EMERGENCY DEMONSTRATION TONIGHT - HOME OFFICE 6PM 'No to off-shoring refugees in Rwanda'

 

From Labour Campaign for Free Movement

 

The government has just announced plans to send refugees seeking safety in the UK to Rwanda. You read this right. Priti Patel is determined to make her outrageous plan a reality. The government claims to have reached a deal with Rwanda, meaning that asylum seekers will be sent to have their cases processed 4,000 miles away. If the plans go ahead, they will lead to unspeakable suffering. We know that migrants imprisoned in the UK's detention centres already face inhumane conditions and vile abuse. Further away from the public eye, their situation can only get much worse. Australia's experiment with offshore processing centres resulted in horrific human rights violations, forcing the government to start winding down the scheme. We can't let the UK go down the same route.

Join the demo: 6pm TODAY, Home Office An emergency demo for 6pm today, in front of the Home Office: Marsham St, London SW1P 4DF (map here). Let's stand against this cruelty and demand safety and dignity for all refugees. Spread the word!

 

Greens warn that Brexit negotiators are closely watching Windrush developments

The UK’s Government’s appalling treatment of the ‘Windrush generation’ will not be overlooked by the EU’s Brexit negotiators and Members of the European Parliament, a UK MEP has warned.

Jean Lambert, London’s Green Party Member of the European Parliament, has called on the Government to ditch its damaging ‘hostile environment’ policies, stating:

That some of the Windrush generation have been ‘deported in error’ is appalling, but it’s hardly surprising. Over the past 12 months, the Home Office has admitted to a string of mistakes that have caused immense anxiety, stress and upheaval to the many affected.

This is not mere incompetence from the Home Office; it’s the successful implementation of Theresa May’s pet‘ hostile environment’ project. This callous and inhumane policy deliberately seeks to make life difficult for non-British citizens who have built lives in the UK, depriving them of jobs, healthcare, and homes.

After Brexit, the 3.2 million EU nationals living on UK soil will also become exposed to this policy. It’s no wonder that so many feel anxious about their futures. The Government should take note – the EU’s Brexit negotiators are watching this ordeal closely, as are MEPs who have a vote on the final Brexit deal. This isn’t a good look.

The Prime Minister’s agreement to meet with representatives of 12 Caribbean countries is too little, too late.  And conciliatory gestures from the Government are meaningless so long as people continue to be hauled off to immigration detention at dawn. It’s time for the Government to stop stoking the flames of fear and anxiety, and scrap the ‘hostile environment’ for good.

Support legal challenge to keep border controls out of school

 From Against Borders for Children. Please support their crowdfunder to pay for a legal challenge to government policy. LINK 

This is particularly relevant in Brent where we have children in our schools of many different nationalities and where substantial numbers are undocumented.

--> Against Borders for Children is a coalition of parents, teachers, and campaigners.

Our aim is to reverse the Department of Education’s (DfE) policy of collecting country of birth and nationality information on 8 million children in England to help bring border controls into classrooms which was introduced in September 2016.

We've been campaigning since last year to get this policy scrapped. Now, with the support of Liberty, we’re hoping to win this in court – but we need your support to cover legal costs.
 
Collection of nationality and country of birth data is a toxic policy that has led to highly divisive and discriminatory collection practices such as asking only children assumed to be migrants to bring in passports and birth certificates.

The information is not being collected for educational purposes, but as part of a compromise with the Home Office on harsh measures that would have seen the children of undocumented migrants ‘deprioritised’ for school places. Nationality and country of birth information was going to be handed over to the Home Office as part of a broader data-sharing scheme to track down undocumented children and families through school records. Only public outcry has prevented this, and it could still be shared in the future. 

Some parents now fear sending their children to school could lead to deportation.

We believe schools should be safe for ALL children. Help us to fight this racist policy, and keep border controls out of schools!

Parkinson's sufferer Hakeem M Haleem granted limited right to remain after campaign

Following a petition signed by nearly 23,000 people and lobbying of the Home Office Hakeem Muhammad Haleem has been granted limited right to remain without recourse to public funds.  Hakeen suffered from vascular dementia, Parkinson’s disease, heart problems, angina, diabetes, vision limited to one eye, and of very poor quality, and has in the past had a stroke. There was no one to care for him except his son and daughter-in-law. The Home Office wished to deport him to Pakistan.

