Unity Centre Glasgow

Please see this page for more details

The four people who were arrested following our nonviolent blockade of the UKBA reporting centre in Glasgow on Monday 21st November are due to appear in Glasgow Sheriff’s Court on Thursday 22nd December for a pleading diet.

We’re asking friends and supporters to attend to show their support for the Fab Four!

Come and meet outside the Sheriff Court at 10.00am

STOP DAWN RAIDS! STOP DETAINING CHILDREN!

Come to the protest Monday 21 November, 10.00 am outside UKBA reporting centre at Festival Court, 200 Brand Street, Glasgow

Following the dawn raid on two families early last week Unity is calling for a protest outside of the UKBA reporting centre and headquarters of the Immigration Enforcement Team on Monday 21 November. Unity hopes it will be a well-attended protest that will make it clear once and for all that the UKBA using dawn raids and the detention of families is just not acceptable.

More information here

To raise money for Unity’s new night shelter project (run in partnership with the Glasgow Destitution Network) students from Glasgow StudentAction for Refugees (STAR) are holding a sleep out on Friday 18th November on the steps of Wellington Church.You can see more about the sleep out here http://starglasgow.wordpress.com/ Feel free to come along: just bring a sleeping bag,a groundsheet if you have one and anything else you feel might be necessary (ahot water bottle, musical instruments, cake…) Or donate to the sleep out at http://www.justgiving.com/starglasgowsleepout/eurl.axd/37563d0608f1a84ba73ffce821f5cac2  STAR aim to raise £1000 - so please be generous!

Ghanaian trade unionist Anaane Anidu was detained by the UKBA a week ago in Glasgow. 35 year old Anaane has been married to Isobel, a British national, since 2006 and has a 21 year old step-daughter in Glasgow.  The UKBA have given him removal directions to be forcibly removed from the UK on a charter flight to Ghana on Friday 4th November. Please take action to help Anaan. More information here.

The UK Border Agency has started a new policy for how they will treat families. They new policy means that some families with children may be detained in the future.

Unity has written a short briefing giving more information. You can read it here.  Please pass this information on to any family seeking asylum that you may know. Make sure to talk to your lawyer or to Unity if you are unsure about anything.

Can you spare any time next Thursday, Friday, Saturday or Sunday?

As you might know, Unity has a new shop in Govan. It’s bigger than any of our other shops and has office and meeting room space plus a huge area we can use to distribute free clothes from…

We’re really excited about the space and want to use it for our English classes and other projects as well as for the clothihg distribution project and charity shop and it’s really close to our bookshop (and the chippy!)

The down side is that it is really dirty and needs some tender loving care to make it fit for us to use…

As well as the usual cleaning and painting we need to replace the carpet and fix some holes. The good thing is that we don’t really need to do any major construction work, except build shelves. And there’s already a huge counter.

So we’re looking to start work in the new shop and need volunteers to help clean and paint the place on Thursday, Friday, Saturday and Sunday next week.(Starting on the 15th September.)

Can you help?

Please let us know if you can come down to Govan on any of the days to help clean and paint and put the new carpet tiles down…Oh and the new shop is at 70 Shaw Street. It’s a dark blue shop with three shutters and right next door to the Govan Chppy. We’ll be in there from about 11.00 every day. See you there!

Ali will be running her first half marathon and hopes to raise money for Unity in the Community!

She says “I’m running the Half Marathon in the Great Scottish Run. The longest race I’ve done previously is 5km, so this is pretty daunting!  I’ve been busy training over the last couple of months though, so I’m fairly sure I’ll get through the 13.1 miles around Glasgow. ”

Please go to Ali’s Just Giving Page and make a donation now! http://www.justgiving.com/ali-king/

The Great Scottish Run will take place  on Sunday 4th September starting at George Square. The run will come along Paisley Road West past Unity in the Community’s charity shop and then to Pollok Park and back again to finish at Glasgow Green.

If you would like to cheer Ali on please meet outside Unity’s charity shop at 11.00 on Sunday 4th September.

The shop is at 371 Paisley Road West - it’s right opposite Cessnock underground station. You can read details and see the route of the run on this map here: http://www.runglasgow.org/GSR-2011/index.php

Good luck Ali!

We’ve been asked to to help someone who is housebound in Springburn. He’s a 40 year old man originally from Guinea who is a wheelchair user and cannot get out without a lot of difficulty.

He’s desperate for company and for someone to talk to so he can practise his English. It wouldn’t have to be during the day and would be for one or two times a week - longer if you wish.

The person who asked us to help said: “He is a delightful, gentle, friendly man and this would be so good for him.”

Ideally we are looking for someone with a TEFL qualification who would be happy to spend one or two evenings visiting this man. If you can help - please contact us at the Unity Centre. Many thanks!

If you would be interested in befriending other asylum seekers in Glasgow in a similar way please get in touch.

The firm who run part of the Guantanamo Bay prison camp have won the contract to manage Dungavel immigration removal centre.

The GEO group manage the Guantanamo Bay Migrant Operations Centre, as well as private jails in the US.In America, the firm have been dogged by allegations of human rights abuses, sexual assault and negligence. And after a series of scandals involving rioting, racism and assault, they lost a contract to run immigration centres in Australia.The company will take over the running of Dungavel in September for five years. The contract is worth £25 million of taxpayers’ cash.

More info From today’s Daily Record:

http://www.dailyrecord.co.uk/news/scottish-news/2011/08/15/guantanamo-bay-firm-to-run-dungavel-detention-centre-86908-23346246/#.Tkj0mbWBqt8.email