SOAS Occupation Ends

Yesterday the occupation of SOAS by the students in protest over the arrest and deportation of cleaners, many of whom were UNISON members, ended. The protest, which was supported by the London Green Party and Jean Lambert MEP, ended when a series of demands were agreed to by management. These were as follows:

1.SOAS will write directly to the Home Secretary within 12 hours of the end of the protest, requesting that he grants exceptional leave to remain in the UK those cleaners who are still being detained. In addition, SOAS will request the immediate return of those who have been deported and exceptional leave to remain for those forced into hiding by Friday's raid.

2. SOAS will open discussions with ISS, and separately with UNISON, UCU and the SU, to review in detail the events of last Friday.

3. SOAS will discuss the possibility of bringing cleaning services in-house at the next scheduled meeting of its Governing Body.

4. SOAS will leet with the relevant unions to discuss health and safety issues relating to immigration raids and acknowledge UCU policy of non-compliance with immigration raids.

5. SOAS will not take action against those involved in the protest.

This is a victory for the students and for those trade union activists from UCU and UNISON who took part in the protests. Jonathan Buckner, a student Green Left member, spent more than 24 hours in the occupation. It is ironic that all of this should have occurred during Refugee Week, where SOAS is one of the sponsors. We now have to see if the management will keep its side of the agreement and what will happen to those cleaners still held at Yarls Wood and awaiting deportation.

But there are more long term issues also involved which include the Labour government's request for lecturers and universities to act as unofficial immigration officers by reporting students who are deemed not to be in the colleges legally. UCU, the college lecturers' union, has refused to cooperate with this racist and anti-human rights policy. As one speaker, who works in the field of migrant rights, said at the SOAS demo - how long before immigration officers are entering student classrooms and removing students at gunpoint? And should lecturers and educationalists be expected to act as an arm of the state?

All of this must be grist to the mill of the BNP. By its anti-migrant rhetoric and actions, the Labour government is continuing to feed that paranoia and hatred which has led to hundreds of Romanians in Belfast being evacuated from their homes because of racist attacks. And these are EU citizens who have every right to live anywhere in the UK. In this Refugee Week there has never been a more urgent need to protect the rights of refugees and migrants.