Save Jamal Saberi from deportation to Iran
Posted on March 11, 2010
An appeal from WPI
Jamal Saberi (Jalal Amanzadeh Nouei) was arrested on Thursday 4 March 2010 by the Japanese Immigration Bureau in Tokyo with the intention of deporting him to Iran.
Mr. Jamal Saberi is a well known political opponent of the Islamic Republic of Iran and has been politically active for the last 18 years in Japan. His lengthy political activities with the Worker-communist Party of Iran, and against the Islamic regime of Iran have come to the notice of Iranian authorities and he applied for refugee status to the Japanese Minister of Justice on May 10, 2001.
The fate of opponents of the regime has been well documented over the last 30 years and has gained international focus in the last 10 months: Imprisonment, widespread use of torture, rape, show trials, executions. The Islamic Republic of Iran continues to be a major abuser of human rights with no evidence of improvement.
Mr. Saberi has a well-founded fear of persecution based on his political opinion and political activities. His life and freedom would be in imminent danger if he were to be deported to Iran.
The International Federation of Iranian Refugees calls for the immediate release of Jamal Saberi (Jalal Amanzadeh Nouei) and he must be granted refugee status.
We have set up an online appeal that will send your letter of protest straight to the Japanese Ministry of Justice and the UNHCR representation in Japan.
You can sign it here: http://hambastegi.ruzeroshan.com/jamalS
We must act quickly to save Jamal from deportation!
We call on all individuals and organisations to help save Jamal Saberi from deportation to Iran where his life and liberty are in danger.
You can also write to the Japanese embassy in the country where you live, a list with contact details is here:
http://www.mofa.go.jp/about/emb_cons/mofaserv.html
We have included a sample letter at the end of this email. Please send your appeal immediately.
For further information, contact Farshad Hoseini Tel:0031 613940534 or E-mail farshadhoseini@yahoo.com.
Thank you for your help with this appeal.
Urgent Action Network IFIR
Postbus 1312
5602BH Eindhoven,
Netherlands
http://www.hambastegi.orgIFIR is an international non-governmental organization with over 42-branches in 16 countries worldwide which advocates promoting and protecting the rights of Iranian refugees and asylum seekers;provides evidentiary support through its Documentation Center;and provides referrals for services.
We have also included the Japanese Ministry of Justice and UNHCR contact details here:
Ministry of Justice
Address: 1-1-1 Kasumigaseki,
Chiyoda-ku, Tokyo 100-8977
Phone: +81-3-3580-4111
e-mail: webmaster@moj.go.jpUNHCR Representation in Japan
UN House 6th Floor
5-53-70 Jingumae, Shibuya-ku
Tokyo 150-0001, Japan
Tel +81-3-3499-2011/2310
FAX+81-3-3499-2272
UNHCR Representation in Japan
Protection Unit
Tel 03-3499-2075
Mail jpntopu@unhcr.orgSAMPLE LETTER
RE: Jamal Saberi (Jalal Amanzadeh Nouei)
To Whom It May Concern:
I am writing to express my strongest concern over the fate of Jamal Saberi (Jalal Amanzadeh Nouei) who is currently detained by the Japanese Immigration Bureau and is going to be deported to Iran from Japan. Jamal Saberi is a political opponent which will face serious persecution if deported to Iran.
I urge the Japanese Immigration Authorities to immediately release him and cancel his deportation order. I also urge the UNHCR and the Japanese Immigration Ministry to grant him refugee recognition.
I am awaiting your immediate intervention in this life-threatening situation. Needless to say, the UNHCR and the Japanese government will be held accountable for Jamal Saberi’s life and freedom.
Signed
Name
OrganizationCC: farshadhoseini@yahoo.com
International Women’s Day At Yarl’s Wood
Posted on March 8, 2010
8 March is International Women’s Day. In the Yarl’s Wood ‘Immigration Removal Centre’ concentration camp, women are in the fifth week of a hunger strike over arbitrary detention and imprisonment without trial, routine violence and abuse by racist thug ‘guards’, separation of mothers and children, denial of medical treatment and legal representation (there is a full list of their demands here.
