Asylum Bill Must Not Go Through and Neither Should the "Tough New Measures"

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Asylum Bill Must Not Go Through and Neither Should the "Tough New Measures"

UN "Agenda for Protection" for Refugees

US Aims to Take Advantage of Increased Tension in South Asia

According to the government, a "raft of tough new measures" is to be implemented to tackle what it tendentiously calls "abuse of the asylum system". Under the rules asylum claims are to be presumed as unfounded if received from a new list of "safe", "democratic" countries.

This news was announced as the House of Lords returns to consider the Nationality, Immigration and Asylum Bill. This Bill allows for people seeking asylum who have had their initial claim rejected to be expelled from Britain before their appeal is heard.

In both cases, the government’s criteria are racist and violate the rights of those people seeking asylum. In the case of the new measures, the government is targeting the Roma people in the first place by defining Poland and the Czech Republic and eight other EU accession countries as "safe, democratic countries from which asylum claims will be presumed to be unfounded". The measures go on to "end the presumption of support for those who apply for asylum in this country, outside of airport or ports" unless they "give a truthful and credible account of their circumstances and how they arrived here".

David Blunkett also dismissively draws a distinction between "genuine asylum seekers" and "economic migrants". The latter are then defined as those who "abuse" the asylum system. At the same time, the measures allow employers in the hotel, catering and food manufacturing industries to recruit short-term workers from abroad to "ease recruitment difficulties".

What is so objectionable about both the Bill and the measures is that the assumption is being made that people who are seeking asylum or residence in this country are fraudulent unless they can demonstrate otherwise. The second objectionable thing about these measures is that they do not treat asylum seekers as human beings who have rights and needs. Furthermore, they are racist in the same way that previous asylum and nationality legislation is racist – they are premised on there being such a thing as second class citizens or residents, people who are un-British and undesirable and should be kept out and their rights violated.

It is also to be noted that the government cannot or will not accept that any member of the "international community" such as Poland and the Czech Republic that belongs to the same club as Britain could be in a position to abuse its citizens.

Where "asylum seekers" are let into the country, they are to be subject to a system of apartheid, and if then granted entry must be subject to "assimilation".

All democratic people must demand that these measures not go through and that the rights as human beings of all people seeking asylum or residence in this country be respected.

Delegates from the 61 governments which make up the United Nations High Commissioner for Refugees Executive Committee on October 3 endorsed the "Agenda for Protection", a strategic framework that deals with many of the most controversial issues in the current global asylum debate.

The framework emerged out of a 20-month global consultation initiated by UNHCR, according to a statement from the refugee agency.

Addressing governments on the eve of their endorsement, UNHCR's Director of International Protection, Erika Feller said the framework was not an abstraction, but an agenda that was directly relevant to the management of today's asylum dilemmas. She urged states to bear the responsibility for refugee protection, adding that "the combination of lack of accountability, shortage of resources and failure of state responsibility were systemic problems that needed urgent attention".

She said refugee problems were, in the first instance, human rights problems and that at the root of many of the dilemmas facing the protection of refugee rights "lies not the regime of rights itself, but rather some confusion about how to determine who is responsible to protect these rights".

The framework sets out objectives grouped according to six main goals. It outlines a number of activities designed to support them which, Erika Keller said, included measures for preventing sexual and gender-based violence, improving the protection of women and children, maintaining the civilian character of refugee camps, clarifying responsibility for refugee protection during rescue at sea operations, and strengthening asylum systems and procedures that were often cumbersome and prone to abuse.

Erika Feller said UNHCR had already begun to implement some of the measures contained in the Agenda, even before governments officially endorsed it. She stressed that the Agenda was not only a strategic policy document for UNHCR but also a framework of actions by States to ensure that refugee protection was maintained in today's complex environment.

The "Agenda for Protection" is prefaced by a declaration issued last December by a meeting of 127 of the 144 signatory states, including 70 at ministerial level. That declaration renewed their commitment to the 1951 Refugee Convention and reaffirmed it as the cornerstone of international efforts to protect refugees.

On Friday, both Pakistan and India conducted missile tests, escalating tension in a region that is once again close to the brink of war.

Hours after Pakistan tested a surface-to-surface missile capable of carrying nuclear warheads and hitting most targets inside India, New Delhi tested its most sophisticated surface-to-air missile. Pakistan warned that India threatened to launch South Asia on an arms race by conducting a test on the same day as its own. India dismissed Pakistan's test as a publicity stunt ahead of next week's general elections, the first in this country since the military seized power in a 1999 coup. Each country defended its test as routine and had notified the other of its plans in advance.

The tests came during a tense time between the two countries, with more than one million soldiers deployed along the Kashmir "line of control".

It should be noted that the US and Britain have been stirring up tensions in the region, under the guise of being the peacemakers. This has not only come from the intervention of US and British leaders there, but from the programme for global domination that goes by the name of the "war against terrorism". Under this slogan, attention has been focused on Al Qaida and other "terrorists". Inflamed by this demagogy, the contradictions between Pakistan and India have become a flashpoint, in the course of which the people are being massacred.

To add fuel to the flames, both Britain and the US have been selling armaments to both sides. Pakistan has been declared the global hub of Al Qaida operations, while communal massacres have been carried out in Gujarat under the sponsorship of the Indian state. Britain and the US have been playing off Pakistan and India against each other to the detriment of Pakistan, while facilitating the imposition of Anglo-US imperialist interests in the sub-continent.

The Pentagon has recently approved $230 million in subsidised military sales to Pakistan and has opened a dialogue with Islamabad on its military needs in a newly reactivated Defence Consultative Committee.

It is being suggested that Pakistan is likely to be engulfed in growing instability in the months ahead that will exacerbate the issue of Islamic "extremists", and even open the way for a series of military coups. This will of course further destabilise the region, and allow the US to impose its will by military means.

However, this will also stoke up the opposition of the people to armed dictate and the intervention of Anglo-US imperialism, which is trying to further extend its foothold in Central and South Asia. At the same time, the US is trying to consolidate its ties with India, as the dominant power in South Asia.

In this tense situation, and as the US plans to carry out military aggression against Iraq with British backing, Pakistan-US joint military exercises are to take place from October 15, according to Pakistan sources. Just five months ago, India and the US staged their own wargames in Agra. Pakistan and the US had initially planned tri-services exercises, involving army, air force and navy, for July and August this year, but these were postponed. The two-week exercises, in the region of Jhelum and Kharian, would mark the resumption of military collaboration between the two countries after a gap of almost half a decade. In the 90s, Pakistan conducted two joint exercises with the US army. One was held in 1995 and the other, a major one, in 1997.

It has also been reported that the navies of India and the US will resume the "Malabar series" of joint exercises in October, citing senior naval officers in New Delhi. These exercises had been a regular feature of Indo-US military relations before the 1998 nuclear tests.

The progressive forces in India and Pakistan are condemning US imperialism and the British government for their intervention in their affairs and are demanding that Anglo-US imperialism get out of South Asia. This is the precondition for the easing of tension and for the peoples of South Asia to come to terms with the problems that they face. Especially at this time when Britain and the US are intervening throughout the globe, imposing their will by military force and attempting to create havoc and bringing into being a highly dangerous situation, the working class and people must demand that all interference cease, and by stepping up their own struggles contribute bringing to this about.