Today Mehwish Nadeem wrote to supporters:

Right in time for Christmas's Day and New Year, we have been told by the Home Office that the original refusal of leave to remain has been reconsidered in light of the fresh evidence provided and that “subject to final security checks and enrolment of biometrics, Hakeem M Haleem will be granted limited leave to remain without recourse to public funds.”

This is a wonderful result and *THANK YOU* for all your vital and overwhelming support empowering this campaign. Every single one of your messages and comments have meant the world to M Nadeem and Haleem, we are all grateful beyond words.

We will now be planning to already present this Petition LINK to the Government urging them to change this law which has caused M Nadeem and Haleem and so many others like them, such heartache and suffering.

When we told Haleem of the Home Office decision to grant his leave to remain, he said through tears:

I feel like a weight has been lifted off me. I want to thank everyone who has supported me and God bless them all. It has made such a tremendous difference to me. It’s too wonderful.

His daughter in law, M Nadeem, thanked us all and added: “Words cannot explain how I am feeling. I am overwhelmed. It is the best Christmas's Day & New Year present we could have hoped for.”

As Haleem's M N, I think what this amazing campaign has shown is that family values have won after a long battle. The unequivocal strength of sentiment expressed by all of you, shows that the public does not support Immigration Rules which do not allow family members to care for and look after their vulnerable relatives. We are now hoping that the Government is listening to you and will reverse the change to the current Adult Dependent Relative Rule.

For now, let's all celebrate this amazing joint effort without which, Haleem and M Nadeem would never have achieved the best Christmas's Day and new year gift of their lives.

We still need your support to allow him British Nationality.

Thank you,

Mehwish Nadeem

Brent councillors to get 8 hours Prevent training

Although Cllr Harbi Farah has promised to arrange talks about concerns over the Prevent Strategy in Brent the Council is going full steam ahead in its implementation. Tomorrow's Cabinet is due to adopt a paper on 'Stronger Communities' which includes radicalisation in a bundle which also covers female genital mutilation, domestic violence and gangs. Councillors are also attending an 8 hour Prevent training on December 22nd.

The Council strategy fro Stronger Communities has for main objectives:

1. Promote common ground
2. Encourage participation in civic life
3. Tackle intolerance and challenge extremism  and other harmful practices
4.Promote our vision and understanding of cohesion.

Which all sounds well and good but clearly the strategy in the document which I publish below needs careful scrutiny, particularly in the light of the criticisms of Prevent set out at the public meeting.

In an Appendix the Council does seem to recognise some of the problems:

Brent is one of 43 Home Office “Prevent Priority Areas” of particular national concern for fermenting extremism and radicalisation. As part of the Prevent programme, Brent receives funding from the Home Office to tackle radicalisation through a range of supportive projects and interventions.

The Prevent and Channel programmes have been seen by some communities, in Brent as elsewhere, as a means of demonising Islam and for spying on youths. The concerns raised by communities must be heard and it is precisely this perceived one-sided approach, which undermines cohesion and divides communities. Indeed, the Government has acknowledged that ‘Prevent depends on a successful integration strategy, which establishes a stronger sense of common ground and shared values, which enables participation and the empowerment of all communities and which also provides social mobility.’

Brent will seek to minimise the risk of extremism by recognising that the drivers for extremist behaviour lie in the marginalisation of voices from the public square and that a positive approach, celebrating diversity while improving our diverse communities’ ability to recognise the signs of extremism and early radicalisation will foster resilience and reduce the risk of extremist behaviour. We will also recognise the geo-political drivers of extremist behaviours and create safe spaces for dialogue and debate, whilst challenging hate speech and those who seek to divide our communities.

