Rosa, one of the SOAS 9 cleaners, was deported today. Marina is the only cleaner left in the hateful racist Serco run Yarl’s Wood. There was an attempt to blockade the vans from leaving carrying people to be deported. Unfortunately, the protesters didn’t succeed. One person was arrested. Hopefully there will be more blockades and actions against deportations.
One of the cleaners who was deported on the Sunday to Colombia, was still in the same clothes from the Friday (when forcibly detained by the immigration officials) when she arrived in to Bogotá. All the woman had was 75 pence and was miles away from her family in Cali.
The money these cleaners earned has been frozen by the government so they can’t get access to it. They have no money; exploitation, deportation and now the government steals their money!
I listened to speakers outside the Home Office tonight. Unison and PCS members, along with other union activists (myself a member of the GMB), students and activists overall all showed, vocally, our anger at this form of state racism. An activist was on the phone to Amelia, one of the hunger strikers in Yarl’s Wood. Her message was simple: keep on fighting!
Someone mentioned the appallingly latest racist slogan from Gordon Brown ‘local homes for local people’ (remember ‘British jobs for British workers’), which goes against Harman’s Equality Bill btw!! More pandering to racism by NL as opposed to fighting against it. When I heard this slogan on the news the other night it sent one big shiver down my spine.
So NL is tough on immigration by deporting some of the most exploited workers. Showing their mighty iron fist by degrading, humiliating and vilifying some of the most powerless in this society. When profit determines pay and conditions. And when migrant workers fight back they are punished.
For concrete and practical things to do look at the SOAS cleaners website.
El pueblo unido jamás será vencido!!
Activist on the phone to Amelia who is at Yarl's Wood
