It’s time to speak up for the poor
October 8, 2009 by Webmaster · Leave a Comment
The Conservatives and Labour are lining up to make life harder for the most vulnerable. We have to protest, and loudly
By Niall Cooper
Is Britain a compassionate society? Sadly not on the evidence of the past few days, as the two main political parties compete to cut the incomes of some of the poorest. It is time for all who care about the plight of Britain’s “forgotten millions” to speak out.
In a time of economic crisis and ballooning budget deficits, who should bear the brunt of public spending cuts? Those who already have the least and struggle to make ends meet, or those who have done well from the past decade of economic growth? If we were truly a compassionate society, it would surely be the wealthy who would be expected to tighten their belts, and the poorest who would be protected from greater hardship. Sadly, it appears as if politicians in both main parties have mislaid their moral compasses. They have chosen to cut the incomes of two of the poorest and most vulnerable groups in society.
On Sunday, the Conservatives opened their annual conference with a new flagship “back to work” policy. Whilst the announcement includes some welcome measures to offer extra apprenticeships and training, this will be funded by cutting the incomes of half a million of the poorest people in the country by 30%. All of the 2.5 million people currently on incapacity benefit will be assessed over the next 3 years – and anyone judged capable of work will have their benefits cut by £25 per week. Encouraging people to take work is a fine and laudable goal. But in the midst of a recession, with jobs scarce, where is the sense in cutting the incomes of those who are least likely to be able to find work? It is simply a recipe for making things even harder during a time of economic hardship.
Not to be outdone, on Monday, the government slipped out its own latest policy initiative – involving cutting the benefits for another group who are already expected to live on less than any other group in society. Up until yesterday, people fleeing persecution to the UK (known to many by the increasingly pejorative label of asylum seekers) aged over 25 were entitled to the princely sum of £42.16 per week. This has now been cut to just £35.13 a week – or £5 per day. This is now barely half the amount that a UK citizen claiming jobseekers allowance receives – in spite of the fact that jobseekers allowance is “the minimum required to live on” according to the Department for Work and Pensions.
Donna Covey, chief executive of the Refugee Council commented that: “These are hard times for everybody, but we must remember that many of these people have experienced torture, persecution, war and human rights abuses and most live in already impoverished circumstances.”
Why are our politicians outcompeting each other in taking money out of the pockets of the poorest in society? Where is the public outcry? Just imagine the headlines if a politician from any party stood up to propose a policy which involved cutting the incomes of middle Englanders by 30%.
Yet cutting the incomes of the poorest raises barely a whimper. The harsh fact is that too many have been taken in by the myths that the poor are somehow to blame for their own plight; people on incapacity benefit are workshy, spongers who need a good kick up the backside; people seeking asylum are “bogus” and should all just go home. Of course, “we” don’t subscribe to such views – but how far are we prepared to challenge them?
So where is our own sense of moral outrage? Where are the voices condemning the attacks on the poorest and most vulnerable? Or are we complacent and complicit, happy simply that the axe has not fallen on us? All the major faiths have strong traditions of speaking out against the unjust treatment of the poor and oppressed. As the Hebrew Proverb says, “He who oppresses the poor shows contempt for their maker.”
As the general election looms closer, and talk of spending cuts increases, let us not be found wanting. Let us stand up and speak truth to power clearly and loudly: enough is enough. Do not oppress the poor, and do not make their struggles harder. In times of economic difficulty, it is our common duty to protect the most vulnerable from even greater hardship. It is time for us to speak out.
Niall Cooper is chief executive of Church Action on Poverty, and coordinates Get Fair – a coalition of over 50 national charities and faith based organizations working to eradicate UK poverty
Migration myths dispelled in UNDP report
October 5, 2009 by Webmaster · Leave a Comment
Most migrants do not move from developing to developed countries, and when they do, rather than hurting host economies, they benefit them, according to a new report by the UN Development Programme (UNDP).
The UNDP’s Human Development Report 2009, launched globally on 5 October in Bangkok, dispels several myths about migration, instead underlining the economic and social benefits for countries.