However its Equalities Impact Assessment on the impact of the Strategy (which deems it positive) seems complacent in the light of fears that Prevent is fuelling Islamophobia (Christianity not listed):

Religion or Belief – impact: positive

According to research conducted by Brent’s Business Intelligence team; the main faith groups in the borough are Hindu (17%), Muslim (12%), Judaism (3%) and Buddhist (1%). Achieving the four strategic objectives would ensure that the strategy is fully inclusive of residents of all religious and faith backgrounds. Furthermore, inter-faith dialogue is a key outcome of this strategy

The December 22nd event at the Civic Centre to which all councillors and some council officers are invited is entitled 'Prevent: Ideology and Radicalisation in Depth by FIDA Management and the Al-Saddiiq Foundation.'

Session One from 10am to 4pm will be 'providing advanced training on extremism and related global terrorism' to include':

• Ideology and its Development
• Theology, Politics and Violence
• Radicalisation (Concepts and Typologies
• The Core Narrative of AQ/ISIS
• Understanding Jihadist Narrative/Group
• Case Studies and Group exercises
• Assessing Vulnerability to Radicalisation
• Extremism and Behaviour

After what I imagine will be a much needed half hour  break Session Two from 4.30pm to 6.30pm will be run by the Al Saddiiq Foundation delivering 'A local perspective: extremism and support for terrorism gaining traction with the borough of Brent' Apparently this will involve 'case-based scenario workshops.'

Here is the paper going to Cabinet tomorrow:

BrentARC steps up rights campaign over Operation Skybreaker

Brent is one of five London boroughs to be chosen as the target for Operation Skybreaker. This follows targeting of the borough by racist organisations such as the BNP, Britain First and the South East Alliance and by the UK Border Agency and Home Office through the racist van and raids on tube stations.

Today the Brent Against Racism Campaign (BrentARC) will be in Wembley Central  distributing the leaflets below informing the public and businesses about their rights regarding Operation Skybreaker.

The leaflet below is particularly aimed at small business owners:

Operation Skybreaker likely to create fear, suspicion and division in Wembley Central

 

https://network23.org/antiraids/

Operation Skybreaker is an attempt at engagement within local communities to force people who are here without permission to go back. Operation Skybreaker, a pilot project, will run for about another five months and target five London boroughs, Brent, Ealing, Greenwich,  Newham, and Tower Hamlets. It will focus on businesses that employ people illegally, registry offices, and housing services. In Brent it will focus on Wembley Central ward.

Here Brent Anti Racism Campaign explore the issue.

Operation Skybreaker the latest government crackdown on illegal immigrants has been painted in a misleadingly positive light (Home Office to target bosses who employ illegal immigrants in Wembley, kilburntimes.co.uk, 22 August). Operation Skybreaker will be rolled out across five London boroughs, of which Brent is one. It will target businesses, registry offices and housing services. But in Brent it seems that the focus will mainly be on business premises in Wembley Central.   

The Home Office has delivered reassurances that the objective of Operation Skybreaker is to enforce compliance, but given the number of different types of legal paperwork relating to one’s immigration status, this is really difficult. Although it is true that undocumented workers are extremely vulnerable to exploitation, let’s not pretend that the latest government endeavour is part of some sort of compassion led agenda to end exploitative labour practices.

If this government cared about exploitation, the minimum wage would have been raised significantly, there would have been no bedroom tax and public sector employees would not have been subject to pay freezes. One of the evident motivating factors behind Operation Skybreaker is to develop marketing propaganda for the Conservative party against the UKIP threat. The three major UK political parties are in a race to create an image of being tough on immigrants, whether they are here legally or not. Anti migrant sentiment is rampant across the UK and Europe, and this is exactly what the government is pandering to ahead of the General Election.

Additionally, as we saw with Operation Centurion, people working here legally who may not “look right” are very likely to be targets.  There was a significant element of racial profiling in this last operation. The Home Office has stressed that there will not be a heavy handed approach, but the department has a far from rosy track record.  Following the “go home” vans, the racial profiling by UKBA officials in Brent last year and the deaths and poor treatment of asylum seekers in custody, there is a real lack of trust. This will be further weakened in the very diverse but cohesive London communities which will be subject to raids in the coming months.  

