SILENCE ISN’T GOLDEN

What is it that makes people leave family and friends to travel thousands of miles, often in dangerous conditions, to come and live in Britain?

Is it the chance to sleep on the streets if you forget to claim asylum ‘at the very first opportunity’ and are thus denied benefits as is the case following rule changes on January 8^th 2003?

Is it the chance to live in luxury on vouchers or on 70% of income support at less than £36 a week?

Is it the chance to live in places where few people speak your language or know anything about you or your background?

Is it the opportunity to be insulted because of the colour of your skin or the fact that you’ve been housed in a property long since lying empty on a run-down housing estate?

For the last 12 to 18 months newspapers, TV and radio stations, not to mention MPs have all felt qualified to comment on why more people than ever are coming to Britain to claim asylum or refugee status. Government figures due out at the end of February are expected to show applications exceeding 100,000 for the first time.

Not a day goes by without at least one newspaper running a feature on ‘bogus’ asylum seekers or ‘economic migrants.’

Throughout January 2003 ‘The Daily Mail’ and ‘Sun’ newspaper had a major feature almost every single day. The latter even drew up its own petition urging readers to ‘stop Britain becoming a soft touch for illegal asylum seekers’ and had forwarded 568,000 replies to the Government by Wednesday February 5^th. At least one million seems likely.

Against such a background you would struggle, however, to find the real reasons people do come. This would mean giving the people who arrive a chance to be heard. Their stories would have to be told and they would have to be listened to.

Stories such as Kuresh’s. Refusing to label himself as anything other than a ‘human being’ he came to Britain two and a half years ago because his “life was in danger.” This was after being “beaten several times” by Government officials in Iran.

As a Sunni Muslim, and a Kurd, he was refused permission to study politics at University when he applied. He chose to become a teacher instead but found that he “couldn’t breath in that country” as Kurdish people are not even classed as “third of even fourth class citizen’s.”

Kuresh admits that he “encouraged people to revolt against the Government.” He was “a democrat” and arrested because of this.

As to where he was taken and beaten he has no knowledge. He was “asked a lot of questions” before at one point his tormentors “put a grenade in my hand when I was blindfolded.” His reaction, naturally, was to throw it away. This was a mistake. It now had his fingerprints on it.

When he was released he knew that it was only a matter of time before the grenade was used in an attack. He knew he would be blamed and arrested. He did the only sensible thing and left, crossing into the Kurdish area of Turkey, before passing on to Istanbul and going by truck and lorry thousands of miles to Britain. It cost him everything he owned.

On arrival he applied for asylum by calling the police from a telephone box at the motorway service station he was abandoned at in Kent. His knowledge of English proved useful.

He was dispersed to Sunderland in the north-east of England, where he has lived since. He has been working and paying national insurance, but when we spoke he was ‘between jobs.’ At the current time he is still awaiting status in Britain. Of his friends, many of whom are in a similar situation, he remarked that many of them are here to “try and improve themselves” which in his view “is normal human behaviour.” But “they can’t do anything as they are refused to permission to work. It drives them mad, it makes them depressed.”

He has been able to contact some family members in Iran; they told him that two of his friends with whom he was first arrested five years ago have died in prison.

Mustafa from Sierra Leone arrived in January 2002, flying into Heathrow. He did so because “my Government wants to kill me.” Dispersed to Sunderland he has applied for refugee status.

Zia from Afghanistan had been a shopkeeper for six years, but was persecuted by the Taliban, who “were trying to arrest me” after they discovered he was selling video’s under the counter. He journeyed overland, stopping in 7 to 8 countries on the way. It cost him his entire savings.

In Middlesbrough, Mohammed, not his real name, from Kosovo has been in Britain for less than a year. An ex-police cadet he admits that once he has been given permission to stay he would like to “train as a police officer in Britain.” It cost him $1000 to take an ‘illegal boat’ to Italy, where he stayed for a month, before spending two months with friends in France, then a short period in Belgium before sneaking on board a container ship.

He kicked the container he was locked in when he recognised the police at the port of Teesside. They called ‘The Samaritans’ who gave him some food. He says that he “likes living in Middlesbrough” where he has found that “most people are friendly.”

Peter Widlinski, from the North East of England Refugee Service in Middlesbrough, estimated that two-thirds of the 2,000 who are currently living in the Tees Valley area under the Government’s dispersal policy would qualify under the UN Convention as a refugee. The mass media would have you believe that hardly anyone would qualify.

He related tales of people smugglers that would make most people curl up in fear. Members of gangs who have transported people thousands of miles have turned up demanding money they are owed. They make, what are not idle threats that unless they are paid immediately, family members back home will be badly hurt or killed. Many Iranians, in particular, are reluctant to give their proper names in the presence of other Iranians they don’t know. It is better to remain anonymous.

In one case Widlinski was forced to contact Special Branch when a known assassin turned up. The man was deported. In another separate case the police assisted in the removal of a Russian man from a ship docked on the Tees after the man told his captain he wanted to ‘claim asylum’ and was locked in his cabin to try and prevent him from doing so.