“Mobility can bring large gains in development,” Jeni Klugman, director of the report, told IRIN. “It’s presently very much constrained by a whole range of barriers, and reform [of] these barriers could allow much greater potential to be released.”
The annual report calls for several migration reforms, including for states to ensure basic rights for migrants, and the mainstreaming of migration into national development plans.
World Bank predicts 3.7% growth for Zimbabwe
September 11, 2009 by Webmaster · Leave a Comment
Zimbabwe’s economy is set to grow by 3.7 percent this year, ending nearly a decade of dramatic decline, the World Bank said Friday.
“The economy appears to be on the right foot,” World Bank economist Rogers Dhliwayo told reporters.
World Bank estimates put growth this year at 3.7 percent, just shy of the finance ministry’s forecast of 4.0 percent growth.
After years of world-record hyperinflation, Dhliwayo said prices declined by 10.3 percent between January and May, following government’s decision to abandon the local currency.
Prices have risen slightly since June, due mainly to higher oil prices and to the strengthening of the rand against the dollar, which has made imports from South Africa more expensive, he said.
Business surveys showed that companies were slowly stepping up their operations, which should lead to job growth, he added. UN estimates last year put unemployment at 94 percent.
The World Bank released the estimates as it announced a grant of seven million dollars to help 300,000 poor Zimbabwean farmers buy maize seed for the upcoming planting season.
The aid will target farmers who did not grow enough food to support their families last year, said David Rohrback, senior agricultural economist at the Bank.
Zimbabwe last year produced about 1.2 million tonnes of maize, but requires 1.8 million tonnes to feed its population, the Bank said.
The country was once a food exporter, but farming has been decimated over the last decade following President Robert Mugabe’s chaotic and violent land reforms, which saw blacks resettled on white-owned farms in a bid to address colonial-era inequities.
But the new farmers often lacked experience and government support, while the reforms were tinged with political violence, undermining the agricultural-based economy.
Labour warned not to cut skilled migrant numbers
By Alan Travis
The UK must not make deep cuts in the number of skilled migrant workers coming from outside Europe to fill jobs here simply because of the turmoil in the labour market, government advisers have warned.
The government’s migration advisory committee (Mac) resoundingly rejected the idea as a response to the economic downturn.
Professor David Metcalf, chair of the committee, said todaythat selective immigration which favoured more skilled workers was vital to ensure that Britain was still thought of as a good place to do business, invest or study. But he said that the rules for skilled migrants in the government’s points-based immigration system needed to be tightened to ensure that British workers were not being undercut or displaced in the labour market.
The report yesterday on the operation of tier two – the skilled workers category for those from outside the EU – followed a request in February from Jacqui Smith when she was home secretary asking if there was a case to restrict skilled migration to just those jobs where there was a shortage of labour.
The flow of skilled migrants has already started to fall since the recession began to bite. A total 69,000 skilled workers from outside Europe came to Britain under the old work permit system last year and it is estimated that about 50,000 will arrive this year under tier two of the new points system which came into force last November.
More than 60% came as part of “intra-company” transfers of staff by multinationals, principally Indian-based IT companies. A further 32% involved jobs that had gone through the resident labour market test and been advertised in a jobcentreplus first and only 8% involved jobs in occupations with a shortfall of skilled labour.
Metcalf said the changes in the rules the committee was proposing were not a “knee-jerk reaction to the recession” and would be needed whatever the state of the economy.
The committee’s analysis published today shows that for the first time in recent years there is a net outflow from Britain of non-European migrants who either had a definite job or were looking for work. The figures show that even in 2007, before the recession broke, 18,000 more skilled migrants left Britain than arrived. That number is expected to have increased last year.
“The Mac believes that, ideally, the points-based system should act as an automatic stabiliser and not be constantly adjusted in response to the economic cycle,” Metcalf said in his foreword to the report.
He said it was important that both the “resident labour market test” and the intra-company routes were kept: “But any positive narrative surrounding immigration will be undermined unless it can be demonstrated that immigrants are not displacing or undercutting UK workers. Nor should such immigrants provide a disincentive to upskill the UK workforce.
We have made a number of recommendations which, if adopted, will help ensure that such displacement, undercutting or disincentive to upskill does not occur,” wrote Metcalf.
