Earlier today there was a demonstration outside the UK Border Agency in Cardiff to coincide with a demonstration outside the Nigerian Embassy in London. The aim of the protests were to highlight the plight of Nigerians who are facing the prospect of a chartered flight back to Nigeria. Many of the deportees are victim of cult and gang violence, torture, rape, female genital mutilation, armed conflict and state oppression, however as Nigerian is deemed as a safe country, the asylum application of a Nigerian national are almost automatically rejected. For more information check out the No Borders South Wales Blog.
Flames were added to the fire by an article in today's Guardian which highlights the internal culture within the Border Agency offices at Cardiff. In the article an ex-worker there said there was a culture of hatred and anti-immigrant feelings running throughout the workforce. That if they were faced with a difficult case they would simply deny the application and leave it to a tribunal to sort out. More worryingly though, the article goes on to state that there was a canteen culture of intolerance, that those who accepted applications were mocked and taunted and the aim was to refuse the applications as if was simply a game rather than the life and death situations which they really are. As one of my ex-housemates works there I can definitely see this as the internal culture there, he wasn't the most likeable or understandable character you are likely to meet in fact quite the opposite,
The protest itself was good with somewhere between 30-40 in attendance. Pretty good considering the demonstration started at 4.30pm when many people would still be in work and it was raining quite a bit as well which always harms the turnout. The railings outside the border agency were absolutely covered in anti-immigration control banners. Most importantly though out of everyone there there was obviously the usual faces that you expect to see at demonstrations but there was also a lot of new faces that I had not seen around before and a significant amount were young activists.
good on ya Glyn :)
ReplyDeleteIt's funny, when you look at all the border control stuff and the detention centres for asylum seekers - you actually start to realise how racist this government actually is. We don't have to worry about what Nick Griffin would do, because it's already happening under Labour. And most this anti-immigration stuff shouldn't even exist in a humane society!
ReplyDeletePeople are genuinely trying to escape brutal regimes where their lives are threatened, and the government's just refusing to let these people have some degree of safety in the UK.
problem for Glyn is that despite his good approach individually, the grp he is a part of supports the bosses racist and anti working class laws on asylum and immigration.
ReplyDeleteWe do have to worry about Griffin there is a fundemental difference between fascism and racist policies of the government. Fascism is a far bigger threat than this, athough of course this is not acceptable as it is.
ReplyDeleteThe Sociaist Party does not support the laws on assylum and immigration
never heard the socialist party say hurray for the bosses mr stalingrad.
ReplyDeleteps you are quite right glyn, mr john howells was a despicable racist parasite, as, it seems are his work colleagues, though this is hardly a suprise to anyone who's seen thier willingness to send people back into danger.
The SP support the 'non racist' immigration laws, whatever that means. Can you explain what they mean? I take em to mean you support the barring of Polish people and other East Europeans.
ReplyDeletewhere has the SP ever said that?
ReplyDeletehttp://www.socialistparty.org.uk/partydoc/What_We_Stand_For
ReplyDeleteracist immigration laws are bad, immigration laws per se are OK.
For the right to asylum. No to racist immigration laws.
ReplyDeleteWTF are you on about, it says no to racist immigration laws. Using the word 'racist' as a descriptive word because immigration laws are racist.
This really is the last refuge of a sectarian
Stal1ngrad - that really is the most ridiculous nonsense - would you claim that someone who refers to 'evil Nazis' believes that there are good Nazis? The Socialist Party's rejection of immigration laws is not only on paper but is borne out in our practice.
ReplyDeleteThe SP is against racism, fascism and the immigration laws. A lot of us (probably the majority of us) are against borders anyway. That's our position.
ReplyDeleteNow the problem as I see it is the BNP talking about sending all the immigrants back, the usual Daily Mail ranting, etc. Now, under Labour, we're already sending people back, even if they are genuinely claiming asylum and their lives depend on it. The majority of asylum seekers who do succeed in staying in this country, as far as I can tell, are living in absolute poverty, many of them homeless, also many of them are cut off from the rest of their families.
Now, added to those problems are the anti-immigration laws that prevent them getting legal employment, so we find them in jobs where they have no protection or a minimum wage.
And these same asylum seekers are being persecuted by the media, especially the Daily Mail, which contrives so much hatred against them, coming out with all these bullshit stories about immigrants with 10-bedroom houses claiming £200K a year, etc.
Yes, we are living in a kind of fascist state, the difference is the BNP are more open about it.
We are not living in a fascist state at all, such langauge really does not do justice to the real threat of fascism. In order to fight fascism we need to have a real understanding of what it represents.
ReplyDeleteI am not trying to defend the state as it exists the UK Government is clearly racist and launching huge scale attacks on civil liberties etc. But it is not fascist, fascism poses an even greater threat
Who was that guy that you knew?
ReplyDeletedoes he work at the borders agency now then?
Yes, he does!
ReplyDeleteHe drinks in the ernest willows too....