Brent Greens condemn UKBA raids in Willesden Green

Reacting to this week's raids and stops in Willesden Green by the UK Border Agency, Shahrar Ali, the Green's 2010 parliamentary candidate for Brent Central said:

This is the week when a sign stationed in Willesden Green read, 'How safe is your home or business, Think burglar,'

To the contrary, local residents and shopkeepers have suffered the shocking tactics of random interrogation and smashed in doors:

'Think UKBA'

The people of Brent will not stand for it.

UK-BA, Willesden wants you to go away!

Giving out 'bust cards' at Willesden Green station earlier today

Brent Council may have targeted Willesden Green this week for probably (I hope!) good reasons, but I didn't expect the UK Border Agency's officers to join in.

UKBA officers were spotted in a Willesden Green cafe this lunchtime and told a customer they were due to do an 'intelligence led' stop operation in cooperation with local police at the station later. They disappeared into the SNT 'shop' which is close to Sarah Teather's office.

Immediately Brent anti-racists organised a group to give out 'bust cards' which advise people of their rights if stopped by the immigration police.

It soon became clear that this was not the first UKBA visit this week. We were told by local shopkeepers of a raid two days ago when shops were the target. Officers blocked shop doorways while officers went inside to question staff on their immigration status and take photographs. Customers were put off by the heavily built officers with their all black uniforms and taciturn manner. Shopkeepers found their presence threatening and one said that he had lost 2 hours of custom as result of the raid.  We were told that there had been at least one arrest.

A young man, seeing what we were doing,  hovered near us and eventually plucked up the courage to speak to us.

He told us about a 6am raid, at his nearby address, by what sounded like combined a UKBA/local police unit. He and his friends were woken by police who had come through the front door and were battering on their door. The police said if the door was not opened they would break it down and then proceeded to do so.

The flatmates, all Italian and in their early 20s, were terrified as anyone would be in such circumstances. Their papers were demanded and checked.  They were told that intelligence had suggested there were illegal  immigrants in the flat.  The tenants are hoping that the landlord will repair the smashed door. Meanwhile they are extremely nervous and shocked by the experience.

As we were giving out the cards several people came up to express concern about what they saw as 'police state' tactics.

In the event, perhaps because of our presence, by 5pm no UKBA officers had turned up.

A reader has added the following worrying comment:

A further update: The immigration operation in Willesden today (Friday) was carried out on Willesden Lane. Motorists were stopped by the police using the ANPR (Automatic Number Plate Recognition) system and then handed over to immigration officers to have their identities checked. The legality of this is questionable - immigration officers MUST have intelligence indicating an immigration crime has been committed otherwise they do not have the power make anyone answer questions - people have the right to walk away and not answer their questions. Were the people being questioned told that they were not required to answer questions?

On speaking to some of the shopkeepers in Willesden today it appears that some Council officials were present during these operations. After Councillor Butt's outspoken (and welcome) criticism of the racist van a few months ago it would be very disappointing to hear that Brent Council is colluding with the Home Office in these highly dubious and possibly illegal activities.

Is this all part of Brent Council's Willesden Week of Action? If so, it is far more sinister than we thought.

Brent Times Letter of the Week: We must stand United against this affront to Civil Society

"We Must stand United against this Affront to Civil Society", Brent Times series, 8 Aug 2013. Image.

Text:
The Green Party shares the dismay of community and borough leaders and residents at the tactics deployed by UK Borders Agency teams in Kensal Green and Cricklewood. Home Office Minister Mark Harper subsequently sought to justify the tactics as both "intelligence-led" and based on "reasonable suspicion".

However, if the stopping and checking of individual commuters was based on specific intelligence then the arrest rate should have been far greater than it was. If instead people were being stopped randomly, saying there was reason to suspect them without convincingly explaining why does not make it so.

To the contrary, eye-witnesses consistently reported that individuals were stopped not randomly, but disproportionately on grounds of race. If true, then the exercise, far from being intelligence-led, enacted something far more sinister - an attempt to target people who looked foreign and to seek to justify this as both necessary and proportionate to the ends.

Since when did membership of a racial group itself constitute grounds for suspicion? The Home Office failure to recognise the inherent racism of its tactics is compounded only by their attempt to justify it.

The happenings of the last few days would have been alarming enough taken on their own. In the context of state-sponsored racist van slogans and anti-immigration rhetoric, they are a positive incitement to racial tension.

The people of Brent and beyond must stand united against this latest affront to civil society.

Shahrar Ali Spokesperson for Brent Green Party

Green Party Leaflet for Kensal Green in Wake of UKBA Raid

On 31 July, a day after the raid tactics of UKBA officers at Kensal Green station, Martin Francis and Shahrar Ali of Brent Green Party were out in force in the early morning rush hour. We distributed several hundred public information leaflets, straight into the hands of the Kensal commuters. Many had witnessed the "threatening" and "intimidating" actions of the officers the day before and were gratified to find us both remonstrating about it and providing them with a mini briefing on their rights when stopped by the UKBA under such circumstances. A mobile coffee shop vendor confirmed how sustained the officers' exercise had been the morning before. An employee of the station also expressed her alarm at the suddenness of it all, "without forewarning even them". Our leaflet is available to view below or download here. More news here.