(Kidlington, near Oxford) 12 noon Bring banners, drums and balloons Haslar (Portsmouth) 12 noon outside prison Contact Chris Richards, 01705-832260 Colnbrook By-pass, near Heathrow airport MEETING 2.30pm Hounsiow Voiuntary Action Centre, School Rd Hounslow Hull Picket - ring Keith Sinclair, Hull Trades Council, 01482-802050 Eg 012 for details By Stephen August THE BRITISH government use every trick, subterfuge and deceit they can think of to prevent black people coming into Britain.
The Tories have put in place a series of catches and ambiguities in the laws that enable immigration officers to turn down immigrants almost at whim. The racism behind the rules is breathtaking.
It is a common misconception that British citizens who marry people from overseas are allowed to live with their partner in Britain. This is not the case.
The law at the moment requires the couple to demonstrate that they will stay married and that they can house and maintain themselves without state support. But it also demands that they convince the authorities that their primary purpose of marriage is other than to gain admission to the country.
This is near impossible to prove. The authorities use the ambiguity ruthlessly. People from the Indian subcontinent are the most likely victims.
The immigration police have a number of favourite entrapments.
One is to bring attention to of racist laws Home Secretary Michael Howard: ruthless in applying racist laws the lower standard of living of the entrance applicant in contrast to the UK. This can be used as ground to debar them. It is clearly targeted at non-white countries. ing so well anyway?
It is a useful device because it enables them to exclude black people under a sham formality, without having to refer to the real reasons. The chauvinism is obvious however - the target is clear.
Those few who are rela- ignored. tively wealthy are also rejected. High standards of liv- force are quite prepared to ing are used as evidence use the opposite case if it against them - why would suits their purposes - the abwell off people need to move sence of family members is to Britain when they are do- used as evidence to suggest the applicant will not be able Many applicants are re- to sustain themselves. fused on the grounds that Refusals have also been others of their family have made on the basis of applimoved to the UK. This is a cant's being well-travelled: particularly callous method something which is porof splitting families. The ten- trayed as indicating a longdency of these family units to lasting desire to move be stable and longlasting is overseas. True to form, the Black of travel is also used to Indeed, the immigration show the absence of any previous desire to move and so to raise doubts over the present motivation.
Male applicants are turned down on the grounds that they are not following tradition in wanting to live with their wives in the UK -that it is "traditional" for the wife to be the one to move in order to be with her husband and his family.
Visa officers who have no specialist knowledge of others' marriage customs set themselves up as judge and jury over the rituals and arrangements of people in countries they know little Regulations about what is and what is not "traditional" are contrived for the sole purpose of to frustrating prospective entrants to Britain.
The unfairness and of the system is underlined by the frequency reversal of rulings. Appeals against refusals go eventually to the immigration appeals adjudiBut there is effectively no means of compensation for wrong rulings.
And while bureaucrats wrap the cases in red-tape the suffering and distress of those divided from their loved ones is allowed to continue.
It seems that family values are strictly for white families.