15) announce a wide-ranging independent review of the welfare of immigrants held in detention centres or set for escort, including prior to deportation. The review, to be led by Stephen Shaw the prisons and probation ombudsman until 2010, comes as May prepares to publish a highly critical but more narrowly drawn report on the mental health of detainees, prepared for her by the Tavistock Institute. (Patrick Wintour, Guardian, 08/02/15)

The number of countries designated by Freedom in the World as Free in 2014 stood at 89, representing 46% of the world's 195 polities and nearly 2.9 billion people-or 40% of the global population.  The number of countries qualifying as Partly Free stood at 55, or 28% of all countries assessed, and they were home to just over 1.7 billion people, or 24%of the world's total.

The European Union needs to grant asylum to more refugees and members must share the responsibility of hosting them more equally, the UN High Commissioner for Refugees, Antonio Guterres, said on Tuesday 3 February. With wars raging in Syria, Iraq and other countries, 50 million people are displaced worldwide due to conflicts and persecution, the highest number since World War II, according to the UN agency.

8 actual or potential conflict situations around the world deteriorated and 1 improved in January 2015, according to CrisisWatch N°138. Deteriorated Situations: Bangladesh, Lebanon, Nepal, Nigeria, Philippines, Sudan, Ukraine, Yemen

Senior British faith leaders are calling on Prime Minister David Cameron to increase the number of Syrian refugees resettled in the UK in response to ‘one of the worst humanitarian catastrophes of our time’. In an open letter to the Prime Minister, Bishop Declan Lang, chair of the Catholic Bishops of England and Wales’ Conference Department of International Affairs along with other faith leaders to express support for the UK to do more to help Syria’s refugees find safety here. (Ekklesia)

Lord Bates: Practical arrangements to remove the restriction that prevents Azure card users from carrying over more than £5 credit on the card from one week to the next are imminent. Card users with children are already allowed to carry over unlimited credit. We expect to complete the work by the end of February. Card users will be notified of the change by letter and there will be appropriate changes to our website information about the card.

Lord Hylton to ask Her Majesty's Government whether they intend to consult Asylum Aid about ways to improve protection and fairness for women asylum applicants and support provided for those who have suffered gender-based harm.

Please ask your MP to sign this EDM
That this House expresses concern that the Home Office has made a rule change, due to be enforced on 26 January 2015, that asylum seekers who have been refused leave to remain will have to submit evidence in person in Liverpool regarding their case, regardless of where they are living;

In a rule change to be enforced by the Home Office from January 26, refused asylum seekers will no longer be permitted to submit new evidence that could help their case at local Immigration Reporting Centre. Instead they will have to travel to Liverpool to present any new submissions. Claiments will have to make their own travel arrangements and pay the full cost, including if they cannot return to their home town the same day, overnight accommodation.

By unanimous vote the Congregation for the Causes of Saints recognised Archbishop Oscar Romero’s martyrdom in odium fidei. He was killed whilst celebrating mass. All so-called doctrinal objections to his beatification have been withdrawn. (Gianni Valente, Rome)

Lord Roberts of Llandudno  to ask Her Majesty's Government whether they intend to place time limits on detention for immigration purposes.  Lord Bates: The Government has no intention of introducing a fixed time limit on immigration detention in the UK. Lord Roberts of Llandudno to ask Her Majesty's Government on what ground an individual can be detained for immigration purpose for periods in excess of 30 days.

New report to mark International Migrant Day
To mark the United Nation’s International Migrant Day, Clean Clothes Campaign released a new report in conjunction with the MAP Foundation outlining the gross violations of labour rights among migrant workers in the Thai apparel industry.

The Court of Appeal ruled Tuesday 16th December 2014 that a second element of the Home Office's detained asylum process is unlawful.  The Court found that the detention of asylum seekers who are not at risk of absconding whilst their appeals are pending is unlawful.  The ruling is the second Court of Appeal defeat in a week for the government's immigration policy, following Monday's ruling that the guidance on legal aid for immigration cases is unlawful

Please ask your MP to sign this EDM
That this House condemns the continuing use of rape as a weapon of war and the recent escalation in military attacks in Kachin, northern Shan and Karen States; notes the recent report by the Women's League for Burma, detailing evidence of the continuing use of rape and sexual violence; calls for a nationwide ceasefire and an end to the use of rape and sexual violence as a weapon of war in Burma

Please ask your MP to sign this EDM
That this House notes the introduction on 1 December 2014 of the pilot scheme of the requirement for private sector landlords to conduct immigration checks on their tenants; believes that this will lead to new fees from letting agents to all of Britain's nine million private tenants on moving to conduct these checks; considers that almost no undocumented migrants will be caught, as they will move into illegal tenancies, and in so doing will create a new market for illegal and exploitative landlords;

4 actual or potential conflict situations around the world deteriorated and one improved in October 2014, according to CrisisWatch N°136. Deteriorated Situations: Afghanistan, Colombia, Egypt, Kenya

World Aids Day was the first ever global health day and has continued to be marked since 1988. It is an opportunity to join people worldwide in the fight against HIV, showing support for people living with HIV and commemorating those who have died. More info: UN AIDS       World Aids Day      Catholics for AIDS Prevention and Support   

It is the international community's duty to draw lessons from the horrific violence and atrocious crimes facing minorities around the world to prevent them from being repeated, United Nations Deputy Secretary-General Jan Eliasson said at a forum on minority issues. Speaking to the 7th Session of the UN Forum on Minority Issues on "Preventing and Addressing Violence and Atrocity Crimes Targeted against Minorities," Mr. Eliasson explained that simply saying "never again" is not enough.

Asylum: There were 24,257 asylum applications, an increase of 2% compared with the previous 12 months (23,805), but low relative to the 2002 peak (84,132). The largest numbers of applications were from Eritrean (2,932), Pakistani (2,891), Iranian (1,999) and Syrian (1,802) nationals.

Please ask your MP to sign this EDM
That this House notes that For Our Daughters, a national charity which campaigns against sexist violence and homicide and commemorates those who have died, reports that at least three to four women and girls die each week in the UK as a result of all forms of male violence; further notes that the annual death rate is worse than in the Northern Ireland conflict and exceeds annual troop losses in Iraq and Afghanistan;

The Home Office has been condemned after it renewed a private security giant's contract to run a controversial women's immigration detention centre where staff have been accused of sexual misconduct. The decision to pay £70m to Serco to operate Yarl's Wood in Bedfordshire over the next eight years was attacked by MPs, refugee groups and penal reformers.Yarl's Wood, Britain's largest detention centre for women facing deportation, has suffered a succession of damaging allegations since Serco began managing the facility in 2007. (Independent, 24 Nov)

If you would like to send greeting cards to prisoners of conscience this Christmas, the following organisations have lists of prisoners who are victims of torture, persecuted Christians and human rights groups. Action by Christians Against Torture; Christian Solidarity Worldwide; War Resisters International. Please make sure you follow the instructions given by each organisation when sending your cards

The world marked the 25th anniversary of the murder of 6 Jesuits and two laywomen in El Salvador on Sunday, one of the most chilling episodes in the unrest affecting Central America in the late 20th century.  In the early morning of November 16, 1989, a group of soldiers entered the Jesuit residence of the University of Central America, and dragged 5 priests out of their beds, and shot them in the back of their heads in a courtyard.  They then killed another Jesuit inside the residence.  Finally, they killed the housekeeper and her teenage daughter, who were hiding in a bedroom. (Vatican Radio)

Nearly a year ago, under pressure the UK Government offered a safe haven to some of Syria’s most vulnerable refugees. But sadly, since the Government set up its special resettlement scheme for Syria’s refugees, very few people have actually arrived. Worse still, the Government has said it only anticipates resettling ‘several hundred people’ over a three year period. This is pitiful. We can and should be helping so many more people.

Children must fully enjoy the protection offered by all international human rights treaties. Dignity and integrity of children are non-negotiable. Discrimination on any grounds cannot be tolerated. The UN Convention on the Rights of the Child (UNCRC) adopted in 1989 changed the way in which countries look at children as real rights holders. On 20 November 2014, we celebrate the 25th anniversary of the Convention. It has been ratified by all 47 Council of Europe member states.

