Immigration, asylum and anti-deportation

Open the borders!

After weeks of outrage and protests , the detention camp at Manston, Kent was emptied on 22 November. Thousands of asylum seekers had been imprisoned in overcrowded, unsanitary conditions, many for far longer than the legal limit. One detainee died. The camp now resumes as a short-term processing centre. But the situation could easily reverse. Manston was just one head of a hydra: the racist system of brutality and exploitation against migrants. We learned on 27 November that the Home Office put asylum-seeking children at risk by classing them as adults contrary to their identity documents...

Labour and the “trend of Bregret”

The “trend of Bregret” — people who supported Brexit changing their minds — “is accelerating and looks set to cause a growing problem for the... Conservative Party”, wrote Matthew Goodwin, an academic focused on the Eurosceptic hard right, on 18 November. It may — it should — cause a problem for the Labour leadership too. Goodwin identifies the main things driving this as “younger and more pro-EU voters entering the electorate and people who did not vote at the 2016 referendum changing their mind”. In any case, it is indisputable. The view that Brexit was right has not held a lead in polls...

How work visas help Musk

Twitter right now is weird: a funeral wake where the subject is still alive, just. Its chaotic breakdown since 27 October, has been livestreamed to an audience of millions through leaked emails, saluting emojis, Titanic memes, and spicy tweets from senior leadership. On Wednesday 16 November, Elon Musk, currently live action role-playing as a tech CEO with one of the world’s largest social media platforms, issued an ultimatum to the remaining workers at Twitter. In the email, Musk invited staff to be part of “hardcore” Twitter 2.0: long hours, aggressive deadlines, and engineers revered above...

Free movement, not more border cops

The new UK-France deal (announced 14 Nov) to intensify policing against migrants crossing the Channel can only endanger even more lives. The deal includes UK officers joining increased beach patrols on the French coast and extra cash for French port security. Yet the UK already receives fewer refugees than France relative to population. Both lag far behind much poorer countries such as Lebanon and Chad. This is yet another in a decade of successive UK-France deals. The ever-escalating (and ever-costlier) crackdown simply pushes desperate people toward riskier routes (like the 39 people who...

Letter: Open borders

“No borders” made a ringing slogan at the 6 November Manston protest. But the same form of words has been proposed, for example, for a proposed left bloc on the UN anti-racism day march in 2020, and it makes less sense than “Open borders”. We are for border quarantine controls (for some island countries these are important routinely, not only in pandemics). We envisage a United Socialist States of the World, not just an ultra-centralised government with no local autonomy. Even in the stateless society of the future, rules, official languages, etc. would surely vary in different areas. Martin...

Open the doors for refugees!

Hundreds of people protested outside Manston detention camp on Sunday 6 November. Through the pouring rain, we protested to demand Manston and all other camps were shut down, and for justice for all those currently detained, as well as all trying to cross the border. The protest was called by the Action Against Deportations and Detention (AADD) coalition, following a protest inside by detainees and the visit by a smaller group of activists the week before, whose findings catapulted the abhorrent conditions to mainstream front pages. The scandal has forced the government to reduce the intense...

Diary of a social worker: A piece of the hostile environment

Working with Unaccompanied Asylum-Seeking Children is like working with any other child in care, visits, meetings, care plans and admin. But looming above all that, casting a long shadow, is the age assessment — about whether the young person is the age they say they are. When my manager told us our team were to attend day-long training on it, a knot tightened in my stomach. I’ve spoken at length about my unease with the process with all the members in my team. We filed into the meeting room against the backdrop of news coming out of Manston processing centre. The day began with the classic...

Oust Braverman! Hold Labour to its free-movement policy!

Join the solidarity protest at Manston detention camp on Sunday 6 November: details here The appalling conditions in which refugees are being held at the former RAF base in Manston, Kent, are part and parcel of the ramped up “Hostile Environment” presided over by Home Secretary Suella Braverman. Braverman has relished the opportunity with her second bite of the cherry, reappointed by Rishi Sunak after having to resign in disgrace on 19 October after six weeks in office, to be even more hardline than Priti Patel. The scandal at Manston will not be the last. Opened to process migrants more...

And the trafficked refugees who aren't Olympians?

In 2012 in front of a home crowd of tens of thousands, Hussein Abdi Kahin won his first Olympic gold medal for Great Britain. The household name after that race was Mohamed Farah. Hussein became Mo in 1993, after being trafficked to the UK under false documents at age nine. Hussein's father died during the Somalian civil war. He was sent to live with relatives and then brought to the UK. At the time Hussein was excited, believing that he was on his way to the start of a life with relatives in Europe. What was really going on was entirely different. "The lady was going, ‘Don’t forget: Mohamed...

This website uses cookies, you can find out more and set your preferences here.
By continuing to use this website, you agree to our Privacy Policy and Terms & Conditions.