A Voice For the Voiceless
The Advocacy Project helps marginalized communities to tell their story, claim their rights and produce social change. We recruit graduate students to volunteer as Peace Fellows with partners.
- News Service
- Bulletins
- By Country/Territory
- Afghanistan
- Bangladesh
- Bosnia
- Brazil
- Czech Republic
- Democratic Republic of the Congo
- Ecuador
- El Salvador
- France
- Guatemala
- Iran
- India
- Iraq
- Kenya
- Kosovo
- Macedonia
- Malaysia
- Nepal
- Nigeria
- Occupied Palestinian Territory and Israel
- Peru
- Russia
- Serbia
- Sri Lanka
- Trinidad
- Uganda
- United Kingdom
- Fear and Uncertainty as Dale Farm Travellers Face Eviction, August 30, 2011
- Dale Farm Eviction: Report Claims Council May Be Acting Unlawfully, June 13, 2011
- Dale Farm May Be Saved By New European Plans, May 30, 2011
- MPs Want Dale Farm Eviction Called Off, April 26, 2011
- Dale Farm: NO PASARAN!
- Dale Farm Legal Challenge to £13 Million Eviction Operation, March 15, 2011
- Council of Europe Visit Raises Dale Farm Spirit, February 16, 2011
- MP Seeks Dale Farm Talks as Eviction Plan Falters, December 28, 2010
- Dale Farm: Labour Party Oppose Forced Eviction, December 8, 2010
- Dale Farm May Be Winning Battle For Commonsense, November 11, 2010
- Dale Farm: Judgment Reserved on Homeless, October 24, 2010
- Dale Farm Prepares to Meet Constant Eviction, October 5, 2010
- Travellers Under Pressure to Abandon Community Living, September 20, 2010
- UK Gypsy Homes Bulldozed as UN Deadline Approaches, June 30, 2010
- The Dale Farm Eviction May be a Criminal Conspiracy, June 27, 2010
- Cameron Tested by Dale Farm Proposal, May 14, 2010
- UN Backs Call to Halt Big UK Gypsy Eviction, April 14, 2010
- Travellers' Genocide Protest Upsets Basildon Council Head, October 30, 2009
- UK: Then They Came For the Gypsies, October 25, 2009
- Dale Farm Eviction Contract Attracts Notorious Bailiffs, July 19, 2009
- Lords Won't Hear Dale Farm Appeal, May 14, 2009
- UN Backs the Dale Farm Travellers in Their Fight Against Eviction, April 29, 2009
- Dale Farm Travellers Face Eviction After UK Appeals Court Ruling, January 22, 2009
- Dale Farm Travellers Face Racism and Prejudice as Court Mulls Appeal, December 19, 2008
- Dale Farm Community Center Faces Demolition as Eviction Threat Resurfaces, September 26, 2008
- Britain's High Court Lifts the Threat of Eviction from the Dale Farm Travellers, May 13, 2008
- Defiant Travellers Open Community Center as Britain's High Court Prepares to Rule on Their Eviction, May 5, 2008
- Dale Farm Eviction Crisis Reaches the British High Court, February 14, 2008
- Dale Farm Travellers Win Key Concession as Eviction Deadline Approaches, December 11, 2007
- Success for Traveler Advocacy in UK As Eviction Threat Lifts at Dale Farm, July 9, 2007
- AP Peace Fellow Defends Traveler Rights, Arouses British Ire, June 12, 2007
- Urban Sprawl Trumps Minority Housing Rights in UK as Dale Farm Travelers Again Face Eviction, March 2, 2007
- Traveler Evictions in the UK Are ‘Hazardous to Environment and Children’s Health’ Claim Advocates, November 1, 2006
- Travelers Face Eviction Despite Intervention, July 29, 2005
- Showdown Looms as Advocates Seek to Avert Violent Eviction of 600 Travelers in the UK, July 13, 2005
- English Gypsy Women Warn of Possible “Deaths” from Forcible Evictions, and Appeal for International Mediation, April 8, 2005
- Roma Evictions Erupt Across Europe as New ‘Decade’ Seeks to End Discrimination January 31, 2005
- Dictionary.com Removes Offensive Gypsy Definition in Response to Grassroots Campaign, September 22, 2004
- New Funding Grants $8,000 to International Roma Women’s Network, June 1, 2004
- Roma: Roma Women Activists Challange European Governments Over Health Crisis, September 11, 2003
- The International Roma Women's Network is Launched, March 8, 2003
- Vietnam
- Other
- By Issue
- By Date
- Newsletters
- Multimedia
- Global Issues
- AP Diaries and Staff Blogs
The Impact of Service
|
Translate this page:
Resources
> News Service
> Bulletins
> By Country/Territory
> United Kingdom
> Dale Farm Evictio...