In the North of England there are dozens, probably hundreds of Syrians, some with children, who over the past year have waited and waited for their first interview, dumped in overcrowded slum housing on a meagre income. This rise in numbers comes at a time when politicians and the media have constructed a toxic discourse around immigration. For the first time for many years the term 'asylum seekers' is again being demonised alongside 'illegals, 'migrants', 'foreigners', or 'immigrants'. (John Grayson, Open Democracy, 19/11/14)

MPs committee condemns Home Office for extended delays in reaching decisions on asylum claims

A new report by the Public Accounts Committee condemns the Home Office for multiple failings and delays in the processing of asylum claims. The report identifies a range of failings within the Home Office’s new UK Immigration and Visas Department since its creation just eighteen months ago, including the use of outdated data and information, poor quality IT resources and the loss of 120 experienced caseworkers. (Scottish Refugee Council)

8 actual or potential conflict situations around the world deteriorated and none improved in October 2014, according to CrisisWatch N°135. Burkina Faso; Central African Republic; Yemen; Lebanon; Venezuela; Mexico; Kasmir. Iraq

Please ask your MP to sign this EDM
That this House notes the UN Day for the Elimination of Violence Against Women on 25 November 2014; further notes with concern that gender-based violence is present in every society in the world and that globally one in three women will be beaten or sexually abused in their lifetime and that this occurs everywhere, even in the workplace;

Many millions of abortions take place around the world simply because the unborn child is a girl. A bill will be tabled in the House of Commons on the 4th November aimed at combatting the terrible injustice of sex- selected abortion. Please contact your MP ahead of that date.

The cowardice and dishonesty of politicians means we now talk about people as if they were a virus
We are indeed swamped. By stories about immigration. Someone somehow has decided that stories about immigrants are top of every news agenda at every hour. (Suzanne Moore, The Guardian,  29 October 2014)

The lack of political will to stand up for migrant workers' rights remains the greatest challenge to the protection of this "very vulnerable" group of human beings, an independent United Nations expert has affirmed

Final Statement of the International Workshop of Justice and Peace Europe, October 2014
‘Representatives of 22 European Justice and Peace Commissions, met in Greece for an International Workshop on theme of Human Dignity and Economic Crisis. In Greece the impact of the crisis has been particularly stark and visible, with people taking to the streets to protest about the widespread unemployment and its consequences. We have come here to reflect on the threats to, and offences against, human dignity that have emerged, and learn about models of good practice for the protection of human dignity…

The overwhelming majority of migrants living in Britain do not need to learn English, they already speak it. As the most recent 2011 census showed only 138,000 of the 7.5 million non-UK born population in England and Wales cannot speak any English. It is true that the main language spoken by 4 million people living in Britain is not English or Welsh but Polish, Punjabi or Urdu in that order. But 1.7 million can speak English very well, a further 1.6 million can speak it well and 726,000 can get by in conversation but have difficulties with written English. (The Guardian)

A factory floor in a factory in Cambodia collapsed on 21 October injuring a number of people. The factory was producing for H&M and New Look. Four employees suffered back and leg injuries after part of the floor collapsed at a Takeo province garment factory yesterday morning.

"It is not prejudiced to worry about immigration," Ed Miliband suggests. Possibly. But no one is worried about immigration. Yes, 77% of people in the UK want immigration reduced, and 56% want it "reduced a lot" - but this is not worry or concern, rather a hardening anti-immigrant consensus. As to whether this is prejudiced, the evidence is clear: polling shows that most people have a negative opinion of immigration, despite them not having any negative experience of it. In fact, people in areas with most immigrants are least likely to express anti-immigrant sentiment. (Richard Seymour, theguardian.com, 14/10/14)

4 actual or potential conflict situations around the world deteriorated and none improved in September 2014, according to CrisisWatch N°134. Deteriorated Situations: Iraq, Lebanon, Syria, Yemen

Lord Foulkes of Cumnock to ask Her Majesty's Government what is their response to the recommendations made by Barnardo's in its report of April 2014 on the treatment of children in the Cedars facility; which, if any, of the recommendations have been acted upon; and what actions have been taken.

The number of people locked in slavery in Britain rose by 22% last year, with online dating, social media sites and Internet job advertisements used increasingly to recruit victims, a new report has shown. Britain's National Crime Agency (NCA) identified 2,744 people, including 602 children, as potential victims of human trafficking in 2013 with more than 40% ending up in the sex trade and almost 30% forced into manual labour.

The UK continues to deport Tamils seeking political asylum to Sri Lanka, despite strong evidence that the security forces systematically use torture against those suspected of dissident activity five years after the end of the country's civil war. A new report by the Freedom From Torture advocacy group, based on medical evaluations of victims, found that many were subjected to branding and two thirds of those examined suffered rape or other sexual torture. (Julian Borger, Guardian 23/09/14 )

Bail for Immigration Detainees (BID) has been carrying out research this year to identify precisely where delays in the Section 4(1)(c) application process take place, how long the delays are, and why they are occurring.  They have already shared their interim findings with the Home Office. Their final research report, 'No place to go: delays in Home Office provision of Section 4(1)(c) bail accommodation' is now published.

One World Week "Living Differently" Breaking Chains - Making Change

Asylum housing report rings alarm bells

Leaking ceilings, infestations, people with no keys to their building, subject to racist abuse and whose concerns are routinely ignored... Our latest report raises serious concerns about the quality of asylum housing in Scotland and calls for an urgent review.

Vulnerable asylum seekers are being locked out of their homes and left destitute without warning. Campaigners claim that Orchard & Shipman, the housing provider which works on behalf of Serco and the Home Office, is routinely performing lock changes on the homes of people who have been refused asylum. In documents seen by the Evening Times, Serco protocol says a legal process to secure an eviction order should be followed. However, campaigners say they are concerned that this is not being followed, and are calling for action to stop the lock changes. (Glasgow Evening Times 09/09/14)

Much of the chocolate we enjoy may be tainted by child slavery. Anti-Slavery International’s latest research shows the continuation of child trafficking, a form of modern slavery, to cocoa farms in the Ivory Coast, which produces almost 40% of the world’s cocoa. Instead of going to school young boys are forced to spend long days hacking open cocoa pods with machetes, handling dangerous pesticides and carrying heavy loads - work that is deemed extremely hazardous, can lead to injury and ill-health, and that no young child should have to do.

The UK government should address, not dismiss, evidence that employers have abused migrant domestic workers in the UK, Human Rights Watch and the UK charity Kalayaan have said. A draft law before parliament is aimed at combating forced labor and other criminal offences but does not address a visa system that contributes to the abuse of migrant domestic workers by their employers.  Human Rights Watch, 04/09/14

12 actual or potential conflict situations around the world deteriorated and none improved in August 2014, according to CrisisWatch N°133. Deteriorated Situations: Cameroon, Central African Republic, Iraq, Israel/Palestine, Kashmir, Kenya, Lebanon, Libya, Pakistan, Syria, Ukraine, Yemen

The report 'Biased and Unjust : The Immigration Detention Complaints Process' (published 27 Aug), examines complaints - that Medical Justice assisted detainees to make - nearly half of which were escalated to an Ombudsman, illustrating the failure of the Home Office to investigate adequately. Though not accused of a crime, 30,000 immigrants each year are detained indefinitely.

In 1997 Campsfield IRC the first UK Immigration detention centre opened with 200 places.  As of August 2014 the number of places had grown to 3,690 an increase of 17 hundred percent. On the 30th June this year 3,079 of those places were occupied, another 580 places in HMPs were occupied by persons solely detained under immigration rules, bringing the total of immigration detainees to 3,659. As Mitie becomes the Home Office's largest provider of immigration detention this month, merging Colnbrook and Harmondsworth into a super-size 'Heathrow Immigration Removal Centre', Corporate Watch takes a look at the company's track record at Campsfield House, the only detention centre it has run before.

In its Irregular Maritime Movements report, the UN High Commissioner for Refugees has revealed that an estimated 87,000 people have embarked on dangerous journeys across Southeast Asian waters since July 2012 in order to escape the violence in Burma's Rakhine State. 53,000 are thought to have journeyed in the 12 months ending June 2014, an increase of 61 per cent. (The Independent)

Immigration detention centres: Out of sight, out of mind?
Unless you know somebody personally who is detained, you are very unlikely to ever visit an immigration detention centre, know where they are, or be able to imagine what conditions are like for people in detention.

Published 28 August 2014

Removals and Voluntary Departures: There were 12% fewer (-1,744) enforced removals from the UK in the year ending June 2014 (12,415), the lowest figure since the series began in 2004. However there was a much larger, 3,940 increase (+12%) in total voluntary departures, to 37,216. Over the same period the number of passengers refused entry at port and who subsequently departed increased by 3% (+424) to 14,671.

G4S and Serco saving millions by paying detainees as little as £1 an hour to cook and clean, claim campaigners
Home Office figures showed that in May this year, detainees in centres run by Serco, G4S and other contractors did nearly 45,000 hours of work for a total of nearly £45,500 in pay. Had they been paid at the national minimum wage, the cost would have been more than £280,000"  (Kevin Rawlinson, The Guardian, 22 August)

Pope Francis has lifted a ban on the beatification of murdered Salvadoran Archbishop Oscar Romero. An outspoken critic of the military regime during El Salvador's bloody civil war, Archbishop Romero was shot dead while celebrating Mass in 1980. (BBC News)

The Home Office  announced on 12 August, that the cripplingly low level of support paid to people seeking asylum in the UK will remain unchanged. This decision follows a landmark legal battle by Refugee Action which resulted in the High Court ordering the Home Office to review the level of support. Refugee Action is warning that this disappointing decision will continue to push some of the most vulnerable individuals and families in our society further into poverty. Thousands of people who are banned by the government from working are being forced to live on as little as £5.23 a day.

