Date: Thursday 14 June 2012
Times: 6pm – 7.30pm
Venue: Scottish Parliament, Committee Room 3, Edinburgh

A team led by the University of Bristol was commissioned by the Joseph Rowntree Foundation (JRF) to investigate experiences of forced labour and exploitation in the UK food industry. Interviews with migrant workers mainly from Poland, China, Latvia and Lithuania were conducted in Scotland, London, Liverpool, South-West England and Lincolnshire. The research, which is the third piece of research to be published in a major series of reports from JRF about forced labour in the UK, was published on 15 May 2012 (see link below).

The event will start at 6:00pm and will conclude at 7:30pm. Guests are advised to arrive 30 minutes prior to allow time to clear security. A presentation will be given by the lead researcher from the University of Dundee, Dr Alistair Geddes, who will talk about the findings from the Scottish part of this study. There will also be a number of responses. Drinks and canapés will be served.

If you are interested in attending, please click here and complete the booking form no later than Wednesday 6 June. Confirmation details will be emailed one week before the event. If you have any further questions, please contact Beth Hurrell, Research Administrator for the Forced Labour programme on 01904 615946 or at beth.hurrell[at]jrf.org.uk.

More information:

More info on the study and the research programme is available on the JRF website.

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By Lian Kim Selby

Lian Kim Selby is currently studying International Relations at the University of Edinburgh, and interns at Migrants’ Rights Scotland. An American from Singapore now living in Scotland, she takes keen interest in issues of migration and human rights.

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This last weekend I was fortunate enough to be given the opportunity to represent Migrants’ Rights Scotland at a conference, ‘From Monologue to Dialogue; Strengthening and hearing migrants’ voices in the debate on migration’ organized by Migrant Voice, an organization that aims to mobilise migrants who are concerned about the way their communities are portrayed by the media to engage in positively influencing the immigration debate and changing public attitude. The conference involved a number of different organizations primarily from the cities of London, Birmingham and Glasgow, but also featured organizations from Manchester and even a representative from Malta. We attended workshops led by organizations that were using various mediums such as youtube and even theatre to raise awareness of the views, experiences, and plight of refugees, asylum seekers and migrants. We also participated in panel discussions featuring accomplished journalists and representatives from public media organizations that explained the best ways to increase the visibility of organizations like ours, raise awareness of refugees, asylum seekers and migrants in our communities, and how to use such mediums to our best advantage.

It was an enriching experience and invigorated me to want to become even more active in using various media platforms to raise awareness of the difficulties that migrants and refugees in the United Kingdom face, whilst also utilizing such platforms to provide information for such people.

On the final day, we formed groups of 15-20 people and discussed actions plans- for us as individuals, for our organizations and for the Migrant Voice community and network as a whole. It was incredibly inspiring to hear about the new plans that each representative had envisioned. One delegate from Birmingham discussed a youth initiative that his organization intended to implement in Birmingham, to create more cultural events to foster awareness of the cultures and customs of migrants living in the United Kingdom. Others also agreed to hold regular meetings with journalists. Many other new ideas and initiatives were put forward and discussed. As each individual said ‘I will…’ and laid out their various action plans with such intent, you could feel such a vibrant energy in the room, of people feeling inspired and energized to go back to their organizations and communities to put these plans into action.

The conference demonstrated to me the power of inspiration and encouragement that stems from the act of people coming together for a purpose. Members of migrant and refugee organizations should continue to initiate the coming together of various organizations to build on a collective identity, one that I felt was very much in the making during the conference. It gives each organization the opportunity to hear about the initiatives and work of other organizations around the United Kingdom, it gives people a chance to network, and more importantly, it allows and assures that all organizations are collectively heading in the same direction.

With the joining of forces to strengthen a collective will, great change can be made in society if we all ‘come together’. The Beatles could not have said it better…

Migrants’ Rights Scotland is very pleased to support the Human Rights Consortium Scotland (HRCS) by co-hosting the UN webcast live from Geneva on Thursday 24th May 2012, together with the Centre for Rural Childhood, Perth College UHI.

Date: Thursday, 24th May 2012

Times: 8.00am-12.00pm

Venue: Centre for Rural Childhood, Perth College UHI, Perth PH1 2NX

During the live webcast of the Hearing, the UK will report its human rights record to the United Nations’ Human Rights Council. The UPR process is a relatively new and unique Human Rights Council procedure in which all 192 UN Member States have the whole range of their human rights records reviewed by other States. Its aim is to hold States to account for human rights violations, and to increase international visibility of countries’ human rights situations using a cooperative and fair process. Each country is reviewed every four years, and the first review of the UK was in 2008.

