همبستگى
- فدراسيون
سراسرى
پناهندگان
ايرانى-
انگليس
International Federation of
Iranian Refugees,
-----------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------
Electronic tagging of asylum seekers is an overt
attack on human dignity. It must meet our resolute counter-attack in defence of
humanity!
On
Monday March 13th Tony McNulty, the Immigration Minister, launched
one of the most horrific attacks on asylum seekers. Mr. Tony McNulty said that
the British government has decided to tag all asylum seekers with electronic
tracing tags in order to be able to track them down if their applications have
been turned down and they have been given notification to leave
The
new anti-asylum-seeker policy has been followed up with a report by a
parliamentary committee published on March 14, 2006. The committee, led by a
Tory representative, expresses some apprehension in its report over the high
number of the so-called “closed cases”, while, at the same time, rebukes Home
Office for its incapability to immediately deport the corresponding applicants
in their massive numbers. It is stipulated in the report that 155 to 283
thousand asylum seekers with rejected applications continue to live in
The
House Commons has rejected the bill to set up detention centres as a solution,
chiefly due to the high cost of such colossal project; estimated to run up to £
80 million. It has, however, shown no serious opposition so far to the idea of
tagging asylum seekers with electronic tracking devices.
It
is absolutely scandalous that the British government, while laying claim to
uphold the principles of human rights, should be tagging the human beings whose
only “crime” is to have claimed their very first human right, that is, a life
without fears. It is nothing but a vivid sign of the total degradation towards
which the present unbridled capitalism is dragging the whole humanity. It is,
indeed, the agents of capital, exploitation, poverty, homelessness, infant
mortality, prostitution, persecution, torture, violence, war, and total
destruction of society after society who are the criminals and should
be tagged, not the innocent victims of these crimes.
Asylum
seekers are not criminals, and must not be treated as such. They are the
victims of the crimes committed by capitalism against humanity. The new
offensive by the British Home Office against them, now coupled with the
infamous report by the parliamentary committee as the icing on the cake, should
be globally condemned as an attack on asylum rights, as, indeed, an attack on
human dignity.
Asylum
seekers! Refugees! Honourable British people!
The
act of electronic tagging of asylum seekers is an inhuman act, and must be
deplored as such. We must be united and stand resolutely against this overt act
of trampling on human dignity. We must launch a massive campaign aimed at
polarizing the society around establishing the simple fact that asylum seekers
are humans too, and have an unalienable right to a dignified life without fear.
The current shameless offensive by the British Home Office must be confronted
with our most powerful counter-attack. Let us link arms, and lend a voice to
the chant: asylum seeking is not a crime, and asylum seeker is not a criminal!
It is everybody’s right to flee war, persecution, prison, torture, Islamist
savage oppression and gender apartheid!
International Federation of Iranian Refugees,
20 march 2006