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WSWS : News & Analysis : Europe : The Balkan Crisis
The British government and the Kosovar refugees
Labour's milk of human kindness turns sour
By Tony Hyland
27 May 1999
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The Blair government says that its participation in the NATO bombing
of Yugoslavia is driven by “humanitarian concern” for the plight of
the Albanian Kosovars. This claim should be examined critically in
light of its treatment of asylum-seekers in general and the Kosovar
refugees in particular.
Labour's Immigration and Asylum White Paper is in its final
parliamentary stages before passing into law. This legislation is
more draconian than anything passed under the previous Conservative
administrations. It has been accompanied by newspaper articles and TV
coverage presenting the majority of asylum-seekers as bogus,
particularly those from Eastern Europe. In areas of the country where
refugees from Slovakia and Kosovo have been temporarily stationed,
such as the port towns in southeast England, this became particularly
vitriolic.
The Dover Express last October described East European refugees as
“human sewage” in an editorial entitled “We want to wash the dross
down the drain”. Similar articles have featured prominently in the
mass circulation tabloids. The Daily Mirror, in an article headed
“Let's send the asylum spongers packing”, wrote: “I don't blame them
for coming. But that doesn't mean they have the right to be here. Who
is being persecuted in Romania? The answer is nobody.... It's not
racist to say that every immigrant who sneaks into Britain diminishes
life in this country, it's common sense.”
Such statements reveal how the language of hate, usually associated
with the fascist right, has been incorporated into mainstream
journalism. Last October the Daily Mail published an article entitled
“Life on Asylum Alley”. This claimed that “bogus” asylum-seekers were
living in the lap of luxury at taxpayers' expense. The article gave
the address of one refugee hostel, which was then subject to attack.
While local police warned the editors of the Dover Express that they
could face prosecution for racial incitement, no similar threat has
been against the national newspapers.
Home Secretary Jack Straw sought to distance his new white paper from
such overtly racist sentiments. In an article printed in the Guardian
on May 13 he claimed “the reason why the government has brought
forward the bill has nothing to do with tabloid headlines or
'criminalising' refugees as some have suggested.” He seemed to be
unaware of the irony that his disclaimer appeared under the headline:
“Asylum abusers”.
The incongruity between Labour's professed concern for the Kosovar
refugees and its reluctance to provide aid and asylum has become ever
more glaring. The plight of the refugees amassing in makeshift camps
has been manipulated by the mass media to stampede public opinion
into supporting military action. But the United Nations High
Commission for Refugees (UNHCR) warned on May 11 that it was running
out of money, having received only half the £87 million it needed to
fund its operations.
Britain was cited as one of the lowest contributors in a league table
of 18 countries. The UNHCR claimed that it had only received £490,000
from the UK, less than the price of one cruise missile and a fraction
of the £43 million the British government had spent at that stage of
the war. The government responded by claiming it had provided £3.4
million in direct assistance to refugees in Macedonia and Albania. If
this is true, the rebuttal confirms the government's continued policy
of bypassing the UN, as it did alongside the US when hostilities were
declared. This figure still represents just a tiny fraction of the
amount Blair had pledged.
It is not the first time that UNHCR has been in conflict with the
Blair government over its treatment of refugees. Hope Hanlon, a UNHCR
spokesperson, described the government's new Immigration and Asylum
legislation as “fundamentally unacceptable and even inhumane”. Last
May, the UNHCR issued a letter to the 15 governments of the European
Union and Switzerland, calling on them to stop repatriating refugees
back to Kosovo. Those affected included Serbs, Montenegrins,
Romanians and Muslim Slavs.
The UK was not even included in the initial list of countries
available to take in refugees from the overcrowded camps, as the
government refused to specify how many it would accept. Over the last
months, the Blair government has continuously violated the principle
of giving sanctuary to the very people they claim to be rescuing in
Yugoslavia.
Claire Short, the International Development Secretary, stated that
“moving people out of the region is doing exactly what Milosevic
wants.” In an article in the Sunday Telegraph April 4, Blair
described moves to grant asylum to Kosovar refugees as a “policy of
despair”, adding that they should be kept close to Kosovo's borders,
to apply “maximum pressure” on Milosevic.
Britain's belated agreement to accept up to 1,000 refugees a week was
only secured after much arm twisting within the Europe Union, and
government concern that its credibility was becoming compromised in
the public eye. The Balkan region was also becoming destabilised, as
the poorest economies in Europe, such as Albania and the republics of
Montenegro and Macedonia, became the main destination of refugees
fleeing the bombing. NATO allies, such as Germany, were becoming
increasingly bitter at the fact they had accepted a disproportionate
amount of refugees.
The British government has stated that those now arriving from the
Balkan refugee camps will be granted leave to remain in the UK, and
will be entitled to benefits and to seek employment. This contrasts
with the treatment of some 7,000 Kosovar refugees that arrived prior
to the NATO bombing, who are still waiting for their cases to be
processed.
The media gives extended coverage to any demonstration of gratitude
expressed by the minority of Kosovar refugees who have managed to
obtain temporary asylum in Britain and to the Blair's stage-managed
visits to the border camps. Meanwhile, the lot of the vast majority
of refugees goes largely unreported. Under the terms of the new
legislation, those who arrived prior to the outbreak of war, like
those seeking asylum from other countries, can be subject to the new
powers of search and detention, and will have their rights to cash
benefits withdrawn. Instead, they receive vouchers that can be used
to claim a limited variety of basic items.
Only a month before the war began, a Kosovan couple who were fleeing
from the Drenica region, one of the main centres of the conflict,
were imprisoned in Britain. Arriving at Heathrow, en-route to Canada,
the couple was discovered to be travelling on false Greek passports.
When they tried to claim asylum, the 25-year-old woman, who was
pregnant, was sent to Holloway prison, whilst her husband was sent to
Wormwood Scrubs. The woman was later released after becoming ill and
depressed; her husband is likely to be released only on condition
that he wears an electronic tag.
The human rights group Amnesty International is taking up their case.
A spokesman for the human rights group commented, “There are two
government policies on Kosovan refugees. The high profile one that
involves the evacuation of the camps in Macedonia and another hidden
policy which applies to the vast majority, who are treated as if they
are criminals when in fact they are just seeking protection.”
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