Sep 19: Release Detained Tamil Refugees:

Posted by admin on Sep 15th, 2010

Last week over 100 people gathered in front of the Burnaby Youth Custody prison where approximately 90 Tamil refugee mothers and children are being incarcerated. Locked out of the facility, for over two hours supporters banged on pots and pans to the beats of Tamil music. A large Tamil banner reading “We welcome you, we support you” was held towards the two detention units where children could be seen waving and smiling, peering through prison bars. Join No One is Illegal-Vancouver again this week at the Burnaby detention facility to continue to express our love, support, and solidarity with those still being held inside and to call for the immediate release of detained Tamil asylum seekers.

Sunday Sept 19 at 1:30 pm at the Burnaby Youth Custody Services Centre where mothers and children who arrived aboard MV Sun Sea are being detained. 7900 Fraser Park Dr, Burnaby. Shuttles Leaving Edmonds station starting at 12:45 until 1:15

* Bring noise! We want to be visible and be heard from inside so please bring pots, pans, horns, drums, noisemakers (please be aware of noises which may be triggering or traumatizing)

* TRANSPORT:

1) Meeting at Edmonds skytrain station at 12:45pm. Shuttles Leaving Edmonds station starting at 12:45 until 1:15. If you have a vehicle and can offer carpool, please contact us at noii-van at resist.ca or 778 885
0040.

2) Public transit is not very accessible, but if you are taking it, then take the #116 from Edmonds station.

Surviving a dangerous journey, 492 Tamil refugees, including women and children, arrived in BC after fleeing war and persecution in Sri Lanka. When the ship first neared Esquimault, territories of the Songhees First Nation, it was immediately boarded by the Armed Forces, Border Services, and RCMP. The refugees are now in jails, facing endless hearings that have revealed the clear incompetency, deliberate negligence, and racism of the system.

In the context of the never-ending “War on Terror” refugees, migrants, and racialized people are increasingly being racially targeted, dehumanized as security threats, and criminalized through unprecedented police and state powers. Despite its rhetoric of ‘liberating’ and ‘protecting’ women globally and locally, the Canadian state is detaining an increasing numbers of women and children that cross these borders. In light of
increasing repression and exclusionary policies and ideologies, we demand “Justice, Freedom, and Status for All!”

www.nooneisillegal.org

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