By Mark Buckley
In the United States all Trump’s promises of improvements in the economy and living standards are now widely understood to be false. As a result, his existing policy of attacking migrants, demonising and terrorising Black and Latino communities has been sharply intensified. In Britain, the Labour government is pursuing a similar line, and with similar motivations.
The pace of attacks is dizzying. In recent weeks alone the Home Secretary Shabana Mahmood has:
- Boasted, Trump-like, about the number of deportations that have been made
- Threatened other countries with visa sanctions if they refuse to accept deportees
- Threatened new legislation to block appeals against deportation under Article 8 of the European Convention on Human Rights (ECHR, the right to a family life)
- Included a change in the Sentencing Act, to allow immediate deportation of any non-British or non-Irish citizen found guilty of a crime and sentenced to imprisonment for at least 12 months.
- Imposed a ban on refugees using taxis to meet vital appointments, despite the fact many are housed in remote areas, away from public transport
- Imposed new rules restricting British nationals with dual nationality from re-entering the country.
The list is far from exhaustive. The restrictions are also ratcheting up, with the most recent announcement the most serious – the change from refugee status from permanent to temporary. This means that the most vulnerable people, who may have suffered torture or abuse in their own country, could at any point have that status removed and be forcibly deported to their country of origin.
A review of individual’s asylum status will be conducted. This could take place as soon as 30 months after their asylum claim has been upheld. From next Monday, refugees will need to get renewed permission to stay or apply for a visa route like any other authorised immigrant, including paying associated fees.
The Law Society and leading campaigners have already said these new rules may be in breach of the ECHR. It removes protections from those who need them most, and places all refugees in an unfathomably precarious position. Lawyers argue that article 34 of the 1951 Refugee Convention demands that signatories like the British government “facilitate as far as possible the assimilation and naturalisation of refugees.” The new rules seem set to face legal challenge.
Further attacks are in the pipeline. The qualifying period to apply for indefinite leave to remain for those who have been living and working here is set to be doubled overnight from 5 years to 10 years. In addition to the devastating effects this will have on individuals and their loved ones, it will have the wider effect of deterring skilled overseas workers from coming here, including areas where there are already labour shortages, especially the NHS and social care.
To some extent, much of this is an extension of the reactionary wave unleashed by Brexit, which rapidly replaced EU workers with rights by non-EU workers who have no rights either as citizens or workers.
But this is also a Labour government going much further than its Tory predecessors in demonising and attacking both asylum-seekers and migrant workers. It is the outworking of Labour Together’s reactionary and racist politics by one of its leading allies, Shabana Mahmood, all of it inspired by Trump.
Naturally, these attacks feed support for Reform UK, but also an emerging fightback against it, as the respective votes for Reform and the Greens in the Gorton by-election show.
All of these measures should be opposed on humanitarian, political and anti-racist grounds. Immigration and hostility to it is always intertwined with racism in Britain. But the labour movement must grasp that these policies are a lethal threat, allowing divide-and-rule politics, and a direct weakening of all our rights.