One Planet Leeds, Spring 2012

Refuge in Film

Refuge in Films 2012 has recently put out a call for short films produced between January 2011 and February 2012. The deadline is 30th March, 2012.

Open to national and international filmmakers from all backgrounds, the organisers have asked for short films (under 30 minutes) with an optional special focus on films made by young people about young people.

Set to be shown at BFI Southbank in June 2012, the films will be part of hundreds of events across the country organised for Refugee Week.

For more information about the competition, see www.refugeinfilms.org or contact refugeinfilms@gmail.com

Still Destitution... STAR and Amnesty Sleep-out

 Braving the blustering Leeds winds, members of Leeds' STAR and Amnesty groups still slept outside Leeds University Union last night, demanding greater rights for refugees, asylum seekers and those seeking sanctuary in the UK. Challenging the government to acknowledge the realities of destitution across the country, students and activists came armed with sleeping bags, fleeces and parkas, setting up camp outside the busy Union building at the heart of the University's campus.

Part of STAR's Action Week, the sleep-out has become a famous demonstration of Leeds' dedication to becoming a City Of Sanctuary. Last nights demo was visited by Leeds' Lord Mayor, the Reverend Alan Taylor, who happily engaged in discussions with the campaigning students. 

Destitution is still a huge problem in Leeds, and across the whole of the UK. Thanks to STAR and Amnesty, the issue is becoming harder for authorities and government to ignore. To learn more about STAR's campaigns and actions, see this recent Guardian article. 

Statelessness in the UK

The UN Refugee Agency, alongside Asylum Aid published a report in November 2011 named ‘Mapping Statelessness in the United Kingdom’, highlighting the struggles faced by the ‘stateless’ individuals in the UK. A stateless individual is defined by the 1954 Convention on the Status of Stateless Persons as a ‘person who is not considered as a national by any state under the operation of its law’. This report aimed to highlight the current problems faced by such ‘stateless’ individuals and make some recommendations as to how their position can be improved.

Despite the United Kingdom's efforts to protect stateless individuals with the ratification of the 1954 Convention, the report still emphasizes some disturbing realities that take place on a daily basis. One of the most fundamental problems faced by stateless individuals is that there is an absence of any formal procedure for which they can apply for their statelessness to be recognized. This has grave practical consequences; with no identity documents, the stateless individual is unable to leave the country. This lack of formal procedure, combined with no leave to remain within the UK, means that individuals are more at risk of having their human rights breached. This is due to the fact that without any formal status they are more likely to be left without residence or separated from their family. However, due to a lack of data surrounding the issue of statelessness, the UN Refugee Agency and Asylum Aid were unable to gain a realistic picture of the scope of such problems in the UK. Nonetheless, it is suggested that these issues already affect many.

Consequently, the report makes some important recommendations to the government and Home Office based on the problems discussed, including a proposal for the introduction of a formal procedure by which stateless individuals can be identified and calls for the reformation of current UK stateless persons law to ensure that it is compatible with human rights declarations. Whilst at present the government does not appear to have acted on these recommendations, it is hopeful that the report will act as the catalyst for such overdue change.

By Ruth Hartley

Migrant Communities and Housing in the UK

The Joseph Rowntree Foundation, alongside HACT (a housing action charity), have today published a report on migrants experience of the private rented sector in the UK. As a section of a three-part report on housing and migration by The Housing and Migration Network, these papers aim to influence policy making in order to accommodate the needs of new migrants to the UK. Working to improve the housing circumstances of recent migrants who are victims of poor housing, whether they be asylum seekers or migration workers, and creating concrete changes to housing policy that is community specific, this report calls for government to include communities in the formulation of proposals and policy.

According to the report, 75% of recent migrants to the UK live in private rented accommodation. Firstly,  this fundamentally dispels the myth that migrants and asylum seekers exploit government provided social housing. Yet the problem remains that the private housing sector is less clearly regulated than public provision. A lot of accommodation inhabited by migrants is either in poor condition or heavily overcrowded, often with irregular tenancies. Whilst the government refuses to tackle the malpractice of exploitative landlords, the impact of this precarious housing situation is often felt in the wider community. Rather than the issue being created by the migrants themselves, the tension between 'settled' and 'new' communities is perpetuated by poor regulation of the private housing market.

As campaigning groups begin to put more pressure on G4S, the multinational security company that is set to take over the social housing contract for asylum seekers in Yorkshire and Humberside, it is important to remember that housing is a huge problem for migrants at large. Those who have precarious lives, whether as refugees or economic migrants, should, like everyone else, not be left to the greedy hands of some exploitative landlords; no-one's rights should become the victim of capital.

My life is in Limbo – can you tell me when it will end?

Imagine life in limbo, waiting for years for a decision from UK Border Agency, unable to work, unable to study, surviving with no income, no benefits, nothing. That’s the situation for people supported through the Leeds Hardship Fund (http://lassn.pir2.info/leeds_hardship_fund.htm), who get just £25 per week for four weeks to help them survive the in the worst of the British winter.

Last week one man in this situation rang UKBA from LRF to ask how long it would be before a decision was made on his case (outstanding since 2004). The UKBA officer said "it would be decided in due course". The man repeatedly asked when that would be - a month, six months, a year?  But was only given the same bland answer – "in due course".  He has had his MP asking on his behalf, his solicitor asking repeatedly, all to no avail.  He was in tears after the phone call. He is not unique in this situation.