The 2014 Commonwealth Games brought moments of sporting glory, to Glasgow. It also brought protests exposing the gap between Commonwealth ideals and reality in many member countries. The very existence of the Commonwealth, originating from the British empire, raises questions. Nevertheless it offers opportunities for international cooperation and exchange. The Commonwealth Charter commits members to high ideals including democracy, human rights, peace, sustainable development and environmental protection. Yet many – the UK included – fall short, with little real challenge. (Ekklesia)

Colombian families whose relatives were massacred by paramilitaries cannot sue the Chiquita Brands fruit company in federal court, the 11th Circuit United States Court of Appeals ruled last week. The victims charged that Chiquita was responsible for the deaths by funding a right-wing paramilitary group. A panel of judges decided the victims did not have standing in U.S. court, even though the North Carolina-based banana giant pled guilty to U.S. criminal charges in 2007. The victims were claiming potentially billions of dollars in damages from the company.  The ruling was a big victory for the banana giant — and for the rights of American companies to finance international terrorism

Top US Official Hosts Event That Recalls 1st World Day Against This Tragedy (Zenit News)
VATICAN CITY, August 01, 2014 (Zenit.org) - The call to combat human trafficking was echoed again at the Vatican this week. Urging participants to step up the fight and support trafficking survivors, the Vatican held a video conference Tuesday recalling the first World Day Against Trafficking in Persons on July 30, reported Vatican Radio on Wednesday.

Up until 29 July 2014, not all people trafficked into the UK had a right to recover damages from their traffickers. It depended on their immigration status – if it was irregular, they weren't able to do it, even if it was the traffickers who caused their status to become irregular in the first place. Yesterday, thanks to anti Slavery International intervention in the Supreme Court, that changed. In what is a historic judgment, the Supreme Court ruled that trafficked people have a right to claim damages from their traffickers irrespective of their immigration status. This is a hugely important step forward in the fight to end modern day slavery, and a proud week for Anti-Slavery International and their supporters.

7 actual or potential conflict situations around the world deteriorated and none improved in July 2014, according to CrisisWatch N°132. Deteriorated Situations: Afghanistan, Iraq, Israel/Palestine, Libya, Pakistan, Somalia, South Sudan

On August 1, the Istanbul Convention, a landmark treaty of the Council of Europe dedicated to preventing and combating violence against women and domestic violence, will enter into force. It could not come at a better time. Violence against women remains one of the most widespread human rights violations which takes place every day in Europe; intimate partner violence is still among the major causes of non-accidental death, injury and disability for women. This tragic situation stems from a variety of social, economic and cultural reasons, but a common background condition is glaring inequality between men and women. The Convention has the potential to become a powerful driver in making progress on this pressing human rights issue.

“Many asylum seekers in Britain are at near destitute levels because the government doesn’t want to be seen to be soft on asylum seekers,” Sarah Teather MP, chair of the All-Party Parliamentary Group on Refugees, told the annual gathering of the English and Welsh National Justice and Peace Network (NJPN) on Sunday.

The UN refugee agency has issued a new global strategy aimed at helping countries move away from the detention of asylum seekers, refugees and stateless people worldwide. Detention of asylum-seekers and refugees has become routine in a number of countries. It has serious lasting effects on individuals and families. UNHCR is concerned about the growing use of immigration detention, particularly of children.

8th Year of Decline in Political Rights/Civil Liberties
The state of freedom declined for the eighth consecutive year in 2013, according to Freedom in the World 2014, Freedom House's annual country-by-country report on global political rights and civil liberties. Particularly notable were developments in Egypt, which endured across-the-board reversals in its democratic institutions following a military coup. There were also serious setbacks to democratic rights in other large, politically influential countries, including Russia, Ukraine, Azerbaijan, Turkey, Venezuela, and Indonesia. Fifty-four countries showed overall declines in political rights and civil liberties, compared with 40 that showed gains.

6 actual or potential conflict situations around the world deteriorated and none improved in June 2014. Deteriorated Situations: Iraq, Kenya, Pakistan, Somalia, Sri Lanka, Yemen

It makes no more sense to call someone an 'illegal migrant' than an 'illegal person.'
Despite that, the term pops up again and again in the mainstream media. The New York Times recently reported on the 'surge of illegal migrants from Central America across the South Texas border.' The BBC and other European media outlets are similarly reporting on 'illegal migrants' in the Mediterranean and at the EU's external borders. (Human Rights Watch)

Please ask your MP to sign this EDM
That this House notes with grave concern that, despite a global ban on torture, torture has been reported in 141 countries since 2009; is dismayed that governments continue to carry out this barbaric practice while continuously denying it; wishes to raise greater awareness of the International Day in support of victims of torture on 26 June 2014 and the Stop Torture campaign led by Amnesty International to protect individuals from the risk of torture and cruel, inhuman and degrading treatment and punishment carried out by state officials, particularly in the focus countries of Mexico, Morocco, Nigeria, the Philippines and Uzbekistan;

New guidelines on 'safer' restraint include a section on restraining pregnant women. The advisory panel accepts that restraint will cause pain.
Training to start four years after death of Jimmy Mubenga who had been restrained by G4S guards on a plane at Heathrow. Private security staff who carry out immigration deportations could soon be required to wear body cameras as an additional safeguard during removals. ( Alan Travis, The Guardian, Thursday 26 June 2014)

Don’t watch another game until you’ve read this‏.
The World Cup is underway in Brazil right now, but beyond the stadiums there are still 3.5 million people living in poverty. Join in making sure their needs and rights are not ignored. As the eyes of the world focus on São Paulo and the rest of Brazil for the duration of the World Cup tournament, we ask you to ensure that the needs of the country’s poorest and most vulnerable citizens are not forgotten.

Today  (24 June) a parliamentary committee will be asking the bosses of G4S and Serco to explain reports of mismanagement at some of the UK's most notorious immigration removal centres. To coincide with the hearing, tonight BBC Radio 4 will broadcast a special investigation into claims of sexual abuse and poor treatment of women at Yarl's Wood. Undoubtedly worth a listen:

We are very concerned about the lack of urgency and transparency of the brands.
After a two-day public hearing, the jury of the People's Tribunal to assess human rights abuses faced by workers in the Indonesian garment industry, announced its verdict. Judges found overwhelming evidence of ‘systematic violation of the fundamental right to a life lived with human dignity' in an industry employing mostly women and said 'urgent action must be taken' by a variety of stakeholders.

Since the beginning of the Syrian conflict, over 2.5 million refugees have fled Syria, including nearly a million in neighbouring Lebanon, and 6.5 million people have been internally displaced.   A number of reports show that, for many, finding refuge in Europe has been a task even more daunting than fleeing the war. The increase of illegal push-back at European borders, ill-treatment and torture performed by guards in refugee camps, is a breach of human rights that the international community and the European governments cannot ignore

Please ask your MP to sign this EDM

That this House notes the High Court judgment of 9 April 2014 (Refugee Action v Secretary of State for the Home Department) which states that the Government's assessment of the amount needed by asylum seekers to meet their essential living needs is flawed and further notes the Government's decision not to appeal this ruling; is concerned as stated in the judgment, that asylum support rates have not been increased since April 2011 and that the majority of those on asylum support receive just £5.23 a day to pay for essentials such as food, clothing and toiletries; further notes that asylum seekers spend an average of 18 months on this support and are almost never allowed to work;

June 12 is World Day Against Child Labour. There are over 168 million children in child labour worldwide and we must all do our part to put an end to it. ‪#‎RedCard

Championship Seen as Opportunity to Raise Awareness and Prevent Modern-Day Slavery
The 2014 Soccer World Cup, to take place in Brazil June 12 - July 13, will provide an occasion to sensitize the public about human trafficking, say campaigners against the modern-day slavery. For this reason, a campaign called 'Play for life, against trafficking', promoted by Talitha Kum, an international network of consecrated persons, has been launched to put an end to this social scourge. The campaign is being run under the aegis of the General Union of Superiors General  (UISG).  (Zenit.org)

Check out all that is happening in Scotland for Refugee Week

"Young people have been one of the groups hardest hit by the economic crisis in Europe, with youth unemployment being the most common pathology of many countries implementing austerity measures. However, it is not only the social and economic rights of young people that are being undermined, but also their right to equal treatment, their right to participation, and their place in society, and more broadly, in Europe. Due to chronic unemployment, many young people are losing hope in the future of their countries, their faith in the political elite, and their belief in Europe. A rights-based approach should replace the current neglect of young people in discussions about the crisis", says Nils Muiznieks, Council of Europe Commissioner for Human Rights, in his latest Human Rights Comment published 03/06/14.

