Hundreds protested against Home Secretary Theresa May’s speech yesterday at the Conservative Party conference in Manchester. Speakers at the protest and public meeting immediately after included artist and musician Sam Duckworth, NUS Vice President Shelley Asquith, Janet Alder, Cllr Julie Reid, spoken word poet Chris Jam, Stand up to Racism’s Calais Convoy Co-ordinator Maz Saleem, Zahra Alijah Hideaway Youth Project, refugee Farid Vahidi, Diane Ngoza from United for Change and Weyman Bennett Stand up to Racism national organiser.
Speakers condemned May’s speech in which a Europe wide strategy to deal with the refugee crisis was rejected, the convention of seeking asylum in Britain was undermined, the value of economic migration was called into question and accused of threatening social cohesion.
The events in manchester were organised by Stand up to Racism and were attended by a range of activists from NUS, Amnesty International and a range of other organisations. May has been widely condemned by the Institute of Directors, the Refugee Council, and a range of commentators and charities.
In response to the speech Sabby Dhalu Stand up to Racism organiser said:
“Theresa May delivered a ‘nasty party’ speech designed to court supporters of UKIP by dangerously and irresponsibly pandering to its agenda and asserting a number of falsehoods.
“May offered no solution to the biggest migration of refugees to Europe since the second world war. This is a dereliction of duty as Britain is one of the signatories to the 1951 Convention on Refugees. Britain should be taking a fair proportion of refugees currently stuck in the EU, not abdicating responsibility. May said refugees with right to remain in Britain could be sent back to their country of origin if it was deemed safe in future, which fundamentally threatens the human rights of those who have lived, worked, paid taxes, built a home, family and friends in Britain. At a time when thousands of refugees have drowned fleeing war, persecution and poverty, May suggested that those that have survived currently in Europe, are somehow less worthy of seeking asylum than those currently in war torn and surrounding countries.
“Denying the economic advantages of immigration is pure fantasy and flies in the face of economic research. The overwhelming evidence shows that on the contrary immigration contributes massively, for example a recent UCL study showed that Britain gains £20 billion from European migrants.
“Claiming there is zero benefit of immigration to Britain and that refugees are a threat to housing, school places and hospitals is a cynical attempt to scapegoat and distract from the government’s austerity programme which is the real threat to housing and public services. Theresa May’s speech is a threat to social cohesion – not immigrants – and the government in which she serves is the real threat to social housing and public services.”
