BY TERRICA STRUDWICK
The British Labour government's policy towards asylum seekers can be summed up in three words: detention, deportation and dispersal. There has been a major increase in the number of men, women and children incarcerated in detention centres and the government's goal is to increase the number of asylum seekers deported.
Despite the racial tension "dispersal" has created, Home Secretary David Blunkett plans to continue dumping asylum seekers and their families in run-down housing estates with few facilities.
Supporters of asylum seekers' rights in Britain have won some positive changes in recent months, including the planned abolition of the humiliating voucher system, in which asylum seekers receive vouchers rather than money to exchange for food and other necessities.
However, these are out-weighed by punitive nature of Britain's refugee system. Other less publicised changes that have undermined the rights of asylum seekers include the winding back of refugees' right to appeal adverse decisions and increasingly restrictive visa controls. It is now virtually impossible to reach Britain legally to claim asylum.
The British media has created a sense of hysteria about "a refugee crisis" by popularising phrases such as "the tide of illegal immigrants" and "huge numbers of refugees flooding through Europe and slipping into Britain". According to the United Nations High Commission for Refugees, Britain ranks only seventh out of the 15 European Union countries in terms of asylum applicants per capita.
The Labour government has placed visa restrictions on countries that produce a lot of asylum seekers. It has also imposed fines, or "carriers' liability", of up to 2000 pounds on transport companies found carrying asylum seekers with incorrect or forged documents.
When an asylum seeker reaches Britain they are usually interviewed by an immigration official without any legal representation. They are required to fill in a questionnaire in a second interview which forms the basis of a claim for refugee status. If it is filled out incorrectly, the claim may not be processed or the information deemed unreliable. Often there are misinterpretations by translators. The Nuffield Interpreter Project found "serious miscarriages of justice" caused by misinterpretation.
Britain is adopting hard-line policies similar to Australia's, in particular the detention of asylum seekers awaiting a decision on their claims for refugee status. Detention of asylum seekers began in the 1980s, but has increased under the Labour government. There are plans to quadruple the number of detention places available. Two new detention centres are being built this year, which will house an additional 1600 people. Detention centres are run by Group 4, a private firm. In May 2001, there were a total of 1787 people in detention. Of those, 65% were being held in prisons.
According to the Campaign to Close Campsfield [detention centre], currently only 21% of asylum seekers are granted some legal status in Britain, compared to 65% in 1993. A quarter of those are granted refugee status, while the others are granted "exceptional leave to remain". This allows an asylum seeker a four-year visa, but with far fewer rights than a formally recognised refugee. When this expires, asylum seekers can apply for indefinite leave to remain but the government may decide to return them to their country of origin.
The Labour government has introduced a policy of "dispersing" asylum seekers out of London to towns with vacant housing. Asylum seekers are sent to housing estates where there is high unemployment, widespread drug abuse, poor housing conditions and grinding poverty. People living in these areas have limited experience with ethnic minorities. Many asylum seekers suffer isolation and racial violence.
Asylum seekers have no choice where they are sent, and if they refuse to stay, all state support is cut off. The National Asylum Support Service (NASS), a government department which oversees the dispersal policy, has been widely criticised for its neglect of asylum seekers.
One example is the death of an asylum seeker from Iran, Firsat Dag, in Sighthill, Glasgow. Scottish anti-racists had pleaded with Glasgow city council to implement better protection measures for refugees and more funding for facilities for the whole community. The council did not act soon enough. Dag was killed in a racist attack.
Three days later, another Iranian asylum seeker, Davoud Rasul Naseri, was stabbed in the back in Sighthill. The council has since taken measures to reduce racial violence, but without an increase in resources from the government and a commitment by NASS to protect asylum seekers from racial violence, the problems will continue.
No-one asking for political asylum is allowed to work for six months after arriving in Britain. After that, asylum seekers can apply for a national identification number which permits them to look for work. However, it often takes much longer than this, and if they challenge a government refusal of their asylum claim, they are banned from working while they do so.
Blunkett announced on October 29 what he described as a "radical and fundamental reform" of asylum and immigration policy. The key measures included:
- asylum seekers would be issued with ID cards and tracked and monitored more closely while their applications are being processed;
- a network of "induction", "accommodation" and "removal" centres would be built. Induction centres would accommodate new asylum applicants for short periods, but it is not clear whether they would be detained or simply housed in these centres. Accommodation centres house asylum seekers for longer periods. They are not to be forcibly detained but are subject to residence requirements. Asylum seekers who are offered places in accommodation centres get no alternative support if they decline. Removal centres hold people prior to deportation. The current detention centre estate of around 1900 beds will increase to 4000 places;
- the system of dispersing refugees across the country on a no-choice basis would remain; and
- there would be more opportunities for economic migrants to work legally, although they appear to be largely restricted to areas of work in which there is a shortage of workers. There was no mention of lifting the ban on asylum seekers working for their first six months.
From Green Left Weekly, February 6, 2002.
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