And finally, before I finally switch off my computer for the evening, I’ve had a profile type interview of Cheshire prisons campaigner Pauline Campbell published in this week’s edition of the Big Issue in the North.
Campbell – who I’ve previously mentioned on this blog here – is a very inspiring character; someone who’s managed to turn the most tragic experience (the death of her only daughter) into a spirited public campaign.
Over the past five years, she’s become the public face of a movement fighting to bring some much-needed dignity to the women’s – and for that matter men’s – penal system in the UK. To read the full piece, click on the Jpegs below.

If anyone’s in any doubt about the effect of the political turmoil in Israel/Palestine on the lives of ordinary people, a chat with someone from that country is a real mind-opener. I interviewed George Rishamwi, a Palestinian non-violence peace activist from Bethlehem when he was visiting Liverpool and Manchester the other week and found what he was saying fascinating.
For anyone who won’t get that kind of opportunity, I’d highly recommend a travelogue type book I’m reading at the moment, Prickly Pears of Palestine, which talks about exactly this from an outsider’s point of view.

Following on from this, this, this and this, I continue my very gradual, meandering exploration of the different housing market renewal pathfinders around the North of England, for the Big Issue in the North.
This time I visited the Elevate project in East Lancashire – now rebranded to the snappily titled and rather aspirational “Pennine Lancashire”. The experience was as confusing – and the views as polarised – as ever.

An MP has provoked anger by claiming ASBOs “are made just for travellers”, and persuading her local authority to use the orders against gypsies who set up camp on its land. What she and its officers perhaps don’t appreciate is that both groups are recognised in law as separate ethnic groups.
Imagine the outrage – said a travellers’ spokeswoman – should an elected member say ASBO legislation was made just for Afro-Carribean people, or some other community. Discrimination against travelling people really does seem to be the final taboo.

From The Big Issue in the North 28/4/08

I’ve been finding it difficult to get time to update this blog recently for various reasons, both work and personal.
I’m on a photography course at the moment and deadlines are looming, so what little spare time I’ve had is being taken up by getting together my stuff for that.
There have been various family-type events going on. And I’ve been out and about quite a lot for work…currently covering regeneration (again), domestic abuse, criminal justice and environment, plus a few profile-type pieces on some interesting folks from the the North of England.
And then there are a few overseas jobs in the pipeline…both classic travel pieces plus hopefully some human rights stuff. If I can find the time to organise them, that is.
Normal service will hopefully resume very soon.

Male rape is rarely discussed in our culture, apart from the odd gag about dropping the soap in the prison showers.
Yet studies suggest one in seven UK rape victims could be male, while one in four men may have sufffered childhood sexual abuse.
Historic under-reporting has reinforced the myth within society and many statutory agencies that men are rarely victims of sexual violence.
The effect is that rape crisis services are skewed towards women, with male-centred services lagging some two decades behind .
This, a society where men are not permitted to be “victims” – plus the incorrect perception that male-on-male sexual violence only affects and is committed by gay men – conspire to force those who have been through this keep their stories to themselves and suffer the consequences alone.
“This isn’t just being swept under the carpet,” says Simon, a rape survivor and support worker. “It’s being locked behind doors. Men aren’t supposed to be victims, or to cry. Only women are meant to be vulnerable.”

From the Big Issue in the North 7/4/08

I’ve just returned from a few days’ work trip to the Sud Tyrol area of Italy, where I had to try to overcome my fear of heights in order to do both this:

and this:

It’s tough at the cutting edge but someone’s got to do it.

Back to reality, I wrote a comment piece on last week’s Independent Asylum Commission report which I tried to get used elsewhere, to no avail. It’s now a bit late, but still.

