STAR GLASGOW

Pub Quiz!!

starglasgow — Sun, 22 Jan 2012 19:21:34 +0000

Do you feel like there isn’t enough quizzing in your life?
Have you always wanted to win first prize in something and be the envy of all your friends?
Not been to the pub in a while?
Then come to the STAR Pub Quiz next Sunday (the 29th) and see how well you do!

There’ll be a raffle, there’ll be prizes and it’s all raising money for a good cause.

It will cost you £2 to compete in the quiz, and ever penny of that goes towards buying medicine for John Oguchukwu, a Glasgow Uni student who was deported last July. Find out more about him here.

Happy New Year!

starglasgow — Mon, 09 Jan 2012 14:20:18 +0000

Happy New Year, Starpeople. I hope you all had a great Christmas and are all ready for a new semester of putting lots of ideas, enthusiasm and effort into working with STAR.

This is going to be a quick post with some of our plans for this semester. Nothing is set in stone or planned in a lot of detail yet so i’ll update again when things are more worked out. Until then, here’s a rough idea of what’s gonna be happening over the next few months.

Ceilidh
Every year, STAR get together with the Glasgow Uni Amnesty and Red Cross groups to host a ceilidh. This is always a great night and raises lots of money.

Sleep Out
Now that we’ve all recovered from our last sleep out, we’re going to go straight back in to doing another one. Hopefully, this will happen in February sometime before it gets too much like Spring.

Oor John
Anyone involved last semester will be aware of this campaign. We plan to keep working with and campaigning for John as much as we possibly can.

Other Projects
There are a couple of other organisations that are looking to recruit volunteers right now. Red Cross are looking for volunteers to work within their Refugee Services Unit and Scottish Detainee Volunteers are looking for people to visit detainees in Dungavel. If anyone is interested in being involved with these organisations, please get in touch as soon as possible. The deadline for the Red Cross is the 16th and for SDV is the 27th.

Of course, this isn’t everything. There’s always lots going on and almost everything we were involved in last semester will still be going on this semester. Unity are always looking for volunteers and as fantastic as we are, we haven’t managed to solve all the problems refugees face so we aren’t going to be short of campaigns, protests and fundraising opportunities!

As always, feel free to get in touch if you want to get involved. Our meetings are on Tuesday evenings in the QMU at 6pm so come along if you can.

Dawn Raids & Child Detention

starglasgow — Sat, 12 Nov 2011 14:11:06 +0000

At the end of last year, the government pledged to end child detention by May 2011. It was a LibDem manifesto committment, and the coalition agreed to implement it as part of their post election coalition agreement. David Cameron described the process as a “scandal” and Nick Clegg released a statement describing it as a “shameful” process which “no innocent child should ever have to endure.
However, a year on this is still happening. According to the Guardian between May and August 2011 over 700 children were detained at south east ports, a third of whom were unaccompanied. Furthermore, they have opened a new centre for detaining children; Cedars. According to the UKBA, Cedars is not a detention centre, it is a “pre-departure accomodation centre.” It has lots of bright colours, a play area and a pool table. It also has two boundary fences and is staffed by UKBA officials and the security force, G4S. (Yes, they are the same people who were responsible for the asphyxiation of Jimmy Mubenga on his deportation flight.) Instead of getting rid of child detention, the UKBA have rebranded it, added a play park and employed Barnardos to work with the children. They are still detaining children.
A few years ago, dawn raids on asylum seekers were stopped in Glasgow due to widespread opposition from communities. However, recently they have been used again. Many families with children are being dawn raided. Earlier this week, a single mother called Funke and her 5 year old son, Joseph, were woken at 7am by six or seven UKBA officials crashing through their door. Funke was handcuffed, while the UKBA men got Joseph out of bed, dressed him and took them both into detention. This is not uncommon but it is completely unnecessary. Funke had been to report at the Home Office the day before her arrest- there is no reason they could not have detained her and Joseph then but instead they chose to break into her house at 7am. They have been in detention since the raid, and are due to be forcibly deported at 10pm tonight (Saturday 12th.)

Protest
We are joining a protest against these things outside the UKBA office on Monday the 21st November, the day after Universal Childrens Day, at 10am. The UKBA office is on Brand Street, in Cessnock. It is very important that this protest is publicised as widely as possible, so please spread the word to everyone you know. There is a lot of preparation to do before the protest itself; if you can spare some time to help plan then please get in touch.

For more information about any of the above, feel free to drop us an email.

