New international LGBT human rights organisation launches

By Paul Canning

A new international LGBT human rights body based in the UK will launch Tuesday 13 September.

The Kaleidoscope International Diversity Trust has been endorsed by all three major British party political leaders and its Honorary President is the Speaker of the British House of Commons, John Bercow MP.

In his endorsement the British Prime Minister David Cameron said:

“Our country has made real progress on LGB and T equality and, without forgetting how far we've still got to go domestically, it is right that we should now increasingly turn our attention towards bringing about change abroad."

"In some countries, it's simply appalling how people can be treated - how their rights are trampled on and the prejudices, and even violence, they suffer. So I want Britain to be a global beacon for reform. That's why I am delighted to send my best wishes to Kaleidoscope, and wish them well in their work " 

"Be in no doubt, this is a hugely important issue to this Government. Last March, we published an update on our plan on LGB and T issues. It included fourteen areas where we want to act internationally, covering issues like asylum and protecting the rights of British citizens living, working or travelling abroad. We look forward to the contribution that Kaleidoscope will make to the debate on and progress towards equality worldwide.”

At an event for LGBT Pride Month in June Cameron picked on the UK's lobbying of African government's on LGBT human rights as an issue to showcase his government's LGBT credentials.

He specifically singled out Malawi for mention in his remarks, delivered to a Downing Street reception to which many of Britain's gay and lesbian great and the good were invited.

He claimed that the British coalition government's commitment to not cut its foreign aid budget meant it carried "moral authority" when speaking to global south countries about "what we expect from them".

"I’m very proud of the fact we [put] huge pressure on the leader of Malawi about an issue in that country but I’m convinced we can do more. We have got the ability to speak to African leaders, African governments, about this issue that I know concerns everyone here tonight. And it concerns me," he said.

Deputy Prime Minister and Leader of the Liberal Democratic Party, Nick Clegg, said that Kaleidoscope has a "innovative and unique approach".

"The vision this organisation is articulating - for a world where everyone can express their secuality without fear of prejudice - is one all liberals stand behind."

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Urgent asylum issues for the new government; Lobby for UK detention reform

Image by Getty Images via Daylife

Source The Refugee Council

The Refugee Council wants to see a fair, humane and effective asylum system that provides protection and enables refugees to rebuild their lives in safety. As we approach the sixtieth anniversary of the 1951 Refugee Convention next year, we are asking the new government to seize the opportunity to create such a system.

We’ll build on the success of the asylum election pledge signed by 1,031 parliamentary candidates, 219 of whom were successfully elected to parliament, including nine members of the cabinet. Pledge signatories include the Prime Minister David Cameron and Deputy Prime Minister Nick Clegg, as well as Immigration Minister Damian Green.

We’re highlighting to key ministers and all MPs the urgent need for positive, swift action across government, and calling for:

• Politicians to show leadership in defending and promoting Britain as a place of refuge for the persecuted, and using fair and accurate language about asylum and refugees.
• The UK Border Agency to get decisions on asylum claims right the first time round. High numbers of initial decisions by the UKBA are overturned on appeal. Poor decision-making is unfair on applicants, slows down the system and leads to money being wasted.
• Early access to good quality legal advice for asylum seekers. Professional, timely legal advice is essential to ensuring that asylum seekers have access to justice. This would improve the overall quality of the process, build trust in the system, and support those without protection needs who can safely return to do so.
• All asylum claims to be processed in the community. Ending the injustice of the detained fast tracking of asylum claims and processing asylum claims in the community will avoid unnecessary and inhumane treatment, lead to fairer decisions and save money.
• Immediately implement the commitment to end child detention. We are delighted that the Coalition negotiations agreement reached on 11 May 2010 includes this commitment, which should be fulfilled without delay, and in a way that keeps families together.
• Immigration detention for adults who have claimed asylum to be minimised. Detention at the end of the asylum process is massively over-used and is without essential safeguards. It must be used only as a last resort where independently shown to be necessary.
• Access to mainstream benefits and permission to work for asylum seekers. The separate ineffective and expensive system of asylum support should be replaced with access to mainstream benefits, and restoring permission to work for asylum seekers.
• An end to destitution among refused asylum seekers. Destitution is destroying lives. There is no evidence that destitution leads people to return to their home countries. Those who cannot return should be granted temporary, formal status with permission to work. Where asylum seekers do receive support, it should be in the form of cash and not a restricted payment card or vouchers. People who have sought asylum should be entitled to free healthcare and a decent standard of accommodation until they get status or return home.
• Permanent status for refugees. Refugees want to integrate, offer their skills and contribute to the UK but since 2005, most people recognised as refugees are given permission to stay in the UK for five years only. This policy is a waste of money and creates a further administrative backlog for UKBA who from August 2010 will have to review upward of 7000 cases a year. This situation should be resolved by returning to the granting of permanent status for refugees.

