in defence of the rights of migrants, refugees and asylum seekers is always an important question for socialists. This is particularly the case with New Labour introducing increasingly reactionary legislation. Home Secretary David Blunkett and his cronies claim that they want to undermine the fascists but their racist policies will have the opposite effect. Most of the press has joined in. this charge, which also leads to increased racist violence on the streets and on the estates. It is important that first the Mirror and more recently the Independent have stood out against the tide, and actually carried some of the real facts. But unfortunately a couple of good pieces don't repair the damage done by the filth. Now is the time to step up campaigning. Local Socialist Alliances, trade unions and other bodies should invite speakers from local and national campagns and get involved in the resistance going on in your local area. Unite against -Stop
BNP racism down the drain. and beyond credibility. at all, is so static, its effect is mind destroying. ment monitored. things or start to reject society ment, no such luck for me walls begin to dominate my mind limit I believe the cobweb thread will break. flee Nigeria. moved to Haslar detention/prison. morning June 4 at 6.30am before the flight was due to take off Centre
have come a long way for hope of life but now find my life
hanging on a cobweb thread. You need that thread to sustain your life, pull on it too hard, it breaks and you are
I can't go back to Nigeria because death looms on my head. I now find myself in a new world where everything is deception
Trouble is, everything today is just the same as yesterday and there is no hope that tomorrow will be any different. Life, if any
You wake up within the same walls, facing the same uncom promising door and always beyond that door the same system you hate so much. Each day you eat the same food, walk the same hallways, see the same people. The tannoy announcement will grate your ears with the same irritating messages
You obey the same rules - are reluctantly part of the same sys tem, you'll be locked up by the same people at the same time Every step of life here is so confined and regulated, every move
Not even my name is exempt. My parents baptised me Charles Obinna, the Prison Service have changed that to Charles Obinna EV 4292. Once locked up you gradually lose that passior of your past and neither do you hope for the future because your destiny is in the hands of someone else. Gradually you find it difficult to identify who you are and you begin to believe lunatic
There is no time limit to my imprisonment in Haslar detention/prison, yet i was not sent here by any UK court. Convicted criminals have more rights than me. They know when they will be released - I don't. They have judicial oversight of their confineThe hope I had when I fled Nigeria is now out-weighed by despair and thoughts of going beyond where there are no prison
I hate giving in to the system as much as I hate the system itself so it becomes an uncomfortable battle between the irresistible forces of the system and myself and since here there is no time
Charles Obinna, Asylum Seeker, Haslar Detention/Prison
Charles Obinna fled Nigeria on November 23 1999. He fel his life was in grave danger from the "Ogboni" a secret cult in which his father was involved. Charles had refused to be initiated into the cult and this placed him and his two sons in danger
The only way that Charles could prevent the initiation and keep his wife Bisi and their two sons jude and Roland safe was to
Charles arrived in the UK on November 24, applied for asy lum and was immediately detained. He spent his first 3 days in the UK in police cells at Stanstead airport, was then moved tc Harmondsworth for 2 weeks and on December 13 he was
On June 3 2000, Charles was taken without warning from Haslar to Stanstead Airport to be put on a KLM flight on Sunday
Charles wasn't put on the plane due to a technical hitch Immigration at Stanstead eventually told persistent questioners that the hitch was caused by Charles removing all his clothes
This action bought Charles a delay and the removal was re scheduled for June 7. On june 6 Immigration cancelled the removal and transferred Charles to Campsfield Detention