It is no picnic for people when they do get to Britain. Income support levels in Britain are a pathetic £53.65 a week, but refugees and asylum seekers only get 70% of this, although this figure doesn’t include gas and electricity which brings it close to 80% of the amount received by other claimants. Still, at £37.55 a week for a single person over 25 years it is a pittance.  

Refugees and asylum seekers who exhaust their application processes have their benefits stopped.

Obtaining exact numbers affected is difficult. Many of those who lose their benefits and accommodation end up disappearing or being taken in by friends who are themselves already in very dire straits.

Earlier this year, on January 8^th 2003, the Government further restricted benefits. Asylum seekers who don’t make a claim for refugee status “as soon as reasonably practicable” are refused benefits. Civil Liberty organisations are attempting to mount a legal challenge but one month after its introduction they had not managed to overturn a piece of legislation which is further increasing the poverty of refugees. Soup kitchens are inevitable, as is sleeping rough and literally starving to death.

Those that can, including a number who aren’t supposed to, quickly try to find work. Local employers, even in an unemployment ‘black spot’ such as the north-east of England are keen to find employees. They have been unable to find many local people prepared to work long hours for the minimum wage of £4.20 an hour.

Peter Widlinski said that “many are employed in 3 food processing factories” in which “no-one else wants to work.” Tax and national insurance is being paid.

Pamela Bolden, in Sunderland, whose many friends include recent arrivals from across the World, reported that “a good many of them are employed in a wallpaper factory, others are working for a company making flooring for B&Q.” Ibrahim, living in Hendon, is working “60 hours a week for £4.50 an hour.” He has a deportation notice hanging over his head but is confident he’ll be allowed to stay. “They need us to do the jobs local people won’t do.”

Critics might argue that without the refugees local employers would be forced to pay better wages. It is an argument that has some merit. Michael Lawler, a care worker in Sunderland, said that a combination of “the introduction of the minimum wage” and “an influx of people from overseas” had allowed the “employers to push down the rate of pay from £5 an hour to £4.20” over a period of two years.

Overcoming these problems will involve trade unions recruiting workers, and forcing the employers to get the wages back up to, at least, what they were before. Forcing the Government to increase the minimum wage would undercut any ideas that refugees are bringing down pay rates for British people.

For Ibrahim and others there are more immediate objectives. He said he is going to work “very hard” and when he has enough he “will open a shop or a café.”

You would expect the right wing press to support such entrepreneurial beliefs and initiatives.  But, it appears not. Most refugees I have interviewed want to work; they come from countries where social security benefits don’t exist. Some find it incredulous that local people have been ‘on the dole’ for many years.

They also ask, according to Pamela Bolden, “Why do so many young women have children.” They are most shocked however, as to why “so many children are disrespectful to older people.”

In some areas the hostility of the press and media has fuelled an already tense situation. Attacks have occurred. In Sunderland on August 28^th 2002 Payman Bahmani, originally from Iran, was stabbed to death. Refugees and asylum seekers mounted vigorous protests and demanded increased police protection. They were joined by some local people. The two local MPs were noticeably absent during the protests and in events which followed over the next couple of weeks.

In January 2003 a Somalian man visiting Sunderland was viciously attacked only a few hundred yards from the spot where Bahmani was killed. Two men were later arrested. This time there were no protests.

At the offices of the North of England Refugee Service in Sunderland I was told that most people who get attacked would be afraid to report it to the police. This was due to two things. Firstly, a perception that the police don’t take their complaints seriously. Secondly there is a fear that it may lead to deportation, because wrongly people are scared that simply by reporting something they will somehow be seen as breaking the law and equally to blame as those attacking them.

“There are a lot of people afraid to go out at night” I was told.

Groups such as the National Front [NF] and the British National Party [BNP] have seen a revival in their fortunes. The NF is the more traditional fascist organisation, seeking to ‘control the streets’ through a street fighting cadre. The BNP want to establish themselves as part of the everyday political process before, no doubt, eliminating their political opponents, including I’d guess members of the NF.

Adopting and learning the more moderate language of fascist parties on the Continent the BNP has had a fair amount of success. As more and more people refuse to turn out and vote in elections the BNP has managed to increase its own vote considerably. In local elections throughout the north of England it has regularly polled 20%. It now has 5 people elected as Councillors. Some of its new voters appear to have been previously unwilling to vote, and clearly feel themselves to have been ignored by the main political parties. Local elections in April and May 2003 may see a good deal more BNP councillors.

It is therefore difficult to feel that things are going to improve for people trying to escape persecution and poverty in their own countries by coming to Britain. The climate is hostile, the press and media have whipped up an intolerant atmosphere, few major politicians have stood out against this, fascist parties have exploited opportunities which have arisen and many in the host community have been persuaded that refugees and asylum seekers are to blame for the problems they themselves face.

February 14^th 2003