Sarah Parker

Readers may have noticed the recent flurry of media debate around an “amnesty for illegal immigrants”.

On June 19 the Guardian reported that: “Immigration Minister Liam Byrne became last week the first minister to refuse to rule out an amnesty. Mr Byrne told the all-party Commons Home Affairs select committee last week he has commissioned officials to prepare a report on the ‘issues’ around launching an amnesty and it was ‘too early to tell’ if one would be introduced.”

There has of course long been some concern amongst parts of the Labour bureaucracy about certain aspects of Blair’s policies.

In March the Institute for Public Policy Research, a think-tank close to New Labour, published a report (available at www.ippr.org.uk) supporting the regularisation of irregular migrants in various categories, including “failed asylum seekers”.

Their argument was mainly on crude economic grounds – that these people can benefit the British economy, and it is not cost-effective to deport them all.

Now many Labour MPs and trade union bureaucrats are panicking about Labour’s terrible results in the local elections, and judge that New Labour needs to move rapidly to give the impression that there will be some change from the policies associated with Tony Blair before the next election.

Hence the debates at the recent Compass (former Labour Co-ordinating Committee) conference.

Some fear that constant government and media provocation of hostility towards asylum seekers and people from the Middle Eastern or Eastern Europe, together with the constant revelations about the chaotic and arbitrary nature of the workings of the Home Office, and the high financial and political costs of continuing large numbers of deportations for the foreseeable future, will, if not quickly checked, lead to even more support for the BNP and an even greater rise in racist attacks.

Some no doubt feel that it is morally wrong for large numbers of foreign workers to be exploited as cheap labour, and for political refugees who have been refused protection to be ill-treated here and then deported to dangerous countries such as Iraq, Democratic Republic of Congo or Afghanistan.

Sections of the church hierarchies are also supportive of some sort of amnesty.

TGWU officials have rightly concluded from the recent cleaners’ dispute that the union cannot defend its present members conditions unless it can address the question of bosses who slash wages and conditions by using workers with insecure or no residence status, whether they be economic migrants or refugees.

They have decided that the TGWU has to be able to recruit these people, for which their status has to be regularised.

Hence Jack Dromey’s call an amnesty for workers without permits.

But it seems he doesn’t oppose the deportation of people with criminal convictions, whereas Socialist Resistance believes that no one should be subject to double punishment, and certainly not on the basis of their immigration status.

Presently the TGWU does not have policy on this, so the argument can still be put within the union itself and elsewhere in the labour movement.

Refugee groups and the left need to campaign vocally over the next six months in support of the granting of residence status to irregular migrants, and we need to familiarise ourselves with the arguments so that we can campaign effectively.

Many asylum seekers are aware that the Home Office is considering an amnesty, and the refugee groups and the left need to help them make their voices heard with MPs and the Home Office and turn their desperate hopes of safety into reality.

Socialist Resistance Editorial: Stand up for refugees and migrants

Following recent press reports about a possible amnesty for “illegal” migrants, discussions are taking place between Turkish, Kurdish and Iraqi refugee organisations and other anti-deportation groups around the launch of a network to campaign for migrants’ rights including an amnesty.

Socialist Resistance strongly supports the formation of this network as the best way to use this window of opportunity to press forward all the demands of refugees and migrants

We hope the following will be the sort of demands they campaign around

* Residency rights for irregular migrants. The debate on an amnesty is welcome, but the term “amnesty” is inappropriate as many migrants have committed no offence, even by the Home Office’s standards.

* No arbitrary detentions and deportations. The Home Office is proud of the vast increase in detentions and removals, but they should be ashamed, because people are being snatched from their friends, families and workplaces, and made to disappear into a nightmare world of detention and arbitrary removal.

* Close the detention centres, endi brutal treatment of immigration detainees. Immigration detention centres are privatised prisons run for profit. People are held under conditions that cause them immense physical and psychological stress. Abuse of all sorts is endemic, people are often cut off from all contact with friends and families and denied access to legal and medical help. Support for prisoners’ protests, such as the ongoing hunger strikes in Campsfield and Colnebrooke.

* The Home Office must give genuine reconsideration to the cases of asylum seekers who have been refused protection. Frequently the Home Office makes decisions not on a case-by-case basis, but according to political imperatives. Refusal letters are often standard showing no evidence of real consideration of the case, and the courts uphold Home Office decisions too readily.

* The right to work and / or welfare for all migrants.

* No double punishment through deportation of those with convictions who have paid fines or served sentences and been released.

In the small number of cases where people continue to be a risk to others but have been released, then they should be monitored by the authorities responsible for their release.

The criminal justice system, not immigration powers, should be used to deal with criminal matters, and punishment should be proportionate to the offence.

Murder is not the same as using a friend’s bus pass or a minor traffic offence, yet the Home Office sometimes uses the same sanctions – cancellation of Indefinite Leave to Remain where given, and deportation, from people with very serious convictions to people convicted of quite minor offences.

All refugee and migrant organisations and individuals, and all others who believe in equal rights for migrants should join the campaign.

In the past people fought hard for democratic rights in this country, but the abuse of migrants’ human rights undermines all our rights.

Biometric ID cards for asylum seekers today will be imposed on everyone else tomorrow.

Migrants make a crucial contribution to world development – by contributing both to the host society and to the country of origin. It is vital that this is recognised and that there is an end to the criminalisation of economic migrants and political refugees.

The network will support the continuing detention centre protests (subscribe to NCADC e-list to receive updates on these), build for the key date of October 7, the International Day for Refugees and Migrants called for by the European Social Forum in Athens, and add to the mounting pressure on the Home Office.

For more information contact cinar_altun@hotmail.com