Editorial 2
Fight New Labour's racist policies!
In the wake of Firsat Yildiz’s murder in Glasgow last month (see p5), the government announced that it was going to review its policy of dispersal of asylum seekers. Seems sensible, you might think.
Anti-racist campaigners have always opposed these measures which force people into areas without support and resources, far from any of their own communities, friends and family, as well as campaigning against the companion inequity of the voucher system.
But the reality is that any review by this government is unlikely to lead to an improvement in the desperate position of asylum seekers.
We can hardly have confidence in a government which includes Jack Straw – who tells us he sympathises with Australian Prime Minister John Howard’s plight in trying to keep out the Afghani asylum seekers on the Tampa.
David Blunkett has shown us his determination to be an even more reactionary Home Secretary than his predecessors Straw and Michael Howard, by promising to send in snatch squads to remove people whose applications for asylum have failed.
The Home Office has set a target to increase the number of forced removals of failed asylum seekers and other illegal immigrants from 8,000 two years ago to 30,000 next year.
A pilot scheme which has seen 17 immigration officers specially trained in carrying out removals is already in operation in the Newham, Barking and Dagenham areas of east London.
A further 60 immigration staff are to be trained in September to operate as part of four teams of "enforcement officers" based in Croydon in south London, Hayes in west London, and in central London.
Despite opposition to his plans from both London Mayor Ken Livingstone and the Chief Commisioner of the Metropolitan police, Blunkett has argued that these measures are necessary to restore "faith in the asylum system".
And now we are told that the Government are co-operating with catering conglomerate Sudexho, who plan to pay asylum seekers slave wage levels of just 34 pence an hour for cleaning and cooking in the new detention centre which will shortly be opened at Harmonsworth!
Last year, New Labour promised a review of the voucher system to head off opposition at its conference lead by Bill Morris of the TGWU.
No report has emerged from that review which was concluded last December – despite large numbers of submissions from anti-racist organisations, refugee groups and trade unionists who barged their way into a consultation which was actually aimed at supermarkets!!
And the dispersal review doesn’t even promise the same minimal level of consultation with anyone at all, but is merely a mechanism for the government to see if they can package their reactionary policies in a more palatable way.
The National Coalition of Anti- Deportation campaigns at its Annual General Meeting in July agreed a resolution which pointed out that the so called National Asylum Support Service is consistently failing in its duty to provide for the welfare of refugees.
The resolution points out that "we have found NASS to be grossly inefficient in terms of the allocation of accommodation, with average delays of three months before allegedly appropriate housing is provided, and delays of between four to six weeks for the issue of vouchers.
"Children have been prevented from entering schools because of these delays, and the poor administration of dispersal procedures has, in many cases, led to applications for asylum being severely prejudiced ".
It goes on to argue that refugee organisations should cease co-operation with NASS.
This call to end co-operation has also been supported by the Commitee to Defend Asylum Seekers, which has itself launched a petition calling for an end to the dispersal and voucher systems.
All socialists need to step up their campaigning over these issues and ensure that this time our voices cannot be ignored.