We look forward to working with refugee community organisations, partners and members to ensure that the UK continues to be a place of sanctuary for those fleeing persecution.

If you want to keep up to date with current campaigns, you can register to receive campaign support updates.

You can follow our work in parliament and keep track of parliamentary questions, debates and All Party Parliamentary Group meetings by receiving the free Parliamentary Asylum and Refugee Network newsletter, the PARN. To subscribe, email parliamentary@refugeecouncil.org.uk with the word PARN in the subject line.

Lobby for UK detention reform

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LiberalDemocrats announce LGBT asylum priority as part of LGBT Manifesto

By Paul Canning

Liberal Democrat leader Nick Clegg today launched the first their LGBT election manifesto. The third priority of six is "ending deportations of gay and lesbian refugees to countries where they face persecution".

The Libdems say:

"It is inhumane for the Government to deport gay people back to the countries where they will be persecuted because of their sexuality. We believe that everyone should be treated equally under the Convention against Torture and Other Cruel, Inhuman or Degrading Treatment or Punishment, regardless of sexual orientation or gender identification."

"We have long rejected the argument that it would be acceptable for a lesbian or gay person to be deported to a homophobic state, as long as that individual behaved in a ‘discreet’ manner."

"Liberal Democrats will not deport any refugees genuinely fleeing a country because sexual orientation or gender identification may mean that they are at risk of imprisonment, torture or even execution."

• Lib Dem LGBT Manifesto (PDF)

Correction: The Green party launched the first LGBT election manifesto in February. This included as their sixth 'core area':

"Ensure safe haven and refugee status for LGBT people fleeing persecution in violently homophobic and transphobic countries."

David Cameron answers our question on LGBT asylum

Image via Wikipedia

By Paul Canning

The UK Conservative party opposition leader has answered a question on LGBT asylum posed by LGBT Asylum News Editor Paul Canning.

The question draws on differences in answers given by the main party leaders to Johann Haari, who conducted a series of interviews in January for the gay magazine Attitude.

In his interview with Cameron, Haari posed the same question he asked Prime Minister Gordon Brown about the Home Office policy of saying that LGBT can return (to countries like Iran or Saudi Arabia) and 'be discrete'.

Haari professed surprise at Cameron's response to his LGBT asylum question ("he is at his best and at his clearest – to my surprise") and quotes him as "unequivocally" saying in response to 'whether it is wrong that gay refugees are told to go back home and hide their sexuality from police forces who would imprison, torture or kill them for it': "I think it is. If you have a legitimate fear of persecution, that it seems to me that is a perfectly legitimate reason to stay."

This was in contrast to the bureaucratic fudge of PM Brown in his reply to the same question. LibDem leader Nick Clegg restated his party's longstanding criticism of the UK's asylum system to Haari. He describes it as “a moral stain on our collective consciousnesses" and "the most inhumane, irrational, cruel system imaginable”.

In his answers to questions posed by readers of pinknews.co.uk Cameron said the following to Canning's question (our highlight):

Q. If there is unfairness in the asylum system against LGBT people (as you suggested in your Attitude interview) what do you plan to do about that?

