Protesters stop immigration van in Glasgow

[GreenChips]

So pleased to see how the community came together for their neighbours in my home city today.

Police release men from immigration van blocking Glasgow street www.bbc.co.uk/news/uk-scotland-glasgow-west-57100259

Felt quite emotional watching the men being released from the van to all the cheers.

To do that today of all days in a Muslim community was just awful.

@RedcurrantPuff

No I haven’t “missed the point” and my opinion is not “racist”.

There is a surge of the Indian variant in this area, we are supposed to still be under local restrictions, and yet this is supposed to be Ok?

Do we live under mob rule now then?

You’re arguing about being under local restrictions so surely that supports the argument that these men should not have had their homes invaded and been forcibly removed. I’m pretty certain the enforcement team didn’t maintain social distancing to do this, did they?

I cheered. Well done Glasgow

I just typed out a long post with examples of HO cruelty and lies involving people I work with in my volunteer role. But I didn't want to risk confidentiality so deleted it. But believe me, there is so much immorality and cruelty on the way the HO works at the moment. I have no problem with their being immigration rules, but people's safety, legal procedures and rights are constantly flouted and so many peopleare removed from this country without representation.

I'm sure people have heard of all the Windrush issues. Things are no better. No-one seems to have learned.

For the record, it looked to me as though most people in that peaceful stand-off were wearing masks. They were outside. There was something more important happening here than an unlikely Covid risk.

What am I missing?

The fact that dragging people out of their homes without offering them any chance to access legal representation is abhorrent behaviour? That deporting people without allowing them to access legal representation is abhorrent even if they are a criminal? What happened to innocent until proven guilty, or does that only apply if you’re white and/or British?

A lot of people here, like you, seem to be completely missing the point that if the Home Office had a solid legal reason to deport people, they would allow them access to legal advice, as that still wouldn’t stop them being deported. They know (as it’s happened multiple times before) that the reasons for the deportation won’t hold up in court because they aren’t legal.

Some statistics about immigration detention (and remember that most of these people have committed no crime other than being here without the correct visas)

The majority of those in detention will be held for less than two months, but in 2019 26% were held for more than 28 days. This includes 167 people who were held for more than six months and 13 people for more than 18 months. The longer someone is detained, the less likely it is that they will be removed from the UK.

The UK is the only country in Europe that doesn’t have a time limit on detention.

In 2019, 24,512 people left detention. 30% were removed from the UK, which means that 70% of those detained were released back into the community, their detention having served no purpose.

In 2019, the longest recorded length of detention was 1,002 days. That's over three years.

So 70% of people detained turn out to be entitled to stay here. Now do you see why neighbours on this occasion tried to prevent these people's detention?
The HO know who they are and will doubtless continue to investigate them. But the odds of them being entitled to remove them from the country are less than 1:3. A dawn raid is hardly appropriate.

You’re arguing about being under local restrictions so surely that supports the argument that these men should not have had their homes invaded and been forcibly removed. I’m pretty certain the enforcement team didn’t maintain social distancing to do this, did they?

I’m not sure the police can carry out many of their duties socially distanced.

The man under the van, so incredibly brave.

Not really. This is the UK. They were never going to start the engine with him under it, let alone drive off.

Let's see him do that in Russia, China, North Korea, Iran, Egypt, Pakistan and a whole bunch of other countries where he'd have either been driven over or dragged out by his legs and beaten to a pulp by he police.

Then I'll say he's brave.

I for one am very proud to be Scottish after watching this yesterday. Soar Abla

and remember that most of these people have committed no crime other than being here without the correct visas

Which is a crime. Most will also be working in the black market and/or using fake identity papers (two more crimes).

Yeah I have to say I agree Sunflowers

Protesting in this country isn’t brave, we live in a civilised democratic society. Some of you could do with a spell over in a country where human rights really are meaningless, we live very well in the UK and most of you don’t even know it.

@MabelPines

Do we? I wonder if you're white, able bodied or belong to any other majority community.

I despair at the sheer amount of people willing to defend a dawn raid or label any human being as "illegal". Shameful.

So 2 people have lived within a community for 10 years with no issues, have obviously integrated and made friends/are part of the community

Again, you seem to be of the opinion that if people get away with something for long enough, it ceases to matter what they did. That's not how the law works.
There are immigration laws in every country. You may not like them, but they exist, and when they are broken there is enforcement. That's how the law, and the world, works. Do you imagine there are countries that don't have immigration laws?

So 70% of people detained turn out to be entitled to stay here. Now do you see why neighbours on this occasion tried to prevent these people's detention?