5 actual or potential conflict situations around the world deteriorated and two improved in April 2014, according to CrisisWatch N°130.  Deteriorated Situations Kenya, Libya, South China Sea, Thailand, Yemen.

There were 23,731 asylum applications in the year ending March 2014, a rise of 1,101 (+5%) compared with the previous 12 months. The number of applications remains low relative to the peak number of applications in 2002 (84,132), and similar to levels seen since 2006 (23,608). The number of initial decisions on asylum applications has decreased by 14% to 15,209 in the year ending March 2014. Of these decisions, 36% (5,433) were grants of asylum, a form of temporary protection or other type of grant.

Protest is not a crime. Give Brazil a yellow card ahead of the World Cup - email action
Last year, Brazilians took to the streets for mass protests on a scale never before seen in the country. The focus of demonstrations quickly widened from outrage at transport fare hikes to include dissatisfaction with inadequate public services, government corruption and forced eviction of communities in preparation for the World Cup. Peaceful protesters in Brazil are being fired on with rubber bullets and tear-gassed by poorly-trained police using excessive force. If it carries on like this, Brazil risks  turning the beautiful game ugly.

Report finds illegal gain from forced labour of about 21 million people amounts to three times more than prior estimates.
Forced labour in the private economy generates US$ 150 billion in illegal profits per year, about three times more than previously estimated, according to a new report from the International Labour Organization (ILO). The ILO report, Profits and Poverty: The Economics of Forced Labour, said two thirds of the estimated total of US$ 150 billion, or US$ 99 billion, came from commercial sexual exploitation, while another US$ 51 billion resulted from forced economic exploitation, including domestic work, agriculture and other economic activities.

Good news for future applicants but bad news for those who have already been removed from the country on the basis of language evidence . . .

Hundreds of cases could be submitted for appeal after a panel of five of the UK's most senior judges found serious fault with the Home Office's use of reports compiled by Swedish firm Sprakab, which analyses the language and dialect of asylum applicants. The Supreme Court judgment focused on the case of two asylum seekers in Scotland. It calls for immigration officials to review the practice as too much weight had been given to the reports in asylum hearings. (Victoria Weldon, The Herald, 22 May)

The ‘More than Gold’ campaign and STOP THE TRAFFIK have teamed up to bring 4 UN Gift boxes to Glasgow for the duration of the Commonwealth Games. The ‘Gift Box’ is an innovative project created by STOP THE TRAFFIK and the United Nations Global Initiative to Fight Human Trafficking and was launched during the 2012 London Olympics.

4 actual or potential conflict situations around the world deteriorated and one improved in April 2014, according to Crisis Watch N°129. Deteriorated Situations: Nigeria, Somalia, South Sudan, Ukraine 

A "badly managed" Home Office scheme resulted in asylum seekers being placed in "unacceptably poor" housing, the Public Accounts Committee has said. Three firms - G4S, Serco and Clearel - were awarded contracts in March 2012 to find accommodation for asylum seekers. But a report by the Commons committee concluded that G4S and Serco had lacked the required experience for the task. The Home Office said, while it accepted there were "challenges" with contracts, it was "disappointed" by the findings. (BBC News, 24/04/14)

Matalan fails Rana Plaza victims - email action
Hundreds of you have been taking action to call on Matalan to pay the £3 million in compensation that they owe to the survivors of the Rana Plaza disaster and the families of the 1,138 victims. Labour behind the Label recently spoke to Matalan head office on the phone and received yet again no confirmation that they will pay into the Rana Plaza compensation fund. We need to keep up the pressure on Matalan around this important date to make sure they pay the £3m they owe.

Rashida Manjoo United Nations Special rapporteur, who travelled across the UK during a 16-day fact-finding mission into violence against women, said she was barred at the gates of Yarl's Wood immigration detention centre on instructions "from the highest levels of the Home Office". She told reporters she was deeply concerned at her exclusion "because if there was nothing to hide, I should have been given access".  Manjoo had received reports of violations at the privately run Yarl's Wood centre, near Bedford, before her visit to the UK and wanted to verify allegations of abuse. Last month a Jamaican woman, Christine Case, 40, died at the centre, which holds about 400 women. (Theguardian.com)

Please ask your MP to sign this EDM. That this House recalls the tributes paid to Nelson Mandela, a great fighter against apartheid and a founding father of democratic South Africa; notes that 27 April 2014 will be the 20th anniversary of South Africa's first democratic election; expresses its concern that one of the legacies of apartheid which has not been addressed is that thousands of South African gold miners, mostly from rural areas that were the primary sources of apartheid migrant labour, have been decimated by epidemic rates of silicosis, an incurable, preventable, respiratory disease that increases susceptibility to tuberculosis, which is endemic in rural areas where TB rates and drug-resistant TB are soaring

Last week the number of Syrian refugees in Lebanon hit 1 million. That would be the equivalent of 18 million refugees arriving suddenly in Germany or 73 million arriving in the United States. Politicians in many well-to-do countries speak in exaggerated terms about being threatened by potential hordes of refugees as they make populist appeals that feed on fears and prejudices. The truth is that the less-developed countries, many of them with significant problems of their own, bear a much heavier burden. The United Nations refugee agency's new annual statistical report, "Asylum Trends 2013," highlights the challenges asylum seekers present to what it characterizes as industrialized countries.'

A report published on the 10th April by the Office of the Children's Commissioner reveals that some children who arrive alone in the UK seeking asylum face a struggle to get their voices heard in a system designed to deal with adults. Children and young people who claim asylum are placed in the care system until they turn 18 but if their claims fail they are then required to leave the UK. This interrupts their education and disrupts their lives. Having learned English and settled in the UK, they are then asked to return to countries they have not seen since childhood, where languages are spoken which they may not be able to write. (Ekklesia)

Police from around the world and religious leaders pledge to work together and to fight against human trafficking
Pope Francis has described human trafficking as "a crime against humanity" as international police chiefs and religious figures pledged in the Vatican to work together to fight modern-day slavery. At the end of a two-day meeting, organised by the bishops' conference of England and Wales and chaired by the archbishop of Westminster, Cardinal Vincent Nichols, Pope Francis met privately with four women, all former sex workers who were the victims of trafficking. (Lizzy Davies, theguardian.com Thursday 10 April 2014)

Refugee Action's case against the Government which argued that the amount paid to destitute asylum seekers is unlawful because it is insufficient to meet their essential living needs or to provide a dignified standard of living was heard on 11 to 13 February 2014. On the 9 April, Mr Justice Popplewell handed down his judgement. In a landmark decision, the judge stated that the Secretary of State’s decision to freeze the rates of support for asylum seekers was ‘flawed’ and that: “She [Secretary of State for the Home Department] failed to take reasonable steps to gather sufficient information to enable her to make a rational judgment in setting the asylum support rates for 2013/2014.”

Yvette Cooper (Normanton, Pontefract and Castleford) (Lab) -(Urgent Question): To ask the Home Secretary to make a statement about Yarl’s Wood. (31/03/2014) Read the debate.

Eradicating modern slavery and human trafficking across the world by 2020 is the objective of a ground-breaking agreement between Catholic, Anglican and Muslim leaders announced at the Vatican on 17 March. Pope Francis and Archbishop of Canterbury Justin Welby have personally given their backing to the newly-formed Global Freedom Network.

Faith-based organisations with the United Nations, have urged expansion of access to anti-retroviral treatment for persons living with HIV and AIDS in a consultation organised by the UNAIDS and Caritas Internationalis, from 25 to 26 February in Rome, Italy. The consultation brought together more than one hundred participants including representatives from Christian faith traditions, UN organisations, Vatican, governments, donors, the medical and scientific community and the diplomatic corps accredited to the Holy See.  (Ekklesia)

Recent reports disclose the horrific reality behind the Tetley tea empire - workers on plantations in northern India, including children, are paid less than $3 a day to pick our tea. They toil from dawn until dusk, often spraying industrial pesticides with little protection, and going back to run-down homes that are open to rain and wind -- their only option. Researchers say that overflowing latrines have created “a network of cesspools” within the living area for employees and their families. But the massive corporation that owns Tetley, Tata Global Beverages, is refusing to take serious action.

An unpublished government-wide review has rebuffed repeated claims by Theresa May, the Home Secretary, that immigration has consigned large numbers of British workers to the dole queue. The potentially explosive report concludes that there is "very little evidence" of such job displacement when the economy is growing. One Whitehall source told The Independent the review found immigration had a "negligible" impact on British workers. (Independent 06/03/14)

Violence against women is "an extensive human rights abuse" across Europe with one in three women reporting some form of physical or sexual abuse since the age of 15 and 8% suffering abuse in the last 12 months, according to the largest survey of its kind on the issue, published on Wednesday. The survey, based on interviews with 42,000 women across 28 EU member states, found extensive abuse across the continent, which typically goes unreported and undetected by the authorities.

