Oppose UK Nationality, Immigration and Asylum Bill

By Maryam Namazie

15 April 2002

The UK Nationality, Immigration and Asylum bill was published on Friday 12 April by Home Secretary, David Blunkett. If it is passed in parliament and becomes law, it will mean that:

* Child and adult asylum seekers will face induction centres, accommodation centres and removal centres (sterilised names for segregation centres, ghetto-isation and concentration camps).

* Child asylum seekers will not be allowed to attend schools or nurseries outside the centre.

* Asylum seekers will continue to live on the poverty line and in destitution.

* Children born in the UK can be deported if their parents entered the country unlawfully.

* Asylum applicants will no longer be able to appeal the direction orders given to deport them from the UK, and there will be moves to stop multiple adjournments.

* Opportunities for judicial review will be diminished.

* A deportation order can be served and removal directions set on the same day that an asylum claim is made, or any time afterwards.

* The maximum jail term for those convicted of harbouring (including providing refuge to those 'failed' asylum seekers facing deportation back to persecution) or trafficking 'illegal immigrants' will increase from six months to 14 years.

* Travel operators will face a new "right to carry" scheme, where they will have to obtain clearance for passengers before they begin their journeys.

And the list goes on and on…

These draconian measures have nothing to do with creating an 'efficient, fast and trusted' asylum process as claimed by David Blunkett, but everything to do with further criminalising asylum seekers, restricting the right to asylum and protection from persecution, and strengthening fortress Britain. These measures also seriously undermine established civil rights principles in this country, will further ghettoise immigrants and asylum seekers, prevent their integration and create double rights standards.

The Nationality, Immigration and Asylum bill is not yet law. Oppose the bill by faxing members of parliament. Use Faxyourmp.com which can be accessed from the left hand frame at: http://www.ncadc.org.uk/.