In the run-up to the imperialist attack on Iraq, the previous racist caricature of the lazy, ‘bogus’ asylum seeker has been embellished by the new caricatures of the ‘terrorist asylum seeker’, who seeks shelter in our benevolent democracy, only to spend his time plotting to poison or bomb us, and the infectious asylum seeker, who is carrying TB, hepatitis, HIV/AIDS and other diseases. None of this propaganda is accidental; all of it suits the Labour government, as it wages its racist war in the Middle East, and plans new measures to restrict immigration and subjugate immigrants. Nicki Jameson reports.
On 7 February 2003 Tony Blair announced on Newsnight that the government would be aiming to reduce asylum applications to Britain by 30-40% in the next few months and by 50% by September. This announcement was a very transparent PR stunt in advance of the release of the figures for asylum applications last year. It served both to hype up the ‘problem’ of unwanted foreign entrants, and to make the proposed draconian solutions appear to be a proportionate response to the ‘crisis’.
During most of 2002 the number of applications for asylum rose continuously, with 19,520 applicants in the first quarter, 20,400 in the second, 22,560 in the third and 23,385 in the fourth. This peaked at 8,900 applications in October 2002, the month which Blair has decreed the ‘benchmark’ from which the government will proceed to make reductions it can then publicly boast about.
The largest numbers of asylum applicants in 2002 were from Iraq, Afghanistan, Somalia and Zimbabwe. The first three countries are the scenes of recent or current imperialist attack and invasion; the fourth is a former British colony where the fall-out from constitutionally enshrined white privilege is still being played out. It is no surprise that any of them have produced large numbers of refugees, and it will be even less surprising when the current murderous onslaught on Iraq results in yet more Kurds and Iraqis fleeing to seek sanctuary in neighbouring countries in the Middle East and, if they can make it, in Europe.
In advance of this eventuality, the government has come up with a bizarre proposal that it is attempting to sell to the rest of the European Union. Depending on which spin is put on it, the plan is for ‘detention centres’, ‘camps’, ‘protection areas’ or ‘safe havens’ to be constructed. These are not simply the Red Cross-administered refugee camps which spring up on the borders of any war-torn country, and which are currently being constructed in Jordan to house those fleeing Iraq. The idea is that Britain and any other west European country that signs up to the scheme pays a poorer nation, such as Albania or the Ukraine, to run a detention centre for it. Asylum seekers who reach Britain will register their asylum claim and, instead of then being dispersed to some hostile part of the country, or sent to Oakington, Campsfield House or a British prison, they will be flown to Albania where they will be detained while their claim is processed.
In the shorter term, Home Secretary David Blunkett has announced plans to forcibly deport thousands of Afghan refugees, and has declared a selection of countries to be ‘safe’ – meaning that asylum applications will automatically be rejected. He has also implemented a requirement that all visitors from Jamaica obtain visas prior to travelling to Britain.
As Labour becomes more openly bellicose, Home Secretary Blunkett is himself becoming more and more overtly racist, and less concerned about any trappings of political correctness. This was abundantly clear in his recent sickening adulation of the editor of the viciously xenophobic Daily Mail. Blunkett said that the Mail, which is infamous for its sustained vitriolic attacks on minorities ‘reflects the best of journalism’.
Blunkett has all the characteristics of a petty tyrant and relies on the support of the most fascist sections of the press to support him when anything goes wrong in his crusade against immigrants. The Labour Party’s plans to starve refugees were recently dealt a blow in the courts when lawyers acting on behalf of refugees successfully challenged section 55 of the Nationality, Immigration and Asylum Act 2002. This section deprives asylum seekers of all access to state support if they fail to register their asylum claim the moment they arrive in Britain. Both the High Court and the Court of Appeal found for the refugees and against the government. Blunkett’s response was predictably to rail against the courts for being a ‘threat to democracy’ – a line loudly echoed of course by the racist Daily Mail.
FRFI 172 April / May 2003