The Scottish Government announced that it would introduce world-leading anti-slavery legislation. Well done Scotland.   In Scotland right now, potentially the world’s ‘most innovative and comprehensive’ anti-slavery laws are up for discussion in parliament. An unprecedented action plan is on the table that outlines tough penalties for offenders and a new system of support for survivors. This could also be used to inspire other modern slavery laws around the world. The Scottish Government has until Tuesday, 18 March, to show its support for this model anti-slavery law in Scotland.

10 actual or potential conflict situations around the world deteriorated and one improved in February 2014, according to CrisisWatch N°127. Deteriorated Situations: Burundi, Central African Republic, Somalia, South Sudan, Nigeria, Thailand, Ukraine, Venezuela, Syria, Libya

In the fourth quarter of 2013, 63 children entered detention, compared with 65 in the fourth quarter of 2012 and 45 in the fourth quarter of 2011. Of those children entering detention in the fourth quarter of 2013, 30 were initially detained at Cedars PDA, 29 at Tinsley House (Family Unit) IRC, one at Campsfield House IRC, one at Morton Hall IRC, one at Tinsley House (Non Family Unit) IRC and one at Larne House STHF.

email your MP
Please ask your MP to sign this EDM:  That this House notes that since Qatar won the bid to host the 2022 World Cup the country has experienced a construction boom; further notes that in the last two years hundreds of Indian and Nepalese migrant workers have died working on construction projects in Qatar; moreover is extremely concerned that in the build-up to 2022 hundreds more migrant workers will die due to unsafe working conditions; and calls on the Government, the international community and FIFA to act to urge Qatar in the strongest possible terms to drastically improve working conditions, review the migrant worker sponsorship scheme and properly compensate the families of migrant workers who have been injured or killed.

The conflict that has torn Syria apart has raged for almost three years, left more than 100,000 people dead in its wake and driven nine-and-a-half million from their homes. It took intense political pressure to get the British Government to agree to offer hundreds of the "most needy people" in Syrian refugee camps a home in this country.  Sarah Morrison, Indpendent, 23/02/14 

Asylum: There was an 8% increase in asylum applications in 2013 (23,507) compared with 2012 (21,843), although well below the peak number of applications in 2002 (84,132). The increase in 2013 was particularly driven by rises from Syria (+681), Eritrea (+649) and Albania (+507). While Syria saw the largest increase in applications, it remains fourth for overall numbers of asylum applications. Read the full report

The grim statistic comes from the Pravasi Nepali Co-ordination Committee, a respected human rights organisation which compiles lists of the dead using official sources in Doha. It will pile new pressure on the Qatari authorities - and on football's world governing body, FIFA - to curb a mounting death toll that some are warning could hit 4,000 by the time the 2022 finals take place. (The Observer, 15 February)

The Immigration Bill finished its passage through the House of Commons on 30 January. The third reading ought to have been a last chance for MPs to consider seriously the devastating impact of the removal of the right to appeal wrong immigration decisions, the enormous accretion of powers to the executive, without whose consent judges may not grant bail in certain circumstances, or consider new grounds of appeal; the transformation of residential landlords into immigration enforcers, the denial of all shelter to those without papers. (Written by Frances Webber for the Institute of Race Relations)

12 actual or potential conflict situations around the world deteriorated and two improved in Janary 2014, according to CrisisWatch N°126. Deteriorated Situations: Afghanistan, Bangladesh, Egypt, Iraq, Kyrgyzstan, Lebanon, Libya, Nagorno-Karabakh (Azerbaijan), South Sudan, Tajikistan, Thailand, Ukraine.

Ten countries given the lowest possible rating  for both political rights and civil liberties. Central African Republic  / Somalia / Equatorial Guinea / Sudan / Eritrea / Syria / North Korea / Turkmenistan / Saudi Arabia / Uzbekistan.  The state of freedom declined for the eighth consecutive year in 2013, according to Freedom in the World 2014, Freedom House's annual country-by-country report on global political rights and civil liberties.

Over 2.3 million people have now fled Syria’s bloody conflict. It's the fastest outflow of refugees from a country since the Rwandan genocide. So far the UK has refused to resettle a single Syrian refugee. But after months of campaigning, we’ve just had a breakthrough. In Prime Minister’s Questions this week David Cameron indicated he was willing to look at the possibility of offering protection to some of Syria’s most vulnerable refugees. On Wednesday 29 January there will be an important vote on the issue in Parliament. We need you to ensure your MP votes for the UK to take part in the UN’s global resettlement programme for refugees fleeing Syria. We did it! UK Accepts Syrian Refugees‏

Voluntary groups and NGOs reacted with anger after the government used the whipping system to vote down amendments to its controversial Lobbying Bill. "The Commons has today chosen to completely ignore both the Lords and the legitimate concerns of civil society," commented Alex Massey, Senior Policy Officer at ACEVO, the charity leaders' organisation, after the short debate. Others expressed similar sentiments. But campaigners point out that peers and fewer than 20 MPs can alter the balance again, and say they are 'not going away'. (Ekklesia)

Despite 12 years of armed conflict, investment and capacity-building by foreign governments in Afghanistan, including by European Union governments and the EU itself, women's rights remain in peril.Violence against women and forced marriage are rife, while high-profile female government officials and civil society activists face threats and attacks by the resilient Taliban insurgency. All too often, the government appears unable or unwilling to bring to justice the perpetrators of these crimes. Worse, in the last year Afghan government officials have themselves attacked some of the most basic legal safeguards for women. (Human Rights Watch, 20/01/14)

Ten Scottish organisations including Scottish Refugee Council issue a joint statement expressing concerns about the Immigration Bill. Ministers in Scotland must intervene to prevent “inappropriate” and “unworkable” UK Government proposals on immigration taking effect in Scotland, a cross-sector group of organisations has warned. In a statement going to Immigration Minister Mark Harper and Deputy FM Nicola Sturgeon, representatives from Scotland’s housing, health, migrants’ rights and refugee sectors raise concerns about the UK Government’s Immigration Bill, yet to come before the House of Commons at report stage, which proposes landlords must check tenants’ immigration status, while temporary migrants could be charged for NHS services. (Alan Robertson, Holyrood Magazine)

Pope Francis has chosen 'towards a better world' as the theme for the Catholic Church's World Day of Migrants and Refugees, which took place on 19 January 2014. Hospitality, cooperation and justice should characterise the response of communities and nations to displaced people, the leader of the world's 1.2 billion Catholics declared. This must include an end to treating migrants and refugees as 'pawns', to scapegoating, stereotyping and exclusion.  (Ekklesia)

Voluntary organisations are calling on the UK government to reconsider its Lobbying Bill following a major defeat in the House of Lords last night -- plus a petition handed in by former Bishop of Oxford Lord Harries, backed by 120 NGOs and 166,000 people in less than a week. Campaigners won a significant vote at Westminster in the Bill's Report Stage on 15 January 2014, thanks to the votes of crossbenchers, Labour peers, two rebel Conservatives and four rebel Lib Dems, two English Anglican bishops and an independent. (Ekklesia)

That this House is concerned that support rates under section 4 and section 95 of the Immigration and Asylum Act 1999 are very austere; notes that a maximum payment of £35.39 per person per week is barely half the sum of income support and is often not sufficient to cover essential medical, food and transport costs; deems the maximum level of support of just £5.06 per person per day as a strong driver of asylum seekers' social exclusion in society; urges the Government to raise the support rates under section 4 and section 95 of the Immigration and Asylum Act 1999 to a minimum of £45.44 per person per week, representing 80 per cent. of income support, for single adults;

As we reach the final stages of the Lobbying Bill in parliament, the UK Government has started to respond to the overwhelming opposition from charities, NGOs and advocacy organisations, the pressure is working. Key amendments will be tabled by former Bishop of Oxford Lord Harries, chair of the Commission on Civil Society and Democratic Engagement, which is now backed by over 130 organisations. (Ekklesia)

11 actual or potential conflict situations around the world deteriorated and none improved in December 2013, according to CrisisWatch N°125, Deteriorated Situations: Bangladesh: , CAR. China/Japan, DR Congo, Egypt, Korean Peninsula, Lebanon, North Caucaus (Russia), South Sudan, Thailand, Yemen

The UN refugee agency has condemned David Cameron's proposed immigration laws over fears they could stigmatise foreigners, deny housing to people in need and create a 'climate of ethnic profiling'. In a highly critical document, the office of the United Nations high commissioner for refugees, António Guterres, raised concerns that the immigration bill will damage communities and lead to the marginalisation of refugees and asylum-seekers. It comes after Tories reacted angrily to the UN's special investigator on housing, Raquel Rolnik, who warned earlier this year that the bedroom tax was causing 'shocking' hardship in parts of the UK. (The Guardian, Thursday 26 December 2013)

Commenting on the publication of the preliminary work of the Gibson Inquiry into UK rendition in torture, and the announcement by Cabinet Office Minister Ken Clarke that the Government will no longer hold a judge-led inquiry into the issue but will instead pass the issue to the Intelligence and Security Committee, Clare Algar, Executive Director of legal charity Reprieve said: “These findings show just how crucial it is that a fully independent and transparent inquiry is held into the UK’s involvement in torture and rendition.