The report says the number of work permits issued for “intra-company transfers” rose from about 16,000 foreign nationals in 2000 to 23,000 last year and mostly involved Indian companies in the IT sector.
Metcalf suggested the rules should be tightened to deny any route to citizenship for these migrants, a requirement that they have been with their company for at least 12 months rather than the current six months and a longer period required for the vacancy to be advertised in Britain first.
The effect of the last recommendation – which would double the period from two weeks to four weeks – would mean that all jobs have to be advertised. This is an idea which has already prompted a promise of exemptions for senior posts in blue-chip companies by the immigration minister, Phil Woolas.
The Conservative immigration spokesman, Damian Green, said the one big gap in the points-based system was the lack of any overall limit on the number of permits that could be issued in any one year.
Key changes
• All vacancies to be advertised first at UK jobcentre for four weeks instead of two.
• Earnings entry threshold raised to £24,000 for a graduate skilled migrant.
• Professional as well as academic qualifications to be counted towards migrant points total.
• Five extra points for filling a vacancy in key public sector job, such as teaching.
• Minimum service with overseas company in intra-company transfer extended from six to 12 months.
• No right to apply for permanent residence for intra-company transfers.
• Intra-company transfers to be more closely monitored to curb abuse.
Amnesty for migrants could raise £3 billion in UK
June 16, 2009 by Webmaster · Leave a Comment
(Ekklesia) – Campaigners, including many church groups, have been encouraged by a study showing that an amnesty for many of the 600,000 unregistered and therefore illegal migrants in Britain could provide a £3 million boost to the economy.
The London School of Economics work, commissioned by the London Mayor Boris Johnson, also dismisses fears that an amnesty would cause further large-scale illegal migration.
Most of the people who are in the UK illegally are a combination of refused refugees and visa overstayers. Many are afraid to go back, or do not want to go back because they have jobs and livelihoods in the UK. Many currently use false documents but pay taxes and contribute to economic growth. Some are refugees prevented from working who are asking for the dignity of being allowed to do so.
“Far from a financial burden, as some suggest, this new research has found an amnesty could be worth up to £3 billion a year to the country’s economy,” the study says.
The London Mayor welcomed the report and its findings, saying that the debate had been dominated for too long by false information and lack of hard evidence.
Churches have been campaigning for a number of years for a migrant amnesty. Last month, thousands attended simultaneous services in London celebrating the place of migrants.
The Strangers into Citizens ‘Day of Action and Celebration’ on Bank Holiday Monday (4th May) included a series of simultaneous religious services at Westminster Cathedral, Westminster Abbey and Methodist Central Hall as well as a rally in Trafalgar Square.
Strangers Into Citizens, which began in 2006 following a call by Cardinal Murphy-O’Connor at the first Mass for Migrant Workers, has been calling for the Government to implement a one-off regularisation measure which would allow refused asylum seekers and visa overstayers who have put down roots in Britain to become legal.
The latest research from the LSE puts the number of illegal migrants in Britain at 618,000, with more than two-thirds in London. Previous estimates had put the figure at 750,000.
The study suggests that £846 million a year would be raised in taxes if their position was regularised.
However, not all illegal migrants would be eligible. The study suggests that about two-thirds would qualify for an amnesty which granted legal status to those who have been resident for at least five years.
The estimates suggest that regularisation could raise an individual’s earnings by 25 per cent and employment rates by 6 per cent. This would mean an additional boost of £3 billion a year to the national gross domestic product.
The Home Office has admitted the impossibility of forcibly removing so many visa overstayers and refused asylum seekers. In other countries such as the US, France, Spain, Italy and Greece amnesties and regularisation programmes have been used.
Also read related story about immigration:
Bible is “ultimate immigration handbook,” says WCC chief : (Ekklesia)
Passing around the hat
June 16, 2009 by Webmaster · Leave a Comment
 Photo: South African DFA  |
| Morgan Tsvangirai – the government’s salesman |
(IRIN) – Zimbabwean Prime Minister Morgan Tsvangirai has won US$73 million in aid from the United States on the first leg of an international tour aimed at drumming up financial support for his beleaguered government, and will try to persuade European donors to dig deeper into their pockets.