A: As I said in the interview, this does have to be looked at on a case by case basis, but if you are fleeing persecution and that fear is well-founded, then you should be able to stay. As things stand, the 1951 Refugee Convention doesn't mention sexuality but because it mentions membership of a social group, that phrase is being use by the courts, rightly in my view, to say that if someone has a realistic fear of persecution they should be allowed to stay. It's also important that the guidance the Home Office produces for asylum adjudicators to use in judging claims provides up-to-date and accurate information on homophobic persecution in every country.

Although Cameron does not actually answer the question - he doesn't say what he will do about 'unfairness in the asylum system' - the new comment on the information used by UK Border Agency staff known as country-of-origin information (COI) is interesting as it does suggest that someone in his office has done their homework.

As several reports have found, COI reports on persecution in individual countries is partial, inaccurate and misleading as well as out of date. It often conflicts with the Foreign Office assessment of the risks to UK LGBT citizens visiting the same country as well as information in the Foreign Office Human Rights Report.

Only last month a new report from the Immigration Advisory Service (IAS) said that the supposedly independent Advisory Panel on Country Information (APCI) was subject to "undue influence" by the Home Office that "compromised its independence and the transparency of its work". The APCI's "lack of teeth" meant that it was unable "to ensure its recommendations were implemented in full".

Sheona York, Principal Legal Officer, IAS, said:

“This report demonstrates the continuing need for vigilance from those representing asylum-seekers to ensure that the country evidence on which UKBA decision-makers rely is accurate, unbiased and sourced. Too many clients lose their cases because the UKBA treats as gospel some remark by some unnamed source, or relies on information taken out of context. Now we should ensure that the same critical spotlight shines on the UKBA’s internal Operational Guidance Notes.”

pinknews.co.uk has secured a similar opportunity with PM Brown and LGBT Asylum News has submitted the following question:

Do you recognise that there is unfairness in the asylum system for LGBT and if so what do you propose to do to tackle it?

LGBT Asylum News has also provided an opportunity to all LGBT party groups, plus the Scottish National Party, to submit contributions to the website to be published unedited by May 4.

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• "Get Lost We're Full" (newstatesman.com)

The coming UK election and LGBT asylum

Image via Wikipedia

By Paul Canning

The leader of Britain's opposition Liberal Democrats, Nick Clegg, has restated his party's support for change in the UK's attitude to LGBT asylum seekers.

From an interview with The Independent:

On asylum seekers – an issue which is notoriously unpopular with the electorate – Mr Clegg was equally bullish, describing Britain’s asylum system as “the most inhumane, irrational, cruel systems imaginable”.

“It’s a moral stain on our collective consciousnesses,” he said. “The public debate has transformed asylum seekers into threats rather than human beings.”

He said Lib Dem policy would be that Britain should provide sanctuary to those fleeing persecution because of their sexual orientation: “It’s not just me that says this, it’s international law that says it.”

A party statement released alongside the interview summerised their policy as:

Guarantee any refugees genuinely fleeing a country because of persecution over their sexual orientation asylum in the UK.

Clegg has previously spoken out against "the astonishing brutality and cruelty that has become a part of our asylum system". The party passed a resolution 'Government must stop sending gay and lesbian people to their deaths' at its 2008 conference.

Apart from the LibDems, the UK Green party has good policy and has actively worked on the issue through their MEPs.

A general election in expected in the UK in May. Current polls suggest a possible hung parliament which may put the LibDems in a position to influence and achieve much needed changes in LGBT asylum policy and practice.

The UK Labour government has consistently denied its discriminatory treatment of LGBT asylum seekers — despite the numerous appalling cases documented on this website which led the widely respected NGO Human Rights Watch in 2008 to name the Home Office to its 'Hall of Shame'. Time and again only support from activists and campaigning has saved people against a government wanting to throw them back to the wolves.

