Tag Archives: Refugees

Lineker calls it right

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Workers Party spokesperson Patrick Crossan has called for support for the stand taken by @GaryLineker in the latest row on immigration.

“Not only is Gary right to publicly criticise the government’s cruel and inhumane ‘Stop the Boats’ immigration policy”, Patrick said, “but he is doing what anyone with a social conscience should be doing and raising the kind of questions that the mainstream media spend all their time avoiding”.

“Last year the UK took in 137,000 refugees. That is fifteen thousand fewer than arrived sixty years ago in 1960. The UK takes in considerably less refugees and asylum seekers than almost every other European country’, Patrick said.

‘It is the fifth largest economy in the world. Not only can it absorb people from other countries, it needs them and the considerable economic benefits that come from their skills and labour.

‘We are not being ‘invaded’, and neither Britain nor Ireland is ‘full’ as the right-wing racists claim.’ he said

‘The best immigration policies are those that provide safe, humane and welcoming routes into the country.

‘Ultimately, immigration and refugee crisis will only be addressed when NATO, the United States and their allies stop their invasions, wars of aggression and proxy conflicts which are forcing thousands of people to be displaced in the first instance’, Patrick concluded.

Rwanda scheme illegal and immoral

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Plans to deport the first batch of refugees to Rwanda may have been halted temporarily, but the Conservative government will pursue this barbaric scheme to the end.

The sight of a charter plane, costing half a million pounds to hire, sitting empty on an airport runway may well be an appropriate metaphor for Boris Johnston’s administration but it doesn’t tell the full story.

Britain has legal and moral obligations to ensure the safety, welfare and human rights of refugees and asylum seekers. Flying them to an east African country with a dubious human rights record and with which they will have no connection is not only immoral it verges on the criminal. Given the Conservative party’s policy of privatisation and outsourcing public responsibilities it should, however, come as no surprise.

Despite the excellent work of Amnesty International and other human rights organisations in preventing the deportations thus far, there may soon be no legal grounds left to argue against this measure for those concerned

As part of the Rwanda plan a Nationality and Borders Bill, currently before parliament, proposes to remove the right to remain in the UK while an asylum claim or appeal is being processed. 

If passed, the bill will allow the removal of refugees and asylum seekers to a ‘safe country’ while their claim is pending.

The pressure to reverse the dumping of refugees and asylum seekers in other countries must be maintained and increased. There is a particular responsibility on The United Nations High Commission for Refugees (UNHCR) which has already publicly criticised the policy and also on the heads of Commonwealth countries who meet in Rwanda this week.

Refugees and asylum seekers are the casualties of imperialist wars, aggressions and rivalries. For that reason alone, they should be made welcome, protected and secure.

People want a rapid humanitarian response

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Refugees Welcome

Refugees Welcome

Party representative in Upper Bann, Damien Harte has asked the local Council to set out its plans for welcoming refugees to the Borough.

“Currently there are plans for to receive as few as 50 to 100 refugees and asylum seekers across Northern Ireland by Christmas.  There is a very clear ground swell of popular support welcoming for refugees,” Damien said.

“We have witnessed civic society showing leadership and playing its part.  People have been collecting essential supplies for distribution.  We cannot and will not let this support be lost.

Safe and secure

“We need Armagh City, Banbridge and Craigavon Borough Council to follow the lead of local people.  We need to know how many people will be welcomed into the Borough and we need to know  that they will have  safe and secure accommodation and access to a full range of support”, added Damien

“I am also urging the Assembly at Stormont to take a lead and, working with all the relevant statutory agencies, expedite the settling of these vulnerable people, so that they may continue their lives”.

Stop the bombing

While it is important that we respond quickly and comprehensively at a local and regional level we must also address the root causes of the problem and the reasons why so many thousands of people have fled across international borders. Only an end to the US and NATO interventions in Syria, Libya and Iraq which have provoked the current crisis can do that,” Damien concluded.