After a meeting with Tsvangirai on 12 June in the White House, US President Barrack Obama said Zimbabwe’s power-sharing government “shows promise, and we want to do everything we can to encourage the kinds of improvement, not only on human rights and rule of law, freedom of the press and democracy, that are so necessary, but also on the economic front.”
However, while saluting Tsvangirai and the efforts of his four-month-old administration in controlling hyperinflation, Obama said US aid money would not be channelled through the government, “because we continue to be concerned about consolidating democracy, human rights, and rule of law”.
Tsvangirai is due in London this week, where he is expected to similarly champion the need for Western assistance to shore up the economy and revive social services after close to a decade of crisis.
But with the influence of President Robert Mugabe seemingly undimmed within the all-party government, and elections due in 18 months’ time, donors are likely to hold off committing to the estimated $10 billion required to rebuild the country, analysts predict.
Problems
“There are two key problems,” economist Tony Hawkins told IRIN. “The impression is that the power-sharing government is in office but not really in power, so there is the question of who really is in control and frustrating real change.
“The second issue is more technical: Tsvangirai is running around the world passing around the hat for money, but there is no real strategic programme and [development] package [to fund], which is what the donors need.”
Zimbabwe’s deep humanitarian crisis has been punctuated by elections won by Mugabe against Tsvangirai and his Movement for Democratic Change (MDC) party, which were marred by violence and widely condemned as unfair. A power-sharing government, urged by regional leaders to break the deadlock, was finally inaugurated in February 2009, but Mugabe is accused of failing to fully live up to the terms of the agreement.
On 1 June the humanitarian community increased its donor appeal for Zimbabwe by 30 percent to $719 million, to take into account the need to combat a cholera epidemic and a spike in food insecurity.
The appeal document noted that six million people – over half the population – had limited or no access to safe water and sanitation; 1.5 million children required support to access education; 800,000 people were in need of food aid, and 44,000 children younger than five years needed treatment for severe acute malnutrition.
Immigrants in South Africa Protest Job Discrimination
June 8, 2009 by Webmaster · Leave a Comment
By Benedict Nhlapo
Zimbabwean immigrants working in South Africa are calling on the government of Jacob Zuma to protect them against abuse by unscrupulous employers. They claim business operators are taking advantage of their desperation. The Zimbabweans believe many firms are exploiting foreigners in their attempt to survive the global credit crunch.
South African businesses are bracing for the devastating sting of the worldwide economic crisis. Job losses are being reported in a variety of sectors, while pundits and analysts warn consumers to curb their spending. Zimbabwean immigrants working in the country complain they’re being abused by companies eager to save money.
Over the years Zimbabweans have found employment in an array of industries including catering, construction, security and farming. These sectors are being shunned by local workers because of the low wages. Desperate foreigners don’t have that luxury.
In the wake of the global economic meltdown, those low wages have dropped even further and in some instances disintegrated.
25-year-old Hilton Mushambi has been working as a waiter at a restaurant in Sandton, Johannesburg, for the past 4 years. He says his employer has removed their basic salaries. This means the only money he earns is tips left by customers.
“The problem is we’re not being treated fairly like the local ones,” Mushambi says. “Because the local ones they can go to the government or institutions which they know they can be helped. But like us, the foreigners, we’ve got nowhere to go. We’ve got nowhere to complain. We’re not being treated fairly like the locals ones. I’m not happy there.”
Zimbabweans allege they’ve been subjected to unfair dismissals, wage cuts, non-payment and the withdrawal of employment benefits to name a few.
Ndumiso Malaba is a father of three working as a farm laborer in Limpopo. For the past five years his monthly wage has risen from 500 rand to 900. He claims last month his wage was slashed to 450 rand.His employer blamed shrinking agricultural output, “They’re underpaying us because they know that we’re from Zimbabwe. So if they can, say, they can give us 20 rand – we are going to be happy because of the situation we left behind. [We don’t have papers]. We don’t have rights. That’s why they are treating us like hell,” he says.