Among the LGBT asylum cases — all refused asylum by the government and only won after a long legal fight by the UK Lesbian and Gay Immigration group (UKGLIG), Outrage, Iraqi LGBT, the Lesbian Community Project in Manchester and others including local communities, refugee groups and churches — are:

• Ugandans Prozzy Kazooma, who was marched for two miles naked through the streets, jailed, raped and tortured by police, Kizza Musinguzi, who was jailed for gay human rights work and subjected to four months of forced labour, water torture, beatings and rape, and John Bosco who was violently deported despite being personally targeted, with photos, by a homophobic Ugandan tabloid (Bosco was returned to the UK after a damning judicial decision and, despite Home Office efforts, subsequently given leave to remain). Another Ugandan was told by a judge in 2006 that women 'cannot be understood to be homosexual’.
• A Jamaican lesbian, who was told to go back to her homeland because she would be in no danger as she was over 40 and therefore no longer sexually attractive.
• Iraqi asylum seekers, still being told they can safely return to a country well documented to have active anti-LGBT death squads who kill gay men by filling their anuses with glue. 
• Iranians Pegah Emambakhsh, whose partner was arrested, tortured and subsequently sentenced to death by stoning, and Mehdi Kazemi whose partner was also executed. 
• An Algerian gay man who had been jailed for homosexuality. In prison, he was raped, beaten by inmates and guards and had his teeth knocked out.
  

Many others cases have been lost with people sent back to such violently homophobic countries as Cameroon and Nigeria - where a police warrant on charges of homosexuality and a solicitor's letter stating that he was likely to be sentenced to death by stoning wasn't enough to stop one gay man's deportation.

This record is news to the Labour Prime Minister, Gordon Brown, according to his statements in an interview this month with Johann Hari for Attitude Magazine:

[Q] Speaking of violence against gay people - there are some refugees fleeing countries where gay people are imprisoned or killed who make it to Britain, and they seem to face a contradictory policy. Some who are given the right to remain, but others are told to go back to their home country, hide their sexuality, and hope for the best. Do you think that’s acceptable?

[A] Asylum law is incredibly difficult, and you can’t ever have a blanket inclusion or exclusion. Every asylum case is going to be dealt with on its merits. I don’t think any party will give you an absolutist commitment on this question. But obviously, our whole party has been built on the idea that where there is persecution, we’ve got to be prepared to help them.

[Q] So your view is, if someone is from a country where they will be killed for being gay, and they make it to Britain, they’ve got a right to stay?

[A] What I’m saying is that every case is treated as an individual case. And the people who come to this country who are able to show that they are seeking asylum because the persecution that they’ve suffered is a risk to their life… that is something that we as a nation have traditionally accepted.

Notably, Brown didn't respond to Haari's question on the government's policy of expecting LGBT asylum seekers to go back to the country where they are fleeing from and 'be discreet' about their sexuality.

Last year Phil Woolas, Minister of State for borders and immigration, defended the 'be discreet' policy in an astonishing article promoting the presence of LGBT asylum seekers on the London Pride March as a Labour 'success story'. He said:

The Court of Appeal has found, in line with our policy that whether a gay claimant can reasonably be expected to tolerate behaving discreetly is something that must be considered on the individual merits of the case.

In a carefully worded response to this statement the UKGLIG said that this policy was plainly discriminatory:

Phil Woolas claims that “a degree of discretion can be required in all sexual relationships, heterosexual as well as homosexual”, which implies that the measure of discretion required would be applied equally. This is clearly not the case and in practice LGBT persons would be forced to have to live a lie.

Moreover, this reference to discretion does not reflect the realities of most LGBT asylum claims: applicants simply want a life in which they can be who they are and/or have a relationship with their partner, without fearing death, violence, rape, prosecution, forced marriage or losing their livelihood or homes. Their claims are not about seeking the right to commit ‘public indecencies’. However, within the legal, social, cultural or religious framework in many of their home countries, an (open or secret) LGBT identity or same sex relationship is often, in and of itself, considered ‘indecent’.

