Socialist Resistance : SR01 - November 2002

Fighting for asylum rights

Construction of Fortress Europe continues apace

Sarah Parker

Across Europe governments are putting in place both joint and separate measures to control and prevent the entry into Europe of migrants trying to escape the political and economic consequences of neo-liberalism.

Last year New Labour followed up the Terrorism Act 2000, which widened the definition of terrorism to potentially criminalise most forms of political protest or even debate, by rushing through the Anti-Terrorism Crime and Security Act 2001, containing a large number of authoritarian measures.

This was part of a worldwide wave of attacks on civil liberties of which the full consequences are yet to be felt. The EU is also drafting a secret agreement with the USA which will have yet more serious implications for civil liberties.

Britain is currently leading Europe-wide efforts to finish demolishing the 1951 UN Convention on Refugees and with it the right to protection for political refugees. The increasing harshness of legislation has already made it almost impossible for refugees to enter Europe legally, hence the increase in people-smuggling and trafficking and desperately dangerous journeys which governments are so sanctimonious about.

And an increasing number of asylum seekers will find themselves in a cleft stick between the asylum legislation and the anti-terrorist legislation – either the Home Office will refuse to believe they are in danger politically, so they will be refused as economic migrants, or they risk being refused as being associated with terrorism.

In fact, a top immigration barrister publicly said of the TA 2000 that he thought one of its main functions would be to enable the authorities to short-cut asylum procedures and thus refuse more people more easily.

In Britain there has been worryingly little concern about the government’s latest Nationality Immigration and Asylum Bill.

Legislation has made it almost impossible for refugees to enter Europe legally

With the usual small number of honourable exceptions in the House of Commons, it has been left to members of the House of Lords to inflict temporary rejection of some of the clauses. The government has even felt bold enough to add on new clauses at the Third Reading stage, which will not even be debated. The Bill includes an explicit power to remove British citizenship from political refugees, and to detain them indefinitely, and provisions to remove asylum-seekers from Britain to “safe third countries” without any right of appeal here.

The ‘safe’ list is to include the 10 EU candidate countries, so this rule will be particularly harsh for Roma people from Slovakia or the Czech Republic.

It is well-known to the government that these countries are not necessarily safe at all, either because the countries are not safe in themselves, or because the authorities there remove people onwards to dangerous places such as Turkey or Afghanistan.

Here we see the “war on terrorism” merging with the war on asylum seekers both at the legislative level and in the media and as asylum seekers are stripped of more and more rights while their stereotype is conflated with that of “Muslim-Middle Easterner-terrorist”.

Where has the opposition been? The opposition is there, if often not very visible, and does actually have some success, as witnessed by David Blunkett’s recent admission that the government has missed its removal targets so far this year, with an annual removal rate of about 12,000 people per year as opposed to the planned 30,000.

Asylum seekers continue to resist the government’s attempts to remove them, often fighting their own campaigns, on their own or with relatives, friends from school or the community; sometimes persuading pilots not to take them, or refusing to board planes and later winning leave to remain.

Many lawyers and advice workers struggle to defend their clients in increasingly difficult circumstances: the workload is overwhelming and getting worse as the government continually makes the rules more restrictive, speeds up processing of cases, and does not allow a reasonable level of fees so that many practitioners leave the field, either because they cannot earn a living or cannot bear the stress.

The Refugee Council has continued to lobby against the government’s savage proposals, and they have some high profile allies such as Bill Morris (whose recent excellent statement can be read on the National Coalition of Anti-Deportation Campaigns website) and the British Medical Association. Some individual journalists try to cover the issue fairly.

Numerous campaigns also continue to do their best to support asylum seekers and raise awareness of the issue. Committee to Defend Asylum Seekers and National Coalition of Anti-Deportation Campaigns are continuing to build support within the trade union movement, which is very important.

Some activists feel that there is greater awareness and understanding of why refugees come to Europe amongst the general public than there was a couple of years ago.

But the waves of hatred unleashed by the Daily Mail campaign against the National Coalition and the Community Fund recently shows the danger of New Labour pointing the finger at asylum seekers. David Blunkett and his civil servants first tried to block NCADC’s grant renewal and demanded an investigation some months ago.

Officers of the Community Fund, who along with many organisations commendably stood up for the legitimacy of assisting asylum seekers to assert their legal rights to stay here, and of the Community Fund to independently award grants free of government and tabloid interference, were subjected to such a vitriolic hate campaign incited by the Daily Mail that they had to seek police protection.

The NCADC have now been told that they will get their grant, although the Community Fund has made it conditional on their keeping their website free of “doctrinaire language”. Asylum seekers face appalling odds in their fight to stay here, as shown by the suffering of the Ahmadi and Ay families, Afghans and Kurds respectively.

At present although asylum seekers are bravely continuing to resist because they have no option, and along with their supporters are scoring some victories, the anti-deportation movement in this country desperately needs far more support from the left, the labour movement and the anti-capitalist movement.

This problem cannot be solved easily, but we need to try to find ways of raising the profile and increasing the strength of the movement.

Update on Ahmadi family

The family have won an appeal before an adjudicator on 1 November, though they have not won the right to return to this country from Germany to attend the hearing. They will only be able to participate by video-link.

The fear that they will be sent back to Afghanistan and the long-drawn out nature of the proceedings, as well as the bad conditions they are being held in in Germany are taking their toll. Mrs Ahmadi is very depressed and suicidal at times, her husband has become depressed, and both the children are very stressed. Money is urgently needed to help with expenses (phone calls and travel to Germany, legal expenses and so on). Money and messages of support should be sent to CDAS.

Campaigning to Defend Asylum Seekers

Barbed Wire Britain www.barbedwirebritain.org.uk

Campaign to Defend Asylum Seekers www.defend-asylum.org

National Coalition of Anti Deportation Campaigns www.ncadc.org.uk

back to top