>From (both) www.wsws.org
WSWS : News & Analysis : Europe : Britain
Britain: Labour government and Conservative opposition reported for stoking up
anti-immigrant prejudices
By Julie Hyland
12 April 2000
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Britain's ruling Labour Party and the Conservative Party opposition were
referred to the Commission for Racial Equality (CRE) for making allegedly anti-
immigrant statements in the run-up to next month's local council elections.
The home affairs spokesman for the Liberal Democrats, Simon Hughes, said he had
made the referral because he believed the Labour and the Conservatives had
broken an agreement drafted by the CRE not to "use problems in the immigration
and asylum system to damage community and race relations", signed by all three
main parties the previous year. Hughes, a former human rights lawyer, said the
Conservative Party local election manifesto and remarks made by Labour Home
Secretary Jack Straw in the wake of the Stansted hijack crisis, when Afghan
hostages applied for asylum in the UK, breached this agreement.
In his complaint Hughes said, "There is growing concern that the struggle by
the Conservative and Labour parties to be seen to be tough on asylum and
immigration issues is motivated by short term party political advantage, rather
than any objective of longer term racial and national tolerance."
The referral came just days after the United Nations Commissioner for Refugees
(UNHCR) had also attacked the Conservative election manifesto for claiming that
racketeers are "flooding our country with bogus asylum-seekers". Such language
plays into the hands of racists and xenophobes, the UNHCR said, and amounts to
Conservative attempts to whip up fear to win votes. The UNHCR also criticised
the Blair government for doing nothing to combat the current climate of
hostility that has been created towards asylum-seekers.
Anti-immigrant propaganda has reached a crescendo over the past month, as both
parties compete to prove they are harsher on immigration. Politicians, and much
of the press, have scapegoated asylum-seekers for the running down of health,
education and social provisions carried out by both Conservative and Labour
governments over the past two decades.
For the Conservative Party, anti-immigrant propaganda is a means through which
they hope to rebuild their political support based on the most reactionary and
backward prejudices. The Tory election manifesto concentrates on the issue of
asylum-seekers, claiming that council tax bills—used to finance local
services—are increasing because the Labour government has allowed bogus
refugees to flood into Britain. The manifesto also claims that the average
household pays the equivalent of up to £160 in tax a year to finance "bogus"
asylum-seekers.
The Conservatives responded to the CRE referral by aggressively defending their
campaign. Ann Widdecombe, Conservative Shadow Home Secretary, said the party's
manifesto reflected “the gravity of the situation. We have a very serious
problem in which the asylum system is out of control and everybody can see it
is out of control." Conservative Home Affairs spokesman David Lidington said
the UNHCR had made a "foolish" intervention. "What we're doing is giving
expression to the genuine feelings of anger among very large numbers of British
people at the fact that our immigration controls and our tradition of giving
hospitality to genuine refugees is currently being abused, and that the Labour
government has taken insufficient action to bring this crisis to an end,"
Lidington said.
Although dismissing Hughes' referral as a "political gimmick", Labour was
deeply embarrassed by it. Prime Minister Blair has sought to portray his
government as "inclusive" on racial and sexual issues, but the longer the
controversy over asylum-seekers goes on, the more Labour's own racist
immigration policies are exposed.
Reflecting their own electoral considerations, Labour has conducted "private
polling" sessions to assess their target voters' attitudes towards asylum-
seekers.
The increase in asylum claims over the last year—to approximately 74,000
individuals and families—is mainly attributable to the war in Kosovo. NATO's
exploitative use of Albanian refugees fleeing Kosovo in order to justify its
bombardment of Serbia saw Blair forced to allow a number of them into Britain
for a limited period. Outside of this, Labour has pursued a draconian offensive
against the right to asylum.
This week saw the start of a system, adopted from continental Europe, where
those awaiting the outcome of their asylum claim receive vouchers rather than
cash benefits. The government has also introduced a "fast track" system of
assessing asylum claims, in order to remove immigrants as quickly as possible.
For the first time in over two years, those whose applications are turned down
now outstrip the numbers seeking asylum.
But even this is not regarded as enough to discourage refugees—fleeing terrible
conditions in their own countries—from entering Britain. To do this, it is
necessary to prevent admittance to the country in the first place. New
legislation has been introduced in which lorry drivers arriving from Europe can
be fined up to £2,000 for each “illegal immigrant” their vehicle is found to
contain. This is in addition to fines already in place against airlines if they
carry passengers without proper entry documents.
Both Labour and Conservatives have helped stoke up the current anti-immigrant
hysteria and emboldened the extreme right. At the weekend, the fascist National
Front organised a demonstration in Margate, Kent to protest against the number
of asylum-seekers being housed in the seaside town. Scuffles led to several
arrests of anti-racist protesters. Kent has led protests by various Local
Authorities against government proposals that asylum-seekers should be
dispersed across the country rather than concentrated in London. The
predominately Conservative-dominated local councils in Kent complain that
immigrants are disturbing the area's "racial balance"—it is overwhelmingly
white—and demand they are housed in more "appropriate" places. Their campaign,
fuelled by the local press, led to a series of violent assaults and
confrontations between local youth and immigrants last year.
Despite the smallness of the National Front protest—anti-racist protestors
outnumbered approximately 100 fascists—Straw responded by saying that he
accepted Kent had taken "more than its share" of asylum-seekers. From next week
all those entering Britain would be barred from living in the region and
compulsorily bussed around the country. A further 20 Local Authorities
responded by demanding that they too should be declared "full up".
