This most racist and reactionary of Conservative governments was held in check yesterday. Anti-racists and anti-imperialists in Iraq and Britain took decisive, exemplary action to stop a mass deportation flight to Iraq. The flight was due to deport 50 Kurdish-Iraqi men from Britain on 31 May 2022.
Family members, friends and organisations have attended protests, forced press coverage, secured legal representation to put in challenges and raised money for legal fees. Groups like the International Federation of Iraqi Refugees have held protests outside the Headquarters of the Home Office in London. Fight Racism! Fight Imperialism! (FRFI) in the North East organised a protest outside the Home Office with family members of Saman Anwar (Lala) – one of the detainees. FRFI supporters have worked tirelessly with others to help build resistance to the deportations. The Home Office was forced to cancel the flight because of the level of sustained organisation, protest and legal action from all involved. This shows what is possible when we make a stand.
The men had been held in Britain’s network of immigration prisons and were given only a week’s notice of the deportation orders. The Home Office knew at least several weeks earlier that the deportations were scheduled but did not inform the men until the last minute so that it was more difficult to put in legal challenges. The racist British state labels a significant section of migrants as illegal, but it is the British state which has utter contempt for legality and justice when they are used to defend the oppressed. While imprisoned, the men, some with kidney and heart problems, were refused medical treatment, instead being given paracetamol. They faced continuous racist abuse from security goons working for private, multi-million pound firm Mitie which runs several of the prisons. The guards told the men, ‘We don’t want you in our country…go back to where you belong…we are kicking you out.’ How wrong these racist thugs were.
Some men like Lala, have been imprisoned several times and have been living in Britain for over twenty years, waiting decades for a decision on their asylum claims. They come from a country which has been bombed by the British Royal Air Force in seven out of the last ten decades. Successive Tory and Labour governments have played a leading role in murdering hundreds of thousands, perhaps even millions of Iraqis in order to steal oil and secure their imperialist interests in the Middle East. Immigration controls, immigration prisons, deportations, immigration laws like the new Nationality and Borders Act and segregation in access to jobs, benefits, services and housing are necessarily racist and must be opposed.
Yesterday’s results show that the government may have the power of the police, the courts and the media, but when the working class and oppressed organise and take action they can fight back and they can win. And what a significant victory this is.
The next task is to secure the release of the men and all migrants from Britain’s immigration prisons. Contact us if you would like to get involved in this crucial struggle:
07841374575 [email protected]
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There are also legal fees to pay to put in a fresh asylum claim for Lala. Please donate here:
https://www.crowdfunder.co.uk/p/keep-our-lala-in-britain
