Refugee Council Poliblog

Anyone fancy a trip to Zimbabwe?

By Innocent, Communications team 

Like most Zimbabweans living in the UK, I was baffled by the UK Government’s ill-timed decision to consider forced removals to Zimbabwe. I find it ironic that the Government claims its decision reflects the new reality in Zimbabwe following the formation of a new government in the country last year. If anything, it revealed to me just how out of step the UK Government is with the fast-paced political developments in Zimbabwe.

For starters, Prime Minister Morgan Tsvangirai and Cabinet Ministers from his MDC party have begun boycotting the power sharing arrangement. They’re protesting at the escalation of state-sanctioned intimidation and violence against their party officials and supporters, and against Mugabe’s resistance to political reforms. In characteristic fashion, Mugabe’s party has responded by doing more of the same. Amnesty International warned this week that Zimbabwe is on the brink of sliding back into the post-election violence that marred the country last year.

On top of that, to demonstrate its cavalier attitude to the international community, Mugabe’s government barred the United Nations Special Rapporteur on torture Manfred Novak from entering the country even though he had been invited by Prime Minister Tsvangirai. This incident made it clear where real power still lies in Zimbabwe. And as the Novak himself observed, there were clearly parts of the government who did not want him to assess "the current conditions of torture".

With internecine conflict wrecking the power sharing arrangement amidst reports of rising repression across the country, it is a great shock to many Zimbabweans here that the UK Government should decide to reinstate its returns policy. The enhancements to the voluntary returns package available to Zimbabweans are of course welcome. However, it is important to allow people to choose to return freely without the implicit stick of forced removal hovering above them.

And finally, the Conservatives... and a visit to Newcastle

By Jonathan, Policy and Development team

Last week we were off to Manchester for the Conservative Party conference, where we held a fringe meeting with the Red Cross and the Still Human Still Here campaign coalition. Our meeting was chaired by Alistair Burt MP and there were speeches from David Ndiwanyu, a social entrepreneur and refugee leader from Bradford, Sir Nicholas Young (Red Cross), Julian Prior (Centre for Social Justice) and our own Donna Covey.

Sir Nicholas spoke about the need for policy solutions to end the destitution of asylum seekers and for the need of an asylum policy to be proud of.

Donna referred to the 70th anniversary this year of the start of the second world war and how important it was to defend the central principles of the 1951 refugee convention. She also spoke about the need to get asylum decisions right first time and to abolish the detained fast track for asylum seekers.

Julian spoke about the need to tackle public confusion around asylum in the midst of wider migration and described destitution as being absolutely immoral.

Yet the key speech came from David who gave his personal story about why he had to come to the UK and his experience as an asylum seeker in the UK. He expressed his surprise at the hostile reception that he had received when arrived here and that he had not been expecting benefits but had wanted to work.

Then I left Manchester to attend the World Day for Decent Work event in Newcastle held jointly by the Northern TUC and the Regional Refugee Forum North East. This was an inspiring event as it focused on hearing individual stories from people who had come to this country seeking safety and had been denied the entitlement to work. We heard from some amazing people who had been denied the chance to use their skills.

There were also speeches from young people seeking asylum who, while they were in support of the work campaign, made the point that they were being denied access to higher education. They spoke of attending schools in the UK, but at the age of 18 being unable to join their friends at university as asylum seekers are classed as overseas students and have to pay much higher rates.

It was an inspiring event and a powerful example to the rest of the country of how refugee groups and trade unions can come together with a common purpose of campaigning for asylum seekers to be able to work!

The Refugee Council - leaders of the Guilt Industry?

By Hannah, Communications Team 

An interesting end to a hectic week came by way of a Mr Jeff Randall, in a lively if slightly baffling piece in the Daily Telegraph.  Hot on the heels of a storm of media interest in the closure of the camps in Calais sheltering hundreds of migrants and refugees, Mr Randall wrote that the Refugee Council, along with the BBC and the Labour Party, is leading what he calls the 'Guilt Industry'.  He says of the closing of the camps 'A migrant camp is demolished in Calais and guess what? Yes, we are expected to wrestle with remorse' and describes the target of this guilt industry as 'largely, but not exclusively, Britain's middle classes'.