Hunger strikers have been assaulted by guards and Denise McNeil, Aminata Camara, Sheree Wilson, Shellyann Stupart, Gladys Obiyan (designated as ‘ring-leaders’) have been detained in isolation in Bronzefield and Holloway prisons, again without being charged of any crime or being remanded in custody by a judge — their detention is purely administrative and on the say-so of bureaucrats in the UKBA.
The Yarl’s Wood Five and all others who have committed no crime must be released from detention immediately.
Close the detention centres! Stop the deportations!
The detained women are asking you to email/fax/phone/write to: Rt. Hon Alan Johnson, MP, Secretary of State for the Home Office, requesting that Denise, Aminata, Sheree, Shellyann, and Gladys, are returned to Yarl’s Wood immediately or released into the community.
Download model <Yarl’s Wood Five.doc>, which you can copy/amend/write your own version, there are no Home Office reference numbers available as the women were moved from Yarl’s Wood, without their belongings.
Rt. Hon Alan Johnson, MP
Secretary of State for the Home Office
3rd Floor, Peel Buildings
2 Marsham St
London SW1 4DF
Telephone: 020 7035 0195
Fax: 0870 336 9034
Email: Privateoffice.external@homeoffice.gsi.gov.uk
Emails: UKBApublicenquiries@UKBA.gsi.gov.uk
CITTO@homeoffice.gsi.gov.uk
Please let the campaign know of faxes/emails sent:
WomenBehindTheWire@ncadc.org.uk
Please keep sending Solidarity messages
The Blood-soaked Hands Of Phil Woolas And UKBA
Posted on March 8, 2010
Three people have died after throwing themselves from the fifteenth floor of one of Glasgow’s Red Road tower blocks. When news of this tragedy first emerged yesterday, the first question was ‘does this have something to do with UK Border Agency and the Minister of State for Concentration Camps and Anti-Immigration, Phil Woolas?’ (the Red Road flats are scheduled for demolition and many of the otherwise unoccupied flats are currently used to house destitute refugees and asylum seekers). Unsurprisingly the answer is ‘yes’. ‘Unofficial’ reports leaked to the press indicated that the deceased were Kosovan nationals who had been refused leave to remain in the UK and were scheduled for ‘removal’. They are ‘removed’ now, Minister. A day’s work of which you and your department colleagues can be truly proud.
Immigration controls, which exist to protect the lords of Capital from the importunities of those whose wealth imperialism has expropriated. Controls are implicitly racist and unfair — not least because their roots lie in fascist agitation against Jews, Africans and Asians. New Labour and the Tories are entirely committed to Fortress Europe and its network of dehumanising concentration camps, and ‘removal’ centres, where people are declared ‘illegal’ ie ‘un-human’ by virtue of their skin colour and passport and deported to persecution, torture and murder; frequently by governments propped up by ‘the West’. This is all on the pretext that there are ‘not enough’ jobs or houses to go around, as if there a fixed number of jobs or houses or schools. All the while the richest 1% of the world’s population grow ever richer (the wealth must be coming from somewhere) and food production and consumption and waste increase while half the world starves.
No to all immigration control legislation! No to immigration controls! Equal and full employment rights for all!
Prospect ‘How To’ Guide To Crossing Picket Lines
Posted on March 8, 2010
Last week, the Prospect trade union circulated a memo to all its members in the Civil Service, advising members to cross PCS picket lines during industrial action over changes to the Civil Service Compensation Scheme:
Working with four other unions, FDA, Unite, GMB and POA, Prospect has come to an agreement on the final changes to the scheme. Prospect members will therefore not be taking industrial action. There may be picket lines at your place of work on each of these days and for any subsequent action. It should be noted that PCS pickets at any place of work will be aimed at PCS grades and are not intended to prevent Prospect members from attending work on these days [...] This means that any Prospect members who decided not to cross a picket line would be in an individually vulnerable position, and in law we cannot advise members to take such action.
This does nothing to negate the PCS hierarchy’s own appalling economism and narrow self-interest. Members of the hierarchy are only interested in safeguarding their own comfortable permananet civil service jobs, cozying up to the bosses and ‘cutting’ little deals with them. Some delegates are uninterested in agency workers and actively discourage them from joining the union.
