Jen Laws

Join us for Wearside Amnesty's Annual #HumanRightsDay Event! 🗓️1:30-2:30pm on 8th December at @SlandMinster 📢Local human rights activism, including @No2Hassockfield and @NewcastleAIUK 🖊️Take part in @amnesty #WriteForRights campaign 🎶Music from @thecaedmonchoir

Our very own West Midlands campaigns manager Emma features in this @itvnews piece that highlights the day-to-day brutality of our asylum system. You can sign the amazing Virginia's petition here: change.org/p/we-are-virgi…

NEW: ‘A Cartography of Genocide’. Since October 2023, we have collected and analysed data related to Israel’s military campaign in Gaza. Our findings indicate that Israel has systematically targeted all aspects of civilian life. tinyurl.com/bdcrnzka

the antifascist crowd is MASSIVE in newcastle tonight!

Today, we & @Praxis_Projects are proud to deliver 350+ postcards calling on @Keir_Starmer to build an asylum system that protects, rather than punishes, people seeking safety. We need: ✅an end to #AntiRefugeeLaws ✅no offshoring ✅#CommunitiesNotCamps ✅the right to work!

1/2 The #BibbyStockholm is to close! This is welcome news. This segregated facility has caused untold harm to those placed there. People should be immediately moved out into safe accommodation in communities. bbc.co.uk/news/articles/…

A few years ago I was in one of those ramshackle hair salons in South London having my hair braided. The salon was run by a fabulous woman of African heritage & to pay the high rent, she rented out corners of the shop to people who provided other services including nails, false eye lashes, eyebrow threading etc. I didn't always appreciate the place as it was noisy & untidy. But there was always something equally enjoyable about the experience; the gossip, the unsolicited advice about improving my appearance or relationship, the craziness, the music, the people trying to sell you pretend Gucci bags, & the children running around if you went at the weekend. It was a place of escape & one where I felt safe. I happened to be there one day when immigration enforcement turned up. Everyone froze, including me, as the operation is one of true terror; it could easily have been an armed robbery such was the menacing command to stay where we were. I noticed a customer returning from the bathroom make down a side corridor which I knew led to a back exit; I've seen the movies & thought I didn't fancy her chances as they'd have had that covered. They hadn't & I never saw her again. The immigration officers went straight for the nail person who was of Vietnamese heritage. She had all the right papers. They then turned to the African heritage staff who were all British citizens. The owner was made to go to her flat above the business to retrieve evidence of her British status. None of us customers were questioned. One burly red-faced officer said something that sounded like false intelligence, but I can't be sure. I watched on curiously but angry, promising myself that I'd only intervene if necessary. Immigration enforcement came & immigration enforcement left after about an hour of questioning & checking. When they'd driven off, the only white member of staff, doing the eye lashes, looked ashen! I looked quizzically at her. She was unsure of her immigration status as her father had told her he'd sorted it but she was unsure. She was Albanian. She was the only person working in the place not to be questioned which was not lost on any of us including white customers waiting for nails and eye lashes. The workers all laughed, & it was business as usual but not for the owner who said that that was the third time & she was fed up of it. She felt targeted & harassed. She wanted to close shop. She did though I don't know if this was the reason. In the next few weeks, the Home Office will mount similar operations across countless businesses. There are issues in some of these industries, sure. I've long worried about some of the women in the nail shops. I also know that a large number of them have regularised their stay in the UK & if they started off as trafficked victims, have managed to escape this evil & live their lives on their own terms. This is not an easy feat but it happens. Others won't be so lucky. But the exercise afoot is not concerned with whether people have been trafficked, or of their working conditions. What will happen is that British people, settled people, people with leave to remain, mainly Black & Brown people, will be harassed & terrorised in front of petrified & suspicious customers, thereby causing much harm to legitimate businesses. And like the #HostileEnvironment, the exercise will impact more on people legitimately in the UK, like the experiences of the #Windrush victims, than it will to curb illegal migration as the National Audit Office reported of said policy. This will be all the more the case that the operation was announced ahead of time.

#WorldRefugeeDay Come celebrate #RefugeeWeek with us at @riponcathedral tomorrow evening! We have an exquisite band featuring Raghad Haddad, singer Bushee, Oud player Bashar a choir of people seeking sanctuary from across the world @CityofSanctuary @BBCLookNorth @RefugeeWeek

Court support needed: Please mobilise to support on Wednesday 5th June from 9am outside Newcastle Magistrates Court, Newcastle Law Courts, NE1 3LA. Please bring flags, placards, children’s clothes, dolls, etc.🇵🇸

🚨In a new 218-pg report, @hrw documents widespread war crimes & crimes against humanity as part of the RSF's ethnic cleansing campaign in West #Darfur #Sudan. Concerted global action is needed NOW to stop further atrocities & hold perpetrators to account. hrw.org/report/2024/05…

WHO ARE APARTHEID OFF CAMPUS AND WHAT ARE WE DEMANDING? (A Thread🧵) Apartheid of campus is a coalition of students and staff at Newcastle and Northumbria Universities who have joined together to join the global uprising for Palestine

The Israeli army have taken control of the Rafah crossing, closing it and the Kerem Shalom crossing. Almost all aid entering Gaza has gone through these two crossings. 🔴 Demand the UK government does everything it can to stop the invasion of Rafah: map.org.uk/campaigns/prev…

2/ 👇🏾We Keep Each other Safe! Rwanda Deportations- RESOURCES & INFO Equipping ourselves with accurate information and building our solidarity and resistance are crucial in this moment. We leave no one behind! migrantsorganise.org/we-keep-each-o…

Today’s the day! Time to start a new chapter for the North East. Remember to bring photographic I.D. with you when you go to vote. Polling stations open till 10pm. Once you’ve voted, text 5 friends to remind them to vote! Let’s do this!

13:30 tomorrow at @poprecsltd! Alex Jackson, @AmnestyUK's Country Coordinator for the East and Horn of Africa, will share an expert update on the human rights situation in Eritrea, Ethiopia and Somalia. All are welcome!

Only 25,000 signatures to go and 10 days left. Let's get this over the finish line. petition.parliament.uk/petitions/6485…

After the great news last week that Middlesborough took a stand against the #AntiRefugeeLaws Matthew Storey one of their councillors is calling on Teesside to do the same in @theleaduk thelead.uk/teesside-shoul…

Last night, we were honoured & moved to watch @Middlesbrough councillors pass a motion to - refuse to cooperate with any Government plans to build or repurpose facilities to detain or warehouse people seeking safety - defend the right to seek safety & fight the #AntiRefugeeLaws

What is France doing in return for UK cash to ‘stop the boats’? Unseen footage obtained by @LHreports shows new aggressive campaign where French police carry out violent interceptions at sea – flooding & ramming into vessels & using pepper spray Thread 🧵

1/4 The Home Office has already spent at least £230 million on its 'large sites' including the notorious #BibbyStockholm, the mental health disaster that is #Wethersfield and the chaos at #Scampton... #CommunitiesNotCamps