LAST week’s warning that the UK asylum system is “marred by inhumanity” will not have come as news to anyone who has had dealings with it – or who sat through the hearings of the Independent Asylum Commission (IAC).
The panel – co-chaired by former Appeals Court judge Sir John Waite and featuring a bishop and a human rights campaigner – gathered evidence at a series of hearings across the country, each of which focused on a different aspect of the system.
Their interim report pulled no punches when it found the treatment of those who seek sanctury in this country fell “seriously below” the standards of a civilised society.
Vilification of refugees and asylum seekers is now so ubiquitous within the British media – and indeed society – that it’s all too easy to ignore the very human tragedies of those involved.
The Manchester event – which I sat through – was a harrowing look at the issue of destitution, through the eyes of those who have experienced it.
Those who come to Britain for safety become destitute if there are delays during the asylum process or when their case is turned down. Then, benefits, accomodation and free healthcare are withdrawn if they refuse to voluntarily return home – regardless of whether they are appealing.
With no recourse to public funds, and no right to work, most slip through the net. There are known to be at least 1,000 destitute asylum seekers in Greater Manchester alone.
But for one day these people were given a voice, and what they said shocked the more naïve among us. These weren’t all slippery “bogus” social parasites determined to weasel their way into this country and bleed us dry with a lifetime on benefits.
They were normal people who had fled unspeakable horrors in their homelands and then slipped through our system due to oversights, human error and sheer bad luck.
Many had been finally awarded refugee status here following appeals and months – or even years – on the streets or relying on handouts from charities and friends. But a handful of witnesses were still destitute.
We heard from an Ethopian woman how she had to change solicitor seven times, and was made destitute before finally being granted sanctuary in Britain.
We learned that a 70-year-old Somalian woman who speaks no English and suffers from arthritis and a gastric condition slept on friends’ floors and sofas and lived on vouchers for nine months while her case was processed.
A 47-year-old torture survivor from Dafur told how he slept at Manchester’s train and tram stations and in subways after being told to return to Sudan. His asylum case was eventually accepted.
Few in their right mind would argue that all asylum seekers should be ultimately be allowed to stay in the UK. But critics say the government deliberately uses destitution as a tool to force asylum seekers to return home, regardless of whether their country is safe or not.
Indeed, in his response to the IAC report, Lin Homer, head of the Border and Immigration Agency, hinted as much when he said: “We expect those that a court says have no genuine need for asylum to return home voluntarily, saving taxpayers the expense of enforcing their return.”
It’s a policy that’s not only inhumane but also wrong-headed. How can people with no access to money for day-to-day essentials and no right to work be expected to fund their return journeys halfway across the world?
With the government’s deportion system in a mess, those who have fallen through cracks or find themselves in the no-mans land that follows rejection are condemned to a life of misery and humiliation.
Those who work in this sector are calling for a few simple changes which would bring some fairness back into the system. They want support to be offered to asylum seekers right up to appeal, and for those who are refused but cannot be returned home to be allowed to work.
Nigel Rose, manager of Refugee Action’s Manchester branch, says: “Far from encouraging refused asylum seekers to return home, destitution has the opposite effect. It means the government loses contact with asylum seekers, who enter a cycle of poverty, fear, hunger and mental and physical deterioration. Each day they are destitute, the chances of return become more remote.
“Instead, the government should maintain contact with refused asylum seekers and work with them to resolve their cases.”
Sadly there are few signs so far that the government will be taking such criticisms on board.

LIVING with violence but unable to escape – that is the reality facing hundreds of women in the UK as a result of government legislation.
The plight of women refused support and refuge accommodation because they have no right to public funds has been highlighted in a report by Amnesty International UK and the charity Southall Black Sisters.
No recourse, no safety draws on research by organisations including Bradford Women’s Aid, Ashiana Sheffield, Saheli Manchester and Leeds Women’s Aid. It reveals how some women are trapped in a cycle of abuse, unable to access basic levels of protection and support, simply because of their vulnerable immigration status.
Women with insecure status who experience abuse cannot access the benefits they need to access crucial safety and support in a refuge.
Refuges often need housing benefit to cover accommodation costs and income support to cover basic subsistence while women recover. The no recourse requirement forbids these women from getting either, leaving them with a stark choice of staying in the abuse or becoming destitute.
Those potentially affected by this rule include international students, temporary workers, visitors, trafficked women and girls, and women who have entered the UK on valid visas as either a spouse or a long-term partner.
The report highlights the case of Sabia Rani, a 19-year-old Pakistani who was murdered by her husband Shazad Khan in May 2006, following three months of beatings and abuse at his family’s home in Oakwood, Leeds. On February 5 [2008], four members of Khan’s family were found guilty of allowing the death of a vulnerable adult under the Domestic Violence Crime and Victims Act 2004.
Rani spoke no English and had been kept prisoner in the house since arriving in the UK five months before her death.
The report says: “What happened to Sabia illustrates the risks facing women who are not able to escape to safety.
“During the months of violence that led to her death, had there been just one moment in which Sabia could have escaped, she would have had nowhere to go.
“While women in other situations may go to the police, or a refuge or similar organisation, because of her immigration status and the no recourse to public funds requirement she would not have been guaranteed a place of safety.”
Amnesty director, Kate Allen, said: “The government is betraying hundreds of women in the UK. It has a duty to ensure that all women under its jurisdiction have the same access to crisis or temporary accommodation and appropriate specialist services – regardless of their status.”
Southall Black Sisters co-founder, Pragna Patel said: “This is a horrific situation. It’s unacceptable that the government’s policies and measures to protect all women from violence do not reach this category of women.
“The government is more concerned about maintaining its tough stance on immigration than it is about ensuring that it meets international human rights standards which include acting with due diligence to protect all women from violence and abuse.”
As well as ensuring these women are able to access accommodation and support, Amnesty International and Southall Black Sisters are urging the government to set up an interim emergency fund available for immediate use to help women who are at present risk whilst permanent solutions are established.
Research by Southall Black Sisters indicates that more than 600 domestic violence cases a year involve women with no access to public funds.

