The 1996 Asylum and Immigration Act is the latest in a long line of increasingly draconian anti-immigration laws introduced by the current government. The Act withdrew state benefit from any refugee who does not announce their intention to apply for asylum immediately on arrival in this country. It introduced a so-called ‘white list’ of countries from which asylum claims are presumed bogus and brought in ‘fast-track’ procedures, which speed up deportation and leave would-be asylum-seekers no time to collect vital evidence about their mental and physical torture. Despite a succession of court cases which have reaffirmed the obligation on local authorities to feed and house asylum-seekers, withdrawal of benefits has already left many destitute and homeless. Nearly 37,000 decisions on asylum applications were made by the Home Office in 1996: 6% were granted refugee status and 14% ‘exceptional leave to remain’; the other 80% were rejected. Without a hint of irony, the government cites these figures as ‘proof’ that its system of weeding out ‘bogus’ applicants is working.
We can expect no better from Labour: it has no plans to repeal the law. Far from it: ‘Under this government thousands of people every year settled in Britain illegally. We are determined to clamp down on this,’ Tony Blair told rabidly xenophobic Sun interviewer Garry Bushell.
And Labour’s record speaks for itself. Labour introduced the 1968 Immigration Act, which removed the right of British passport-holders to enter Britain unless they had a British grandparent (ie unless they were white). The 1974-79 Labour government operated the 1971 Immigration Act without a single qualm. This Act was the first to distinguish between ‘patrial’ white citizens and ‘British overseas citizens and non-patrial’ black citizens. The same government condoned virginity tests on Asian women arriving at Heathrow. It used thousands of police to defeat the Grunwick’s strike of Asian women workers. It sanctioned the police attack on the Notting Hill Carnival in 1976 and the obsessive use of the ‘sus’ law against black people. In the 1979 General Election campaign 5,000 police were used to protect a National Front meeting in Southall; 800 people were arrested, 1,000 injured and Blair Peach was murdered by the police. Labour will be no different in 1997. Once a racist party, always a racist party.
FIGHT RACISM! FIGHT IMPERIALISM! 136 ELECTION SPECIAL APRIL/MAY 1997