Pat Elsmie, Chair of Migrants’ Rights Scotland says, ”We are delighted to co-host this event and raise awareness of human rights here in Scotland. The promotion and realization of human rights is central to the work of Migrants’ Rights Scotland as human rights apply to everybody irrespective of citizenship and immigration status, which means that all migrants in the UK, like everybody else, are entitled to protection of those universal and inalienable rights.”

To accommodate the early start of 8.00 am (9.00 am in Geneva), coffee and croissants will be available. A facilitated discussion will follow the webcast from 11.30 am to 12.00 noon.

If you wish to attend, please register by 10.00 am on Wednesday 23 May – by contacting Migrants’ Rights Scotland info[at]migrantsrightsscotland.org.uk , Tel: 07770 674788 or the Centre for Rural Childhood, enquiriescrc[at]perth.uhi.ac.uk, Tel: 01738 877506. You will then be given details of final arrangements for the venue.

Please note: Further live webcasts of the debate will be available in two other Scottish cities, hosted by:

• Engender, 1A Haddington Place, Edinburgh EH7 4AE

Email: Karen[at]engender.co.uk   Tel: 0131 558 9596

•  Coalition for Racial Equality and Rights, 78 Carlton Place, Glasgow G5 9TH

Email: jatin[at]crer.org.uk   Tel: 0141 418 6530

Anyone wishing to attend the webcasts in Glasgow or Edinburgh should register with the individual venue hosts by 10am on Wednesday (May 23).

 “The live webcasts are a further opportunity for more civil society organisations and those interested in the role of human rights in Scotland and the wider UK to increase their participation in this important assessment of the human rights conditions for all who live within UK jurisdiction,” says Carole Ewart, Chair of the HRCS.

More info: 

Briefing papers on the process and submissions made by Scottish groups and the HRCS will be available at webcast venues. You can also find them below:

Background Paper On UPR

HRCS Submission to the UPR

Link to EHRC,SHRC and all NGO submissions

(CC) Image: Eva.Finn/Flickr

Date: 11 June 2012

Times: tbc

Venue: University of Glasgow

Keynote address: Dr Liza Schuster, Senior Lecturer in the Department of Sociology at City University, London

Session 1: Labour & Migration

• Reconfiguring migrant economies: moving beyond the market economy (Rebecca Folly, University of St. Andrews)
• Chinese temporary migrant workers in Japan in times of economic crisis (Ci Chen, University of Bristol)
• Integration into profession: Refugee doctors and teachers in the UK (Emilia Pietka, University of Strathclyde)

Session 2: EU Policy

• Managing labour immigration at the EU level (Sonia Gsir, Université de Liège)
• Internal European Migration: Welfare and economization (Kamila Feddek, University of Glasgow)
• The new ‘Frontex’ regulation: Potential and weaknesses of its impact on human rights protection in EU external border management (Melanie Fink, Universität Wien)

Session 3: Experiences and perceptions of migration

• The lack of materiality in the homes of asylum-seekers and refugees in Belfast and the struggle for employment (Malcolm Franklin, University of Belfast)
• Public attitudes to migration and the media in Scotland (Jason Bergen, University of Stirling)

The colloquium is free but registration is required. For more information and to register, please email gramnet.pg[at]gmail.com

You can view/download the event poster here .

“that the Parliament condemns what it considers to be the continued refusal of the UK Border Agency (UKBA) to engage with members who are representing their constituents; believes this to be an affront to democracy in Scotland; understands that the UKBA considers that it is “by far, the biggest recipient of constituency case correspondence in Government”, and believes that the level of casework undertaken by the UKBA is a direct result of the failed policies of the UK Government.”

The motion (S4M-02640) was brought by Kevin Stewart MSP (SNP), Aberdeen Central and supported by:

Annabelle Ewing, Kenneth Gibson, Rob Gibson, Paul Wheelhouse, Bill Kidd, Adam Ingram, Christina McKelvie, John Mason, Stuart McMillan, George Adam, Joan McAlpine, Margaret Burgess, Humza Yousaf, Sandra White, Dennis Robertson, Gil Paterson, Richard Lyle, David Torrance, Mike MacKenzie, Willie Coffey, Fiona McLeod, Dave Thompson, John Finnie, Colin Beattie, Gordon MacDonald, Jean Urquhart, Jamie Hepburn, Maureen Watt, Roderick Campbell, Jim Eadie, Mark McDonald, Aileen McLeod, Stewart Maxwell, Linda Fabiani, Clare Adamson.