Kerry Maskell, Project Coordinator of the Lesbian Community Project in Manchester says:

We see people who have just arrived. They come in scared and quiet, afraid to talk to others or about themselves. We see them gain confidence and become vibrant wonderful people. Why would anyone want to take that away from them and put them back to being the people they were when they arrived?

A female asylum seeker from Saudi Arabia who Maskell has recently worked with has been told to go home and be discreet. She fled the country when her sister, who was also gay, disappeared from a safe house in her own country. She does not know what happened to her sister, only that she is dead.

Our group member fled the country with her two sons, who are not aware of her sexuality. She does not want to tell her sons or fully ‘come out’ until she knows that she can stay in the country as she fears, if people find out, she will be killed if she is sent home. She was told in court that, as she is not out in this country, she may as well go back to her own country and not be out there! She did win her case but the Home Office appealed against it and she now has to go through the whole process again.

Minister Woolas' attitude to people like Maskell defending LGBT asylum seekers was stated in a 2008 interview where he derided a "vested interest" of 'NGOs and migration lawyers giving false hope and undermining the legal system'.

More evidence that Woolas is operating a discriminatory and homophobic regime was in a report published last year which found that lesbian asylum seekers are not being protected by the UK Border Agency and their particular problems go unrecognised. Discrimination, abuse, harassment and violence, including rape, against them was common to the experience related by the women interviewed. They told of violence against them by people employed by the Government.

Last year UKLGIG said that:

Transmen are being detained in Yarl’s Wood – a female-only detention centre, gay men are forced to live with other detainees from their country of origin who often hold the same the homophobic views as the society they are escaping from.

Continuous allegations of physical assault and racial abuse by guards forced former Home Secretary Jacqui Smith last year to ask Nuala O'Loan, the former Police Ombudsman of Northern Ireland, to conduct an investigation. But there has been no action by Labour on reports of the homophobic mistreatment of LGBT asylum seekers.

LGBT asylum activist Peter Tatchell has helped numerous people and has extensive experience of what he calls 'Britain's homophobic asylum system'. He, more than anyone, knows how Labour has reneged on what few pledges have been squeezed out of it on LGBT asylum.

At the London LGBT Pride Rally in 2008 Labour Deputy Leader Harriet Harman was booed due to the government's treatment of Mehdi Kazemi.

Kazemi is a gay Iranian teenager who the Home Office wanted removed despite his young boyfriend having been executed. Kazemi was only saved from a similar fate because of an international campaign leading to the conservative Dutch government (which operates a humane LGBT asylum policy) extracting concessions from then Home Secretary Jacqui Smith - Kazemi had fled the UK for the Netherlands.

Questioned after Kazemi eventually won 'leave to remain', Smith refused requests for a moratorium on the return of LGBT asylum seekers to Iran, claiming:

The evidence does not show a real risk of discovery of, or adverse action against, gay and lesbian people who are discreet about their sexual orientation.

Since 2000 at least two Iranian gay asylum seekers have committed suicide rather than be returned.

29-year old Israfil Shiri, who had fled Iran when the authorities there discovered he was gay, was one. He walked into the offices of Refugee Action in Manchester, doused himself in petrol and burned himself alive.

Says Peter Tatchell:

At his asylum hearing, the adjudicator turned down his application, citing ‘lack of evidence.’ Unable to find a lawyer willing to represent him, or to produce expert evidence on the persecution of gay people in Iran, he also lost his appeal. 

Within days, the National Asylum Support Service ordered his eviction from the asylum hostel where he had been housed, turning him out in the street. Simultaneously, the government cut off his benefits. Banned from working, Shiri ended up homeless and destitute. Like many other asylum-seekers, he was forced to sleep on the streets and scrounge discarded food from rubbish bins. 

His health rapidly deteriorated. But having no address, he could not register with a GP to get treatment. 

The government has Shiri’s blood on its hands. It is enforcing an inhuman asylum system. The Home Office bears a large degree of responsibility for the suicide of this young gay man. It treated Shiri as a criminal, when in reality he was the victim of criminal abuse and neglect – both in Iran and in the UK.

