NEW LABOUR'S war on asylum seekers is
part of the same reactionary drive that led
to its war on Iraq. While Blair attempted to
claim that the war would liberate the Iraqi
people from the reactionary regime of Saddam Hussein, only 700 of the 14,000 people from Iraq who came to Britain last year seeking asylum were given the right to remain here. The left needs to increase
campaigning against this reactionary plank of New Labour's policies.
Liam MacUaid points out (below) that the way Blair and his cronies have pandered to the racist media has actually given credibility to the fascists of the BNP and the NF But New Labour's attacks have not been just ideological - important though that aspect has been.
Since Blair came to office in 1997, his government has presided over some of the greatest attacks on people seeking asylum this country has ever seen, combined with a crackdown on people who came here earlier and had thus far slipped the immigration net. We have seen:
• The introduction of section 55 of last year's Nationality, Immigration and Asylum Bill preventing asylum seekers who do not apply immediately they enter the country claiming benefits or being housed
• The forced dispersal of asylum seekers to parts of the country where there are neither official support structures nor informal community support
• The obscene sight of New Labour boasting that it has doubled the rate of deportations achieved under the last Tory government.
• The extension of immigration detention, including the reopening of Europe's largest detention centre at Yarls Wood in Bedfordshire, after it was burned to the ground in February 2001. The centre is reopening slowly and by February 2004 it is planned to hold 900 women and children. Britain is the only European country that routinely detains the children of asylum seekers.
However, campaigners have had some important victories.
We managed to get rid of the hated voucher system which both pauperised and humiliated asylum seekers. The tireless work of the National Coalition against Deportation campaigns has prevented the rate of deportations rising any faster than it has done. Campaigners at Yarls Wood prevented even greater injustice by securing not guilty verdicts for most of those charged with offences arising from the night of the fire.
One area in which there has been important progress is in deepening trade union support for these activities. The two thousand strong demonstration at Dungavel detention centre in Lanarkshire on 6 September was called by the Scottish Trades Union Congress. The Fire Brigades Union has been very supportive of the Yarls Wood campaign, and a number of national unions have supported initiatives from the Campaign to Defend Asylum Seekers.
Meanwhile, David Blunkett's speech to Labour Party Conference, with its talk of "civil renewal and citizenship" and its call for "rights and duties to go hand in hand", offered nothing but hints of more of the same on asylum policy.
There was commitment to ensuring people can seek sanctuary but the emphasis was more on reassuring the 'moral majority, "men and women of this country will welcome those from across the world if they know that what we're doing is trusted, they can be confident in its administration, they know that we're seeing off organised criminals".
The essential message doesn't seem to have changed - for New Labour the way to combat the BP is to move towards their ground, not attack their racist views.
New Labour has announced that there will be further immigration legislation in the Queen's speech in November. This is another war that cannot go unchallenged. ....
TEN YEARS TOO LONG! noon Saturday 20 November 2003
Campsfield main gates most of whom were Algerian, ended in their release. In June hundreds attended a demonstration outside, and the following day a mass protest by detainees resulted in €100 000 worth of damage according to Home Office estimates.
Over the years protests continued inside and out. Local campaigners got the issue raised in trade unions and other bodies at national level.
Another protest in 1997 was followed by a show trial of nine detainees on riot