Through their investments, contracts and partnerships, universities across the UK are complicit in violence against people who move across and within borders. Under the banner of Divest Borders, students and staff across the country are resisting the border industry and demanding that academic institutions stand up for migrant justice. Sign our open letter to show your support for the campaign!
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Ending Border Violence Open Letter
Human rights abuses take place at borders around the world. People who move are subjected to hostile and degrading treatment at every stage of their journey. This is not a failure of the system – it is the system - hostile and violent by design. It is well-evidenced that the world's most powerful countries are pouring billions of public money into weapons and walls, recasting what is fundamentally a humanitarian crisis into a security threat that requires a militarised response.
The government’s hostile environment policies export bordering to the private sector, forcing doctors and teachers to act as immigration enforcement officers. Furthermore, the profit-making border industry has catalysed this trend by giving states the tools, technologies, and militarised equipment to perpetrate violence against racialised and vulnerable groups. Companies such as Serco, Airbus, Tui and Accenture make billions from the detention, deportation, surveillance and persecution of people who move, and in turn lobby for more aggressive policies to increase profits and misery.
Universities across the UK currently hold huge investments in the border industry and hold contracts paying millions to these companies for on-campus services, providing those who profit from border violence with both funding and academic legitimacy. No university should be funding firms that profit from detention centres in which people are imprisoned, abused and neglected; surveillance systems which deny basic privacy rights; or equipment designed to hurt and even kill people seeking safety.
As academics and university staff, we expect our universities to be leading on the major social and environmental issues of our time. We join these institutions dedicated to the pursuit of knowledge and the bettering of society. We become a constituent part of these institutions. They teach about rights and human dignity, while silently profiting from the same violence they claim to condemn. Our universities should be examining and exposing industries that systematically cause harm, not benefitting from them.
We have the power to organise for dignity and justice but doing so requires all of us acting together in solidarity. Students and workers at universities have a crucial role to play in holding these institutions to account for complicity in harm. Academic communities cross borders. It is our responsibility to question and hold these institutions accountable. It is our responsibility not just to ensure our institutions are not complicit in profiting from misery, but to ensure that they contribute toward building a better world for all.
We must resist border violence and the industry that supports it. We demand border divestment for what borders historically represent, for the violence they perpetuate, and for the many ways our universities have profited from them through the centuries.
Therefore, we the undersigned call on higher education institutions to respect people's right to seek safety and to move, stay and thrive as they please. This requires universities to be transparent about their investments, and to break ties with all companies that strengthen the physical and virtual walls which violently control, track and prevent movement.
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Signed by:
Justine Jenkins, Cardiff University
Professor Michaela Benson, Lancaster University
Dr Chris Rossdale, University of Bristol
Joan Haran, Cardiff University
Dr Lucy Mayblin, University of Sheffield
Dr Monish Bhatia, Birkbeck University of London, Lecturer in Criminology
Victoria Canning, University of Bristol, Senior Lecturer in Criminology, Co-coordinator of European Group for the Study of Deviance and Social Control
Emma Patchett, University of Leeds
Dr Lisa Tilley, SOAS University of London
Dr Angela Sherwood, Queen Mary University of London, Lecturer in Law
Dr Tahir Zaman, University of Sussex
Dr Rachel Seoighe, University of Kent, Lecturer in Criminology
Dr Sita Balani, King's College London