Update!

starglasgow — Mon, 31 Oct 2011 17:03:30 +0000

Hello there!
This is just a quick update to let you know what we’ve been up to so far in this semester.
Firstly, we’ve run several informal workshops on how the asylum process works in the UK and the effects of this process on the individuals involved. This tends to be the focus of our weekly meetings, so come along two the QMU at 6pm on Tuesdays if you want to be involved.
We’ve also had guest speakers. During our first meeting of the year, Hilary from STAR National came along and talked about the origins of STAR, the national network of STAR groups and how STAR Glasgow fits in. More recently, we invited Phil from the Unity Centre to tell us about what the Unity Centre does and the opportunities for volunteering with Unity.
Fundraising has also played a key role in our activities. The campaign we have focused on most this semester is that of student John Oguchukwu. The ‘Oor John’ Campaign is very important to us at Glasgow STAR as John was a third year Business student at the University of Glasgow when he was deported in July. John is in desperate need of money and medical care so we have held two consecutive bakestalls on the Glasgow University campus and managed to raise £110 to send to him. We also collected signatures for a petition calling for a fresh review of John’s case so that he can come back to Glasgow, where he belongs. Our campaigning and fundraising for John is ongoing – check out our events page to see some of the other things we have planned.

STAR works very closely with Unity, and so many STAR members (and their friends) have been turning out in their old clothes to help sort out and decorate their new charity shop. This has involved a very messy, but successful few weekends of painting, gluing carpet and moving furniture. Volunteers are still needed to finish this job so that the shop can be opened so if you find yourself with a spare few hours and feel like laying some carpet, let us know.

Finally, there was an urgent action recently when Nabeel, an asylum seeker involved with Unity, was threatened with eviction. Nabeel has chronic lung disease and has to sleep with a ventilator mask that requires plugging into the wall. Despite this, the UKBA attempted to evict him from his flat and leave him homeless. Several members of STAR, along with people from Unity, went along to his flat and basically stood in front of his door so that they could not evict him before his doctor signed a statement saying that it would put his life at risk to have him deported. This was successful and Nabeel has had his financial support reinstated.

Welcome Freshers 2011/2012!!!

starglasgow — Tue, 30 Aug 2011 13:32:14 +0000

Welcome to the University of Glasgow!

Well done for finding our page, we’re Glasgow University’s Student Action for Refugees group.

We will be meeting every Tuesday after term starts in the QMU and we already have lots of great stuff planned for this year.

If you’re interested in getting involved with our society then get in touch by email, Facebook or talk to one of us during Freshers Week. We’ll have a stall about campus and should be at the SRC’s Volunteering Fair on Thursday – full details to come.

star/amnesty/red cross ceilidh!

starglasgow — Fri, 04 Mar 2011 12:50:17 +0000

this sunday is the annual glasgow uni star/amnesty/red cross group ceilidh!

7:30

£5 / free for asylum seekers

qudos, queen margret union

this year we’re raising money for the Red Cross Refugee Unit’s reunion and resettlement service, which brings together families who have been separated by conflict and persecution.

still human still here sleepout

starglasgow — Thu, 24 Feb 2011 17:35:09 +0000

Tomorrow night star and amnesty members will be sleeping rough to raise awareness of the destitution faced by thousands of people in the process of claiming asylum. The night will include free food, music, speakers from Unity and the Scottish Refugee Council, plus the chance to talk about why people are being made destitute, and what needs to change. Please come along and show your support.

star/amnesty sleepout

7.30 onwards, Wellington Church, University Av, Glasgow

Events: Sleepout & Ceilidh

starglasgow — Fri, 18 Feb 2011 12:09:45 +0000

This term we’ve got two big events to look forwards to:

On the 25th of feburary, students in Glasgow will be sleeping on the streets on the 25th of February, with performances
and speakers earlier in the evening to raise awareness of the destitution faced by thousands of refused asylum seekers in the UK, who are literally left penniless at the end of their asylum claim.

All are welcome to come along and show their support for the cause.

As part of the National Student Action Week from 21st to 27th February, up to 1,000 students across the country will be sleeping out, organised by Amnesty International and STAR.

We are calling on the government to get behind more sensible rules for permission to work for asylum seekers. Allowing people to work and support themselves if they have been waiting for more than six months for their cases to be concluded, or have been refused asylum but cannot be returned, would reduce the burden on the taxpayer and allow them to support themselves and
their families while contributing to the economy.

We’re also calling on our MP, Anne McKechin, to take a stand. We want her to support the “Let Them Work Declaration”, which would allow refused asylum seekers to be allowed to work to support themselves and their families, avoiding destitution until they can find a durable solution to their situation.

You can ask your MP to sign the declaration here, and join the facebook group here.

We’ve also got our annual ceilidh, with gu amnesty and red cross, with this year’s funds going to the brilliant Red Cross Refugee Unit.

you can find out more about the ceilidh, and join our facebook group here.

Happy New Year!

starglasgow — Tue, 18 Jan 2011 20:26:37 +0000

Happy New Year!

We will be holding our AGM and elections for committee positions on Tuesday the 4th of February. You can find out more about the positions here: Star Committee Positions

Hope to see you all there!

starry starry christmas party

starglasgow — Sun, 12 Dec 2010 20:38:05 +0000

we’ll be having a wee christmas gathering this tuesday, at 6pm in committee room 3 of the QMU.

there’ll be mince pies, a festive quiz, crackers and a chance to chat about plans for next year!

join the facebook event here so we know how many to expect.

all welcome!