A vital question to ask is how effective are these actions? Are the results really worth the community tension caused by racial profiling and wrongful arrests? Also let’s not forget that “weeding out” rogue employers also means low paid workers will lose the little income and security they and their families have. There is a risk they will be deported into some potentially quite dangerous circumstances. These are not nameless, faceless people we are talking about.  These are people living in our communities.  The term “illegal immigrant” is toxic, and incredibly dehumanising. We simply do not hear enough of the human side of the story in the media that would contextualises a person’s life choices.  It is highly unlikely you choose to enter a country illegally and take on quite a difficult existence, unless there are some dire circumstances driving you to take such decisions. We really need a more open and compassionate discussion at a national and international level on how we treat undocumented workers.

As it stands the Skybreaker operation is likely to create suspicion, fear and division in our community and should be opposed.

Background LINK

Brent Anti Racism is organising opposition to Operation Skybreaker and ensuring people affected have access to independent advice. If you want to get involved in this or any of our other activities please contact brentantiracismcmapign@gmail.com

Sixth formers fight for classmate's right to stay in UK

Reblogged from BuzzFeed (Alan White) LINK

 

Yashika Bageerathi (right) fled Mauritius in 2011, seeking asylum with her mother in the UK. She's currently in Yarl's Wood immigration removal centre.

Via change.org

This week she was detained by the Home Office and is set to be deported on Tuesday. Bageerathi’s mother has said they left Mauritius because of death threats from a family member and violence from local gangs. She claims that if deported, Bergeerathi will have to go back to a place where she still fears for her life.

Her classmates have started an online campaign to stop the UK Home Office from deporting her months before she completes her education.

ambs @amberdowness

Is this the face of a criminal? #FightForYashika #saveYashika @SaveYashika 

Twitter: @nehharoyce

Abigail Faith @abigailcichosz

#saveYashika

And this afternoon, the protesters have gone to the Home Office in Whitehall.

Save Yashika @SaveYashika

#FightForYashika Hundreds of supporters!!! Showing the love for Yashika!!

 

Koos Couvພ @KoosCouvee

Enfield students are @Home Office protesting deportation of Oasis Hadley student Yashika Bageerathi @NrthLondonNews

 

Proud Immigrant @ourstweets

Proudest moment. Seeing our students lead the chants outside the home office. Justice for Yashika #FightForYashika

Her local MP has expressed his support.

David Burrowes @davidburrowesmp

@OAH6thform am doing all I can to #FightForYashika and support her. Have made contact with Home Office to try and urgently stop deportation

She is enrolled at Oasis Academy Hadley in Enfield and the school’s deputy head is helping to run the campaign.

In a press statement, Zoe Thompson says:

Since enrolling at Oasis Academy Hadley, Yashika has made an outstanding contribution to the life of the academy. Not only is she an incredibly talented mathematician, she has spent considerable time helping to train, teach and coach younger students in the subject, transforming their learning experience. On top of all of this she has poured herself into voluntary activities, helping the Academy to win a national award in recent months.

To deport Yashika at any stage would cost the UK a valuable member of society. To do so just weeks before she is about to complete her education would be an uncompassionate and illogical act of absurdity. We are fighting to give her the right to stay until June to finish her A levels, and ideally to allow her to remain with her family indefinitely.

The Home Office has said it will not comment on individual asylum cases.

Youth Group: Home Office has to earn our respect and trust on stop and search

The consultation on Stop and Search closed on Tuesday. In this open letter to Theresa May, the Home Secretary  the STOPWATCH YOUTH GROUP tells her what stop and search really means to young people and why the consultation is only the beginning:


Dear Home Secretary,

Over the past three years, the StopWatch Youth Group has been campaigning, educating and advocating for changes to stop and search policy and practice and to improve the experiences of young people who come into contact with the police. Our aims have been to bring young people’s voices to policy debates, draw attention to the impact that stop and search has on our lives and empower our peers to deal with stop and search in a confident and informed way.