As she stepped down from the London Pride stage after being booed, Tachell spoke with Harman. At a subsequent meeting with Harman and Minister Barbara Follett a "mechanism whereby [Tatchell] could report abuses and [they] would take action to put them right" was agreed. However this agreement fell apart at its first test when the two Ministers committed what Tatchell describes as "a betrayal of the trust and commitment that I thought we had established" by refusing to make any representations in the case of the deported gay Azerbaijani asylum seeker Babi Badalov.

As often happens, Badalov was called in to a meeting, seized and quickly put on a plane. He couldn't even pack a bag so was left on arrival in the Azerbaijani capital Baku with just the clothes he was wearing. Once there he was forced into hiding with fellow artists (he has been exhibited in several countries) due to 'honour' threats of death from family members. His sister had warned him over the phone never to come to the country again.

He said:

I can’t tell you how horrible it is. If I die and there’s a funeral, nobody will come: the mullah won’t come, nobody will read the Koran. [The body of a gay man] is a dirty, foul body. It cannot be touched; it cannot be washed. It must be thrown into a pit, because it’s so shameful. This attitude still exists there.

When he was being put onto the plane Badalov reported being told by a Border Agent, "you make us sick, you're going back where you belong.” He is now in Paris after fleeing first to St Petersberg.

Tatchell is not the only one who has tried to lobby Labour.

UKLGIG say that they have been asking for years for an LGBT Asylum Policy Instruction (API) which is used to guide UK Border Agency (UKBA) staff. Apart from sole case where asylum has been quickly granted, the Nigerian gay Christian leader Davis Mac-Iyalla, the one and only breakthrough which this author is aware of is that the UKBA have invited UKLGIG to make presentations to case workers on LGBT asylum issues. However the charity puts this in context:

We are very pleased the UKBA have taken this step, but more in-depth training is very much needed and we are discussing this with the UKBA at the moment. In order to achieve fair decision making, caseworkers would require detailed knowledge and understanding of not only LGBT asylum issues, but of these issues in very specific cultural contexts.

One major reason that this 'understanding' hasn't been happening is because of what UKLGIG describe as the "quality and quantity of information on LGBT issues within the country of origin information (COI) prepared and used by the UKBA in their decision making". This despite a 2006 commitment wrung from the Home Office that UKLGIG would have input directly into the process of information gathering as it relates to human rights abuses of sexual minorities globally. And again, following a 2008 independent review of COI which told UKBA what they should have already realised, rather than right this wrong themselves from their own vast resources, they looked instead to the small, under-resourced charity UKLGIG for help.

The debacle with Harman and Tatchell as well as the extensive concerns most prominently featured in the press by the Mehdi Kazemi case led the party's LGBT activist organisation, LGBT Labour, to pass a resolution at its AGM last year which highlighted problems they saw with the government's policy and practice. They proposed:

• That LGBT people should not be asked to prove their sexuality and that the Home Office and Borders and Immigration Agency respect the right of individuals to self define as LGBT.
• That the Borders and Immigration Agency employ specialist LGBT “case owners” who have received specific training in handling LGBT asylum cases.
• That the UK Government should not return people on the pretext that they will have to “hide” their sexuality on return to their home country.

As well as Labour LGBT, some Labour politicians have also expresssed concerns (though this has not included any of the party's prominent gay or lesbian MPs), which has undoubtedly helped specific cases. One Labour candidate has called for 'A fair deal for gay asylum seekers'. Yet in policy and practice terms almost nothing has changed for the better for LGBT refugees — and, as those working with LGBT refugees testify, much has changed for the worse.

Despite PM Brown's claims, case after case has demonstrated Labour's indifference on the issue of LGBT refugees. Woolas and Smith's statements on the 'discretion' policy shows that discrimination lies at the heart of that indifference. The lack of any action on advice from the likes of UKGLIG shows a consistent failure of leadership on LGBT equality in the Home Office.

