04.01.1996

Asylum starvation tactics

THE GOVERNMENT decreed that from January 8 all those seeking asylum after entering the UK, together with those appealing against a refusal to grant them asylum, would receive no income support or housing benefit. So refugees who had to abandon everything in their own countries would not be able to survive in Britain and would be forced to flee elsewhere.

But the government’s attempt to appeal to the most bigoted chauvinist elements, announced by home secretary Michael Howard at last year’s Conservative Party conference, may yet end up losing it support, as churches and other charitable agencies have now launched a campaign in response to the outrage felt, particularly that expressed by middle class liberals - appalled at the prospect of hundreds more destitute women and children being forced to beg on the streets. An estimated 13,000 people already here would be affected immediately.

These organisations, including the Refugee Council, Red Cross and Salv-ation Army, are setting up a nationwide aid network of church hall shelters, soup kitchens and advice centres.

The outrage has been so pronounced that Deputy Prime Minister Michael Heseltine has been forced to postpone the changes until after a parliamentary debate within the next couple of weeks.

Sheila Brain of the London Churches Group said it was bad enough having to cope with existing homeless people, and Nick Hardwick of the Refugee Council warned: “There will be sights in the centre of London that we more usually associate with a third world disaster.”

The answer to capitalism’s social problems can be found neither by legislating them out of existence nor by churches and charities stepping in to fill the breach.

The working class itself must do that job. Our immediate task is to demand full rights for all workers, whatever their origin or nationality, and an end to all immigration controls.

Alan Fox