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Stop the war on asylum seekers
The Committee to Defend Asylum Seekers
(CDAS) has issued a new statement for publication in both the national
and local press. They are appealing to anyone angered by recent ministerial
statements and the hysteria in the media over asylum seekers to not only
sign it themselves, but to get others to sign it, and donate money toward
the cost of a publication in the national press.
Please send completed statements and any
donations to:
CDAS
BCM Box 4289
London
WC1X
3XX.
Download in PDF format, media.doc
Open Statement to the Media
The statement below will be published
in the press
Help CDAS raise money to publish
it - Make a donation
Add your signature and get others
to sign
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Stop the war on asylum
seekers
We the undersigned condemn
utterly the hysteria about asylum seekers being whipped up by sections
of the media. We are deeply concerned at ministerial statements which
have encouraged the hysteria, and Tony Blair’s pledge to re-examine
Britain’s obligations to international conventions on asylum.
War is the biggest producer
of asylum seekers. For a government at the forefront of both pursuing
armed interventions and arming international conflicts, scrapping this
country’s provision of asylum to those fleeing persecution would
be absolutely shameful.
Sections of the media have
tried to draw a link between asylum seekers and terrorists. Now politicians
and even liberal church leaders are proposing to lock up thousands of
innocent, desperate people for "security checks" because of
the alleged actions of a tiny handful of individuals. Whole communities
now run the risk of being branded as "criminals".
The Labour government is
legitimising racism in order to divide us. It is an old, and often-repeated,
trick used by desperate politicians. Asylum seekers are not to blame for
a welfare state starved of resources, crumbling schools and hospitals,
poverty pensions and inadequate housing.
The biggest beneficiaries
of the media’s hysteria and the government’s racist policies
are the Nazis. Nick Griffin, the British Nationalist Party’s leader,
has claimed the Home Secretary David Blunkett as his best recruitment
agent. Blunkett’s ever-toughening policies on asylum, far from marginalising
the Nazis, have helped them score a fifth council victory.
The biggest victims of
the hysteria and the racism are asylum seekers. Three have been murdered
on the streets of this country in the past two years alone. Dozens have
been severely beaten, hundreds abused.
Now government legislation
is set to make asylum seekers even greater targets for racist abuse.
Blunkett’s claim that
multiculturalism in Britain is a "coiled spring" reeks of hypocrisy
when his government is creating the conditions for increased racial tension.
His warning of "vigilante"
attacks smacks of double standards when New Labour has criminalised asylum
seekers.
We call on the government
to honour its obligations to international agreements on refugees and
asylum seekers, stop the racist persecution of asylum seekers and stand
up to the racists and bigots instead of pandering to them.
We applaud the benefits
of living in a multiracial and multicultural society and believe we are
all beneficiaries of a society to which immigrants have made a major contribution
Please return to the CDAS at address below.
Cheques payable to the Committee to Defend
Asylum Seekers
Committee to Defend Asylum Seekers
BCM Box 4289
London
WC1N 3XX
Phone 07941 566183
E-mail info@defend-asylum.org
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Source
for this page, Committee to Defend Asylum Seekers
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