[sheffield-noborders] [Fwd: Public meeting at Leeds - 'Still in chains? The experience of African asylum seekers and forced migrants in Leeds' Friday 27th Oct]

[fabian]

Leeds No Borders &  School of Geography present...

'Still in chains? The experience of African asylum seekers and forced
migrants in Leeds'

Public Meeting
6-9pm (we start bang on 6pm!)
Friday, 27 October
Rupert Beckett Lecture Theatre
University of Leeds

Next year, 2007, will see the commemoration of the bicentenary of the
parliamentary abolition of the transatlantic slave trade in the British
empire. But has African enslavement really ended? Leeds is host to
thousands of African people who have been forced to flee war,
persecution and poverty in their mother continent and come to Britain in

search of refuge and a better life. Yet most are living in day to day
destitution, fear of arbitrary detention and brutal deportations. Many
are trafficked as slaves, others are forced to work illegally to
survive, while work carried out by immigration detainees is exempted
from
the minumim wage rule, benefitting the global private companies
operating detention centres. Worse still, the recent Report by HM
Inspector of Prisons Anne Owers exposed the shocking conditions inside
Britain's private-run detention centres with African women rape
survivors routinely locked up for months while fighting efforts to
deport them back to Sierra Leone, Uganda and the Congo.

Why do Africans come to Britain to claim asylum? What is happening in
Africa? How are Africans treated when they arrive here? Do the legacies
of enslavement and colonialism continue today? How is Britain still
profiting from the exploitation of African people in the 21st century?
This public meeting aims to explore the issues routinely hidden by the
mass media and politicians, and create much needed public awareness on
the appalling system of asylum and immigration in the UK - and the
particular experience of African people - in the run up to the slavery
abolition hype in 2007.

Speakers and performances so far include:

Theatre under Fire (TUF), exiled Zimbabwean group
Kofi Mawuli Klu, Global Justice Forum for Reparations
Emma Ginn, National Coalition of Anti-deportation Campaigns (NCADC)
Steve Cohen, author 'Detention is Freedom!'
George Mwangi & Baba Bari, ex-Colnbrook detainees and hunger strikers
Open mic for Africans to share their experiences

Plus films, stalls, campaigning information

Organised by Leeds No Borders and School of Geography
For more details, please contact Stuart Hodkinson
(s.n.hodkinson at leeds.ac.uk
<http://service.gmx.net/de/cgi/g.fcgi/mail/new?CUSTOMERNO=24821873&t=de6
56548264.1161173292.6a9f463d&to=s.n.hodkinson%40leeds.ac.uk> ) or Leeds
No Borders on 07748010691

How to get to the Rupert Beckett Lecture Theatre:
http://tldynamic.leeds.ac.uk/campusmap/detail.asp?ID=193
<http://service.gmx.net/de/cgi/derefer?DEST=http%3A%2F%2Ftldynamic.leeds
.ac.uk%2Fcampusmap%2Fdetail.asp%3FID%3D193>




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