Protest about asylum removals

Dec 18 2007 By Graeme Whitfield

Activists have said they are staging a blockade of a Border and Immigration Agency office in Newcastle to highlight the ``morally unacceptable" forced removal of asylum seekers.

Protesters said they had locked on to gates and doorways at various locations across the UK in a bid to stop BIA officials conducting dawn raids.

Ten regional migrant support groups started their action at 5.30am on Tuesday, a spokesman for the No Borders Network UK said.

Activists also targeted BIA offices in Portsmouth, Bristol and Glasgow.

Vans which would be carrying out dawn raids would be prevented from leaving between 6am and 9am, the No Borders Network UK spokesman said.

A spokeswoman for the group said that in Glasgow 15 people had locked themselves to gates using tripods and in Portsmouth three people had locked themselves to gates in arm cuffs.

In the North East, activist Claire Tilly said a protest took place for three hours outside the office on Norfolk Street in North Shields.

She said: ``We had a lock-on device made of giant [festive] crackers. There were about four people in Santa suits locked to each other and about six to eight supporters.

``They were blocking vans going out and preventing them from carrying out the raids on people’s homes."

She added: ``It’s particularly important at this time of year because it’s Christmas time. It’s the kind of time when families should feel safe."