UK Committee on Human Rights expresses grave concerns

Saeed Arman

December 1, 2002

MPs on the Joint Committee on Human Rights have expressed grave concerns that the Nationality, Immigration and Asylum Bill in its present form will lead to serious breaches of the European Convention on Human Rights (ECHR), the International Covenant on Economic, Social and Cultural Rights (ICESC) and the Convention on the Rights of the Child. This anti-asylum bill introduced by David Blunkett has faced serious opposition by various organisations and trade unions including the International Federations of Iranian and Iraqi Refugees.

The bill has many racist and inhuman proposals, including the following:

* It will prevent asylum seeking children from attending public schools, and segregate them to special schools in asylum seeking camps.

* It will deem certain Central and Eastern European countries as 'safe', which includes Poland, the Czech Republic, and Slovakia.

* It will force asylum seekers to introduce themselves to immigration authorities at the airports and seaports, otherwise they will be deported.

* It will keep refugees at assigned localities for further control and speed up their refugee claims; if denied, they will be deprived from remaining in the country.

The IFIR calls on groups and individuals to keep up the pressure against this inhuman bill. For more information on actions against this bill, contact the IFIR UK Branch.