Recently I was asked to support the launch of a book on modern day slavery in Britain. The book depicts the heartrending experiences of a number of people who are the victims of our current asylum policies; human beings who the system has made slaves and has made vulnerable to levels of physical and mental brutality which Wilberforce and the Victorian anti slave camapigners would recognise.
I was pleased to be asked because the book makes a significant contribution to exposing the way in which our society allows many of our fellow human beings to be treated within our community. It is also an eloquent, moving and forceful cry for action.
The book is "Enslaved:The New British Slavery" by Rahila Gupta. Today Rahila achieved a major breakthrough in gaining extracts from the book published in the Guardian's Society section.
Campaigners and authors like Rahila deserve all our thanks for the work they undertake to bear witness to the brutal treatment meted out to some of the most vulnerable members of our society. They put on stark display what many politicians and commentators determinedly insist on ignoring.
For those of us who have to deal with the victims of the asylum system on almost a daily basis Rahila has done us all a great service.
Let me give you just yesterday's example in my constituency office. A young woman we had been assisting some months ago came to us, ill, hungry and so tired she was dead on her feet. She came to this country some years ago as a minor and was taken into care. She was designated an "unacompanied asylum seeker" and given temporary leave to remain in Britain. After leaving care she was at first put into a private rented flat on her own but then told that under the Government's asylum policies she was to be dispersed to the Midlands where she knew no one.
She came to us when she was told to at short notice to pack up her belongings and leave her accomodation to be taken to the Midlands. Even to the layperson it is fairly obvious that she has mental health problems and exhibits all the symptoms of chronic depression and stress. We did all we could to get some support for her in the place they were moving her to.
Although she has been in this country some years she has now been told that her application for asylum has been refused and all legal rights of appeal have been exhausted. As a result she has lost all physical means of support from the state, including accomodation.
What does she do? She comes back to the only area she really knows in this country and the only place she has anyone she actually knows. Without financial support, terrified of going back to her country of origin, Eritrea, frightened of being picked up by Immigraton Officers to face detention and deportation, her only option is to sleep rough and borrow or beg for assistance.
This young woman is just another victim of the grotesque inhumanity of our asylum laws and of the corporate driven globalisation which creates such a scale of inequality and exploitation across our globe.
So I am honoured to be asked to take part in the launch of Rahila's book, along with Teresa Hayter from "No One is Illegal" and speakers from Southall Black Sisters. The launch takes place on 19th September at the Human Rights Action Centre, 17-25 New Inn Yard, EC2. Try and come along, but also try and get a copy of the book. It's published by Portobello Books.
4 Comments:
It's deeply saddening, especially if someone is really fleeing persecution. I remember someone saying ' the true mark of a civilised society is by looking at how they treat the old and infirm' (not well enough for many i'm afraid).... but i think you can expand it to anyone who is in serious trouble, and, for me, society is not 'civilised' enough!
The worst bit is the complete inhumane way they treat people as objects - without feeling and compassion!
As for the specific case, i hope you can help....i think it is much worse if she has lived here for years as going back would be even more traumatic.
JC
jon said...
"civilised society"
Who said...
"no such thing as society" and then went onto prove it with the help of New Labour.
You get one try, do you need more?.
to attempt to stop these abysmal inhumane cases perhaps John could ask the government what the true cost of the right-wing appeasing policy of dispersal, which New Labour brought in - not even the Tories - is. (I mean cost to the govt in practical terms as unfortuntely they don't seem to care about the human cost - and money is unfortunately one of the only things this rogue New Labour lot understand.For when I worked for the immigration dept (under the Tories with Michael Howard and Ann Widdecombe tthe MInisters in charge) many, many asylumn seekers arrived who had family or friend links, in fact I'd say prabably a majority of applicants probably did have a link or contact here in one way or another sometimes incredibly tenuous links at that and as there is nothing like enough space on refugee hostels for all arrivals those who were not priority (tended to be women and children etc as priority) woudl have to go and stay with the friend or relatives for probably at least the next six months before even getting an interview so of course they would have to be supported fincially somehow by the family or friend if they had no means themselves. (It was at least a six month wait at the time this could easily be doubled if the interview was missed for any reason...) so the relatives or firends would be supporting the applicants for a very long time before they could get state benefits so they must have picked up a lot of the tab, saving the taxpayer a large amount of money cpmapred to the costs of dispersal - I saw a porgrammme about it once and as well as coaches to teh dispersal point there were families living in what i think were student halls of residences so this would have cost a bit plus food vouchers etc as they had a voucher scheme at about that time I think. It must have worled out at several hundred punds a week per family. This seems a large cost for dispersing asylum seekers to often hostile/nimbyist possible rurual communities that just weren't cosmopolitan enough to cope with them; I've seen the same in Germany.
AS for CAAT everyone should indeed join I once was going to apply for a job with them but didn't for some reason in the end.
Brown was wrong when he gave the Thather praing speech obviously but he said the Tories were divided and we weren't. It frightens me that he thinks (wrongly!) that he has dispensed with the left. Of course we want party unity but he can't bulldoze us into it. It was said that he has only alinated parts of the SE but I remember how during those times that it seemed tath everyone's Dad we knew in Mid-Sussex had been made redundant ash her policies started to bite/ also over in Kent etc. I feared my own Dad wouild never work again despite being qualified -at that time there just weren't any jobs left whether yo were just starting out or had years of experience - although he eventually became self-employed but he was too mentally scarred by it to work for an employer again and many, many other people were in the same boat. How Brown thinks these people and their children who are no win their thirties will have forgotten what she was like is beyhond me!I don't see how he cou;d win an election after alienating so much of his support, in the heartlands as well. He needs to go back adn do Government adn Politics A level to learn not to alienate his support i the traditional aress or lose newer gains such as SE towns that they gained in the 87 landslide. While he's studying it he shoudl do the pressure froups essays - I was shocked when I did them and found out jsut how myuch influnece on govt policy certain groups such as the NFU have - in their pockets is no tthe word - and he shoudl tehn look with his eyes open as to why he is letting these vested interests lobby him.
can't type any more as asleep with eyes open adn should be hemming kids trousers for a wedding today and the typos are taking over!
What starsign is Brown do we know ( I don't know when his birtday is) - I bet it's one of the hardworking ones!)
Of course star signs are completle true -well I wouldn't know but I read interesting and I think accurate astro-profiles on both cameron adn Obama recently in the evening standard.
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