The Big Issue in the North 24/3/08

I feel sullied.
A court story I wrote for the Manchester Evening News a couple of months back has cropped up on the BNP website, as part of their vile propaganda.
The racist bigots are claiming that just because the defendants happened to be of Asian ethnicity it backs up their warnings about – ahem – “Muslim heroin gangs operating in our cities”.
Utter bollocks. You get the odd criminal scumbag in the Asian community, just like you do in the English, Scottish, Welsh, black, Chinese, French, Polish, male, female, gay, straight, disabled – or any other – communities.
But what exactly does their religion, or that of their families, have to do with anything? It wasn’t mentioned once in my news story, because IT WASN’T RELEVANT.
And I don’t remember ever hearing of Christian drug dealers, Christian muggers, Christian rapists, or whatever.
The culture of Muslim-bashing that’s developed in this country really bothers me. As does people’s willingness to jump on the bandwagon without having the intellectual curiosity to do some research on what the religion’s all about.
These ignorant, blinkered people make me ashamed.

Well France was as beautiful as ever; the baguettes were fresh and the red wine and Ricard copious. I love the pace of life over there and have long harboured hopes of relocating permamently – I did a French degree and spent 18 months working first in the Alps and then in Lyon. As I get older, personal and professional life have conspired to make this less likely. From my experience of France I know it can be bureaucratic and frustrating. Unfortunately I ‘m one of those people who find it quite difficult to live in the here and now – and have the constant nagging feeling that the grass is probably greener somewhere else.

Back in Blighty I feel quite busy with work but am going through a phase where I don’t have much to show for it. My job is quite cyclical – some months I will write tonnes and have lots of pieces published all over the place. At the moment I’m at the other end of the process – coming up with ideas, trying to get commissions, arranging and doing interviews and then trying to find some time to transcribe my shorthand or dictaphone. Like any writer I have an ego – we like to see our work in print. When there isn’t much to speak of that ego takes a knock. Probably a good thing for all concerned, but still.

Aaaaanyway.
One writer who I greatly admire is Johann Hari from the Independent. He has a brilliant, tragic feature in the paper at the moment – the kind of piece I would like to be writing – called Inside the Slave Trade. It tells the story of Bangladesh’s stolen boys and girls – children spirited away to brothels – and the efforts to save them. The photos are also beautiful.

“But there is an ever greater fear: the traffickers. The only moment when Mohammed betrays emotion is when he remembers a little girl called Muni, who was his friend. One day in June last year, when she was nine-and-a-half, an old man approached and told her she could have a brilliant job if she came with him. She refused, remembering the rumours that spread among the children about what really happened if you went with these men. He snatched her anyway. The other kids tried to tell the police, but they were just chased away.
Her body was found, raped and strangled, three days later….

“I ask him what he would like to own when he’s older, thinking I will get a child’s reverie about having a big house and a car. “Own?” he says. “I’d like to own my mother.” And with that, he grins and closes his eyes.”