Father John Dear's blog from The National Catholic Reporter

With everyone else, I've been mourning, celebrating and reflecting these past few days on the extraordinary life of Nelson Mandela, who died Dec 5. I'm amazed at his political vision; his daring revolutionary commitment; his patient endurance through 27 years in prison; his determination to avoid war and reconcile South Africa upon his release; his persistent forgiveness; his outspoken stance against war, poverty, AIDS and U.S. imperialism; his towering example; and, perhaps most of all, his personal dignity and humanity.

Email action by Walk Free
At the moment the UK is introducing new laws on Modern Slavery. Let's make sure it helps protect children from trafficking.

Ekklesia has endorsed a new report, published today (10 Dec), calling for substantial changes to the government's Lobbying Bill, which in its present form would severely restrict the free speech of civic groups a year before an election.  "The Commission's consensus proposals for amendment represent a definite improvement, but serious doubts remain as to whether the Lobbying Bill can be rendered fit for purpose in time for the 2015 election. It will be open to significant legal challenge and may leave legitimate campaign groups with little option but to challenge an unjust law," warned Ekklesia co-director Barrow.

“It always seems impossible till it's done” “I have walked that long road to freedom. I have tried not to falter; I have made missteps along the way. But I have discovered the secret that after climbing a great hill, one only finds that there are many more hills to climb. I have taken a moment here to rest, to steal a view of the glorious vista that surrounds me, to look back on the distance I have come. But I can rest only for a moment, for with freedom comes responsibilities, and I dare not linger, for my long walk is not yet ended.”

All people of good will are invited to write a message of hope and encouragement to our friends in Bethlehem. The season of Advent and Christmas reminds us of the birth of our Lord Jesus Christ as the Prince of Peace.  The expectation of a just peace in Israel – Palestine is still alive, locally and globally. Pax Christi International supports all those in the Holy Land who show enormous courage in choosing peaceful ways that leads to a just peace. They raise their voices and speak truth to power, acting out inspirational stories to restore peace and build bridges between communities and religions in countries throughout the world.

Edinburgh Woollen Mill still refusing responsibility, and the Families of Tazreen Fashions fire victims continue to wait for justice. On November 24th 2012, over 120 workers were killed and many more injured when a fire ripped through the Tazreen Fashions factory in Dhaka, Bangladesh. Photos taken and documents retrieved from the burnt out ruins showed Tazreen had been producing garments for the UK company Edinburgh Woollen Mill (EWM). EWM have yet to pay a penny in compensation to these workers.

Fr Timothy Radcliffe OP gave the following lecture entitled: 'A Disturbing Truth: the Church, the poor, and Oscar Romero' at Westminster Abbey, (29 October) Manchester (31 October) and Edinburgh (1st November)

Saturday 30 November 2013.  Rally 12 noon, Glasgow Film Theatre, Rose Street, Glasgow.  Speakers include: Jerry Dammers, Musician and anti-racism campaigner: Hope not Hate, Speaker: Alan White, United Glasgow Football Club. Dee Matthew, Show Racism the Res Card

 

The release of several prisoners of conscience in Burma today is a positive step, but time is running out for the government to keep its promise to release everyone imprisoned for peaceful activism by the year's end, Amnesty International says. Burma (known by the regime as Myanmar) recently announced the release of 69 political prisoners, including several prisoners of conscience. (Ekklesia) 

 

A sharp increase in the use of the death penalty in Iraq has brought the number of known executions to the highest in the decade since the toppling of Saddam Hussein in 2003, with at least seven prisoners sent to the gallows yesterday, sparking fears that many more death row prisoners are at risk.  "Iraq's increased use of the death penalty, often after unfair trials in which many prisoners report having been tortured into confessing crimes, is a futile attempt to resolve the country's serious security and justice problems," said Phillip Luther, Middle East and North Africa Director at Amnesty International.

If you would like to send greeting cards to prisoners this Christmas, here are some options Action by Action by Christians Against Torture: download the list here  Christian Solidarity Worldwide: download the list here  War Resisters International: download the list here

UNAIDS reports a 52% reduction in new HIV infections among children and a combined 33% reduction among adults and children since 2001. World closing in on Millennium Development Goal 6, globally the AIDS epidemic has been halted and reversed—race is on to reach universal access to HIV treatment. See also SCIAF

The government needs to listen to charities, churches and unions, and to amend substantially those provisions in its Lobbying Bill which would curtail the legitimate advocacy functions of voluntary organisations, says the Christian think-tank Ekklesia. The response came to news of a five week delay for further consideration agreed by the government on 5 November, after substantial pressure on parliamentarians concerning the advisability and workability of the Transparency in Lobbying, Non-Party Campaigning, and Trade Union Administration Bill.
Read the full press release from Ekklesia 

Freedom of religion is a fundamental human right. When citizens are prevented from enjoying that right, the social, political and cultural implications can be serious, as the debate will show. The loss of other human rights can swiftly follow. The debate is therefore important not only for Christians, but for all religious groups and minorities, and indeed for everyone seeking to live out the dictates of their conscience in worship, teaching, practice and observance, respectful of others' right to do likewise, and under the protection of a state striving to achieve that positive vision under the rule of law. That is a far cry from the reality for many Christians in the middle east. House of Commons, Westminister Hall Debate

Pope Francis on Monday (28 October) received Burmese Nobel Peace Laureate, Aung San Suu Kyi in the Vatican, offering his support to her commitment towards democracy. The Burmese opposition leader, a former political prisoner in her own country, is currently on a visit to Europe and on Sunday was made an honorary citizen of Rome. During the meeting, which took place in the Papal Library, Pope Francis expressed his appreciation for Aung San Suu Kyi’s commitment towards democracy in her country, and assured her of the Church’s support towards this cause.

Email your MP
Please ask you MP to sign this EDM. 'That this House notes that Bangladesh is currently the world's second-biggest producer of textiles and garments, and that it's mostly-female workforce of four million people are the lowest paid in the world and face appalling working conditions on a daily basis for less than £28 a month; deeply regrets the tragic disasters at garment factories across Bangladesh in recent months, which have claimed well over 1200 lives, left tens of thousands too injured to work and pushed millions more into poverty; commends Global Citizen's See Through Fashion campaign, which is working with the British fashion industry to encourage retailers to sign up to the Accord on Fire and Building Safety in Bangladesh, which will ensure better safety and working conditions for the people who make a majority of Britain's clothes;

The Lobbying Bill passed its second reading in the House of Lords last week. Despite some amendments made in the Commons, it is still deeply flawed. Can you help out by sharing your views with the Lords as they prepare to debate the Bill in Committee Stage this week? You can write to the Bill’s sponsor, Lord Wallace, here. Let him know you share concerns – that the Lobbying Bill could severely affect our ability to raise important issues in the lead up to elections – and that’s why we are asking you to share your thoughts with him.

 

 

Harmful practices inflicted on women and girls can never be justified in the name of freedom of religion or belief, an independent United Nations human rights expert told a General Assembly committee dealing with social, humanitarian and cultural issues. "Countless women are exposed to complex forms of human rights violations based on both religion or belief and their sex," said Heiner Bielefeldt, the Special Rapporteur on freedom of religion or belief. (UN News Centre, 29 October 2013)

Nine billion reasons to act for justice
Every year the Scottish Government spends £9 billion buying goods and services - some from Scotland, some from much further away. This autumn, the Government and MSPs will debate a new law, the Procurement Reform Bill, which will guide how this £9 billion is spent. SCIAF is launching a new campaign calling for Scottish Government to make sure our money is not used to exploit workers, damage the planet or benefit unethical businesses.

Thirteen faith-based organisations have written to David Cameron and Nick Clegg to express their fear that the Lobbying Bill will "curtail our ability to express deeply-held beliefs in the political arena" The letter states that even after the Government’s latest amendment to the Bill, the signatories believe there is a "very real risk that non-biased political activity will be captured by the…Act." (Ekklesia)

In the summer of 2005, while the G8 met in Scotland and made promises that have yet to be kept, a people’s movement was born in Edinburgh - The Edinburgh World Justice Festival. Bringing together people & organisations who share the common values of justice, peace, non-violence, human rights for all, democracy, respect of differences, independence and self-responsibility, honesty & openness, equality & solidarity. The 2013 EWJF programme is set to be packed with talks, workshops and action that will keep the issues of world justice in the public eye. View EWJF events here

BBC One - Panorama,  Dying for a Bargain. If you missed 'Dying For A Bargain' on 23 September, you can watch it here. Panorama investigated the shocking working conditions in Bangladesh clothing factories and how the Western fashion industry is turning a blind eye.   

