following the recent murder of an Iranian asylum seeker Peiman Bahmani.
The article pointed out that the Home Office had recorded 2000 racial attacks on asylum seekers since the dispersal programme started two years ago - and that it had previously suspended dispersal to Glasgow after the murder of First Dag on the Sighthill estate.
The paper was further critical of the fact that politicians on both goverment and opposition benches had whipped up racism by their use of inflamatory words
as "bogus" "swamped" when referring to asylum seekers.
course Independent does not call, as many campaigners do, for Britain an end to all immigration laws. It sees amnesty as a The means to make the existing system work more efficiently reality is rather than fighting for open that the
But its call has been wel comed by the National
Anti- system is Deportation campaigns and in fact reflects discussions falling that had already started within the anti-racist moveapart
It is certainly. clear that asylum seekers and those ... that campaign in their sup- against deportation is heard.
facing a many pronged political and practi- ment offensive may seem cal offensive by this new like a strange context for Labour government. campaigners to discuss going
The treatment of the on the offensive by putting
whose forward new demands -removal to Germany the which is what focusing on High Court found to be amnesty would involve. unlawful, is just one of the more high profile examples such a campaign in this of the fact that removals are country would be different
from that for example in
While the court judge- France where the demand ment was an important suc- for papers - which is in pracfor Asvlum
tice the same thing - has been allowed to return to come from the sans papiers
appeal themselves. •• Some warned that this could be a dangerous road to go down in particular expressing concern that the movement could end up being arbiters of those "deserving" or not "deserving" of amnesty. This is particularly based on an assessment of what happened when the 1974 Labour government introduced an limited amnesty -which ended up trapping those who didn't fall into its •• provisions but none the less came forward and identified The continued govern- themselves to the authorities
and were removed any way. Presumably this hap pened because those affected misunderstood the terms of the government's decision - something that obviAnd clearly the context of ously happens in many situations. However this is neither what is being talked about by the independent nor by antiracist campaigners. It is Campaigning to Defend Asylum therefore Barbed Wire Britain www.barbedwirebritain.org.uk 01865 558145 Campaign to Defend Asylum Seekers www.defend-asylum.org [email protected] 07958 478 628 740-8206 National Coalition of anti-deportation campaigns www.ncadc.org.ukE mail [email protected] Phone: 0121-554-6947, or 020-7701-5197 or 0161Will you be safe when the green goddesses are used to scab or 2002 21
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