SUBSCRIBE to resistance special introductory subscription rate 1 year for £10 (UK), £15 (Europe) Please make cheques payable to RESISTANCE group. Name Address
Post Code SOCIALIST RESISTANCE is a monthly marxist paper. We are offering a or £20 (other overseas). For more details fill in this coupon, ticking the appropriate box and send to us:PO Box 1109 London N4 2UU
• Please send me a year's subscription to the new paper.
I enclose £10 • £15 • £20 • I enclose a donation of £....
• Please put me in touch with the nearest RESISTANCE readers'
Age email
Protestors picketing the High Court against Section 55
SEE INSIDE pages 8-9
• .. Phone
New Labour deported 65,460 people in 2002up 18.% or their first full year in power. This included 13,910 people who had sought asylum at some stage.
Home Secretary David Blunkett said "The notion that nothing can be done and government action is failing is clearly proven to be wrong by today's figures.... Claims have fallen more than twice as much in the UK as elsewhere in Europe because of our tough measures."
However, as the Institute for Public Policy Research points out, the reduction in the numbers of asylum seekers means that "People fleeing war and human rights abuses are being prevented from reaching the UK by tough asylum policies which have been introduced this year".
The increase in removals means that people are being returned to situations in which their human rights and fundamental freedoms will be abused and their lives put at risk. At the same time the Home Office announced plans to require visitors to Britain who need a visa to provide hi-tech fingerprints, iris or facial scans when they apply.
Mr Blunkett said the increasing use of "biometrics" to tighten up visa applications would help in tackling illegal immigration and abuse of the asylum system by reducing the "pull" factor to Britain.
The Home Office has also launched an appeal to overturn a ruling by a high court judge last month that denying food and Printed by East End Offset Ltd (TU), London E3. = 020 7538 252l TOWARDS HE MIN shelter to those who failed to claim asylum as soon as they arrived in Britain amounted to inhumane and degrading treatment.
Section 55 makes destitute those who don't apply for asylum at the earliest possi ble opportunity. There is no mechanism for appeal, and the draconian policy applied even if the individual was advised - and believed - that they did not need to apply for asylum at the point of entry
Asylum seekers are fighting back and picketed the High Court on August 28. As the leaflet says: "we are fleeing persecution, war and genocide, torture, ill treatment and discrimination. It is an outrage that anyone seeking a place of safety is treated in this way. It can take years before our asylum claims are processed. Are they saying we should sleep rough and live destitute all this time? ARE THEY TRYING TO KILL US?
"We are stamped like animals, labelled, treated with mistrust so that no one believes anything we say. You are not treated as a person but as a number.
"When we go to the Refugee Council they don't ask our name but say "Are you Section 55". We are being made to live like prisoners. Refusing food and shelter, and forcing people to suffer starvation is as bad as killing people with bullets."
Those who have been made destitute and their supporters are meeting daily at the Refugee Council, 6-8pm in Bellefields Rd, Brixton, SW9 Email: [email protected]