We welcome this public consultation, and that you have extended it to September, as a way to allow young people to respond but stop and search has been debated since before our members were even born.
We feel that;

• Stop and search is a tool for the police to harass and bully people. It rarely targets the crime and antisocial behaviour that actually harms communities.
• The powers can only be effective if employed as part of a wider crime fighting strategy - better recording can help with this and also encourages the police to consider how they are using the powers in practice.
• Stop and search targets play a perverse role in unnecessary street confrontations. Setting targets for higher arrest rates is going to lead to arrests that may not have been otherwise made.
• Young people are disproportionately stopped because we are easy targets; we do not know our rights and feel bullied by the police for the way we dress and because we are spending time on the street. We are treated with no respect; even when we ask the police about the reason for the stop they threaten to arrest us for not cooperating.
• Young people are repeatedly told we “fit a description” of a suspect and we feel we are given excuses by the police to justify their search. When the police are not being honest with us it is difficult to expect us to have confidence in them.
• Special youth groups should be set up and be given direct access to decision makers. Members from the community bringing action against the police should be supported through legal aid.

We currently lack faith in any official process and the questions you have asked in this survey are very biased, framing issues like “police bureaucracy” in a leading way. The Home Office needs to earn our respect and trust by ensuring that all stop and search powers - not just the narrow few being consulted on - are used in a much more intelligent, limited and fairer way, which we hope will be the end result of this consultation.

Yours sincerely,

StopWatch Youth Group

The Youth Group’s response is informed by our own opinions and experiences as well as discussions we have been having with young people across London and further afield. For their diverse contributions, we thank BASE- Octavia Foundation, Chelsea Academy, Fully Focused, George Monoux College, Hackney Quest, Kids Company, SE1 United, Skyway Blue Hut, Tower Hamlets Somali Youth Group, Waltham Forest Youth Independent Advisory Group, Youth Futures.

Read our responses to the Home Office survey here

 

Home Office prevaricates on Kensal Green UKBA FoI request

It appears that the Home Office is issuing a standard response to FoI requests on the UKBA raids on various stations:

This request was made by Paul Anders:

Dear Home Office,

As a resident of the London Borough of Brent, I request information about the activity by UK Border Agency staff at Kensal Green station in Brent on 30th July 2013. Specifically:

1. All correspondence in any form concerning this action between UKBA, the Home Office, other central government departments oragencies on the one hand and the London Borough of Brent and specifically Cllr Muhammed Butt on the other.

2. All minutes of meetings in which the decision to target Kensal Green station was discussed, including participants, their roles and details of which individual authorised this action.

3. The cost (including financial opportunity cost where officers would otherwise have been deployed elsewhere or else not on shift) of the exercise at Kensal Green on 30th July 2013.

4. The number and ethnicity of people (i) approached and (ii) questioned at Kensal Green on 30th July 2013 by police IC code.

5. The percentage of each IC code stopped who were found to be potentially in breach of immigration requirements.

6. Details of all previous exercises of this type carried out in 2013, including time, date, location, the number of people approached and questioned, and the number of people found to be of unclear immigration status as a consequence.

7. With regard to 6, the outcomes and / or progress made with their cases.

8. Any equality impact assessments relating to this activity in general, or the specific UKBA activity at Kensal Green station on 30th July 2013.

This request will be copied to Sarah Teather MP and Councillor Muhammed Butt.

For cost purposes, you may regard the above as separate requests.

Yours faithfully,

Paul Anders

With the statutory 20 days expiring the following response from Asia Choudhary of the 'Immigration Enforcement Team' at the Home Office has been posted:

We are considering your request. Although the Act carries a presumption in favour of disclosure, it provides exemptions which may be used to withhold information in specified circumstances. Some of these exemptions, referred to as ‘qualified exemptions’, are subject to a public interest test. This test is used to balance the public interest in disclosure against the public interest in favour of withholding the information. The Act allows us to exceed the 20 working day response target where we need to consider the public interest test fully.

The information which you have requested is being considered under the exemption in section 31of the Act, which relate to Law enforcement. This is a qualified exemption and to consider the public interest test fully we need to extend the 20 working day response period. We now aim to let you have a full response by 25 September.

If you have any questions about the handling of your information request then please do not hesitate to contact me. 

An identical letter was recently received by John Cox who made an FoI request about UKBA operations at Brent and Barnet stations.

 

Now Home Office advertises 'Return Home' in shop windows

This Home Office poster was seen in a Cricklewood shop window this morning and seems to mark another stage in the Home Office 'Go Home' campaign albeit with a slightly modified message.

