Global justice Now members

Global Justice demonstrates great concern at General Dynamics

On Friday morning, 23 November, a group of assorted engineers, architects, farmers, teachers and scientists lead by Global Justice Now members and supported by anti-war campaigners from Hastings against War assembled outside General Dynamics in Castleham Road, Hastings. They had informed the company in advance and asked to speak to the Director about grave concerns they have about their parent General Dynamics Corporation in USA. There had been no reply from the Director, but information that he had a previous engagement. Nobody came to meet them, but they were promised a meeting soon. Jack Doherty writes.

They demonstrated noisily and angrily that there should be ‘no profiteering from Trump’s child immigrants situation’. Chants of ‘No Profiteering’ and ‘Justice and Fair treatment for children’ were heard and many passing motorists supported the calls and hooted agreement.

We are all aware of abysmal conditions of starvation, poverty, drug warfare, drought, political assassinations, exploitations and religious intolerance, which drive people to seek a welcome and a better life elsewhere… one might say these are the historic conditions on which the USA was made ‘great’! These people recently fleeing across the southern border into Texas, California, etc have an expectation of a country that prides itself in being great again with the statue of Liberty symbol promising to treat them in a humane way.

The brutal separation of parents from their children and the traumatic caging of children was amended in June because of public outcry. While many parents were deported and their whereabouts now unknown, the children were dispersed into shelters, becoming stressfully overcrowded and on long waiting lists for ‘sponsors’.

Global Justice Now members

Population levels of federally contracted shelters for migrant children quietly shot up more than fivefold since last summer, according to data received by the New York Times, reaching a total of 12,800 in September. There were 2,400 such children in custody in May 2017. The huge increases, which have placed the federal shelter system near crisis capacity are due not to an influx of children entering the country, but a reduction in the number being released to live with families and other sponsors, the data collected by the Department of Health and Human Services suggests. There are more than 100 shelters across the US. There have been concerns of problems reaching dangerous capacity in the shelters. Congress Representative, Rosa De Lauro, the ranking Democrat on the House Appropriations subcommittee that funds the shelter programme eg Tornillo said the facilities cost about $750 per child per day, or three times the amount of a typical shelter.

There are great delays in releasing children to placements for many reasons, some of which are good safeguarding but monthly releases have plummeted by about two thirds since last year. The children in detention become more anxious, depressed and violent with each other and staff.

General Dynamics Corporation are involved in this system, providing logistical support to immigration enforcement. They are on the payroll and thus complicit in what is happening in receiving the dollar rewards. Even if they express good intentions in caring for the inmates.

Global Justice Now Bexhill and Hastings ask for transparency and an end to these awful conditions of severe trauma for parents, children and their future.

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