Dale Farm Eviction Contract Attracts Notorious Bailiffs, July 19, 2009
By Grattan Puxon
The UK's most notorious anti-Gypsy security firm, responsible for the brutal Twin Oaks eviction in 2004, says it expects to take on the biggest clearance operation ever mounted against a village community in Britain in modern times.
Constant & Co., which has earned tens of millions of euro clearing Gypsies from their own land in barely legal, hard hat-style sorties around England, now wants the contract to demolish Dale Farm, home to 500 Travellers near Crays Hill, Essex.
The job, worth three million euro, would involve removing, and in some plots smashing, chalets and mobile-homes, and physically forcing up to 90 families, including children, the elderly and infirm, to leave the district, impoverished and with nowhere legally to live.
Along with their homes and children's primary school, the families stand to lose their unique youth-club community centre and Saint Christopher's Chapel.
"This is ethnic-cleansing," said one voluntary worker who visits Dale Farm. "But the council are trying to disguise that fact with a lot of politically correct language."
Because of the high cost of the work, Basildon have been compelled to put it out to tender in the official Journal of the European Union. The closing date for bids is mid-August.
In its ad the council states that the winner bidder must 'demonstrate a commitment to upholding the principles of equality and diversity legislation and be sensitive and responsive to the needs of people.'
However, Basildon has already indicated it favours re-engagement of Constant, a firm the council has already employed for a number of small evictions. Critics say these were conducted in a way that flaunted EU health and safety regulations, and resulted in the needless trashing of huge quantities of private belongings Valuable Crown Derby china and otheritms have gone missing during some clearances.
Photographs illustrate how at Hovefields no perimeter fencing was erected and children were allowed in close proximity when heavy machinery was in motion.
While the council justified its use of s178 of the Town and Country Planning Act to restore Greenbelt, land at Hovefields has been left derelict. Top-soil has been destroyed and the plots surrounded by high earth berms.
Much of the ground is now flooded with contaminated water from broken cess-tanks, posing a danger to health for children and adults who continue to live nearby while awaiting further Constant incursions.
CARAVANS ON FIRE
A film produced for Dale Farm Housing Association shows caravans on fire as bailiffs manhandle screaming children. One plant-hire company has discontinued renting to Constant, branding its approach brutal.
Referring to the Twin Oaks eviction, Justice Collins said in the High Court that having seen a video of Constant at work he considered the bailiffs' conduct unacceptable as it inevitably led to harm to those affected.
"The council must re-consider the use of this firm," stated Justice Collins. He also noted that the police had failed to curb the excesses of Constant bailiffs.
Collins added that in cases of serious ill-health or needs of children, eviction would be disproportionate. Although the right to evict has since been upheld the conditions he attached were adopted in a complex Court of Appeal ruling earlier this year.
Requested under the Freedom of Information Act to provide copies of its obligatory Risk Assessment reports for the Hovefields and Dale Farm evictions, Basildon has admitted that no such surveys have been carried out.
Jean Sheridan, a Dale Farm mother of triplets, is fearful of the trauma bailiffs could cause her babes. She hopes that before Constant is ordered in she will be able to mount a case in the European Court of Human Rights.
"We have nowhere else to go and my babes need medical help," Jean says. "They were born prematurely and lucky to live. How will they survive the terrors Constant will bring?"
The UK Children's Commissioner has asked Basildon what it intends to do to safeguard children during demolition
and what alternate accommodation is being offered them. No satisfactory answer has yet been received.
Back