However, the upcoming 2010 FIFA World Cup has seen an increase in construction projects all over South Africa. Construction crews often comprise foreigners, who also complain of abuse and exploitation. Machona Zimbudzi has worked for three years as a casual painter for a construction company in Pretoria. While he’s paid 250 rand per week, he claims he’s owed at least R5000 in unpaid wages, “We’re not getting our salaries. For us to go and claim [salaries], it’s a problem because they ask you about the papers. When you are ill you just go home and you get ill at home. So the government must help us,” he says.
Security guard Jeckchan Mabayo is pleading with Jacob Zuma’s government to intervene, “When it is compensation, let it be done properly. Ask them never to treat us like we’re foreigners. Just treat us like we’re people just the same as anyone else in the country.”
Home Affairs minister Nosiviwe Mapisa Nqakula says while the government will continue to protect the rights of all workers via the department of labor, foreign workers can also stop the abuse by legalizing their status in the country. She urges Zimbabweans to take advantage of the special dispensation permits set to be issued at the Tshwane Interim Refugees Office, situated at the Pretoria show grounds. “And we’ve opened the show grounds for processing Zimbabweans who are in the country illegally,” she says. Some of them are coming to apply for asylum seeker documents. So we talk about huge numbers of Zimbabweans who are already in South Africa, and who are coming to South Africa for different reasons! So out of 800, 80% you can be assured, are Zimbabweans.”
But with a number of unions in South Africa up in arms over job losses, analysts warn retrenched locals may resort to attacking foreigners seeking work. – VOA News
Recovery will cost more
 Photo: IRIN |
| Long road to recovery |
(IRIN) – The international humanitarian community has increased its donor appeal for Zimbabwe by over 30 percent to better reflect the depth of need in the ongoing crisis.
“Clearly, significant changes in the country’s political and socio-economic landscape have occurred since January 2009,” the United Nations Humanitarian Coordinator for Zimbabwe, Agostinho Zacarias, said at the launch on 1 June of the revised Consolidated Appeals Process (CAP) 2009 in the capital, Harare.
The need to revise the CAP, the most important tool for raising resources for humanitarian action, had become apparent by early March, when the initial appeal for US$550 million had ballooned to around $719 million needed to support the key areas of agriculture, health, education, food aid and safe water.
A country-wide cholera outbreak and a spike in food insecurity during the lean season had “aggravated an already difficult socio-economic environment of hyperinflation and collapsed basic social services,” the CAP said.
Six million people had limited or no access to safe water and sanitation; 1.5 million children required support to access education; 800,000 people were in need of food aid, and 44,000 children younger than five years needed treatment for severe acute malnutrition.
Priscilla Misihairabwi-Mushonga, Minister of Regional Integration and International Cooperation, said the government recognized that “the social-economic situation in Zimbabwe would have deteriorated to levels that could easily have lead to social unrest” without the support of the international community.
“The revised CAP comes at a time where Zimbabwe has moved into a new context, not only politically, but also socially and economically.”
The formation in February 2009 of the Inclusive Government – comprising President Mugabe’s ZANU-PF, and the opposition Movement for Democratic Change – led to the Short-Term Emergency and Recovery Programme (STERP), which had “paved the way for the country’s rehabilitation,” the CAP said.
Beyond humanitarian
While the CAP is a strictly “humanitarian” financing tool, and thus traditionally restricted to short-term emergency needs, the revised version tried to bridge the gap between humanitarian and development work in the new Zimbabwean context. “Essentially, the revision reflects a combination of new opportunities and deepening needs,” the document noted.
Previous appeals had underlined the need for assistance in water and sanitation, health, education and protection, but “most sectors continued to suffer from lack of support – it is from there that the concept of ‘humanitarian plus’ activities emerges in this revision, including activities that are transitional in nature, but which … are considered time-critical and life-saving.”
Misihairabwi-Mushonga noted: “This revised CAP takes into cognizance the expressed need for Zimbabwe to move from the humanitarian-support stage to the recovery stage – ‘Humanitarian plus’ simply means Zimbabwe is no longer a country in crisis but a country in recovery.”
