[DanaC]

No. Anyone can't get into Britain.

The whole point of the protest was that he'd been refused asylum and was about to be forcibly deported back to Iran to face likely imprisonment, torture and possible execution.

We supposedly offer asylum to anyone facing imprisonment and torture for their politics, beliefs, sexuality, or race. Yet we routinely (and I fucking mean routinely) bundle these vulnerable, frightened and traumatised families onto dawn flights back to the hell-holes they so desperately fled.

There are many documented cases of people who've been sent back to places like Iraq, Afghanistan, Congo, Somalia, Sierra Leone. People who've later disappeared in those countries. Some whose mutilated bodies were later found.

Those who do get to stay are forbidden from working and earning: instead they are housed in temporary and constantly changing accomodation, given food stamps, made to report to a police station once a week, subjected to regular and random searches of their homes and possessions. The medical professionals who assess them come to bizarre conclusions that are in stark contrast to what other doctors and counsellors have said about the patient.

I know several asylum seekers and refugees, some of whom have suffered unimaginable physical and mental torture. I know one woman who saw her child raped and killed, her husband hacked to death and was then herself gangraped multiple times across several days. Not only did the 'Doctor' (and I would suggest the only reason the man deserves that title is because of the plaque on his wall) conclude that she had not been tortured: but he then concluded, without having conducted any kind of internal physical examination, that she'd never been a mother and therefore her story must be untrue.

She was sent back to her country of origin.

I know another man who was brutally tortured under Saddam's regime. At one point he was sentenced to death, marched out with several others to where the firing squad was waiting. They each had to sign for the two bullets that would kill them. This was apparently a mock, staged execution. To frighten them. They were taken back to their cells.

He was tortured so badly that he lost his right leg. His scars are horrific. His assessment for the aslyum application stated that he had not been tortured.

Those awaiting a decision may well find themselves on a 'risk list' because of their country of origin. They will most likely be housed in a secure centre: a kind of prison camp, complete with armed guards, razor wire fences and half the dorms on suicide watch. One of them, 'Yarlswood' has been in and out of the news for its brutal regimes, the high suicide rates amongst its inmates, and the fact that there are still large numbers of young children incarcerated there. I had a good friend who spent some time in one of these places. A case of mistaken identity: another man with the a similar name had come to the end of his asylum process and was due to be deported. Imran was arrested in his place and kept in the centre for 2-3 weeks.

He lost masses of weight during that time. Was subjected to the humiliation of a full strip search every time he had a visitor. Was woken every 20-30 mins through the night by a patrolling warden, who was regularly checking the dorm because of a recent spate of suicides. He has been on anti-depressants since that time and suffers night terrors. His crime, to be treated so harshly? None.

The vast majority of those houses in places like Yarlswood, will eventually be denied asylum and put on a plane back, either to their country of origin, or, if we have arbitraily decided that we don't believe their story and assigned them a new nationality, we'll send them to that country.

I honestly do not know why it is that we have a reputation in the press and amongst other nations as a country that is easy to get into: it really isn't. Amongst the refugee communities themselves, and along the information channels running through and between disparate groups of those at risk, or considering flight: Britain is considered a desirable place, in that once asylum is granted the standard of living available is good; however, gaining asylum is known to be extremely difficult.

Approximarely 98% of cases are refused at first hearing. Now it used to be that they could get two appeals to that. On the second appeal, the figure refused is still high: by the third appeal, which was heard at a higher level, about 60% of those refusals were overturned. Now: there is only one appeal, and it can only be instigated if fresh evidence can be brought. Clearly, the first hearing is failing a lot of genuine asylum seekers. rather than ensure that the first stage works properly so appeals would be less needed, they have just made it virtually impossible to appeal.

Everything, and I mean everything, in the asylum process is designed to deter and obstruct.