| Join the campaign: No to Offshore Detention in Rwanda – Oppose the Nationality and Border Act and the government’s ‘Hostile Environment’ for refugees and migrants All Refugees Welcome! Materials including A4 factsheet bulletin, placards, and model motion all available to download HERE (also available soon this week via the same link: A5 leaflet – How Trade Unionists Can Support the Fight Against the Racist Hostile Environment) Last night, Thursday 26 May, saw the first of a series of local mobilising rallies to scrap the borders act, oppose offshore detention in Rwanda, and organise networks in localities that can challenge the hostile environment. Over 120 people turned out at Stand Up To Racism’s Manchester rally – the first in a series of local mobilising rallies across Britain under the theme, From Offshore Detention to the Nationality and Border Act, End the Hostile Environment: All Refugees Welcome! The meeting reflected a very defiant mood and a real feeling that something must be done, with speakers on the platform from refugee organisations, trade unionists, the Bishop of Manchester, as well as Rabbi Warren Elf MBE, Co-Chair, Faith Network for Manchester, Hammad Khan, Manchester Council of Mosques. On Wednesday this week, 25 May, the PCS union, Care4Calais and Stand Up To Racism launched a campaign against government plans for offshore detention in Rwanda. Outside the PCS union’s first physical annual conference since the pandemic, PCS general secretary Mark Serwotka, PCS president Fran Heathcote and PCS vice president Zita Holbourne gathered delegates from the conference and joined with refugee rights campaigners from Care4Calais and Stand Up To Racism to protest together and launch a campaign against the government’s plans for offshore detention in Rwanda. The protest highlighted the widespread anti racist opposition to the Nationality and Borders Act, which will remove the ability to claim asylum for all but those arriving via “legal” routes and will make it a criminal offence to knowingly arrive in Britain “illegally”. Care4Calais says less than 1 percent of the world’s refugees follow ‘legal’ migration routes, such as resettlement schemes. Clause 9 of the bill is another flashpoint, that could mean around 6 million people could be stripped of their British citizenship without warning – a major breach of international human rights law. Alongside the NABA, Priti Patel championed an unimaginably heinous policy of “pushbacks” in the Channel. This would have undoubtedly have led to further needless deaths, and was rightly described by human rights lawyer Aamer Anwar as “state sanctioned murder”. Yet positively, this terrible policy also led to a clear example of how trade unionists can be at the heart of effective opposition to these racist attacks. The PCS union joined with Care4Calais and led a successful legal challenge to the “pushbacks” policy, defeating it just as the NABA was passed, and giving us hope in a dark hour that we can organise to stop the implementation of the NABA, and other elements of the intensification of the racist hostile environment. Care4Calais and Stand Up To Racism are also organising a major bloc on the upcoming ‘We demand better’ TUC demonstration in London on Saturday 18 June. We must unite as refugee rights campaigners and the wider anti racist movement to organise, and resist the government’s agenda to transform the already brutal asylum system in Britain and drag it further rightwards while stoking racism towards refugees and migrants. Stand Up To Racism calls for the scrapping of the NABA and the rapid expansion of safe and legal routes for refugees to enter Britain and claim asylum. As Sabir Zazai from the Scottish Refugee Council said in his speech at a demonstration against offshore detention: “We need to turn every deportation flight into a Kenmure Street”. Stand Up To Racism has called protests, and following the brilliant rally in Manchester, has more local mobilising rallies coming up over the next month, including in Glasgow, Sheffield, Leeds and elsewhere. Watch Stand Up To Racism’s Facebook events page for details of these and other mobilising rallies to come. We will continue to work alongside others as part of a wider campaign to defeat Patel’s racist, inhuman attack on refugees and migrants. Our local groups will be developing networks in every area to oppose the government’s hostile environment. To get involved, contact info@standuptoracism.org.uk CLICK HERE TO DONATE TO STAND UP TO RACISM’S ONGOING |