>>>And, if I recall correctly, the Aussie selection of 'safe havens' for the
Kosovarians had to have certain qualifications: remote, isolated, away from
mainstream Aussieland, deserted, barren, remote ... Helps to plan ahead, eh,
what, mate? I don't agree with what they're doing but this could have all been
avoided had the Britlanders just made that extra pot of tea and sent out for
extra crumpets INSTEAD of planning their imperialist renaissance. Yes, I know
the Aussielanders are somewhat of an independent state but they still have to
support Queenie and Princie (they done voted on this not too long ago). No,
worries, though: the next time the burdened 99 & 44/100 of the population
(i.e., genetically undiluted master upbred people {OKA "GUM UP", as in the
works}) seeks some support for its little foreign adventures, events like this
are going to be recalled and may not be very popular. A<>E<>R <<<
WSWS : News & Analysis : Australia & South Pacific
War refugees treated like criminals
Australian government moves to deport Kosovars
By Mike Head
12 April 2000
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In one of the most disgusting examples yet of the Howard government's pandering
to anti-immigrant, racist and extreme right-wing sentiment, it is forcibly
removing the remaining Kosovar refugees who came to Australia last year in the
wake of the US-NATO bombing of Yugoslavia. The Kosovars, many expressing fears
for their lives, are being sent back to a country that is still devastated by
war and wracked by communal conflicts.
Just 11 months ago the government went to great lengths to appear to be
magnanimous and compassionate in welcoming 3,900 refugees fleeing from the
Balkans war. In early May 1999 Prime Minister John Howard and Immigration
Minister Philip Ruddock personally greeted the first planeloads arriving at
Sydney airport. According to some refugees, Howard and Ruddock shed tears as
they talked to the arriving families.
Now the government is going to even greater lengths to deport the few hundred
remaining refugees. It has rounded them up like criminals, stripped them of
their meagre subsistence allowances and threatened to use physical force.
Last Sunday, at the stroke of midnight, the former military barracks where the
refugees were housed were transformed from “Safe Havens” into detention
centres. Security guards moved into the premises and all entrances were sealed
off. Police commenced manhunts in the homes of relatives and friends for those
not living in the barracks.
Ruddock warned that if 182 Kosovars who had been ordered to leave immediately
did not comply they would be forcibly ejected. “Removal could involve having to
supervise people to aircraft and supervising them on the way home,” he stated.
Recently the Four Corners ABC TV program revealed that Algerian refugees had
been drugged, bound and gagged, and dragged onto aircraft in order to deport
them to South Africa.
Late on Tuesday Ruddock gave the refugees a deadline of 9am today to leave or
be sent to remote detention centres at Woomera, in Australia's central desert,
or Derby or Port Hedland, on the far north-west coast. Those who refused to
meet the deadline would be banned from applying to return to Australia for at
least three years and would be charged the full costs of their unsuccessful
appeal to the High Court.
Ruddock's threats came just days after he announced that he had personally
rejected the applications of 259 Kosovars to stay longer. For medical reasons,
Ruddock allowed another 130 to remain—but only temporarily.
Some families departed under protest over the weekend but many vowed to defy
the order. Refugees at the Bandiana barracks near Albury-Wodonga held hunger
strikes, protests and marches, pleading for the right to stay. Others were
severely traumatised by the prospect of suddenly landing back in Kosovo. At
least one girl attempted to commit suicide and several people were taken to
hospital suffering from serious stress-induced conditions.
On Monday night about 100 Albury-Wodonga residents staged a rally at Bandiana,
denouncing the government and defending the right of the Kosovars to live in
Australia. They chanted, “Let them stay” and sounded car horns. Those
interviewed on radio were at pains to differentiate themselves from the
government's callous actions, insisting that the refugees be permitted to
remain. Security officials later allowed the participants into the detention
centre, where they exchanged lit candles and embraced refugees through a wire
fence.
The government not only dismissed these pleas, it refused to even wait for the
outcome of a last-ditch legal appeal by 81 refugees to the High Court before
ordering the closure of the “Safe Havens” and trying to herd the refugees onto
a weekend charter flight to Bulgaria.
Ruddock's decisions were then rubberstamped on Monday by the Howard
government's most recent High Court appointee—Chief Justice Murray Gleeson. The
judge refused to even grant an interim injunction to delay the deportations,
stating that the refugees had no serious legal questions to raise.
Today at least 50 Kosovars were still rejecting the government's edict, despite
an agreement being pushed by local Albanian community leaders for them to leave
in return for offers of some assistance on arrival in Kosovo. Ruddock appears
to be personally involved in the negotiations, anxious to secure a hasty
departure. Police also launched a new manhunt for 33 refugees who had
reportedly disappeared from the detention centres.
The government's determination to remove the Kosovars expresses two
things—first its efforts to forge a right-wing nationalist electoral base and
second the hypocrisy of last year's claims to be motivated by humanitarian
concerns.
The government now has almost 2,000 asylum seekers locked up in barbaric and
over-crowded conditions in its remote detention centres. It has removed their
rights of appeal to the courts against decisions to deny refugee status,
clearing the way for mass deportations. It has also dramatically slashed the
annual quota of “family reunion” immigrants—the parents and siblings of
residents—requiring nearly all immigrants to have job skills suited to
employers.
A year ago the government initially refused to accept any Kosovars. Under
international pressure it performed an embarrassing about-face when it became
obvious that the closed-door policy undermined the official humanitarian
rationale for conducting the NATO bombing.
As the WSWS warned at the time, the official welcome afforded to the Kosovars
was a façade behind which the government prepared sweeping anti-democratic
legislation stripping “Safe Haven” refugees of all legal rights in Australia.
The Safe Haven Refugee Act—rushed through parliament with the backing of all
MPs—even deprived the Kosovars of the internationally-recognised right to apply
for refugee status. It created a new type of temporary entry visa that could be
shortened or cancelled by the Immigration Minister with no right of appeal or
review by a tribunal, court or other body. These unprecedented powers are now
being used against the Kosovars.
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