Immigration, asylum and anti-deportation

Oppose the extradition

On 17 June Priti Patel approved Julian Assange’s extradition to the US on “espionage” charges. Assange is going to appeal the decision and legal struggles could go on for several years. As we have said many times over many years, Assange is no political hero. That is irrelevant to the extradition issue. Assange faces prosecution under the US’s Espionage Act, and spending the rest of his life in prison there, because of his work, as founder of WikiLeaks, helping to expose the machinations and crimes of powerful states including the US and UK. The drive to get Assange is part of the trend...

Stop the Rwanda scheme, oppose new Tory Bill

The government is not actually proposing to withdraw from the European Convention on Human Rights (ECHR) and the European Court of Human Rights that arbitrates it; but it is proposing to seriously curb the UK’s commitment to these institutions. This is yet another front of the accelerated push, from 2019, to shift the UK in the direction of an authoritarian nationalist regime. The labour movement must fight to stop it, and develop clear proposals to reverse it if it goes through. The Rwanda deportation policy, greenlighted by UK courts but shredded by determined campaigning before it was...

Tories push to curb human rights

European Court of Human Rights building, Strasbourg Ever since the 1998 Human Rights Act incorporated the European Convention of Human Rights (ECHR) into UK law, there have been noises from disgruntled right-wing politicians about scrapping it. Now, in its push to clear the way for its scheme to deport asylum-seekers to Rwanda, this government is proposing to do it. It claims to believe that European Court of Human Rights has Brits by the neck, suppressing our rights. In reality getting rid of the Human Rights Act would leave many vulnerable groups with their backs against the door. Over fifty...

Rwanda: it's state trafficking

The Tories’ plan to send refugees to Rwanda is a “cash-for-deportations policy... akin to state-sponsored trafficking and transportation” (as SNP home affairs spokesperson Stuart McDonald puts it). It must be defeated. Two initial legal challenges to the policy — organised by campaign groups Care4Calais and Detention Action and civil service union PCS — have been rejected, so the first flight to Rwanda was due to leave as we went to press on 14 June. Challenges on individual cases have reduced the numbers so drastically that there’s speculation it might be cancelled anyway. On the afternoon of...

Oppose Putin's war, support Ukraine, welcome refugees — response to TSS statement

We wrote this in response to Transnational Social Strike's call for signatories to their statement , as an organisation that opposes Putin's war. TSS declined to publish it — or any replies — and the two signatories we contacted, Plan C and Angry Workers of the World, requesting they publish it instead, did not reply. We are, however, debating these organisations and others in Bristol on 25 June . We welcome further debate. On 24 February 2022, the same day that Transnational Social Strike published their statement , Russia invaded Ukraine. Putin’s military aggression has to the date of...

"We are all afraid of him": when Trotsky sought asylum in Britain

Picture: 27 November 1932, Trotsky speaking in Copenhagen at the invitation of Social Democratic students. His last public speech in front of a live audience. The words of the title were uttered by Ramsay MacDonald, Labour Prime Minister at a cabinet meeting in 1929. Leon Trotsky’s application for political asylum in Britain (1929-30) Click here to download the pamphlet as a PDF In 1929, when Trotsky established himself on the Turkish island of Prinkipo after being expelled from the USSR by Stalin, he began to apply for foreign residence, preferably in Western Europe, assisted by his...

Refugees need a real welcome

Setúbal, a municipality ruled by the Portuguese Communist Party (PCP) is facing fines of up to €10 million over its reception of Ukrainian refugees. The Portuguese police have accused two pro-Russian activists of illegally collecting and sharing the personal data of Ukrainian refugees in the country. The Ukrainian ambassador to Portugal, Inna Ohnivets, has said that the personal information recorded would be “of interest to Russian intelligence”. Police raided buildings linked to the Edinstvo — an association for eastern European migrants. Portuguese media reports the couple, who had no...

Workers defy immigration raid in East London

Police raid in Ashwin Street, Dalston, 14 May The importance and power of workers’ organisation was shown dramatically on Saturday (14 May) in Dalston, London. When a group of police officers started conducting immigration checks against couriers, passers-by started to gather, and local union organisers quickly got the message out via social media to call people in. The harassment is suspected in response to militant workers organising there against parking fines unfairly given to drivers, who work in notoriously tough conditions. Protestors faced malicious violence from police officers...

Pushbacks defeated: now beat new anti-refugee law

The government has dropped plans to forcibly turn around small refugee boats in the Channel. The climbdown came days before a legal challenge by the PCS trade union and migrants’ rights organisations was due to reach court. Active involvement by PCS — the union representing many workers who would have been carrying out the policy — was very positive. Even more important was their threat to block pushbacks by industrial action. This victory is a spark of hope in an otherwise dark situation. The government’s anti-refugee Nationality and Borders Act became law on 28 April. Refugees will now be...

Women's Fightback: Secure housing for Ukrainian refugees

The UN refugee agency has called on the UK government to intervene to stop single British men from being matched up with lone Ukrainian women fleeing the Russian invasion. Following claims that men are using the Homes for Ukraine scheme to target the vulnerable, the United Nations high commissioner for refugees (UNHCR) called for a more appropriate matching process in a statement: “[The] UNHCR believes that a more appropriate matching process could be put in place by ensuring that women and women with children are matched with families or couples, rather than with single men.” “Matching done...

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