Although some opposition Conservative politicians have shown support for individual cases, this website is unaware of any statement or answer to a journalist's question from the Conservative leadership suggesting that they will review current Home Office/UK Border Agency policy and practice on LGBT asylum.

[UPDATE: Cameron opposes 'be discrete' gay asylum policy?]


With only a few months to go before the election campaign, unless Labour can somehow do better than PM Brown's ignorant and bland statement "our whole party has been built on the idea that where there is persecution, we’ve got to be prepared to help", there is no reason to think that a Conservative government would do any worse.

For anyone concerned that the UK should and can do much better at providing sanctuary for LGBT fleeing persecution, execution and torture, on their policy, actions and in order to influence some real change this website's recommendation is vote Green or LibDem.

Still Human, Still Here: The hidden despair of Britain's failed asylum seekers

Alain was a respected TV journalist in Congo whose criticism of the government led to his arrest and torture. His father paid a huge bribe for his release and he fled to Britain. His asylum claim was rejected and, unable to support himself, he is destitute, Two years ago a racist attack left him blind in one eye.

Alain is one of 60 failed asylum seekers featured in an exhibition by photographer Abbie Trayler-Smith, Still Human, Still Here at London's Host gallery. The exhibition exposes the hidden lives of those who are trapped in an impossible no-man's-land, unable to return home but prevented from working to support themselves. They can only wait and hope their lengthy appeals are successful.

"In Kinshasa I was tortured physically and here I’m tortured mentally," Alain told the exhibition launch on Wednesday night. He explained that he had arrived in Britain looking for sanctuary but was treated as less than human, forced to sleep rough and rely on what little money people gave him. He has lost not only his home and family but his dignity and now he has also lost sight in one eye.

Abbie spent many months volunteering at a drop-in centre for asylum seekers before she started taking pictures. She explained that building a relationship with each individual she photographed was vital, not least because she did not want to "be a vulture" and exploit their vulnerability.

The trust she clearly developed with those she photographed has enabled her to shine a light on the drudgery of daily existence for these people. Cheap canned food heated directly on a gas stove in a squat in Leeds, the blackened feet of a figure lying on a shabby mattress, footprints in the snow in North London. Abbie's pictures take us right to the heart of these immigrants' lives and sensitively expose the hopelessness of their predicament.

Boris Johnson has recently faced criticism for suggesting that the government consider an amnesty for all illegal immigrants. Immigration minister Phil Woolas described the Mayor of London's idea as a "road to hell". But at the very least it seems sensible to allow people to work while their claim is being settled.

What seems abundantly clear is that the current removals policy isn't working. A new study by the London School of Economic estimates the number of illegals to be 725,000, up from 430,000 that the Home Office recorded in 2001. People who would have previously been granted Exception Leave to Remain (ELR) for four years are now denied asylum, after the rules were changed in 2003. A recent report from the refugee charity Pafras said that the number of destitute asylum seekers the charity has seen has tripled in two years.

Alain thanked Abbie for "being our voice". Her photos should make us all listen.

Source

UK accused over asylum seekers left to live on $1 a day

Hundreds of thousands of failed asylum seekers are living in the UK in extreme poverty, because they fear torture or death if they return to their home countries, according to a report released today.

The report warns many failed asylum seekers are living in a "twilight zone", with no housing or financial support, and no right to work. Many failed asylum seekers are living on less than "a dollar a day", the global yardstick for extreme poverty, it claims. Recent research by the London School of Economics estimated there are 500,000 failed asylum seekers in the UK.

Christine Majid, from the refugee charity Pafras, who commissioned the Underground Lives report, says the number of destitute asylum seekers the charity dealt with tripled in the past two years and called destitution a "deliberate" policy to force asylum seekers out of the country.

She said: "In the 21st century the fact that the government is trying to starve people out of the country, it is absolutely inhumane and it just isn't working. These people would rather starve on the street here than return to their own countries."

A series of governmental policy decisions including preventing asylum seekers from working in 2002, cutting legal aid in 2004 and an overhaul of the system in 2007 has lead to an "untenable strain" on local charities, she added.

