The viciously racist climate which led to the murder of Firsat Yildiz is being replicated throughout Britain, as the Labour and Conservative parties compete for the title of ‘toughest’ on asylum seekers.
All sections of the media are contributing to this relentless build-up of racism, with the Daily Express leading the pack. On a daily basis its front pages scream of the chaotic system currently in force, of deportees who are never deported, of Iraqi refugees smuggling in bombs for Saddam, of a visible and terrifying assault by tens of thousands of aliens who arrive in boats and planes, or run through the Channel Tunnel at night, hell-bent on reaching Britain, where they will threaten our jobs, our homes and all that middle England holds dear.
The Express is not alone. On Sunday 3 September almost every newspaper headlined asylum seeker invasion scare stories, with the Sunday Times revealing that it had sent two undercover journalists to Albania with the task of smuggling themselves back into Britain and exposing everyone they met along the way.
This climate is reminiscent of the rising tide of anti-Semitism in 1930s Germany. The British working class is being encouraged to blame refugees for its poverty and its problems, rather than look to the real enemy – the Labour government. The reality is that Britain is by no means a ‘soft touch’ for anyone seeking asylum and that, since the implementation of Labour’s 1999 Immigration and Asylum Act, refugees face not only detention and dispersal, but unprecedented levels of poverty and persecution.
Detention of asylum seekers
On 7 September the High Court ruled that the Oakington ‘Reception Centre’ was operating illegally and that the detention of asylum seekers for reasons of administrative convenience was incompatible with the Human Rights Act.
Over 11,200 asylum seekers have been ‘processed’ at Oakington since it opened in March 2000. The general pattern is that people stay about ten days, submit a claim for asylum with the assistance of in-house lawyers, caseworkers and interpreters, whose objectivity is extremely open to question, given that they share canteen and other staff facilities with the members of the Immigration and Nationality Directorate (IND) who are stationed at Oakington. Applications are almost invariably rejected in the first instance and the asylum seekers are then advised on appealing the decisions.
Asylum seekers then leave Oakington, with 20% continuing to be detained in other centres and 80% being released from detention pending their appeals and being dispersed around the country, to end up in places like Sighthill in Glasgow, where Firsat Yildiz was murdered.
Detention centres and prisons
Britain is currently holding 1,800 Immigration Act detainees: 700 asylum seekers are in detention centres and 1,100 in prisons. Britain is the only country in Europe to hold immigration detainees in criminal prisons. In August, 36 asylum seekers in Cardiff prison went on hunger strike, following the example of a group of detainees in Walton prison, Liverpool, who had taken similar action in July.
News of the Oakington ruling sparked a series of protests by detainees in other establishments, with 75 refugees at Haslar holding centre in Gosport and more than 90 detainees at Campsfield House Detention Centre in Oxfordshire staging sit-ins and hunger-strikes. The Haslar protest was only brought to an end by prison staff in riot gear.
Dispersal
Following the murder of Firsat Yildiz, Home Secretary David Blunkett has initiated a review of the policy of dispersing asylum applicants around Britain; however the review will not consider the possibility of scrapping the policy and will only deal with its operation.
Since dispersal began in April 2000, nearly 30,000 people have been dispersed, and a further 25,000 are waiting to be moved. By the end of May 2001, 6,200 had been sent to Humberside; 6,000 to the Northwest; 4,700 to the Northeast; 3,600 to Scotland; 3,400 to the West Midlands; 1,500 to the East Midlands; and 500 to the South West.
Ann Widdecombe claimed that Blunkett’s review was an admission that the dispersal system was not working and repeated her call for all newly arrived refugees to be locked up in secure detention centres.
Deportation
Following tabloid and Tory claims that asylum seekers whose claims are refused are not deported but simply ‘disappear’ into British cities, the government has set itself a target of sending home 60,000 unsuccessful asylum seekers over the next two years: that is 2,500 a month, as opposed to the current 750.
The Home Office is preparing guidelines for the tactics to be used during removals. The Immigration Nationality Department has already been given powers to search and arrest, but the scale of the action now being planned makes it almost certain that removals will be effected by the police. More deaths, like that of Joy Gardner, who died during an attempt by police and immigration officers to detain and deport her in 1993, are almost inevitable.
Nicki Jameson
Detention figures – June 2001
Persons recorded as being in detention in the United Kingdom solely under 1971 Immigration Act powers as at 30 June 2001, by place of detention:
Immigration detention centres
Campsfield House 180
Dover Harbour 21
Harmondsworth 73
Harwich 6
Longport 8
Manchester Airport 15
Tinsley House 122
Oakington Reception Centre 263
(Total held in reception and detention centres 688)
Prisons
Belmarsh 48
Birmingham 5
Blakenhurst 4
Bristol 5
Brixton 17
Bullingdon 7
Canterbury 4
Cardiff 47
Chelmsford 4
Cornton Vale 3
Craiginches 4
Doncaster 11
Dorchester 4
Elmley 6
Feltham 12
Forest Bank 5
Gateside 40
Glen Parva 3
Haslar 157
High Down 78
Holloway 36
Holme House 57
Leeds 10
Lewes 5
Lindholme 108
Liverpool 87
Maghaberry 10
Manchester 5
Norwich 7
Pentonville 9
Preston 2
Rochester 174
Styal 2
Wandsworth 53
Winchester 39
Woodhill 2
Wormwood Scrubs 66
Other 6
(Total held in prisons 1,142)
Total detainees 1,830
1,142 held in detention/ prisons and criminal prisons
Figures exclude people detained in police cells (other than at Dover Harbour).
FRFI 163 October / November 2001
