THE Danish parliament has just voted to rob asylum seekers of their valuables – so that they pay for their upkeep.
This policy immediately brings to mind the pictures of piles of jewellery taken from concentration camp victims by the Nazis, piled up on benches, just before the victims were gassed.
For the crime of seeking asylum in Denmark, police will be able to seize valuables worth more than 10,000 kroner (1,340 euros; £1,000) from refugees to cover their housing and food costs.
The new measures also mean the period migrants will have to wait before applying for relatives to join them will be extended from one year to three – a move aimed at discouraging new arrivals.
Temporary residence permits will be shortened and the conditions for obtaining a permanent permit will be restricted. The message is clear. Refugees are not welcome in Denmark!
MPs approved the measures by 81 votes to 27. One MP abstained and 70 others were absent. The centre-left opposition Social Democrats and the anti-immigration Danish People’s Party both voted in favour.
Meanwhile, Norway has been deporting refugees to Russia, Sweden has begun its own deportations and in France, Justice Minister Christiane Taubira has resigned from the Hollande government after it announced that it was bringing into parliament a proposal that all dual nationals who are French-born – if they are convicted of terrorism charges – will have their French nationality taken off them.
This will place large numbers of French-born citizens, some three million French born with dual nationality, in terror of police frame-ups that will mean them losing their French nationality and being deported!
The National Front is delighted that Hollande has adopted one of their policies and is now celebrating its victory. The racist European Commission (EC) is meanwhile moving to dump the Schengen agreement on Freedom of Movement.
Greece, on which the EC, the European Central Bank and the IMF have already declared war, is once again in their sights, as is Italy. The EC is already reviewing whether Greece’s crisis should be used to allow states to treat Greece as a state outside the Shengen agreement.
Greece will then be left (along with Italy) to carry the entire cost of the imperialist wars in Afghanistan, Iraq, Libya and now Syria and the millions of refugees that the wars have created, while the rest of the EU shelters behind its barbed wire and border guards.
Meanwhile in the UK, there have already been a number of examples of official bodies who are keen to follow the example of Denmark. We have seen the red doors for asylum seekers scandal in Middlesbrough, the wrist bands to gain access to meals for asylum seekers in Cardiff – no doubt there will be more revelations of similar practices!
Racism is straining at the leash to get going a pogrom atmosphere throughout the EU.
The organised working class must take up the defence of all refugees and fight for the UK government to give access to all refugees, who must have the same facilities as UK citizens as soon as they arrive.
The trade unions must demand that the UK withdraws all of its military forces from the Middle East and North Africa, since it was these interventions as allies of the USA that created a situation where millions had no alternative but to flee their homes. It is perfectly clear that there is nothing progressive about the European Union.
The workers of the UK and the EU must join hands with the working people of Africa and Asia to smash imperialism to make a better world for all. The way forward is through socialist revolutions to replace the bankers’ and bosses’ EU paradise with a socialist United State of Europe. This however will be just the start. Modern technology has created the basis for a worldwide socialist republic where the most advanced productive forces will be used to eradicate hunger, disease and oppression of all kinds. Forward to the victory of the World Socialist Revolution!
