Article by Laurence Humphries, RCIT Britain, 16 September 2020, www.thecommunists.net

 

Hundreds of asylum seekers, refugees and migrants crossing the channel from France have been kept in what one may call concentration camps. They are fleeing imperialist war mainly in Syria, Iraq and parts of the Middle East and are seeking refuge and refugee status to stay in Britain. Many of them have travelled in small boats and craft in dangerous conditions, often with children or elders with them.

 

What has been the response of the Boris Johnson government? Its inhuman response was to treat them as an invading military force. Johnson's Home Secretary Priti Patel, probably the most racist and chauvinist of Johnson's Ministers, used the military including the Navy to attack and prevent these people from coming to Britain which is their right even under International Law. Patel has continued to strengthen border controls using the coastguard and other armed vehicles to stop migrants entering Britain. This is the result of British imperialism which is built on racism, chauvinism and hatred of semi colonial peoples. A great majority of our brothers and sisters are now being held in Yarlswood, an immigrant detention centre, while others are housed in hotels in Dover and Birmingham.

 

This has led to Fascists from Britain first harassing and photographing migrants, questioning them and making the migrants fearful of their lives.

 

“The leader and deputy leader of the far-right group Britain First have been charged with religious harassment. Paul Golding, 35, and Jayda Fransen, 31, both from Penge, south-east London, were arrested in May. Kent Police were investigating the distribution of leaflets in the Thanet and Canterbury areas, and the posting of online videos during a trial at Canterbury Crown Court in May. Both have been bailed to appear before Medway magistrates on 17 October. Ms Fransen has been charged with four counts of causing religiously aggravated harassment.Mr Golding has been charged with three counts” [1]

 

“A far-right British group has sparked outrage after releasing a series of videos in which they harass asylum seekers housed at hotels. In one video released by Britain First, circulated widely on social media, the far-right activists enter a hotel in Bromsgrove, near Birmingham, and interrogate asylum seekers, accusing them of wasting taxpayers' money.

 

“In the video, they bang on bedroom doors, demanding to know what country the asylum seekers are from. They also accuse hotel management of housing "illegal immigrants" and insist they have the right to enter the hotels. Andy Hewett, the head of advocacy at the Refugee Council, condemned Britain First's actions as "shameful".

 

"People who come to the UK in search of safety and protection deserve to be treated with respect and dignity," he said.

 

"It's shameful that far-right groups feel entitled to intimidate people seeking asylum and make them feel so unwelcome”[2].

 

Cancer of Britain's Politics

 

The fascists who are some of Boris Johnson’s strongest supporters during the Brexit spew out hatred and unashamed racism. They are aligned and close to Tommy Robinson of the English Defense League (EDL) and continue to stir up racial divisions as the Nazis did during the 1930s. They are a cancer in the body politic and must be driven off the streets of Britain.

 

“Members of the far-right group Britain First filmed themselves hounding refugees staying at the Daresbury Park Hotel, in Warrington, Cheshire, in scenes that have been branded 'thuggish' by anti-racism campaigners The far-right 'cowards' filmed themselves randomly knocking on doors in the Daresbury Park Hotel, in Warrington, Cheshire, and then interrogating anyone who answered.

 

In scenes that have been branded 'thuggish' by campaigners, the members repeatedly asked refugees which countries they were from.

 

At one point a Britain First member confronted an Iranian guest in the lobby of the hotel and ranted about his taxes being spent on the man's accommodation”[3].

 

“Eleven Syrian asylum seekers have been abandoned outside the airport in Madrid where a Home Office charter flight deposited them, the Guardian has learned.

 

The men, ranging in age from 18-45, said they had been sitting in temperatures of 32 degrees since their flight landed in the Spanish capital at around 10am on Thursday morning.

 

The asylum seekers said many of them were removed from the UK without their identity One man said he had worked as a farmer before the conflict in Syria began, and that he had left his wife and four children, hoping to bring them to join him if he was granted refugee status in a safe country.