New Labour has failed to repeal the Tories’ anti-union legislation, but in the event of a Tory government after the May election, the position of workers will deteriorate even further, with attacks on workers’ terms and conditions of employment increasing, as the Tories, with their Victorian workhouse mentality, seek to make the workers pay for the economic and social devastation which are the fruits of Tory policies last time they were in government.
SDL Degenerates Into Paranoia
Posted on February 24, 2010
After Saturday’s successful antifascist action on Edinburgh’s Royal Mile, the so-called ‘Scottish Defence League’ has degenerated into paranoia and back-biting. According to reports they have closed their Facebook and Bebo — Bebo! — sites and from now on will only accept members who are personally vouched for by at least two active fascists, while the location of future meetings will only be revealed to specially vetted members. A section of the SDL membership are convinced that ’spies’ within their shambolic organisation fed information about their whereabouts on Saturday to antifascists and the police. They display an (even for fascists) shocking lack of self-awareness — specifically that groups of skinhead racist thugs don’t blend into the Scottish ’scenery’ in any context except an Orange Order ‘walk’ or the supporters of certain football clubs.
The fascist SDL is in disarray — its ability to organise has been severely degraded. The tactic of confrontation not accomodation has been vindicated yet again.
Joint Statement By 3 Iranian Unions
Posted on February 21, 2010
In a joint statement to the Human Rights Council of the United Nations coinciding with the fourth anniversary of the international solidarity movement with the imprisoned workers of the Syndicate of Workers of Tehran and Suburbs Vahed Bus Company, that union and the Syndicate of Workers of Haft Tapeh Sugar Cane Company and Free Union of Workers in Iran have presented Iranian workers’ most urgent and most basic demands at the present time:
Abolishment of executions, immediate and unconditional release of labour activists and all other social movements activists from jails,
Rescinding all charges against labour movement arrestees,
Immediate and unconditional freedom in formation of labour unions, without the need to have permission from managements, compliance with all labour related international conventions, eradication of all non-labour establishments from working environments, and to prosecute the suppressors and deniers of workers’ human rights,
Unconditional rights to have strike, protest, and freedom of speech,
Complete equality between men and women at work and in all other aspects of social, economical and family lives,
Total abolishment of child labour and providing educational and medical environment for all children.
Who Protects The Nazis? The Police Protect The Nazis!
Posted on February 20, 2010
Today nearly a thousand police were deployed on the streets of Edinburgh to protect the racists, football hooligans and nazi scum of the so-called ‘Scottish Defence League’. Hundreds of police were brought into the city from around Scotland and Northeast England to act as hired muscle for rascist, fascist thugs, while thousands of antifascists staged counter-demonstrations around the city.
On the Royal Mile, over 100 police, including helicopters, police intelligence units and camera crews — are you putting that on YouTube pal? — formed four lines across the road either side of Jenny Ha’s pub where fascists were meeting. A Dutch observer shook his head and said ‘this country is gone, this country and America — fucked. They don’t allow fascists to do this sort of thing in civilised countries’.
Behaving in a predictably bone-headed and heavy-handed manner, police kettled hundreds of antifascist demonstrators and local residents for hours, with residents being prevented from entering or leaving, and shop-workers also kept from going to their jobs inside the cordon. Attempts to negotiate their passage through the cordon by neighbours, relatives and colleagues were rebuffed by police. Meanwhile the police personally escorted individual nazis to and from Jenny Ha’s pub through antifascist lines. Starting at two o’clock, SDL members were bused away from the area on chartered public buses under heavy police escort.
While most of the fascists scurried away back to their rat-holes, a few of the criminal scum were brave enough to show their faces on the street, whereupon they set about tearing up placards and attempting to intimidate demonstrators — obviously trying to start fights. The police looked on and did nothing to stop them. Racists are a protected species in Edinburgh. Next time they are called out to pick up the pieces of an Asian or Polish kid murdered by racist thugs, police can reflect upon their contribution to a ‘job well done’.
For a supposedly simple ‘public order’ policing operation, on which the police claimed to be doing nothing more than standing between two opposing groups, there were a great many officers engaged in ‘intelligence gathering’ — photographing and filming antifascists. Police were not observed filming the nazis.
Whose streets? Our streets! The SDL know they can’t come back to Edinburgh without an escort from a thousand of their mates in Lothian and Borders Police.