(CC) Image: Mesq/Flickr

The report recommends that:

• International students are excluded from overall net migration figures, as moves to limit incoming student numbers for the sake of long-term migration figures put a valuable export market – higher education- at risk. A survey of the top 10 countries for international students suggests that there is no international rule of standard preventing the UK from counting students in this way.
• Students are counted in net migration figures only at the point which they elect to stay on in the UK after study, thus switching into a another migration category.
• Changing the counting method to exclude students from net migration would move the incentive to ‘bear down’ on student migration- something that could cost the UK £2-3 billion per year in economic contribution from the reduction of 50,000 international students per year.
• An alternative ‘pro-growth’ policy to attract an additional 50,000 students could double this effect, adding to the economic growth of the UK’s education industry.

The report claims that the fact the government continues to include students in the net migration tally is “not a genuine concern with long-term net migration”. Instead it wishes to “‘game’ its own net migration target by banking large apparent reductions in 2013 and 2014 which reflect the limitations of the current method of measurement rather than real changes in long-term net migration trends”, the report claims.

The full report can be found here.

Asylum screening, the process to register an application for international protection, is not routinely available locally. People arriving in Scotland seeking safety and help are forced, by Home Office policy, to endure the long and often arduous journey all the way to Croydon in order to register their asylum application.

Most asylum seekers have no money, and often need to rely on friends or charities to fund their bus fare across the country. Once they arrive in Croydon, Gary Christie, a representative from the Scottish Refugee Council, says that ‘a number of our clients are forced to sleep on the streets if there is a delay with their appointment as they have nowhere else to go. The situation is unsustainable’.

Once their application is assessed in Croydon, asylum seekers are dispersed across the country and may very well be sent back to Scotland.

This inhumane and difficult policy seems unnecessary, heartless and even pointless considering there are local UK Border Agency offices nearby with the facilities to screen new applicants.

Please visit the website below and sign their petition.

http://epetitions.direct.gov.uk/petitions/32238

“We found that whilst there is some consideration of human rights at Holyrood, consideration of such issues is haphazard at best. The committee with the official mandate for human rights, the Justice Committee, exhibits, according to the report, “a reductive and sceptical pattern of attitude towards human rights.” It rarely makes reference to the regional and global human rights regimes of which the UK is a member, and when it does it appears to see human rights merely as a constraint on the administration of criminal justice.”

“It is clear that for the Scottish Parliament to adequately live up to human rights obligations found in the UK Human Rights Act, the European Convention on Human Rights, and many other international human rights instruments to which the UK is a party, it needs a mechanism whereby all relevant legislation can be considered from a human rights perspective. Current arrangements are not adequate. The most reasonable course of action is to create a human rights committee within the Scottish Parliament to act as a focal point for such review and discussion.”

The findings of the report have been backed by politicians and representatives from civic Scotland. The Convenor of the Scottish Parliament’s cross-party group on Human Rights is the SNP MSP John Finnie:

 “This report is an important examination of Parliament’s committee system’s consideration of human rights issues.  I am sure that the Parliamentary authorities will give the report appropriate consideration including a review of the need for a Parliamentary human rights committee.”

That view was endorsed by Shabnum Mustapha, Director of Amnesty International Scotland:

“Amnesty International welcomes the findings of the report which has cast a light on some of the missed opportunities to raise human rights as part of Scottish Parliamentary scrutiny of legislation. We urge the Scottish Parliament to look at how human rights considerations can be better embedded in the work of the Parliament.”

Carole Ewart, Convener of The Human Rights Consortium Scotland (HRCS), also voiced her support:

“We wholeheartedly welcome the report which confirms the anecdotal experiences of our members that human rights are insufficiently addressed by committees in the Scottish Parliament.  We repeat our call, first made in early May 2011, that the Scottish Parliament establishes a Human Rights Committee to ensure transparency, accountability and compliance with human rights law and with Section 29 of the Scotland Act.  We believe that mainstreaming  human rights across its business will improve the design, delivery and funding of public services, reduce risk of spending public money on compensation payments and  prioritise spend on the people who need services the most.”

The report can be read/downloaded here (Glasgow Human Rights Network website).

(CC) Image: Eva.Finn/Flickr

Date: Thursday 31 May 2012

Time: 2pm 

Venue: Scottish Parliament

The consultation meeting will also make suggestions towards having these immigration procedures in a manner that is sensitive to customers, staff and businesses, especially during a raid. Other issues that will be discussed will be the procedures that restaurateurs should follow to ensure that staff working at their businesses have the right documentation and permits to work.

For further info please contact admin[at]elrec.org.uk, Tel. 0131/5560441