Thanks to Paul Edgeworth for the image

'Racist van' will not return without consultation following legal action threat

Solicitors Deighton Pierece Glynn issued the following statement this morning:

The Home Office have agreed never to run adverts telling migrants to go home again without consulting.

Following our letter to the Home Office, threatening legal action of the decision to pilot a campaign driving large vans around London which displayed messages telling migrants to ‘go home’, the Government has confirmed that if any further campaigns of a similar nature are planned, they would carry out a consultation with local authorities and community groups. The Government accepted that the purpose of consulting would be so that it could have ‘due regard’ to the effect a campaign of this nature would have on the communities living in the affected areas.

Our clients’ legal challenge was based on the Government’s failure to comply with the public sector equality duty under the Equality Act 2010. This duty requires the Government to have due regard to the need to eliminate discrimination and harassment based on race and religion, as well as to foster good relations between people from different racial and religious groups. Due to the inflammatory nature of the campaign, as voiced by several prominent public figures including Vince Cable MP and the leaders of Brent and Redbridge Councils, the due regard duty was high, and a consultation should have been carried out before the pilot began so that the Government could have properly considered the effect of the campaign before deciding whether to go ahead.

The one week pilot has ended. However, the Government has provided an assurance that if the Home Office were to carry out any further campaigns of this nature it would have due regard to the effect this would have on migrants living in those communities and in so doing would carry out a consultation. Any such consultation would of course have to be meaningful.

One of our clients, Raymond Murray, commented:

 I’m very pleased the Home Office has seen sense and will do things differently in future, and hopefully they’ll never try a stunt like this again.

Refugee and Migrant Forum of East London (RAMFEL) and Migrant Rights Network (MRN) will be running a series of workshops across London to support those interested in campaigning against the Government’s anti-immigration policies. Solicitors from Deighton Pierce Glynn and Bhatt Murphy will be on the discussion panels. See here for further information.

The Claimants are represented by Louise Whitfield and Sasha Rozansky.

Register for the workshops HERE

Racist van? Tweet for Liberty

Liberty have launched their own anti-racist van as a riposte to the Home Office 'Go Home' campaign. It will be driving around Westminster today. Liberty asks anyone who spots the van to Tweet a picture to them at @libertyhq

Their article on the Go Home campaign can be read HERE

UPDATE Tuesday PM Earlier today the anti-racist van was in Brent  parked outside Kensal Green Station which UK Border officers raided last week leaflets were given out to passengers and passersby.

KILBURN TIMES REPORT

Twitter's creative response to 'racist van' update

The 'racist van' has spawned some creative responses on Twitter:

Historical precedent

Jones crunches Bone on racist van

Get the 'racist van' off the road for good this weekend

The campaign against the 'racist' vans is proceeding on several fronts as the Home Office pilot project comes to an end. The PCS has taken up the issue with the senior civil servant at the Home Office. A 'letter of intent' on legal action, probably under the Equalities Act,  has been sent by a refugee group in East London LINK and similar action is being contemplated by activists in Brent. It appears that the Home Office may not have sought planning permission for the van hoardings which raises questions of   their legality.

The Twitter campaign against the Home Office and the Promovans group has been supported widely and the trolling of the Home Office 'help line' has produced some hilarious interchanges which expose the 'Go Home' message to ridicule.

David Cameron as the head of the country's first PR government (public relations not proportional representation) as a former PR man may count the Home Office campaign as a success in getting the Coalition's 'tough stance' on immigration into the headlines but it has also served to alienate his Lib Dem Coalition partners.

Back in 1964 as a raw 16 year old I went for a job in the PR department of an advertising agency. I naively told the interviewer 'I like people'.  He instantly replied, 'That is no good. To be a success in PR you must utterly despise people'. I didn't get the job - some years later David Cameron did!

