A further march away from Human Rights for Asylum seekers

The UK Government, along with foreign ministers in Europe, are soon to discuss a policy in which asylum seekers will be sent to EU run detention ‘camps’ in a country outside of the EU (somewhere like Albania) for their claims to be processed. Such ‘camps’ have failed miserably before - most noticeably for the Vietnamese - and such a ‘pawning off’ of our responsibilities and moral obligations (as a supposed ‘civilised’ and rich society) to detention camps in third-world countries is simply outrageous. As Bill Morris commented:

“At this time, when all eyes and minds are trained on the Gulf, the people of this country are entitled to ask why our government feels it has the moral duty to drop bombs on Baghdad yet is absolved of any responsibility to look after those left homeless, destitute or in danger as a result.”

This possible solution has been strongly condemned by Amnesty International, who are worried that it will be difficult to monitor and guarantee the treatment of refugees in such external countries. The UK has been the scene of a rising tide of violent crimes against asylum seekers, and as I have written before, most of it has been stoked up by hugely irresponsible press hysteria by gutter papers like the Daily Telegraph and the Daily Mail. People are scared of asylum seekers even in British counties where there are no refugees, crystal clear evidence that it is xenophobia plain and simple. This is mainly the reason that the Government is so desperate to offload refugees out of the country, a British xenophobia that is wholly wrong. The home secretary, David Blunkett, transparently confirms his desperation to be liked by xenophobic Daily Mail/Telegraph readers, because he wants to show:

“our citizens at home that European asylum policy is not simply a gateway for uncontrolled migration, but rather a firm and fair procedure for those who genuinely need protection.”

This is all about placating those stupid and ignorant enough to be scared of refugees (sadly a significant number), and has nothing to do with building the best system we can to help victims of tyranny Tony Blair spends so much of his time pontificating about.

Posted by Ian at March 28, 2003 09:49 AM | TrackBack §