No, that's not at all what that stat means, you have misunderstood. It means that 70% of people found a way to stay here, it does not mean they were entitled to at the point of detention. A large number of people are granted leave to remain even after they have broken immigration laws and lived/worked illegally.

Lol at all the undercover racists saying "wHaT aBoUT CoVId"

flashbac people who care about covid makes them racist?

Boogiethebeat

@MabelPines

I wonder if you're white, able bodied or belong to any other majority community

Interesting assumptions. I’m neither white, nor able bodied.

And my parents were immigrants.

@MabelPines

No assumptions here, hence saying "I wonder".
I'm genuinely glad your experiences have led you to think that most people don't know how well we live in this country (no sarcastic tone meant although I know it looks that way). It's not the same for everyone unfortunately.

There are immigration laws in every country. You may not like them, but they exist, and when they are broken there is enforcement.

The problem being, though, that the home office is not behaving legally or following policy. They are illegally removing people from the country who have every right to live here, by not allowing those people access to legal representation. Is that behaviour that you can support? Or does it not matter if it’s “just” immigrants who aren’t allowed to be protected under law?

The hostile environment was presented as a way to identify people who had no right to live in the UK. But from early on, there were signs that an increasing number of people who did have that right were being caught up in it. A 2014 report by the charity Legal Action Group, which identified a number of former Commonwealth citizens who had been stripped of rights, was dismissed by the Home Office. In 2016, after a series of media reports about EU citizens wrongly told that they had no right to live in the UK – Hawkins, the Dutch IT specialist who had lived here for 24 years, was one of them – had their cases swiftly resolved.

From the article here
www.theguardian.com/politics/2021/may/13/cruel-paranoid-failing-priti-patel-inside-the-home-office

Also see
eachother.org.uk/home-office-broke-law-in-treatment-of-highly-skilled-migrants-court-rules/

www.bbc.co.uk/news/uk-politics-55065061

And
Bella Sankey, the director of Detention Action, said: “We understand from the government’s lawyers that at least six people expelled on yesterday’s flight to Vietnam were taken in direct breach of the Home Office’s own removal policy intended to ensure proper access to legal advice. If correct, this is a breach of the rule of law, may have put lives at risk and must be urgently reversed. The home secretary has serious questions to answer – in court if necessary.”
www.theguardian.com/uk-news/2021/apr/22/home-office-breaches-own-rules-deporting-vietnamese-migrants

I think my point still being missed. Even if 70% of people had the right to stay here, even if the laws are terrible and unfair and unjust and are regularly abused, how did people know that was the case here? .... there’s still a chance a more serious crime had been committed? A small chance.

So why did neighbours act on this particular occasion? The men themselves said they had no warning. Why then did MSPs condone the demonstration? Why was it on every MSM news channel when nobody could have been certain about the background of the individuals involved. IF everyone knew beforehand this was a genuine miscarriage of justice and this was truly an awful example of immigration laws then I could understand every part of it. It’s the chain of events I don’t understand (or am sceptical of).

@flashbac

Lol at all the undercover racists saying "wHaT aBoUT CoVId"

Lol I’m straight up saying if you are here illegally you must always be prepared to be deported.

Had a friend deported from Japan for overstaying her visa by like a week. She was jailed at the airport while leaving and then thrown out after a short detention and banned from entering the country for five years 😂😂😂 told her not to do it!

Must have cost the Japanese taxpayer a lot of money tho. In most countries they’re just happy you’re leaving ....

I wonder how integrated the men in question are, they have lived in Glasgow for 10 years but had to speak through an interpreter.

@CatherineMorland

I wonder how integrated the men in question are, they have lived in Glasgow for 10 years but had to speak through an interpreter.

Sure, sure. You never hear of English people moving to Spain or France, living there for 10 years and not speaking a word of the language 🤷🏻‍♀️

/sarcasm

Wonderful Glasgow!

The insensitive timing was no coincidence - the day the MSPs were swearing in, and on Eid in a predominantly Muslim area (although the two guys were Sikhs).

Oh my god. I can't roll my eyes any further back in my head at this.

Yep. That's it. Border force timed the detention of two Sikhs to coincide with Eid deliberately piss off some Muslims. That makes a ton of sense.

There some lunatics on here. Truly.

These men are living in Glasgow, I assume, illegally, - and thus should be deported.

All laws, including immigration laws, should be rigorously upheld without exception.

Such persons who interfere, or seek to prevent authorities from going about their lawful work should be thoroughly ashamed of themselves.

@Pisspotical

No, you cannot assume they are living here illegally.

Also, “to prevent authorities from going about their lawful work”. Problem is, the Home Office isn’t working lawfully in all these cases.

Source: home office incompetence as outlined in my rather large post at 18:07.