Climate campaigners take aim at 'hotel detention' with asylum protest at Aberdeen's Castlegate
Campaign groups Migrants Organising for Rights and Empowerment (MORE) and Climate Camp Scotland (CCS) staged a joint rally in the Castlegate this morning to call for changes to the treatment of asylum seekers.
ByJamie SaundersonTrainee reporter
2 AUG 2022
READ MORE Aberdonians urged to choose city council worker to become 'People's Champion'
"For the UK to ignore problems it helped create, and treat people who deserve support in such an inhumane way is completely unjustifiable, and so we are here in solidarity with those experiencing hotel detention."
The camp is in its final day after protesters took 'direct action' against many of the Granite City's energy businesses during their stay. Yesterday, they stormed the Port of Aberdeen in a 'mass trespass' to oppose plans to industrialise the Torry green space where they have been staying.
Campaign groups Migrants Organising for Rights and Empowerment (MORE) and Climate Camp Scotland (CCS) staged a joint rally in the Castlegate this morning to call for changes to the treatment of asylum seekers.
ByJamie Saunderson
2 AUG 2022
MSP Maggie Chapman was among the crowd. (Image: CCS)
MEMBER OF SCOTTISH PARLIAMENT
Climate activists taking part in a five-day camp at Aberdeen's St Fittick's Park joined forces with migrant campaigners to protest so-called 'hotel detention' today. Campaign groups Migrants Organising for Rights and Empowerment (MORE) and Climate Camp Scotland (CCS) staged a joint rally in the Castlegate this morning to call for changes to the treatment of asylum seekers.
The UK's practice of accommodating asylum seekers in hotels while they wait for permanent housing has come under fire from human rights activists. Although the government says it is a temporary measure, activists claim the system amounts to the 'warehousing' of people.
In June, we revealed more than 450 displaced people and asylum seekers were being housed in hotels in the Granite City. More than 250 of these were Ukrainian, while in February we discovered nearly 120 Afghans were in the same situation.
At today's gathering, speakers told the crowd of more than 50 people of their own experiences with the asylum system at the Mercat Cross. Drumming and chanting also rang out while Green MSP Maggie Chapman was spotted in the crowd.
Yvonne Blake of MORE said: ‘‘As the climate crisis intensifies, more and more people from the global south experience displacement, loss of ancestral land, culture, and lives. Droughts, wars, and floods are all consequences of carbon pollution caused by the West.
"Yet in Britain, asylum seeking people faces government hostility. Some people have been detained in hotels for up to nine months, and in that period have had to move between four hotels.
"Currently here in Aberdeen, there are over 100 men in hotels without access to employment, and education. These conditions do not prevent people fleeing persecution.
"What we need are safe routes, and for people to be treated with utmost dignity, respect, as set out in the UN Refugee Convention. While immigration is a reserved matter, the Scottish Government and councils have a duty of care and can do more, for example around access to education which is a devolved matter."
Duncan Harbison, a spokesman for CCS, added: "The UK Government has a responsibility to help displaced people since the UK and the fossil fuel industry have been responsible for a hugely disproportionate amount of global pollution which is forcing people from their own homes.
MEMBER OF SCOTTISH PARLIAMENT
Climate activists taking part in a five-day camp at Aberdeen's St Fittick's Park joined forces with migrant campaigners to protest so-called 'hotel detention' today. Campaign groups Migrants Organising for Rights and Empowerment (MORE) and Climate Camp Scotland (CCS) staged a joint rally in the Castlegate this morning to call for changes to the treatment of asylum seekers.
The UK's practice of accommodating asylum seekers in hotels while they wait for permanent housing has come under fire from human rights activists. Although the government says it is a temporary measure, activists claim the system amounts to the 'warehousing' of people.
In June, we revealed more than 450 displaced people and asylum seekers were being housed in hotels in the Granite City. More than 250 of these were Ukrainian, while in February we discovered nearly 120 Afghans were in the same situation.
At today's gathering, speakers told the crowd of more than 50 people of their own experiences with the asylum system at the Mercat Cross. Drumming and chanting also rang out while Green MSP Maggie Chapman was spotted in the crowd.
Yvonne Blake of MORE said: ‘‘As the climate crisis intensifies, more and more people from the global south experience displacement, loss of ancestral land, culture, and lives. Droughts, wars, and floods are all consequences of carbon pollution caused by the West.
"Yet in Britain, asylum seeking people faces government hostility. Some people have been detained in hotels for up to nine months, and in that period have had to move between four hotels.
"Currently here in Aberdeen, there are over 100 men in hotels without access to employment, and education. These conditions do not prevent people fleeing persecution.
"What we need are safe routes, and for people to be treated with utmost dignity, respect, as set out in the UN Refugee Convention. While immigration is a reserved matter, the Scottish Government and councils have a duty of care and can do more, for example around access to education which is a devolved matter."
Duncan Harbison, a spokesman for CCS, added: "The UK Government has a responsibility to help displaced people since the UK and the fossil fuel industry have been responsible for a hugely disproportionate amount of global pollution which is forcing people from their own homes.
READ MORE Aberdonians urged to choose city council worker to become 'People's Champion'
"For the UK to ignore problems it helped create, and treat people who deserve support in such an inhumane way is completely unjustifiable, and so we are here in solidarity with those experiencing hotel detention."
The camp is in its final day after protesters took 'direct action' against many of the Granite City's energy businesses during their stay. Yesterday, they stormed the Port of Aberdeen in a 'mass trespass' to oppose plans to industrialise the Torry green space where they have been staying.
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