Chris Taylor, University of Nottingham, Students' Union Education Officer 2021-22
Sharon Hartles, University of Strathclyde, Researcher
Andreas Bieler, University of Nottingham
Dr Hanna Baumann, University College London
Professor Michael Rowe, Northumbria University
Dr Andy Aydin-Aitchinson, University of Edinburgh, Senior Lecturer, Criminology, School of Law
Dr Hannah Wilkinson, University of Keele, Lecturer in Criminology
Dr William McGowan, Liverpool John Moores University
Dr Andrew Williams, Cardiff University, Senior Lecturer in Human Geography
Dr Maurice Stierl, University of Sheffield, Lecturer in International Relations
Conrad Moriarty-Cole, Goldsmiths University of London
Grace Tillyard, Goldsmiths University of London
Florence Platford, Goldsmiths University of London
Dr Neda Genova, University of Warwick
Muhammad Ali, University of Nottingham, SU Community Officer
Dr Aidan Mosselson, Edinburgh School of Architecture and Landscape Architecture
AJ Gooden, University of Nottingham, Student Union Sports Officer
Dr Ala Sirriyeh, University of Lancaster
Professor Alison Phipps, University of Glasgow, Professor of Languages & Intercultural Studies; UNESCO Chair in Refugee Integration through Languages and Arts
Bella Hoogeveen, University of Glasgow, UNESCO Arts Hub co-ordinator
Professor Bridget Anderson, University of Bristol, Director of Migration Mobilities
Professor Bridget Byrne, University of Manchester
Brittnee Leysen, University of Glasgow, Project Administrator with the UNESCO Chair in Refugee Integration through Languages and the Arts
Dr Carmen Ramos Villar, University of Sheffield,
Dr Cetta Mainwaring, University of Glasgow, Lecturer
Dr Dan Fisher, University of Glasgow
Dr Clare Griffiths, University of Keele, Lecturer in Criminology
Dr Dan Godshaw, University of Bristol
Dr Hyab Yohannes, University of Glasgow
Dr Laura Connelly, University of Sheffield
Dr Meghan Tinsley, University of Manchester
Dr Ozge Ozduzen, University of Sheffield
Dr Teresa Piacentini, University of Glasgow
Emmaleena Käkelä, Queen Margaret University London
George Sullivan, University of Nottingham, SU President
Dr Hannah Lewis, University of Sheffield, Senior Lecturer in Sociology
Hannah Wadle, Alhambra Medical University
Jamie Coates, University of Sheffield
Dr Joanne Britton, University of Sheffield
Dr Joe Turner, University of York
Dr Katie Bales, University of Bristol
Letizia Mollinedo, University of Manchester
Luan Cassal, University of Manchester
Lucy Potter, University of Sheffield
Luiza Leao Soares Pereira, University of Sheffield, Lecturer in International Law
Dr Marcia Vera Espinoza, Queen Margaret University London, Senior Research Fellow
Meghan Dennis, University of California, Berkeley, Postdoctoral Researcher in Data Interpretation and Public Engagement
Dr Melissa Gatter, University of Sheffield
Dr Natasha Carver, University of Bristol
Dr Nicola De Martini Ugolotti, Bournemouth University
Parise Carmichael-Murphy, University of Manchester
Dr Patricia Nabuco Martuscelli, University of Sheffield
Dr Peter McMylor, University of Manchester
Professor Graeme Kirkpatrick, University of Manchester
Dr Rebecca Yeo, University of Bristol
Dr Remi Joseph-Salisbury, University of Manchester, Presidential Fellow
Ryan Lutz, University of Bristol
Dr Sadie Ryan, University of Glasgow
Samir Sweida-Metwally, University of Bristol
Dr Santiago Amietta, University of Keele
Dr Sarah Kunz, University of Bristol, Leverhulme Early Career Fellow
Dr Seb Franklin, King's College London
Siobhan O'Neill, University of Manchester
SJ Cooper-Knock, University of Sheffield, Senior Lecturer in Criminology
Dr Sophia Woodman, University of Edinburgh
Stephen Hurt, Oxford Brookes University, Reader in International Relations
Tesfalem H. Yemane, University of Leeds
Tess Hartland, University of Manchester
Juanjo Andres Cuervo, Birkbeck University
Dr Aylwyn Walsh, University of Leeds
Sultan Chaudhury, University of Nottingham
Dr Chris Hesketh, Oxford Brookes University
Louise Lee, University of Roehampton
Marion Guerbet, King's College London, Social Impact Assistant
Sabrina Axster, Johns Hopkins University
Dr Alex Fitzpatrick, University of Bradford
Dr Paolo Novak, SOAS, Senior Lecturer in Development Studies
Dr Matthew Benwell, Newcastle University, Senior Lecturer in Human Geography
Dr Lesley McFayden , Birkbeck, University of London, Senior Lecturer
Dr Uracha Chatrakul Na Ayudhya, Birkbeck, University of London, Assistant Dean for Equalities and Diversity
Dr Furaha Asani, Researcher
Dr Anu Ranawana,University of St Andrews, Researcher