At the beginning of February, the National Coalition of Anti-Deportation Campaigns (NCADC) announced a desperate cash crisis and imminent closure - very, very bad news for those desperate asylum seekers who rely on the organisation.
NCADC is unique - the only national organisation which supports those facing deportations and assists them in establishing campaigns for the right to stay.
For the past ten years it has linked campaigns together and provided huge amounts of information on the daily struggles faced by asylum seekers, both in detention and in the community.
The problems faced by NCADC comes at a time when legal aid for those fighting asylum cases has been seriously restricted and new qualification requirements for
practitioners means many are left to represent themselves.
NCADC is often a last resort for desperate asylum seekers. For the last six years, NCADC has been funded by the Community Fund (now the Big Lottery Fund) but this funding has now ended. In 2002 NCADC's grant was suspended and an investigation launched into the organisation's "political activities' after it was vilified in the Daily Mail.
Generous donations from individuals and other supporters carrica lne organisathrough until the Community Fund monies were unfrozen.
But following the Daily Mail attack and the resumption of the Lottery Fund money, NCADC has been placed in a position where its activities have been minutely scrutinised.
Many organisations and individuals are appalled at the thought of there being no NCADC to turn to.
"NCADC has been invalumake a one-off donation or hold a workplace collection. able in helping doctors in the Medical Justice Network to gain access to detainees. ... If they are forced to close, many aeserving Will become even more vulnerable than they are already. I urge
"The work they are doing needs some money and this is very Imporlant because tney can't achieve their objectives and help refugees and asylum seekers without it. They can't disappear because our lives depend on them."
An asylum seeker
"NCADC provide the most prompt information service in the UK on issues affecting migrants, they are unique in helping to set up and link the individual anti-deportation campaigns around the country, and they provide moral and practical support for the right of individuals to free movement about the world.
"In particular, they have over 12 years been uncompromising in opposing the barbaric practice of imprisoning tens of thousands of innocent people every year in immigralevel of the struggle for justice in a totally unjust system. It is not just that the fate of individuals, many facing persecution and hardship, will be sealed.
"But that the general population, in this era of calculated disintormation. will remain ignorant and the chance of involvement of decent people in. the fight for human justice will be lost."
Fenny Bourne, Campaign
Against Racism and Fascism
"...My husband in Amman ..sends his thanks to you for VOUT con unuco support throughout ... out of everyone.. you listened the most, and your phone line was open all hours'.
"I do hope, beyond all hopes, that you can get sustained funding keep NCADC going. We've sent a donation, but it's sadly, not tion or red mist cloud their responsibility to provide information that given the obvious Constanav cases, is as accurate as possible.
"Their demise would be close to catastrophic for the asylum seekers they help. For the rest of us, we would lose a key resource for keeping us in touch with things that are happening under our noses, but which otherwise would not know about."
Melanie McFadyean, freelance
journalist
As well as rushing off donations to keep this vital campaign alive (see below) Socialist Resistance supporters may well feel they want to do 11101C.
Certainly what has happened to NCADC not only highlights the mig allos power of the Daily Mail, but