Committee to Defend Asylum Seekers
Sign the petition against racism by politicians!
We the undersigned are appalled that politicians are encouraging racism and vicious racist attacks.
Scotland Yard noted a 300 percent increase in racist attacks following William Hague’s notorious Britain as a "foreign land" speech.
The leaders of the far right British National Party has announced his intention to stand in Oldham, with the aim of increasing racial tension. He says that scapegoating legitimises the idea "that we cannot afford to have asylum seekers here in the first place".
Britain is a vibrant multi-racial country, which has benefited greatly from immigrants’ contribution. Meanwhile, the right to work has been denied to refugees under New Labour. Some 1.500 asylum seekers are detained in prisons and holding centres. The home secretary boasts of his intention to deport 30.000 asylum applicants this year.
The voucher scheme has stigmatised those fleeing persecution and oppression, while the dispersal programme has created isolation and alienation for asylum seekers.
We object to New Labour’s draconian racist policies on asylum seekers and believe that Jack Straw’s policies are directly fuelling racism.
Instead of scrapping the voucher scheme, the dispersal programme and detention centres, Jack Straw wants to abolish the 1951 Geneva Convention. He claims it is outdated, at a time when the United Nations estimates that 37 million people are presently refugees across the world, only 0.5 percent of them in Britain.
We demand:
Abolition of the voucher scheme
An end to dispersal and detention
The retention of the 1951 Geneva Convention
Full economic and social rights for asylum seekers
An end to inflammatory speeches by both Tory and New Labour politicians
Copies of the petition and further information from CDAS, BCM Box 4289 London WC1X 3XX or email [email protected]