The report found that, on average, failed asylum seekers were surviving on £7.65 per week, but the majority lived on less than £5. Two thirds had experienced torture in their countries. Following the refusal of their asylum claims, 72% have spent time sleeping outside; of these, 38% have experienced physical attacks. More than a third of the women sleeping rough had experienced sexual assault, including rape.

The Liberal Democrat leader Nick Clegg called the report "a timely reminder of how the government has combined incompetence and inhumanity to create one of Europe's most inefficient and cruel asylum systems". "Responsibility for asylum should be taken away from the cack-handed blunderings of the Home Office and given to an independent agency."

Asylum claims have fallen sharply in recent years and are at a 14-year low, with 23,430 applications for asylum in 2007 - 4% of all immigration applications - compared with 103,080 in 2002. A lack of access to proper legal advice is having a significant impact on the number of valid asylum seekers being refused sanctuary, and returned to countries where they could be tortured, said human rights lawyer Louise Christian. "The government's asylum policies are entirely at odds with its human rights obligation - particularly with regards to children in detention. It is a huge source of scandal and shame to this country."

A UK Border Agency spokesperson said the government provided measures to ensure individuals are not left without basic essentials. But the report says only around 9,000 people receive UKBA support, which provides £35 in supermarket vouchers a week and no-choice accommodation. Many are reluctant to apply for it as they must sign an agreement consenting to be removed from the UK at a later date.

The report is being released in conjunction with a major exposition of photographs of failed asylum seekers, launched in association with the Still Human, Still Here campaign, led by a coalition of human rights organisations including Amnesty International and the Refugee Council.

Source

Putting the World to Rights

Except from a speech by LibDem leader Nick Clegg on the 60 anniversary of the Universal Declaration of Human Rights.

All of us have had our rights have come under attack…
But no one has suffered more so than foreigners in this country.

Britain is fast developing a two-tier rights regime.
That’s why foreign nationals are the first of us to be forced to carry ID cards.
It’s why asylum seekers are left hanging around for years by the incompetence of the Home Office…

Driven into the black economy when they could work and pay taxes to support themselves… Rather than depend on taxpayers for meagre handouts.
And it’s why countless economic migrants are exploited by unscrupulous employers.

When you begin to list these abuses the picture it creates is truly horrendous.
When you think of the Zimbabweans who are being imprisoned in immigration detention centres even though they can’t be deported.
Or the women who come to the UK legally and find themselves in violent marriages but who aren’t eligible for places in refuges.
Again an issue that Amnesty have been campaigning heavily on.

And when you recognise the astonishing brutality and cruelty that has become a part of our asylum system.
And the attempts by our Government to deport terror suspects to countries where they face torture.

Mehdi Kazemi is an Iranian the Government tried to deport earlier this year…
Despite the fact that he is homosexual and his partner had already been killed for being gay.
The Home Office said he would be alright if he was ‘discreet’.
Their exact words

If our own Government is capable of degrading so many foreigners in Britain, is it any wonder that communities have become more fragmented, tensions exacerbated?

We have already seen the Immigration Minister swerving to the right in preparation for the next election…
Peddling fear and scapegoating asylum seekers for Britain’s ills.
What does this Government think is going to happen to the already delicate ethnic tensions as we spiral further into economic downturn?
When more jobs go, and frustrations are at a high?
Why are they stoking this fire?

What makes it even worse is that this is an area where the Conservatives simply won’t be outflanked.
My concern is that this marks the start of a kind of downward bidding…
A “we’ll let in fewer than you will” head to head.
We can’t let this happen.

We need a responsible, mature debate on immigration.
Where we recognise it is right to be tough on illegal immigration…
But equally the huge contribution that legal immigrants make.

We need to bridge the gap between the treatment of foreigners and the treatment of everyone else.
I am a liberal because I believe deeply in the universality of basic human rights.
Wherever their application is discriminate…
Contingent on arbitrary factors like creed or colour…
It must stop.