 

Syrian refugee claims are generally accepted in many European countries but the Home Office sent the 11 men back to Spain because all had been fingerprinted by the police there”[4].

 

This shows the callous attitude of Patel and the Johnson government who, using their Brexit arguments, are just deporting anyone who they consider undesirables. These people have a right to asylum and safe from harassment from fascist scum, but the actions of this reactionary government are enabling the actions of the fascists. This is the true face of Brexit as advocated by the Tories. Patel has already started to attack fundamental democratic rights of protest and expression by stating that Extinction Rebellion (the climate change activist group) should face criminal charges, in fact criminalizing a whole section of society who wants to express their rights on the issue of climate change. Deportations continue in secret. It is only because of the COVID-19 pandemic that flights are being restricted but they go ahead without any democratic accountability back into the war zones created by the imperialists.

 

Authentic Marxists fight for Open Border

 

The RCIT in BRITAIN advocates against immigration controls and for free movement by all. Immigration policies are racist and chauvinist and should never be supported by Marxists (the centrist opportunists of the CWI have not learn this lesson yet and support immigration control irrespective of its racist nature).

 

In one of our plenty articles on open borders, the RCIT stated correctly what is still true today: “The RCIT calls the workers movement, migrant and popular organizations in Europe to jointly fight for the immediate opening of the borders of European Union! We say: down with the overcrowded refugee camps on Greece’s islands which are nothing but open-air prisons! There is enough space in Europe for refugees: every major city has tens of thousands of empty apartments! Open the labour market for refugees who would enable them an independent income and, furthermore, it would also allow a cut in working hours for Europe’s workers. The bourgeois governments and their media claim that there is not enough money for refugees. What a silly lie! Europe is home of hundreds of billionaires – lazy parasites who got rich at the expense of the workers in Europe and the South! Let us take the money from them with a special tax so that they, for once, could make a useful contribution to the society!

 

We know that refugees are often victims of brutal attacks by racist and fascist gangs as well as of reactionary police forces. It is urgent that the workers and popular organizations, in cooperation with migrants and refugees, build self-defence units in order to prevent such racist aggressions.“ [5]

 

The RCIT in BRITAIN puts forward these transitional demands to combat fascism and racism, to protect migrants and refugees from provocations and attacks, to unite with all oppressed and to fight together for equal rights for all!

 

* Open the borders for all refugees, migrants and asylum seekers! Equal rights and equal pay for all migrants and refugees! Uncontional and immediate full citizenship rights for all people who live in Britain!

 

* Call on the Labour and Trade Union movement to campaign through demonstrations, pickets and occupations against the Fascists! It is the responsibility of the Trade Unions to defend migrants from being attacked by this Fascist filth!

 

* Organize Armed Self-defense Units to protect and defend asylum seekers and refugees from attacks by the fascist gangs of BRITAIN FIRST and against any police provocations!

 

* In the current crisis of pandemic, recession and fascist attacks: Organize rallies and strikes up to an indefinite General strike to rid ourselves of this racist and chauvinist government! We fight for a Workers Government, based on mobilisations on the streets which can stop fascist attacks for good!

 

Join the RCIT and help us to build the Fifth International – a World Party of Socialist Revolution!

 

 

 

Footnotes

 

(1) https://www.bbc.co.uk/news/uk-england-kent-41338328

 

(2) https://www.middleeasteye.net/news/britain-first-outrage-harassing-asylum-seekers

 

(3) https://www.mirror.co.uk/news/uk-news/cowardly-britain-first-go-migrant-22595314

 

(4) https://www.theguardian.com/uk-news/2020/sep/03/we-dont-know-what-to-do-asylum-seekers-flown-to-spain-by-home-office

 

(5) https://www.thecommunists.net/worldwide/europe/open-europe-s-borders-for-syrian-refugees-now/