The CAP document was less optimistic: “In spite of the positive impact of the humanitarian response and initiatives by the Inclusive Government, the international community remains relatively cautious.”
It is uncertain whether the revised CAP will translate into more funding; at $246 million the initial appeal was still only 45 percent funded by the end of May, and more than half that amount was carried over from 2008, with an aditional 18 million coming from money available in the UN Central Emergency Response Fund. Actual funding to the CAP was therefore only 17 percent, compared to 25 percent at the same time a year ago.
The STERP, too, remains underfunded. Of the $18.4 billion required until the end of 2009, by April African governments had pledged only $400 million in credit lines.
Leicester Welcome Project Appeal
June 1, 2009 by Webmaster · Leave a Comment
Dear friends and supporters,
We realise that due to the economic downturn we are all beginning to feel the pinch and this has also had a tremendous impact on our ability to give food, particularly dry goods and tinned food.
We still have a reasonable amount of soup but this is unpopular with most of our clients. It is not something that they are accustomed to. The same used to apply to baked beans but because of the children socialising with English children this is now not such a problem.
We are gaining new clients each week and we will have to buy food in in order to give them something worthwhile. We are able to obtain some food that is very close to its ‘best by’ date from Sainsbury’s and Aldi and this does help, however, last week we only managed to get one coconut and five litres of water from Aldi although we fared better at Sainsbury’s.
The most requested items are:- rice, pasta, mainly spaghetti, oil, sugar, tea, coffee, tinned goods – tomatoes, fruit, meat, fish, baked beans and sweet corn.
Toiletries. Shampoo, shower gel, toothpaste, deodorants, shaving cream/gel and blades.
Even a few items could make a difference to some of the poorest members of our society and some of these are destitute relying totally on the goodwill of friends.
Regards,
Christine Kilbourne (Chair)
Leicester Welcome Project
21 St. Martins
Leicester
LE1 5DE
Tel: 0116 248 7466
Email: ckoadby@talktalk.net
* The Welcome Project is open for all asylum seekers every Thursday from 10am to 1pm
Economic crisis reveals deep human rights problems
May 29, 2009 by Webmaster · Leave a Comment
“It’s not just the economy, it’s a human rights crisis: the world is sitting on a social, political and economic time bomb,” said Irene Kahn as she launched Amnesty International’s annual report on the state of the world’s human rights.
Billions of people are suffering from insecurity, injustice and indignity around the world. In many cases, the economic crisis made matters worse, with millions more sliding into poverty.
Increased poverty and deprivation have led to denial of economic and social rights – including food shortages and the use of food as a political weapon; forced evictions; abuse of rights of indigenous peoples. Yet human rights problems have been relegated to the backseat as political and business leaders grapple with the economic crisis.
2008 saw massive rises in the price of the most basic of necessities – food – which had the effect of making the poorest people in the world even poorer. People took to the streets across the world and, in many countries, were faced with violent repression.
In Zimbabwe, more than five million people were in need of food aid by the end of 2008, according to the UN. The government has used food as a weapon against its political opponents. Across the country, political opponents, human rights activists and trade union representatives were attacked, abducted, arrested and killed with impunity.
Hundreds of activists protesting against economic decline and social conditions were arrested and detained without charge.
Across Africa, people demonstrated against desperate social and economic situations and sharp rises in living costs. In a taste of what could lie ahead, some demonstrations turned violent; the authorities often repressed protests with excessive force.
Social tensions and economic disparities led to thousands of protests throughout China. In the Americas, social protest at economic conditions increased in Peru; in Chile there were demonstrations throughout 2008 on Indigenous People’s rights and rising living costs.
In the Middle East and North Africa, the economic and social insecurity was highlighted by strikes and protests in several countries, including Egypt. In Tunisia, strikes and protests were put down with force, causing two deaths, many injuries and more than 2,000 prosecutions of alleged organizers, some culminating in long prison sentences.
“The events we’ve seen in 2008, with the world economic crisis at the top, demand a new kind of leadership from world leaders,” said Irene Khan. “They must take real action, centred on human rights, to tackle growing poverty around the world, and they must invest in human rights as purposefully as they invest in economic growth.”
Also see report on Europe here
