On Tuesday (29th April), friends of the Anti Raids Network disrupted a Home Office immigration raid on a Middle Eastern restaurant in London SW1, near Hyde Park, shortly after 2pm. Two ‘Immigration Enforcement’ vans were parked up in a back street off Lowndes Square shortly after 2pm, and about 10 immigration officers with one Met police officer in tow barged into the nearby restaurant. Here is a report from friends who were there:
“We were hot on their heels, some 8 of us getting through the door just behind them. As in previous raids, we shouted out to everyone in the building to let them know that: you can walk away and leave at any time during the raid; you don’t have to answer any questions; immigration officers are not allowed to block people from leaving or chase anyone out of the building. We also filmed and photographed the raid and handed out information leaflets in both English and Arabic.
A number of people did manage to walk out and leave the restaurant without being hassled. On this occasion the staff of the restaurant all had legal papers and chose to show them to the immigration officers. The border thugs also used a mobile fingerprint scanner on one man. Failing to find any ‘illegals’, the squad told everyone to ‘go back to work’. They were followed back to their vans by chants of ‘Racist Scum, Off Our Streets’, and then we watched them drive off empty-handed.
Video here
We learnt a few interesting things today. The border thugs had no legal paperwork to enter the building, but it seems got so-called ‘consent’ from the manager on the door. This is typical: they push their way in, then intimidate people into ‘agreeing’, with the implied threat of bigger trouble if you don’t cooperate. Recently released official reports have condemned the London Bridge UKBA gang behind this raid for routinely using dodgy paperwork to enter buildings. Another question is what led them to target this restaurant. Most Home Office ‘intelligence’ comes from tip-offs from grasses and informers*, so maybe there was a call from someone with a grudge. Or perhaps it was just a ‘fishing expedition’ picking randomly on a business with migrant workers.
We noticed that, unlike many other raids, this time the racists were oddly well behaved and didn’t try to muscle us out of the way. it could be that after recent bad publicity they’ve had some kind of ‘good cop’ training day on how not to let the mask slip when there’s several cameras pointed at you. Also, we got the feeling that they may be getting increasingly resigned to meeting this kind of opposition and disgust wherever they go.
That’s just as it should be. Immigration officers are bullies who rely on our fear and compliance. As they routinely break their own rules, knowing that they may get caught out for acting illegally is one reason why they may retreat when confronted by a few people. Another simpler one is that, like most predators, their basic strategy is to pick off easy targets, but back off when they meet resistance.
Of course this kind of shit is going on everywhere, every day. And many people are fighting it, every day. Anti Raids is just one network involved in sharing ideas, information and examples of resistance. What we need is a widespread culture of zero tolerance for raids and bullying attacks by immigration officers, police, or any other fascists. In the streets, in our neighbourhoods, wherever we are, don’t stand by, take action.”
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Anti Raids will be out on the street next week in Peckham. Join us to distribute ‘know your rights’ leaflets on Tuesday 6th May. Meet at Peckham Rye station at 9am. See the previous blog post for further details.
Notes:
*There were 100,000 tip offs in 2010 for example.