The 2010 Liberty Human Rights ‘Close to Home’ Award has been won by Sally Hyman, a teacher at the Breeze Hill secondary school in Oldham, Greater Manchester (UK) who mounted a successful anti-deportation campaign for her pupil Rabar Hamad who faced deportation to Iraq.
November 30, 2010
October 21, 2010
Victory for unaccompanied asylum seekers in the High Court
According to the Press Associaton, two unaccompanied asylum seekers from came to the UK from Afghanistan last year had a victory in the High Court this week over Croydon Council, who were judged to have failed to find them places in mainstream schools. Judge Lindblom ruled that the council had failed to consider the individual needs of the 14 year olds, and said that they must be provided with “suitable education” from 27/10/10.
October 13, 2010
Resistance against deportation of children from Israel
Last July, the Israeli government announced plans to deport 1200 children who were born in Israel to migrant workers and were thus “illegal”. Since then some of the children and their families have gained status but many face deportation from this week now that the government’s amnesty period has expired. In Tel Aviv, activists from the charity “Israeli Children” have started patrolling the streets to prevent immigration raids.
Education of migrant children in China
In China, millions of children are unable to attend state schools because they their parents have migrated from rural to urban areas and so do not have the right papers. See a video report from the Guardian on this here.
October 11, 2010
Undocumented students in the USA
In recent years undocumented students and their familes and supporters in the US have campaigned for the Development, Relief and Education for Alien Minors (DREAM) Act. Undocumented students at the University of California San Diego produced a 30 minute documentary about this in 2008, to watch it click here.
The DREAM Act was defeated in Congress in September 2010 but there is still hope that the Act will be passed before the end of Obama’s Presidency.
October 10, 2010
School for sans-papiers in Switzerland
In early 2009 some sans-papiers (people without papers) in Zurich set up the “Automonous School Zurich” in a squatted building to teach each other German. The school was supported by the group “Education for All (Bildung fuer alle)”
The school was evicted in January 2010.
October 9, 2010
Detention of children in the UK
Currently children are detained at two detention prisons in the UK: Yarls Wood in Bedfordshire, and Dungavel in South Lanarkshire. After its election in May, the coalition government promised to end the detention of children, but has recently backtracked and has said only that it will “minimise” this disgraceful practice.
A few years ago Glasgow-based Camcorder Guerillas produced a documentary about Dungavel, to view it click here .
For a recent BBC article on Yarls Wood click here.
Réseau éducation sans frontières
The “Réseau éducation sans frontières” (Education without borders network) was formed in Paris in 2004 by unions, parents, teachers and various associations and individuals. It has branches all over France and also in Belgium and Morocco. The network acts to stop the deportation of children whose families do not have status in the country.
Student and family anti-deportations campaigns in the UK
Below is a small selection of campaigns against the deportation of students and their families in the UK:
October 8, 2010
Introduction to Education without borders
Education without borders is the idea of providing education for all irrespective of immigration status.
Education Without Borders (UK) 