Including Saturday and Sunday.
By Clare Jerrom and Reg McKay.
16 Romanians ride under Eurostar
Sixteen Romanian asylum seekers were found hiding beneath a Eurostar train in London on Friday after a high-speed journey from France.
Police found five women, two men and nine children aged between three and 15 in cramped compartments at the train in Waterloo station. They were suffering dehydration, but none needed hospital treatment.
A home office spokesperson said they were awaiting interview by immigration officials.
Source:- The Guardian Saturday 4 August page 1
Seven face paedophile trial
Seven men are to stand trial in connection with an alleged paedophile ring at Liverpool crown court.
Among the seven is Stanley Claridge who faces a series of charges including the rape of a 13-year-old girl in the 1970s.
Source:- The Guardian Saturday 4 August page 7
Rough sleepers down by 3,000
More than 3,000 rough sleepers have been taken off British streets during the past year, according to the government, but homelessness agencies claim the problems are not solved.
The target of cutting the number of rough sleepers by two thirds, was in sight, according to the progress report to the prime minister from the rough sleepers’ unit.
Head of the unit Louise Casey said: "Because of the hard work and determination of the public, charities, local authorities and others, many vulnerable people have now come in from the cold. It is vital that all our efforts continue to ensure that anyone who needs it has an alternative to the doorway."
The report says there are 703 people sleeping rough in England each night compared to 1,180 last year. In London, the number has nearly halved from 621 to 357.
Ceri Sheppard, acting director of the Homeless Network, a London alliance of voluntary organisations, raised concerns about initiatives to help people stay off the streets: "This needs co-ordination of government policy, particularly on housing, drugs, crime, health, community care, prison and army discharge policy and support for vulnerable people."
The homelessness agencies want a three-point programme. Firstly, assurance that resources for the vulnerable will be available, a national long-term strategy to prevent people ending up on the streets and the speedy implementation of the homelessness bill.
Source:- The Guardian Saturday 4 August page 11
Priest jailed for sexual abuse
A priest was sentenced to five years in prison for sexually abusing a 12-year-old boy at Newcastle crown court on Friday.
Father William Jacks, former secretary to the Bishop of Hexham and Newcastle, carried out the abuse over a four-year period starting in 1987.
Source:- The Independent Saturday 4 August page 6
National register to improve adoption
The government is launching a national register this week to match children with families who wish to adopt.
The measure is one of many in a £66.5 million package over three years to improve the lives of young people in care.
A set of national standards will be introduced to eliminate regional disparities.
Recent figures show there are around 2,400 children waiting to be adopted.
Source:- The Sunday Times 5 August page 26
Scandal of the innocent asylum seekers locked up in British jails
More than 1,000 asylum seekers are being detained without charge in British jails as a result of the collapse of the immigration system.
The 770 places in Britain’s detention centres are full, and as a result the immigrants are being held and denied basic privileges granted to convicted prisoners.
Detainees include mentally vulnerable people who have suffered torture and who are being held in some of Britain’s worst prisons. Often locked up for 23 hours a day, they are sharing cells with Britain’s hardened criminals, forced to wear a prison uniform and allowed a shower once a week. They are restricted of access to solicitors.
A demonstration was held on Saturday outside HMP Liverpool, Walton, where it is thought 50 asylum seekers are on hunger strike.
Source:- The Independent 5 August page 1
In-charge Prescott warns off the unions
Deputy prime-minister John Prescott has come out fighting against the unions who plan to disrupt Labour’s annual conference as a result of plans to privatise public services.
Prescott, who takes control of the government while Tony Blair is on leave, warned union leaders planning a confrontation at the autumn conference that scrapping plans to inject private funding into public services would result in raising taxes or cuts in other public spending.
He strongly defended the private finance plans for schools, hospitals and other public services, that he objected to in the 1980s.
Source:- Independent on Sunday 5 August page 4
Fridges to watch over the elderly
Carers can be warned when older people fall or become ill by the introduction of tiny spy cameras fitted to fridges, cupboards and cookers in their homes.
If a pensioner fails to use the utilities for a long period of time, social services will be alerted.
Camden council in north London is considering using the equipment to monitor older people.
A spokesperson for Age Concern said: "Nothing can replace human contact and our main concern is that some elderly people could become very isolated as a result of a scheme like this."
Source:- Independent on Sunday 5 August page 10
Paedophile priests are to be treated in secret safe houses
Roman Catholic and Church of England priests who are jailed for sexual offences are to be treated in halfway houses following their release.
Parishes from both churches will finance the cost of £500 per week for the safe houses at secret locations.
