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New Laws for Artists entering the UK


chilli

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Please read this & sign the petiton otherwise more artists tours will be put in doubt & artists will head to Europe instead. You can have a moan here on AbMus but better still sign the petition

New laws force Allison Crowe to cancel the first two dates of her European tour in Edinburgh and London this weekend after immigration officials at Gatwick airport locked up the Canadian singer-songwriter and her two bandmates after falling foul of new laws for people in the creative sector who travel to the UK for work. Implemented in November 2008, the Certificate of Sponsorship is a new measure that requires artists to obtain a unique reference number from at least one of the venues at which theyll be performing. Non-EU visitors must provide biometric data, fingerprint scans and a digital photograph in order to acquire this reference number, which they must then show upon entering the country or face deportation.

Speaking to CBC News, an obviously upset Crowe told the reporter that they fingerprinted and photographed us and three hours later, roughly, trucked us over in a paddywagon to another building. And thats where we were kept for the remainder of the day, where we were interrogated and searched. She also said that her passport was stamped barred from entry by officials. Neither of the UK venues were aware of the new rules. The band were released after six hours but were sent all the way back to Canada only to return to mainland Europe to continue the tour in Germany, despite one immigration official allegedly telling Allison that she could face problems with working in Europe for the rest of her career.

Allisons manager Adrian du Plessis told the Telegraph: Its crazy that Allison has the wear the scarlet letter for the rest of her days simply because she came to Britain to perform and didnt know about some strict new legislation. This will clearly influence the cultural traffic to this country but theres also a human element Allison is a Commonwealth citizen who did nothing wrong but was interrogated and treated like a criminal.

More than 5750 signatures against the new legislation have been collected by protest organisation the Manifesto Club. Add yours

Visiting Artists and Academics Petition

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Almost as bad as the Metropolitan Coppers fascist 696 form.

Sunny Hundal: Did you know live music events could pose a terrorist threat? | Comment is free | guardian.co.uk

Yet again, Seig Heil Modern Britain, your liberties are crumbling away, consumed piecemeal by a co-ordinated assault by the goverment in cahoots with the civil service. purely to make it easier/cheaper to control the populace.

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clampdown on artists and academics

I serve as manager to Allison Crowe, who, along with her Canadian bandmates, learned of these new anti-terrorist and anti-illegal-immigration laws when reaching Gatwick last week. Neither of the two venues where she was to perform in the UK had heard of the rules, and most people still have not.The extremely heavy-handed enforcement is yet another concern.

Besides this information not being generally known to the people who are dealing with international artists regularly, when one does go to try and find out the rules, as noted in this thread, things are not entirely clear.

What IS clear is the negative impact these rules have on our communities and culture. For sure, the Visiting Artists and Academics Petition is a valuable resource for understanding the impacts, and, hopefully, getting the government to repeal the legislation.

Allison loves performing in the UK, and, in particular, shares a bond with Scotland. The smaller scale venues where she regularly performs tell us they will not be able to present any non-EU acts if the laws stand.

On June 3 in London the group that is leading efforts to overturn the laws will host a night - "Cabaret Without Borders". Here's hoping such events can be organized around the UK and world.

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That sounds really quite heavy handed. o_O

I know that this is applicable to the Edinburgh Fringe Festival and something that obviously has a big impact on those coming from outwith Europe etc. Needs to be more publicity somewhere about this for smaller venues/live performing venues it seems.

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