The government is waging an escalating campaign against asylum seekers and migrants, overseeing an intentionally broken asylum system. This includes intensification of the hostile environment, the Rwanda deportation scheme, the rhetoric around the desperate channel crossings, and the Home Secretary’s refusal to condemn the violent mob attacks on asylum accommodation.
Controls on immigration create a tiered system of employment rights, creating precarity and super-exploitation for migrant workers and driving down pay and conditions for all.
We note the union response, coordinated by the FBU, which named the government as complicit with the rise in violence and intimidation by the far right against refugees and refugee accommodation.
Groups like Patriotic Alternative are preying on the vulnerabilities of communities which face multiple intersecting crises.
We stand in solidarity with the mobilisations of trade unions, political parties and social movements against the far-right violence directed at asylum seekers in Knowsley, Rotherham, Long Eaton and all across the country.
We demand
To tackle hate and division we demand the expansion of public services financed by taxing the rich and jobs and homes for all.
We demand:
Safe and legal routes for all to the UK and an amnesty on asylum claims
Restore and extend free movement rights
Close all detention centres.
Unconditional right to family reunion.
End “no recourse to public funds” policies.
Scrap all Hostile Environment measures, use of landlords and public service providers as border guards, and restrictions on migrants’ NHS access.
Extend equal rights to vote to all UK residents.
• Bakers’ Union call for amnesty for all asylum-seekers here: https://statusnow4all.org/the-bakers-food-allied-workers-unions-support-to-the-call-for-status-now-for-all/
• Joint union statement https://care4calais.org/news/trade-unions-issue-joint-statement-in-support-of-refugees/