When the oppressed are oppressive too

Last Updated: June 6, 2014By

7 Comments

  1. roger shade June 7, 2014 at 11:06 am - Reply

    Mosely was also was also ex Labour

  2. C.J.Welsh June 7, 2014 at 12:43 pm - Reply

    “Labour…won’t pander to the anti-immigration rhetoric and racism of the right”.

    Except when they’re introducing horrifically racist legislation, of course.

    While in opposition pre-1997, the Labour party argued against the restrictive measures and the separation of asylum seekers from the main population.

    “We believe that once an asylum seeker is allowed to enter the country, he or she should be treated like any other resident- -no better, no worse. Housing authorities should treat every applicant according to need.” ~Hattersley (Hansard, 13 November 1991, Column 1104)

    As soon as they came to power, the scapegoating and racism began. These are some of the horrific attacks legislated against asylum seekers for having the temerity to attempt to flee persecution and the terrorism laws, in application, are equally as racist.

    1) Income reduced to 70% of income support (provided through vouchers redeemable only at certain shops), and an additional £10 cash allowance. Income support is calculated to ensure that people are not living below the poverty line 70% of this level is, by very definition, deliberate impoverishment

    2) Right to work for pay and also voluntarily, revoked.

    3) Introduction of Detained Fast Track (DFT) in which some asylum seekers are detained for the duration of their application and appeal.

    4) The Home Office begins detaining around 1,000 children seeking asylum with their families every year.

    5) Vouchers only for Asylum seekers on section 4 (destitution) support.

    6) Of the 9 immigration removal centres in Britain, 7 were opened by the last Labour government.

    7) Conditions in immigration removal and detention centres repeatedly condemned by inspectors. Detainees struggle to access medical care and often commit suicide. REMEMBER these people are *not* criminals, they have fled persecution. Many will be returned to imprisonment, torture, execution or murder.

    8) In 2006, asylum seekers in the UK without independent means of support are eligible for much less state support compared to in the early 1990s3.
    9) Local authorities prevented from providing support, including under the National Assistance Act and the Children’s Act, to a variety of groups including failed asylum seekers

    10) Section 55 denied access to NASS to applicants who did not apply “as soon as reasonably practical”, effectively denying support to in-country applicants. In practice it meant people who delayed applying for 24 hours or more after arriving in the country were left destitute, without permission to work or access to any state accommodation and support.

    11) Those who have failed in their cases but cannot be removed for reasons beyond their control have section 4 support withdrawn if certain conditions are not met, including a requirement to perform community activities. Bear in mind they have no NI numbers.

    12) Those granted refugee status lose their previously held entitlement to back payments of benefits they were entitled to whilst seeking asylum. They therefore have no means for a deposit for housing.

    13) Section 9: families who have reached the end of the asylum process and don’t take ‘reasonable independent steps’ to leave the country are liable to have their children taken into care since they are destitute.

    14) Countries which are fundamentally unsafe are declared safe and people are returned to them. Reliable figures are impossible to source, but someone I know was returned to Iraq and killed within a fortnight. He was in his late teens.

    15) Figures are notoriously difficult to source, but many asylum seekers commit suicide over fears of returns. I worked with asylum seekers during the last Labour term and lost people who came to be my friends this way. I’ll give one example: an entire family jump out of the window of a Glasgow tower-block over fear of deportation.

    Not racist, my arse.

  3. C.J.Welsh June 8, 2014 at 3:36 pm - Reply

    Of course I have and continue to do so, it would be a huge personal failing and an abnegation of my responsibilities as a human rights activist if I did not.

    The solution begins with, I feel, recognising en masse that we have *failed* an enormous amount of already incredibly vulnerable and persecuted people and collectively continued in that persecution. Hopefully this will result in continued and sustained pressure for a humane approach to asylum: treating asylum seekers in the way we do is utterly inhumane. Asylum is a human right, not a privilege.

    I make no claims that this issue can be resolved as quickly as it ought to be. The fundamental problem is that it was ever allowed in the first place. Only public pressure and public action has any hope of beginning to rectify it and this absolutely relies on a Frank examination of the issues and how they have arisen.

    The greatest mistake that activists can make is to ignore these things and to assume that they will be rectified through the ballot box alone: they won’t. If we are to achieve social justice then we must not simply pretend that a Labour government will rectify this situation as a matter of moral purpose. They won’t, they were instrumental in creating it in the first place.

    It would be nice to believe that all the injustice in society will be resolved by the Labour party. It would also be utterly naive. It must be confronted with an honest appraisal of the Labour legacy, because simply ignoring the racism they contributed to will only allow it to perpetuate. We won’t win moral points by simply pretending that the LP are above racism, if we want to actually *tackle* racism, we need to be realistic about it’s causes. If we don’t critique Labour, we mandate them to continue without being held to account for their failures.

    Pointing out failures is certainly not an abnegation of successes. It is democratic process.

  4. C.J.Welsh June 8, 2014 at 3:51 pm - Reply

    (I continue to advocate, petition and lobby *all* the parties and organise on a grass roots level, that is.)

    There are many asylum outreach centres that desperately need volunteers. Asylum support work is harrowing and stressful and it is impossible to not invest personally. However, support work is not the only valuable contribution: there are niches where most skills are valuable and volunteering just an hour a week, whether it involves direct contact with individuals in the asylum process or telephoning/emailing the home office about specific cases, has the potential to actually *save lives*.

    I would urge anybody who feels strongly about this human rights issue to get involved. Google will turn up asylum advocacy/support networks in many major UK cities and towns, and emails can be sent from anywhere.

Leave A Comment

you might also like