ON Wednesday, Labour prime minister, and former human rights lawyer, Keir Starmer declared that the Labour government is preparing for a war on asylum seekers and refugees.
Starmer announced a raft of new policies including stripping people already granted asylum in Britain of their right to have family members join them and settle in the UK.
In words deliberately aimed at demonising those who have successfully negotiated the complex laws surrounding legal status to remain, Starmer accused them of ‘asylum shopping’ and that Labour would ensure they would no longer be given ‘the golden ticket’ of resettlement and family reunion rights.
Applications for refugee family reunion were paused at the beginning of last month and now this is to become permanent as part of a broader war on the rights of immigrants from this reactionary Labour government.
Starmer attacked the European Convention on Human Rights (ECHR) singling out articles 3 and 8 which bans torture and protects the right to private and family life.
Labour ministers, Starmer insisted, would be reviewing these legal human rights protection and how the UK courts are ‘interpreting some of the provisions’.
Of course Starmer was quick to add that ‘those genuinely fleeing persecution should be afforded protection’ before adding ‘we need to look again at some of the interpretation of some of these provisions’ in order to curb asylum claims.
These plans form part of an overall strategy of relentless attacks on refugees and asylum seekers being pushed by Starmer’s government.
Starmer told the Daily Telegraph that the current asylum system ‘is not fit for purpose’ and this is why ‘we’re making fundamental changes to what those granted asylum are afforded in the UK. Settlement must be earned by contributing to our country’.
Last week the new Labour home secretary Shabana Mahmood, set out the new rules for legal migrants seeking indefinite leave to remain (ILR).
Under this new regime, even migrants who have come through regular legal routes would be required to work, never claim benefits, speak English to a high standard, have a spotless criminal record and contribute to society through volunteering.
In other words you can only stay if you are completely docile, have a well paid job, never get sick and are prepared to spend the few hours of the week, not slaving away for the employer, on volunteering to clear rubbish from the streets.
You will also have to speak English to a higher standard before you will even be considered to be allowed to remain while your family will be left languishing in some hell-hole created by imperialist war.
Starmer’s declaration of a war on refugees follows a Labour conference where he denounced Reform leader Nigel Farage as a racist.
PCS (Public and Commercial Services Union) general secretary Fran Heathcote said: ‘There’s no point in labour rightly criticising Farage’s policies as racist one day and then adopting diluted versions of them the next.’
The chief executive of the refugee rights charity Care4Calais, Steve Smith, said: ‘Going from being a human rights lawyer to human rights shredder would be the final stage in the prime minister’s makeover from humanitarian to authoritarian.’
Independent migration policy researcher Zoe Gardner was even more scathing, saying it was proof this Labour government is a ‘moral void, a stinking darkness, an empty hollow of cowardice and contempt’.
In fact Starmer’s government are using the same policy adopted by previous Tory governments in scapegoating immigrants in attempting to divide the working class and divert them from the real enemy – a British capitalist system drowning in unrepayable debt and determined to make workers pay the cost of their bankruptcy.
The trade unions must defend the right to asylum and insist that all refugees are welcome in the UK and assert the unity of workers across the world against the common enemy.
Workers must demand an emergency Congress of the TUC to defend the rights of refugees from a treacherous Labour government that has declared war on asylum seekers and on the entire working class. Workers must force the TUC to calling a general strike to bring down the Starmer government and bring in a workers government and socialism!