Since the Asylum and Immigration Act became law in 1993 the number of people detained has more than doubled. Over 10,000 people are detained every year and around 600-700 are detained at any one time.
These detainees are held in specially bullt detention centres such as Harmondsworth or Campsfield, or in prisons. Although the Home Office designated particular prisons for this purpose, now most medium to large sized prisons will hold immigration detainees. Immigration detainees can be held without charge for indefinite periods. Police tool up to enforce racist laws Even when refugees face repression on being dearen't locked up, they are ported simply because they forced to lie in fear with the tried to leave their country of threat of deportation hanging origin. over them. People fleeing op- New police powers that pressive regimes will often have already been introduced, or are currently being proposed, are targeted at black and immigrant communities. Police have already started using these powers to harass black people on the grounds that they suspect them of being "Illegal immigrants".
Such is the climate of fear created amongst immigrant communities that a number of people have committed suicide rather than face deportation.
Last year in Hackney Kwanele Siziba climbed out of a window and fell to her death when the police knocked on her door, as she thought they were immigration officers. There are numerous such incidents.
In September last year nine Tamil refugees were found dead on the Polish -German border. They were tried to cross the river during the night. They had no safe route in to "Fortress Europe", and a number of them couldn't swim so they formed a human chain, but the chain broke.
Last month's Annual Conference of Trades Councils called on a closure of all detention centres and an end to immigration detentions, and a Day of Actions has been called around all detention centres and designated prisons for June 24.
Campaign
Of course, these actions in themselves will not end immigration controls, but they can be used to build a mass campaign throughout the labour movement.
In particular we should campaign to commit a future a policy and to build a movement that ensures Labour carries out its policy.
The European network UNITED is also calling for a European wide day of action in support of refugees on June 16. Activists in Britain are asked to bombard the German and French embassies with faxes, telephone calls and letters.
It is significant that right wing nationalists are far more organised and co-ordinated on a European level than the left.
This is because they see quite clearly that their class interests lie with a strong, reactionary Fortress Europe. Its time that the left started to use initiatives such as this day of action to develop a European wide movement to oppose this reactionary project.
SOCIALIST OUTLOOK No 85, June 10 1995, Page 7