  

Take One Action – Scotland’s global change film festival – is back in Edinburgh and Glasgow from 27 September to 12 October, premiering two weeks of the best new international cinema connecting us across our shared planet. Get involved today!

In April over 1200 people died in Bangladesh when the Rana Plaza building collapsed. There has never been a clearer sign that all retailers need to dramatically raise their efforts to ensure that those making their clothes are doing so in safety and with dignity. After huge public pressure over 80 clothing brands signed up to a union-backed Accord on Fire and Building Safety in Bangladesh. Please contact the 8 clothing brand that refuse to sign the accord telling them that there are no excuses for ignoring safety standards and workers’ rights in Bangladesh

Many observers thought that child labour was a thing of the past in Europe. However, there are strong indications that child labour remains a serious problem and that it might be growing in the wake of the economic crisis. Governments need to monitor this situation and to use the UN Convention on the Rights of the Child and the European Social Charter as guidance for preventive and remedial action. Vulnerable people are always disproportionately affected in times of economic down-turn. The link between declining economic growth and increasing child labour is therefore no surprise. With the recession many European countries have drastically cut social aid. As unemployment soars, many families have found no other solution than sending their children to work.  Nils Muiznieks, Commissioner for Human Rights, 20/08 /2013

Communities, churches, statutory authorities, survivor groups, police and NGOs need to work together better to tackle modern day slavery in Scotland and across the UK. That was the message coming out of a conversation asking 'Does Slavery Exist in Scotland Today?' at Just Festival in Edinburgh on Wednesday 8 August. Human trafficking, exploitation of migrant labour, forced prostitution, child exploitation, selling of organs, organised sexual abuse and domestic servitude are only a few examples of modern human enslavement, and it has been a growing problem, participants in the discussion at St John's Episcopal Church heard. (Ekklesia)

 

Index compiled/researched by 'Fund for Peace' - An independent, nonpartisan,  non-profit research and educational organization that works to prevent violent conflict and promote sustainable security. Though the index will show that some countries have moved down the index, this does not mean that conditions have got better;  just that they have been replaced by countries with deteriorated conditions moving up the index. Top ten worst countries in 2012: Somalia, DR Congo, Sudan, South Sudan, Chad, Yemen, Afghanistan, Haiti, Central African Republic, Zimbabwe

UN Secretary-General Ban Ki-moon has strongly condemned the deadly upsurge of violence in Egypt and called on security forces to respect the right to free speech and assembly while urging protesters to demonstrate peacefully. Protests on Friday and Saturday (26 and 27 July) have left scores of people dead and hundreds others injured. “The Secretary-General once again calls on the interim authorities to assume full responsibility for the peaceful management of the demonstrations and ensure the protection of all Egyptians,” Ban's spokesperson said in a statement. (Ekklesia)

The children of Guantanamo detainee and British resident Shaker Aamer have submitted statements to a US Senate hearing on the closure of the prison, describing life without their father. On 24 July, the Senate Judiciary Subcommittee on the Constitution, Civil Rights, and Human Rights – Chaired by Senator Richard Durbin – held a hearing on closing the prison at Guantanamo Bay. It was the first hearing of its kind since 2009. In a statement put on the record at the hearing, Shaker’s son Michael wrote: “Since I have grown up I find it very difficult without my dad. I can feel how hard it is for my mum. Even though he has been cleared for release, he has been tortured.” (Ekklesia)

shocking undercover report from Chinese sweatshops, shows a killer disease being inflicted on workers in the name of fashion

Chinese workers are exposed to silicosis, a deadly lung disease, while working in factories that produce jeans for Western brands such as Levis, H&M and Gap. The ‘distressed’ denims found in almost any high street store come with a hidden human cost. Sandblasting, one of the techniques used to produce these popular jeans, destroy workers’ lives. War on Want jointly with their partners in China exposes in the report, Breathless for Blue Jeans: Health hazards in China’s denim factories, the plight of workers in six factories in Guandong, the Chinese province responsible for half of the world’s entire production of blue jeans.

 

“It is in your hands to make a difference.” Nelson Mandela. Today is the fourth International Nelson Mandela Day. All over the world, people are honouring Nelson Mandela's legacy by committing their time to serving others.  Follow this live blog for the latest updates.

Violence against women is one of the most widespread and serious human rights violations occurring every day in Europe. Only in the last three weeks more than five women have been killed in different countries, including Austria, Italy, Spain and Ukraine.  These murders are only the tip of a much larger iceberg of thousands of cases happening all over the world. Although there is a lack of comprehensive data, it is conservatively estimated that more than 60,000 women and girls die yearly in the world due to violent causes. Nils Muiznieks, Commissioner for Human Rights, Strasbourg, 10/7/2013

Fast fashion at what cost: what does the recent collapse of a garment factory, resulting in over 1000 deaths, reveal about how clothes get to our high street shops? Read this interview with Traidcraft's private sector expert Fiona Gooch to find out more:

Three children from Vietnam who were trafficked to the UK and forced to work for criminal gangs have had their criminal convictions quashed. The children were arrested after police raids on cannabis factories and later convicted of drug offences. In an unrelated case, a woman from Uganda had her conviction for carrying false documents overturned. The court ruled the four should not have been prosecuted because they were victims of a "vile trade in people". Lawyers for the four argued they should not have been prosecuted because they were all victims of trafficking.
(BBC News, 21/06/13) 

With an estimated 10.5 million children worldwide working in people's homes in hazardous and often slavery-like conditions, the United Nations labour agency today called for an end to child labour in domestic work and urged decent working conditions for adolescents who can be legally employed. "There is no place and no excuse for child labour in domestic or any other form of work," UN International Labour Organization (ILO) Director-General, Guy Ryder, said in his speech in Geneva to mark World Day against Child Labour. According to the latest figures in ILO's report, Ending child labour in domestic work, of the 10.5 million underage workers, an estimated 6.5 million are child labourers aged between five and 14 years of age. More than 71 per cent are girls, some of whom work as a result of forced labour and trafficking.UN News Centre, 12/06/13

Justice for crimes committed during the ethnic violence in southern Kyrgyzstan in June 2010 remains elusive and the authorities' commitment to accountability is in doubt. Many people have gone on trial in connection with the violence. But the justice process has been seriously flawed from arrest to conviction, and has led to lengthy prison sentences based on unsound convictions. Criminal investigations into the June 2010 violence have been marred by widespread arbitrary arrests and ill-treatment, including torture. Unchecked courtroom violence and other egregious violations of defendants' rights have blocked the accused from presenting a meaningful defence. Human Rights Watch has documented how investigations disproportionately and unjustly targeted ethnic Uzbeks, and how this group has a heightened risk of torture in custody.
 Human Rights Watch, 08/06/13

UN Committee against Torture report May 2013. Concluding observations on the fifth periodic report of the United Kingdom, adopted by the Committee at its fiftieth session (6-31 May 2013). UK practice highlighted; Amending the 2010 UKBA EIG allowing detention of people with mental illness unless it cannot be managed in detention; Conducting an immediate independent review of the application of Rule 35; Reviewing the screening process for administrative detention of asylum-seekers upon entry; Lowering the evidential threshold for torture survivors; Deportations to Sri Lanka; Restraint of children.

Hundreds of millions of girls and boys throughout the world are engaged in work that deprives them of adequate education, health, leisure and basic freedoms, violating their rights. Of these children, more than half are exposed to the worst forms of child labour such as work in hazardous environments, slavery, or other forms of forced labour, illicit activities such as drug trafficking and prostitution, as well as involvement in armed conflict.

 

President Obama, in a major defence policy speech, failed to provide any meaningful assistance to the hunger-striking detainees being held without charge at Guantanamo Bay, says legal charity Reprieve.  The speech comes amid revelations that prisoners are being subjected to invasive and aggressive cavity searches as a matter of policy if they want to take phone calls or meetings with their lawyers. (Ekklesia)

That this House notes with concern that despite steady improvement in the rights of Afghan women since the severe repression of the 1990s, women in Afghanistan are once again in danger; raises concerns about information indicating that women are being marginalised in the peace process, ignored in the security transition and that they continue to be subject to violence in the home and attacks against the defenders of women's rights; commends the efforts by the Foreign and Commonwealth Office and the Department for International Development to ensure the Afghan government upholds its commitments on women's rights, including through implementation of the Elimination of Violence Against Women law, which is a central commitment under the Tokyo Mutual Accountability Framework; praises the campaign being led by Amnesty International UK to highlight the plight of women in Afghanistan; and calls on the Government to keep the pressure on the Afghan administration to put women first.

