[sheffield-noborders] points of interest description

[fabian]

Hi guys, Hi ben...here comes the texts for the points of interest...

I considered, if there is too much text, than we increase the map by on 
third, so it will have four pages on each side...we can make it, I am 
sure...
please again review text and amend, add where you think it is 
needed...thanks becky for first comments....

We are meeting later I will be there around 9 pm and bring flyers for 
the tour....please pick them up any time in matilda and spread them 
widely...
see you later
fabian


Cutlers Hall
This landmark building of Sheffield has contracted Sodexho Prestige, 
the high-end catering company in the family of the multinational 
SODEXHO.
According to corporate watch (http://www.corporatewatch.org/?lid=834) 
sodexho's success is a product of the privatesation of public 
"services" including for that matter the "service" of detaining and 
catering prisoners and foreigners, whose only crime it is to live where 
the state doesn't want them to live. Sodexho built and runs the 
Harmondsworth Detention centre 
(http://www.corporatewatch.org/?lid=834#asy) near Heathrow Airport and 
became famous running the voucher scheme for asylum-seekers during 
2000-2001. This scheme was brought down by massive protest in 2001, but 
sodexho is still involved in similar schemes in Germany. You can visit 
sodexho prestige at Culters Halls to map out the connections of high 
end catering for the global ruling class and "taking care" of people 
who dare to subvert the nation state system with their autonomous 
movement.

Army Recruitment Office
Join the army! Invade the country; create destruction, terror and a 
stream of refugees; persecute those who flee to your country; make 
money out of them; deport them back to the mess you’ve created. Then: 
start again. Fact is that most of the people who were seeking Asylum in 
Britain since 2000 were from Afghanistan and Irak, both countries that 
Britain has been at war with over the last 4 years. In fighting wars to 
defend the global order western countries play a major part in 
producing refugees.
Over the last three years Afghani and Iraki refugees have been 
increasingly forced back into their countries as the British 
governement claims they are now safe. However British nationals are 
strongly advised by the Foreign Office not to travel to Irak and 
Afghanistan. Not we wouldn't watch this on a daily basis in the news.

GSL - Global Solutions Unlimited
According to Corporate Watch (http://www.corporatewatch.org/?lid=1843) 
GSL run detention centres in the UK in a fashion of failure, racism and 
misconduct. The BBC run an undercover report about GSL detention 
practises this march (2005), exposing widespread mistreatment, open 
rasism and violence by GSL staff against detainees. Meanwhile there are 
increasing numbers of suicides in British Detention Centres. For the 
mal-treatment of detainees in Britain we demand that the home office 
and justice department stops working with GSL. Visit GSL in Sheffield 
at the crown and magistates court, where they are making money with 
court-servises 
(http://www.gslglobal.com/markets/custodial/region-9.asp).

Angel Group far from angelic (the location is not on the map, but there 
is the the adress, so just put it inside, without an arrow marking it.)
The UK government’s decision in 1999 to “disperse” asylum seekers 
around the country was a big business opportunity for the Angel Group. 
Along with a handful of other private companies, the Angel Group was 
contracted by the Home Office’s National Asylum Support Service (NASS) 
to provide housing for asylum seekers. At its busiest, the Angel Group 
was providing more than 3,600 bed spaces to NASS. The fee paid for each 
bed space was £102 a week. Angel Group properties in Sheffield, 
particularly Burngreave and Firth Park have been overcrowded, sometimes 
with 2 adults sharing a room with only a curtain separating them.
The Angel Group in Sheffield hit new depths in July 2004. An Iraqi 
Kurdish resident of one of its properties in Burngreave, Naseh Ghafor 
went on hunger strike to protest that his forced deportation to Iraq 
would lead to his death there. He was in the fourth week of his hunger 
strike when Angel Group representatives announced that they wanted him 
out of the house. His few clothes and vital official papers of his were 
taken without his knowledge by Angel Group employees in an attempt to 
force him out. At this stage Naseh could barely move his head, least of 
all move house.
The Angel Group is currently the subject of a Home Office investigation 
which began in August 2005. It has a Sheffield office under the name of 
“Angel Home Loans” at 57 Owler Lane, Firth Park. You can call its 
manager, Mr Bruce Cable on 261 7777. For some reason Mr Cable rarely 
leaves his office without a bodyguard.


Town Hall - Asking permission to get married
When was it last necessary to ask permission to get married?  New laws 
prevent asylum seekers marrying UK nationals and UK citizens have even 
been denied the right to marry their partners if they are failed asylum 
seekers.  In fact even married couples are facing forcible separation 
due to one of them being a 'failed' asylum seeker and facing 
deportation. This gross breach of the Human Right to a family life 
highlights the cruel way in which the Home Office's immigration policy 
affects everyone including British Citizens.

Travel Agents - Asylum Airlines
How do get people deported? In planes. And who owns planes? The 
companies who supply for the travel need of the global upperclass, 
tourists and managers. British Airways, German Lufthansa, Dutch KLM, 
all these companies have in previous years been contracted by European 
governement to conduct deportations. Some of these companies have been 
subject to succesful public awareness campaigns, as for example 
Lufthansa who finally announced in 2003 that they would stop flying 
passengers against their will.  While reluctant to reconsider their 
policies the European governements have been coming up with a new plan, 
the "asylum airlines". Since the beginning of 2005 at least five joint  
European Charter flights have been collecting deportees from various 
countries in the EU before returning them into the countries they flee 
from. The EU has alocated 30m Euros in 2005/2006 to finance "asylum 
airlines".

Job Centre - No work for the unwanted
Failed Asylum Seekers are not allowed to work, neither entitled to 
receive benefits in the UK. This forces them into working illegally or 
depending on charity. Illegal jobs are paid far under the minimum wage 
and the workers have no chance to defend themselves against 
exploitation.

University of Sheffield/Sheffield Hallam University
Welcome to all foreigner to the British education system, provided they 
are able to pay the fees, starting around an annual 10.000 Quid  for 
overseas students. While keeping out people fleeing perseqution and 
poverty, doors are open to everybody who brings money into the country. 
The policy of gated communities, which allows migrants in, who are 
understood as benefical in that they bring money, but locking the ones 
out who can't, is part of the system of global exclusion created within 
globalisation. The west is appraising diversity (as long as it pays).

Home Office - Section 9
Newly introduces Section 9 of the Asylum and Immigration act is another 
attempt of the home office to get rid of unwanted people in this 
country. Section 9 legislation deprives failed asylum seekers of 
benefits which can potentially lead them into destitution and 
homelessness with their children taken into care. Until now, parents 
with children under 18 were still entitled to state support until they 
were deported. The 'loss of benefits' is being piloted in the North and 
London before ministers decide whether to implement the scheme 
nationwide. Some councils have complained that they are being made to 
do the Home Office's dirty work. Section 9 conflicts with one of the 
fundamental principles of the Children Act which councils must follow, 
that of where possible keeping children with their parents. In 
addition, taking children into care is a more costly option than 
leaving a family in a council house, even if they cannot pay the rent.
Refugee agencies and support groups have condemned the policy as 
'blackmail' saying it puts families under tremendous stress as they 
face the choice between destitution and returning to a country where 
they fear for their safety.