Allegations of child abuse in both churches has damaged their reputations in the last five years and leading clergymen have been accused of failing to root out paedophiles.
Sex offender counsellor Ray Wyre, who is setting up the homes, said: "The Churches recognise that offending priests have specific problems as they struggle with their faith, their guilt and confront the damage they have inflicted."
According to Wyre religious retreats, where priests who abuse children are currently sent, are wholly inadequate.
Child abusers sent to the safe houses will receive counselling in "relapse prevention therapy" to help them to control improper urges.
Source:- The Sunday Telegraph 5 August page 15
Why Chris Morris had to make Brass Eye
The man who set Britain talking with a 30-minute TV satire is already moving on to his next target
Source:- The Observer Sunday 5 August page 13
Asylum seeker killed in park
Protests broke out in Glasgow yesterday over the killing of a 22-year-old Turkish man, in what police say could have been a racist attack.
Riot police backed by a helicopter were called to calm violent outbursts from some of the 400 asylum seekers and campaigners who massed close to the scene of the stabbing.
They chanted anti-racist slogans in the Sighthill area, which has been the scene of 70 racist attacks in the last 14 months.
Firsat Yildiz arrived in Glasgow two weeks before he was stabbed in a park by two men, after returning home from a restaurant with a fellow asylum seeker.
A Strathclyde Police spokesperson said they could not rule out the possibility that the attack was racially motivated and are treating the case as murder.
Source:- The Times Monday 6 August page 2
(see below for Glasgow Herald's coverage of same story)
Bulger mother condemns play about son’s death
The mother of James Bulger has joined children’s campaigners in condemning the decision to stage a comic play that tells of a child who is abducted and killed, at the Edinburgh Fringe Festival.
Denise Fergus said the death of her son should not be used as the basis of ‘The Age of Consent’ play, which has close parallels with the death of James eight years ago.
Fergus said: "It is just designed to try to shock people and grab publicity, and to sink so low, they are clearly desperate. Anyone who would stoop so low as to use my son’s death as a subject for comedy is sick and pathetic."
Source:- The Times Monday 6 August page 11
The asylum tourists
Desperate to start a new life in Britain, Czech families pose as holidaymakers to sidestep airport crackdowns.
Source:- Daily Mail Monday 6 August page 31
Scottish newspapers
Back to square one on secure psychiatric unit
Greater Glasgow Health Board has revealed that it will start again in the process to select a site for an extension to the State Hospital Carstairs. In June, campaigners against the original site at Stobbhill Hospital in the residential area of Balornock had been advised that it was no longer being considered.
The next option at Belvedere Hospital in the city’s east end also attracted opposition from local groups. Now, the health board has announced that it will start the selection process again with all possible options being considered for the location of the 76-patient medium secure unit.
Source:- The Herald Saturday 4 August page 5
UK’s first tolerance zone for prostitutes
Prostitutes in Edinburgh have been given until 15 August to move to an identified tolerance zone in the first initiative of its kind in the UK.
In an initiative similar to that found in the Netherlands and Australia, prostitutes will be allowed to work from an identified area likely to be a former industrial site on the outskirts of the city. Tom Wood, deputy chief constable of Lothian and Borders Police, said that the term 'tolerance zone' was inaccurate in that it implied acting in any way with impunity.
Wood said the police thought of the area as a "zone of discretionary prosecution". The initiative is being supported by the Scottish Prostitutes’ Education Project as offering greater safety and protection.
Source:- The Herald Saturday 4 August page 7
Scots face second HIV epidemic
Alarming new figures indicate that Scotland is heading for the highest number of HIV diagnoses since the mid 1980s.
The statistics, from Health Education Board Scotland (HEBS), show 91 new cases in the first six months of 2001 with the projected annual total set to exceed 200, the highest since 1987. HEBS says the rise in HIV is due to a generation of young people becoming sexually active without being exposed to the safe sex message. HEBS has called for urgent action on pushing the safe sex message if a major disaster is to be avoided.
Source:- Scotland on Sunday 5 August page 8
Murder of asylum seeker sparks mass demonstrations
The murder of an asylum seeker, the first of its kind in Scotland, sparked violent demonstrations on the streets of Glasgow yesterday. Firsat Yildiz was stabbed to death by two white men early yesterday in what the police have described as an unprovoked attack.
Yildiz, a Turkish Kurd, had been in the city for only two weeks. His killing provoked mass demonstrations by hundreds of Turkish, Iraqi and Syrian asylum seekers. The demonstrations started in Sighthill where the majority of asylum seekers are housed and erupted into violence. The protestors moved on to the City Chambers where they demanded action from Glasgow Council in providing protection.
Source:- The Herald Monday 6 August page 1
