After ten years in the UK and three years of public campaigning, Narayan Bhattacharjee has won his fight against deportation to Bangladesh. Narayan was a member of the minority Hindu community in Bangladesh where he suffered persecution from the authorities after speaking out against religious discrimination. Finally forced to flee, he came to Britain in October 1990 and settled in Newham, east London.

Mary Njuguna and her son, Patrick, continue to campaign against deportation to Kenya. Following the loss of Mary’s asylum application and the refusal of Patrick’s appeal, the campaign has been stepped up to urge the new Home Secretary to reconsider the decision to deport and to order a review of Mary and Patrick’s case.

Detention debate Parliament 11th July 2001
Ann Clwyd: During our visit to Cardiff prison, my hon. Friend (Julie Morgan MP) and I again saw asylum seekers who were caged. It is simply not good enough, in 2001, to treat people like that when they are fleeing persecution and have left their own countries and families. It is not easy to flee one's country--talk to refugees in any country in the world. Most of them do not want to do it, except with very good reason. I am sure that we all recognise that. We should all be deeply ashamed of the appalling things that have been said during the past few months about asylum seekers in this country.

When we visited that prison on a very warm day, we found the conditions to be particularly oppressive.

. . . .The truth is that we do not bear the greatest asylum strain--the world's poorest countries do.

Julie Morgan: we were told that the original intention had been that the asylum seekers would stay there until October, but that the prison staff had been told that they would be there until December.

. . . .There is no logic, justice or point to the policy of keeping asylum seekers in prison. The practice of keeping them in Cardiff prison should stop for the sake of everyone involved--prison staff, remand prisoners who need local places and, above all, asylum seekers. The practice should stop throughout the United Kingdom.

Neil Gerrard:. . . .The last set of figures that I saw for a complete year showed that something like 15,000 people had been detained at some point during the year.

. . . .Detention generally has no rational basis and is often more connected with the nationality of the person than with anything else.

Norman Baker: The countries from which the UK receives the most asylum seeker applications have appalling human rights records--Iraq, Sri Lanka, Iran, Afghanistan, Somalia and the like. The idea that they can be deterred by something that the House does about the voucher system is ludicrous and inhumane.

. . . .It is virtually impossible for asylum seekers to enter the country legally, which is contrary to the 1951 UN convention. Will the Minister spell out how it is possible for an asylum seeker to enter the country legally? I do not think that it is possible.

. . . .Last year, more than 26,000 asylum claims were rejected for that reason alone. No consideration was given to whether the claims were genuine, or the claimants had been subjected to torture or intimidation in their own countries. The claims were ruled out of order because the claimant had failed to meet a very short deadline. I suppose that that appears tough, but it is not a sane, mature or compassionate way to deal with asylum seekers.

The British government has indicated that it will not be supporting the European Commission's proposal for a directive on the rights of third-country nationals who are long-term residents of an EU member state. The effect of the UK opting out of this measure is that non-EU nationals settled in the UK will not benefit from the free movement rights which the rest of the Union is likely to extend to those living within the frontiers of the other member states.

The Joint Council for the Welfare of Immigrants has established a campaign to persuade the government to change its mind. The campaign is called "EURILOTERE" - EU RIghts for LOng TErm REsidents. If you are interested in supporting this campaign, please visit the web-page:

http://www.jcwi.org.uk/noticeboard/eurilotereintro.html

This contains briefing papers and draft letters to be sent to MPs and Ministers. If you want to be e-mailed with news of developments of this campaign, send a message to Don@jcwi.org.uk with 'Include me - EURILOTERE' in the subject box.

The majority of voters now say that economic migrants, the unskilled as well as those with shortage skills, should be legally welcome to come and live in Britain, according to the results of a Guardian/ICM opinion poll on asylum and immigration published last may.

The results of the poll show that, 51% of voters now say they would support allowing unskilled economic migrants into Britain as long as it is done on a quota basis, such as the US "green card" system or Canada's points scheme.

When the ICM sample asked if they would approve of such a new government immigration scheme if it could be shown that the economic migrants involved would not be a burden on the state, support rises to 67% of all voters. When it comes to allowing in more people who have skills which are in short supply, such as doctors, nurses and teachers, then support rises to a firm 70% of all voters. The results of the poll challenge the conventional wisdom of the last 40 years that a politician who promises to open the door to more economic migrants will pay a heavy price.

1) to take a more welcoming attitude to asylum-seekers and to seek to educate the public to take a similar attitude;

2) to end detention for those who have committed no crime;

3) to simplify the asylum application form and to extend the time for forms to be completed from 14 days;

4) to provide a more sensitive and supportive system of dispersal.

5) to end the system of vouchers immediately and return to a cash benefit system.

6) where asylum applications are refused to develop a supportive system for voluntary return.

The Conference instructs the Connexional Team to forward this Notice of Motion to the new Home Secretary at the earliest opportunity and, with our ecumenical partners, to seek an early meeting with him to press these views.

The Conference adopted the Motion by a Standing Vote.