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Newszine Number 18 April - May - June 2000 |
Immigration Laws Criminalise People
The effect of immigration laws is to criminalise people. It does not
matter if they have committed any criminal offence or not. The Immigration
Act authorises detention and imprisonment where there has been no
offence, no charges, no prosecution, no court hearing..
Criminalisation
takes place through language
Under immigration law migrants and refugees can be defined as being
in the UK "illegally" or" unlawfully". In this
way people are defined as non-persons and as being outside of the
law. Immigration Officers regularly describe Third World people as
"illegals" - as having no identity other than as being devoid
of status in the UK. Those who lose their claim for asylum become
"Bogus". All these definitions are ways of criminalising
people.
Criminalisation takes place through Media Presentation
On Saturday 26th February "The Times" ran a story on page
two under the byline of its crime correspondent:
Refugees flock to Germany and Britain
by Stewart Tendler, Crime Correspondent
Criminalisation
also takes place through pictures
On the same day the electronic version of BBC World News ran a story
on immigration with a picture of an asylum seeker at an airport. The
picture was of a women very advanced in pregnancy.
Criminalisation
through a rise in Council Tax
The media reported that Kent County Council was increasing its Council
Tax by £3 per household per year to cover a £1.7m shortfall
in funds caused by an influx of asylum claimants. "There are rumours
that many other councils will follow suit unless the government pledges
more money." Interviewers were able to find any number of people to
condemn the rise "caused" by the asylum seekers but no one
was able, or wanted, to point out that this was less than 1 penny
per day.
The article "Refugees flock to Germany and Britain
by Stewart Tendler, Crime Correspondent" in "The Times"
on Saturday 26 February, should be condemned in the strongest possible
terms. Not for its content but for the way 71,160 asylum applicants
have been criminalised by the way the article has been presented.
"The Times" has labelled, at one stroke, 71,160 asylum applicants
as criminals. Surely this article should have, and would normally,
come under Home Affairs.
Please fax a letter protesting at the way this story has been presented
to criminalise asylum seekers to the editor of "The Times"
Peter Stothart on 020-7782-5046.
At our national
meeting in Manchester on February 26th NCADC discussed the way
asylum seekers and refugees are criminalised by language and pictures
in the media. Many campaigns and supporters were very angry at the
way the media attacks and undermines people seeking asylum in the
UK. The propaganda of the media was felt to be the main reason for
increased levels of hostility to those who have been forced to flee
their homes and families because of persecution and war. We agreed
not to use the media's language such as "illegal immigrants", "bogus"
or "abusive" asylum seekers in our publications and instead to use
positive language when referring to people coming to this country.
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