Stop scapegoating refugees

Members of the Magazine Branch helped launch an open letter condemning press coverage of asylum seekers at the union's Annual Delegate Meeting in April.

Nearly every delegate signed, including the union's leadership. Since then, the letter has been sent into the wider union movement, with the aim of raising cash to place it, along with its signatories, as advertisements in both the national and local press.

The Magazine Branch has agreed to organise it and act as an administrative centre.

Please print out the petition below and use it at your workplace

For more information, phone the branch chair on 020 7254 5033, or at E-mail: agitator@lineone.net

Refugees are welcome here

'We the undersigned are writing to protest at the torrent of abuse aimed at asylum seekers by sections of the national press. The most vulnerable group of people, fleeing persecution, oppression and war, is being falsely blamed for all the ills of British society.
The UN Commission for Refugees has rightly condemned the Tories for playing the race card in the run up to the local elections. Asylum seekers have become the targets for a new racism. The stereotyping used in the past against Jews, and then black and Asian people coming to this country, is now being employed against asylum seekers, especially those from eastern Europe.
Racist sentiment is being inflamed with terms such as "floods" and "tidal waves" being used to describe the relatively small numbers of asylum seekers arriving here.
We are continually being told that Britain is a "soft touch". In reality, we have the harshest ayslum regime in western Europe. Britain takes fewer refugees per head of population that Germany, Switzerland, the Netherlands, Finland, Belgium, Norway, Sweden, Ireland, Denmark and Canada.
The New Labour government says it wants to combat racism in the aftermath of the Lawrence Enquiry. Yet its attacks on asylum seekers, such as its policy of forced dispersal and the voucher system, are encouraging racism.
Incidents such as the recent horrific attack on the white boyfriend of black Olympic athlete Ashia Hansen and repeated attacks demonstrate the consequences of this poisonous atmosphere.
We not only condemn those newspapers that have seen fit to present lies, myths and distortions as the truth to their readers, but also those politicians, Tory and Labour, who are urging them on.
We believe asylum seekers deserve our compassion and help. They do not deserve to be vilified and treated as criminals. We call on everyone who is sickened by the witch hunt to make their voice heard.'
 

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