Meanwhile Green Party leader Natalie Bennett has added her voice to the debate in the Guardian:

I don't often agree with Nigel Farage, but he is right that the billboards being driven around some areas with high immigrant populations are "nasty" and "unpleasant" (Anger at 'go home' message to illegal immigrants, 26 July). The government's choice to adopt a slogan similar to that used by racists in the 70s is deeply disturbing, particularly at a time when the Muslim Council of Britain has expressed fears about a "dramatic escalation" of attacks against British Muslims. However, it is predominantly the rhetoric of Ukip that has caused immigrants to be so causally demonised by the government and other political parties. Mr Farage has spoken of "opening up our borders" to 28 million Romanians and Bulgarians, as though the entire populations of those nations were about to uproot themselves and move to the UK.

The government is clearly guilty of scapegoating immigrants for Britain's problems with housing shortages, low wages and unemployment. The fault clearly lies with its own policies, and those of the former Labour government.

PCS union protests to Home Office civil servant boss over racist van camapign

From the Public and  Commercial Services Union  website LINK

A controversial Home Office immigration campaign is "political, deeply divisive and likely to stir up racial hatred", PCS has told the department's most senior civil servant.

 

The 'Go home' billboard messages being driven around six London boroughs have been met with criticism within the coalition government.

And some users on Twitter are reporting sightings using the hashtag #racistvan and deliberately wasting the Home Office's time with bogus reports.

We wrote to the department's permanent secretary Mark Sedwill on Thursday to say we were "appalled" that the Home Office had sanctioned the initiative.

PCS group secretary Mike Jones said in the letter: "This kind of campaign will only serve to cause more racial tension within our communities."

It's "deeply divisive", he added, and will create "tension and mistrust towards anyone who looks and sounds foreign".

"This is just a political advertising stunt that differs little from the Conservative Party election campaign messages.

"It is exactly the thing right wing racist and fascist organisations such as the BNP, EDL, EVF and others feed off" and use to "stir up racial tension and hatred in these very same London boroughs", Mike said.

We pointed out that, with a reported 500,000 backlog in asylum cases, the Home Office needs more permanent staff to deal with casework, not political stunts.

Muhammed Butt debates 'racist vans' on Radio 4

Brent Council leader Muhammed Butt last night debated the issue of the Home Office 'racist vans' which are touring six London boroughs with the message 'Go Home or Face Arrest'.

The debate, on Radio 4's The World Tonight, begins at 24.25 LINK

Promogroup may not participate further in 'racist van' campaign

Promogroup, the advertising agency behind the Home Office's 'racist vans' publicity stunt appear to have been thrown by the angry reaction to the campaign 

Green Party member David Walker told me this afternoon:

I just called the company.  They are passing my details on to the Home Office.  They said the campaign is close to finishing and they would reconsider carefully if they were asked to extend it or do it again.  I’ve asked for my comments to be noted on their file and I’ve left my name and number with them.

He added that the person he spoke to clearly understood his references to the EDL, mosque attacks etc.

I also spoke to the agency who said that the campaign was almost over. It had started on Monday and would finish soon. The person I spoke to would not give me a quote and said I should take up the issue with the Home Office. 

However, a few minutes later he rang back having read the postings about the van on Wembley Matters. He said  this was 'all very well but "direct action when the vans are seen in the area or we find where they are garaged" sounds a bit threatening'. I did a verbal shrug. He then struggled to say again that the campaign was finishing 'in Brent' and when I tried to pin him down said the last van would be on Saturday - the campaign had been going since Monday.  He went on to say that he wasn't  closely involved, but the agency  had received a 'variety' of calls  including some from immigrants asking for help to go home.

He didn't comment when I asked how many were asking for cabs.
 

Navin Shah: Home Office 'Propaganda' vans will cause harm and raise tension

The Labour London Assembly Member for Brent and Harrow  condemned the 'racist van' campaign by the Home Office in Brent and five other London boroughs.

He said: 

I know that immigration in the UK needs to be tackled, but I am shocked to see plans to drive vans around Brent and five other boroughs in London. This will have a detrimental impact on the hugely diverse and harmonious community in Brent. The problem of illegal immigration has to be tackled properly and a campaign like this will only divide and discriminate communities.

We have worked very hard to have a borough which is an outstanding example of a multi-cultural community and this discriminatory propaganda by the Home Office will cause serious harm and raise tension in the community.