• In opposition, Labour opposed the Tories’ anti-migrant legislation. But in government Labour has proved to be in most respects the most anti-refugee and anti-migrant in UK government history, and hence among the most racist.
• Immediately after the 1997 election, the Labour Government stepped up deportations: Home Office minister Barbara Roche recently boasted that they now deport more people than any British government in history – with some 8,400 deported and 35,000 refused entry last year (Home Office figures).
• Labour’s Asylum and Immigration Act 1999 removed welfare benefits from asylum applicants, and gave unprecedented powers to immigration officers—as yet not widely used – to detain people in the street and break down people’s front doors (more power than the police have, and with even less democratic accountability).
• Against the advice of every agency concerned with the welfare of refugees and other migrants, the government introduced the dispersal of asylum seekers and universalised vouchers – worth only 70% of what is deemed the minimum necessary to live on (British benefit levels) – for all asylum seekers. The result has been totally chaotic, has caused untold suffering to people who have often gone through traumatic events already, forced them into penury and begging, incited racism in the population causing physical attacks on asylum seekers, and cost a lot more money than full benefits.
• Labour in government has totally failed to counter the attack on asylum seekers orchestrated by the Tories and the tabloid press. Instead of defending the right of people to travel round the world and for political asylum for refugees the government has:
• Taken a lead in encouraging European states like Italy, Spain, Poland, Lithuania, and the Czech Republic to build detention centres
• Led calls for the 1951 UN Refugee Convention to be torn up ("drastically revised")
• Launched Britain’s biggest-ever programme of constructing detention camps for totally innocent people (including Thurleigh/Yarlswood near Bedford 900 places, Oakington near Cambridge 400, Harmondsworth 550 places) quadrupling the number of places dedicated to immigration detainees
• Shamelessly attempted to "cherry pick" skilled and qualified refugees, such as doctors, while excluding others from the same countries.

John Lister, Socialist Alliance PPC for Oxford East, close to the notorious Campsfield detention camp, said:

"The government’s cynical attempts to garner racist votes by deporting and detaining ever more asylum seekers fly in the face of economic facts as well as human rights. Official government figures show that refugees and other migrants put much more into the economy and cultural life than they take out.

"New Labour prides itself on its neo-liberal support for the free movement of capital. In contrast the Socialist Alliance stands for the basic principle of the free movement of human beings, open borders, and the abolition of all immigration laws."

Press Release: Mayor's daughter challenges Campsfield Minister

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