A new report released today by the Internal Displacement Monitoring Centre (IDMC) reveals that 32.4 million people were forced to flee their homes in 2012 by disasters such as floods, storms and earthquakes. While Asia and west and central Africa bore the brunt, 1.3 million were displaced in rich countries, with the USA particularly affected. 98% of all displacement in 2012 was related to climate- and weather-related events, with flood disasters in India and Nigeria accounting for 41% of global displacement in 2012. In India, monsoon floods displaced 6.9 million, and in Nigeria 6.1 million people were newly displaced. While over the past five years 81% of global displacement has occurred in Asia, in 2012 Africa had a record high for the region of 8.2 million people newly displaced, over four times more than in any of the previous four years. (Reliefweb, 13/05/113)

Scottish Interfaith Group on Domestic Abuse
Souls of our Shoes Exhibition from Monday 6th May to Monday 27th May at St Mary’s Scottish Episcopal Cathedral, Palmerston Place, Edinburgh EH12 5AW. The shoes in this exhibition speak on behalf of abused individuals who suffer and some who die at the hands of their partner. Other comments come from those who journey with them. Their reflections represent a faith perspective. 'It is God’s intention for all human beings, male, female, child and adult, to enjoy safety, freedom, dignity and fullness of life. Abuse in the home is a violation of God’s wish for humanity as it can adversely affect an individual’s relationship with God and also creates substantial damage in the family, in the community and in society as a whole.' (From the Inter-Faith Statement) With timely help, many can escape from their abusive situation, rebuild their confidence and live in safety. This exhibition has been adapted from the ‘104 pairs of shoes’ initiated by the YWCA.

Labour Behind the Label - Our advice to you
In the face of stories about sweatshop factories and buildings collapsing in Bangladesh, it is often difficult to know where you should shop. Buying 'sweatshop free' clothes is a complicated business. Labour Behind the Label exists to help improve conditions for garment workers on the ground and empower them to change their systems for the better – they are not a consumer label and can't hope to know everything there is to know about all brands.

Over 30 global brands have signed onto the Bangladesh Safety Accord. A huge thanks to everybody who has helped! The struggle is by no means over, but this is a major breakthrough that will bring real change. Shame on retailers like Walmart and Gap who refuse, but together with you we hope to change their ways still. Read the announcement.
 

Stop Press! Primark, H&M and Zara, have signed on to  the Bangladesh Safety Accord. This will save lives. Thank you to all who have signed petitions, over 30 brands signed up but some have not. Find out more. Stop The Killing! Demand safety for Bangladeshi workers. Over 1200 people were killed in the Bangladesh Rana Plaze building collapse. On Wednesday 24th April thousands of workers went to work at one of their garment factories located above the Rana Plaza shopping centre in Savar, Dhaka. They had been told to return to work despite noticing large cracks appearing the building only the day before. Over 370 of these workers were killed and over a thousand injured when that same day the building came crashing down, trapping them under tons of rubble and machinery. Send an email NOW

The Democratic Republic of the Congo (DRC) is the world’s toughest place to be a mother – and Finland the best – according to Save the Children’s annual State of the World’s Mothers report. The Mother’s Index, contained within the report, looks at 176 countries around the world that are succeeding – and failing – in saving the lives of mothers and their new-born babies. It assesses mothers’ well-being using indicators of maternal health, under-five mortality, levels of women’s education, income, and political status. The Nordic countries sweep the top spots while, for the first time, countries in sub-Saharan Africa take up each of the bottom ten places in the annual index. A woman or girl in the DRC has a one in 30 chance of dying from maternal causes – including childbirth – but in Finland the risk is one in 12,200.

The sad fact behind the building collapse in Bangladesh in whch hundreds died is that it isn't an isolated problem.  The story will leave the headlines at the end of this week but on Monday hundreds of thousands of workers will return to factories that are frankly further tragedies waiting to happen, and will keep producing clothes for high street brands.  (Anna McMullen, campaigner for Labour Behind the Label, on CNN)

STOP PRESS PT Kizone workers paid by Adidas, A huge thanks and congratulations to everyone who helped win this momentous struggle.
In April 2011, 2,800 workers in Indonesia lost their jobs after their factory, PT Kizone, closed down. Since then these workers have been fighting to get the $3.4 million they are owed in severance pay. Since the closure many workers have been unable to find new work and struggle to stay in their homes and keep their children at school. An international campaign has called on brands producing at PT Kizone to pay severance. While Nike and Dallas Cowboys have paid $1.6million to the fund, adidas has refused to pay a penny, despite strong international campaigning. Join the Footlocker International Day of Action on 22nd April. Act Now!

The number of people internally displaced by armed conflict, violence and human rights violations at the end of 2012 was 28.8 million, an increase of 2.4 million people on the previous year and the highest global figure ever reported by the Internal Displacement Monitoring Centre (IDMC). Over 6.5 million people were newly displaced inside their home countries in 2012, almost twice as many as the year before. Because these people have not crossed a border, they are not refugees and do not benefit from international protection. ''Much of the spike in the number of internally displaced people worldwide was due to the 2.4 million people displaced by the crisis within Syria by the end of 2012,'' said Kate Halff, Director of IDMC.

In November 2011 at least 112 workers died in a fire at Tazreen Fashions, a garment factory near Dhaka, Bangladesh. Many workers jumped to their deaths trying to escape from the nine story building. Others were simply burned alive. Factory windows were barred to prevent theft and there weren’t enough fire exits, making it impossible for workers to escape. Workers’ families have not only lost a loved one but have been left in even worse poverty. Many injured workers are unable to afford medical treatment. The Tazreen workers produced for labels including Edinburgh Woollen Mill, who have so far refused to engage with Labour Behind the Label or the Bangladesh trade unions to ensure the victims of the fire get the justice they deserve. Act Now! Sign the petition calling on Edinburgh Woollen Mill, and other buyers from the Tazreen Fashions factory, to pay full compensation to the victims and their families.

Today on the International Day of Remembrance for Victims of Slavery, we honour those who suffered at the hands of the brutal slavery system and renew our commitment to stand up against modern slavery.

According to a new report by 'Sri Lanka Campaign for Peace and Justice'. The Sri Lanka government continues to break its international treaty obligations and its own laws through its treatment of Tamil political prisoners. At Sri Lanka's Universal Periodic Review (which periodically examines the human rights performance of all 193 UN members), the panel noted that four pledges made by the government in 2008, in relation to prisoners, were 'incomplete'. Overall, the government rejected 100 of the 210 recommendations made to it. See also Mark Townsend and Hussein Kesvani guardian.co.uk,  23 March 2013

The fulfilment of basic human needs, our environment, socio-economic development and poverty reduction are all heavily dependent on water. Good management of water is especially challenging due to some of its unique characteristics: it is unevenly distributed in time and space, the hydrological cycle is highly complex and perturbations have multiple effects. Rapid urbanization, pollution and climate change threaten the resource while demands for water are increasing in order to satisfy the needs of a growing world population, now at over seven billion people, for food production, energy, industrial and domestic uses. Water is a shared resource and its management needs to take into account a wide variety of conflicting interests. This provides opportunities for cooperation among users.

 

Ministers, the police and social workers have been accused of a "shocking" failure to prevent the spread of modern slavery in the UK, leading to sexual exploitation, forced labour and the domestic servitude of adults and children from across the world. Describing government ministers as "clueless" in their response to tackling human trafficking, both into and within the UK, the most exhaustive inquiry yet conducted into the phenomenon concludes that the approach to eradicating modern slavery is fundamentally wrong-headed. Instead of helping vulnerable victims who are trapped into forms of slavery after being trafficked from overseas, the legal system prosecutes many for immigration offences. Inquiry outlines 80 recommendations, including appointing an independent commissioner and new legislation to protect victims (The Observer, 09/03/13)

Campaigners from War on Want have called for the British private security corporation G4S to be held to account for its involvement with Israel's unlawful detention of Palestinians. The call followed the death of a Palestinian prisoner, after his alleged torture in custody by Israel's internal security service Shin Bet.
(Ekklesia)

A repressive cycle of widespread human rights violations by the armed forces pursuing former President Laurent Gbagbo's supporters is making reconciliation in Côte d'Ivoire ever more elusive. The national army, set up by President Alassane Ouattara in order to integrate forces loyal to the former President in the wake of the 2010 post-election violence which led to nearly 3,000 deaths, was supposed to ensure "the safety of person and property without distinction" and "be a powerful instrument for national cohesion".   But the truth behind this public gloss is that this new national army, along with an armed militia of traditional hunters - the Dozos - are carrying out extra-judicial executions, deliberate and arbitrary killings, politically motivated arrests and torture. They are acting with almost total impunity under the pretence of ensuring security and fighting against perpetrators of armed attacks. Reliefweb, 26/02/13

That this House is saddened by Panorama's account of the legacy of the UK's sacrifices in Afghanistan that revealed the Afghan police as an ill-disciplined, drug addicted force practising endemic child abuse, corruption, kidnapping, murder and the looting of equipment paid for by British taxpayers; is distressed to hear of the absence of remorse following the murder of three boys killed when attempting to escape from police abuse; and recalls that 440 British soldiers died attempting to improve life in Afghanistan.   House of Commons: 26/02/2013