Following recent press reports about a possible amnesty for "illegal" migrants, discussions are taking place between Turkish, Kurdish and Iraqi refugee organisations and other anti-deportation groups around the launch of a network to campaign for migrants' rights including an amnesty (see p9).
Socialist Resistance strongly supports the formation of this network as the best way to use this window of opportunity to press forward all the demands of refugees and migrants
We hope the following will be the sort of demands they campaign around
• Residency rights for irregular migrants. The debate on an amnesty is welcome, but the term "amnesty" is inappropriate as many migrants have committed no offence, even by the Home Office's standards.
• No arbitrary detentions and deportations. The Home Office is proud of the vast increase in detentions and removals, but they should be ashamed, because people are being snatched from their friends, families and workplaces, and made to disappear into a nightmare world of detention and arbitrary removal.
• Close the detention centres, endi portal treatment or immigration delamees. Immigration detention centres are privatised prisons run for profit. People are held under conditions that cause them immense physical and psychological stress. Abuse of all sorts is endemic, people are often cut off from all contact with friends and families and denied access to legal and medical help. Support for prisoners' protests, such as the ongoing hunger strikes in Campsfield and Colnebrooke.
• The Home Office must give genuine reconsideration to the cases of asylum seekers who have been refused protection. Frequently the Home Office makes decisions not on a case-by-case basis, but according to political imperatives. Refusal letters are often standard showing no evidence of real consideration of the case, and the courts uphold Home Office decisions too readily. all migrants. tation of those with convictions who have paid fines or served sentences and been released.
In the small number of cases where people continue to be a risk to others but have been released, then they should be monitored by the authorities responsible for their release,
The criminal justice system, not immigration powers, should be used to deal with criminal matters, and punishment should be proportionate to the offence.
Murder is not the same as using a friend's bus pass or a minor traffic offence,
offences. campaign. our rights. tomorrow. • The right to work and / or welfare for • No double punishment through deporyet the Home Office sometimes uses the same sanctions - cancellation of Indefinite Leave to Remain where given, and deportation, from people with very serious convictions to people convicted of quite minor
All refugee and migrant organisations and individuals, and all others who believe in equal rights for migrants should join the
In the past people fought hard for democratic rights in this country, but the abuse of migrants' human rights undermines all
Biometric ID cards for asylum seekers today will be imposed on everyone else
Migrants make a crucial contribution to world development - by contributing both to the host society and to the country of origin. It is vital that this is recognised and mat mere is an eno to te criminalisation of economic migrants and political
The network will support the continuing detention centre protests (subscribe to NCADC e-list to receive updates on these), build for the key date of October 7, the International Day for Refugees and Migrants called for by the European Social Forum in Athens, and add to the mounting pressure on the Home Office.
For more information contact [email protected] the Treasury has been one of the key forces driving forward Blair gets ready to go: Meacher volunteers himself and Brown checks his sincere face unwelcome that he would offer himself as a candidate - presumably appealing to the belatedly anti-war, landlord element of the labour movement.
Many on the left will be in trade unions which are still affiliated to the Labour Party, and should make sure that a campaign is mounted to maximise the trade union support for any genuine left candidate to challenge Brown.
But Labour's decline is also a challenge to the left, which must have an alternative to
demoralised Labour olen SUDDOILCIS.
When it comes to campaigning on the ground in defence of trade union rights, civil liberties, against public sector cuts and privatisation, for basic rights for migrants and asylum seekers, against UNer wal Afghanistan, and many other issues, we can't wait for those still trying to reclaim the Labour Party.
We need a fighting alternative, and we need it now: that's why it is urgent to build Respect as the best, broadest ahol MOSt successful left
to challenge Blair and Brown.