Clearly we have no intention of making anyone feel guilty.  We draw attention to the plight of people who are persecuted, who are victims of war and torture survivors, and ask for compassion when they arrive in Britain.  So we wrote to the Daily Telegraph to request a right of reply.  They asked us to write a letter to the editor, which we duly did, but sadly it was never printed.  So here for you, exclusively, is our response to Jeff Randall:

Sir,

We would like to reassure Jeff Randall (‘Bad news for the rest of us – the Guilt Industry is booming’, 25 September) that he is in no way responsible for the millions of people who flee their homes each year to escape persecution, and he, as with others like him, has no reason to feel guilty about it.  Neither should he or anyone else feel guilty about being successful – in fact it is thanks to people like him that this country’s wealth is sustained, therefore allowing it to continue to take in refugees and offer them the chance to rebuild their lives in safety.  Indeed, it is the Refugee Council’s heartfelt aspiration that the refugees we help to overcome torture and persecution will rebuild their lives so successfully that they will join Mr Randall and his fellow high-achievers in their detached houses in leafy suburbs, and get a great education for their children.  Nothing would make us happier.

Donna Covey

Chief Executive, Refugee Council

And so to Brighton, and Labour...

By Jonathan, Policy and Development Team

Just back from Brighton where we held our fringe event on Wednesday together with the Red Cross and the Still Human Still Here campaign coalition.

We were keen to use the event to explore the argument of whether asylum policy was damaging community cohesion, and we were delighted that the Minister at the Communities and Local Government (CLG) department with responsibility for community cohesion, Shahid Malik MP, was able to join us and make a speech.

As ever with these events, and with it being the last night of conference, we wondered would delegates show up. But our worries soon vanished as people started to appear and by the start of the meeting it was standing room only – our session seemed to have caught delegates’ imagination!

Donna, our chief executive, was able to make a number of strong points about how the positive community cohesion policies from CLG were being undermined by the current asylum policy.

She pointed to asylum seekers not being able to work when work is such a crucial factor in community cohesion. She stressed the importance of English Language and how asylum seekers were blocked from accessing language training for the first six months. She also questioned how the practice of granting just five year leave to stay as a refugee and the use of ‘administrative’ detention could ever help to build community cohesion. She also emphasised the role of refugee community organisations in community cohesion but how they were struggling financially in part due to earlier government statements on so-called ‘single interest group’ funding.

Donna was followed by strong speeches by Nick Scott Flynn and Eric Nkundumumbano from the Red Cross who spoke eloquently about his own experiences seeking asylum and now helping others as a volunteer with the Red Cross.  He highlighted in particular the cases he sees of people who have had their claims refused and are forced into destitution.  A vigorous discussion ensued, we got a great response and our idea of using CLG community cohesion policy to measure asylum policy did seem to resonate with the audience ….  And now next stop Manchester!

Next stop: Liberal Democrats

By Jonathan, Policy and Development team

On Sunday evening we held our fringe meeting at the Liberal Democrat conference, on the theme of communicating asylum in the General Election. The day had started badly for me when I had been handing out leaflets inside the conference centre, and was accosted by a steward who asked me to leave the building and leaflet outside. But all the delegates were by then inside the building! Would anyone show up? But just as we started the event, delegates began to stream in.

The star of the show was undoubtedly one of our volunteers who has been seeking asylum since 2003. He gave a powerful personal testimony describing why he had to leave his own country; he caught the first available flight which happened to be to the UK, was detained twice, forced to live on supermarket vouchers and denied the right to work.

The meeting also heard from Donna our chief executive who argued that asylum must be seen as an important and distinctive element in the wider debate on migration. She also referred to our ‘tell it like it is’ leaflet and the importance of promoting the key facts on asylum in the midst of so many myths.

We then heard from Fiyaz Mughal, who is adviser to the Liberal Democrat leader on Interfaith and Tackling Radicalism and Extremism. He also made a powerful speech and was particularly keen to make the link between foreign policy and asylum policy.

In the discussion that followed the speeches, there was a constant theme of the need for politicians to show leadership on this issue and to speak up for asylum seekers and refugees. I left the meeting feeling energised at the passion and support that there was in the room on this issue. Now onto Brighton for the Labour conference, where Shahid Malik MP, Minister for Communities and Local Government is speaking at our event on the links between asylum policy and community cohesion.