Migration is a human right

One issue I aim to post a lot on in this blog is the UK government’s treatment of asylum seekers, refugees and bascially all non-white migrants in the UK. Immigration controls are racist, and the application of immigration laws in this country, in the form of detention, deportation, and the upholding of a society in which non-white immigrants are treated as second class citizens and less than human is something which we should all be outraged about.

Some just a brief roundup of recent asylum news:

First, there’s actually some good news! The High Court has ruled that the law which does not allow asylum seekers to work contravenes the European Convention of Human Rights, in the case of an Eritrean man who has been living in the UK for 7 hears. Hopefully, this ruling can be used to by other asylum seekers seeking the right to work.

Then, of course, the bad news…

Ministers say they will ignore asylum-seekers’ 11th-hour pleas

A letter sent to a group of Nigerian asylum-seekers who were to be deported last night says they may be removed even if one of them seeks an 11th-hour judicial review from the court.

This seems to be building up towards the legislation the government is currently planning to stop asylum seekers appealing to High Court when they are threatened with deportaion. So much for legal process and all that…

Zimbabwe asylum seekers are ‘trapped’ in UK: Many stuck in limbo, unable to work or return home

But not all Zimbabwean’s are even allowed to stay.

Priviledge Thulambo, 39, whose husband was murdered by Robert Mugabe’s men, and her children are being detained in a controversial immigration centre after being seized by immigration officers on Friday.
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After spending Christmas in the grim surroundings of the Yarl’s Wood detention centre, they will be forced on to a flight to Malawi on 29 December. Because of their Zimbabwean nationality they are likely to be immediately sent to their home country, where they face torture or death.

I have not heard of a specific campaign for this family, but please take a moment to tell the Home Secretary Jacqui Smith that this is not acceptable! (fax: 020 8760 3132, email: [email protected])

Finally, Gwen at High on Rebellion posted earlier this week that the High Court has ruled that asylum seekers from the Democratic Republic of Congo can now be deported. She has also written a great draft letter to Jacqui Smith (from one feminist to another, supposedly…) which you can use to write your own. – Missing Words