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<DIV><FONT size=2><SPAN class=DocumentType>From
spiked...</SPAN></FONT></DIV>
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<DIV><FONT size=2><SPAN
class=DocumentType>Column</SPAN><IMG height=1
src="http://www.spiked-online.com/images/pixel.gif"
width=15><SPAN class=datestrip>10 August
2001</SPAN></FONT></DIV></TD></TR>
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<P><FONT size=2><SPAN class=DocumentTitle>Asylum:
the immigration laws are
mad</SPAN></FONT></P></TD></TR>
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<TD colSpan=2><FONT size=2><SPAN class=ReadOn>by
</SPAN><A class=Author>Mick
Hume</A></FONT></TD></TR></TBODY></TABLE></TD></TR>
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<TD class=bodyp><FONT size=2>The murder of a
Turkish asylum-seeker in Glasgow has re-ignited
the debate about how to resolve the UK's asylum
'crisis'. The answer always seems to be the same:
tighten the rules, close the loopholes, raise the
bar, shut the door. <BR class=NetscapeDummy><BR
class=NetscapeDummy></FONT></TD></TR>
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<TD class=bodyp><FONT size=2>This ignores the fact
that the real problem is not asylum-seekers, but
Britain's immigration laws. The only possible
solution is to create a climate in which we can
open the borders and welcome the free movement of
people, as readily as the authorities now champion
the free movement of trade and investment.<BR
class=NetscapeDummy><BR
class=NetscapeDummy></FONT></TD></TR>
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<TD class=bodyp><FONT size=2>In a sense asylum is
a non-issue. Despite one newspaper's ridiculous
front-page headline today - 'ASYLUM: WE'RE BEING
INVADED' (1) - statistics reveal that there were
76,040 applications for asylum in the UK last
year. Even if they had all been allowed to stay,
it is hard to see how they could have 'swamped' a
rich nation of almost 60million, where around
78,000 will fit into one Cardiff stadium for a
football match on Sunday. In fact, less than 20
percent of applications are currently accepted,
according to Home Office figures.<BR
class=NetscapeDummy><BR
class=NetscapeDummy></FONT></TD></TR>
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<TD class=bodyp><FONT size=2>True, there has been
an increase in applications for asylum in recent
years. But that only illustrates the underlying
problem. There would be no such thing as
asylum-seekers were it not for the UK's terrible
immigration laws.<BR class=NetscapeDummy><BR
class=NetscapeDummy></FONT></TD></TR>
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<TD class=bodyp><FONT size=2>Since Britain's
restrictive rules on immigration were tightened
further at the start of the 1980s, it has been
impossible to gain entry to the UK to live unless
you already have immediate family here, or are
marrying a British citizen, or have £100,000 to
invest (a rich man can always pass through the eye
of this particular needle). At the same time, as
fewer people have been able to emigrate to the UK
through normal channels, more have applied for
asylum.<BR class=NetscapeDummy><BR
class=NetscapeDummy></FONT></TD></TR>
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<TD class=bodyp><FONT size=2>The asylum system
insists that only 'genuine refugees' can stay in
the UK. Applicants are subjected to an intensive
'show-us-your-scars' style interrogation, in which
they have to satisfy the authorities that they
have truly been persecuted.<BR
class=NetscapeDummy><BR
class=NetscapeDummy></FONT></TD></TR>
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<TD class=bodyp><FONT size=2>Those who do not meet
the exacting standards of victimhood are deemed to
be mere 'economic refugees' and branded 'bogus
asylum-seekers'. Those who are allowed in are
assumed to be so desperate that they should accept
any degrading conditions - such as living on food
vouchers worth just 70 percent of income support,
and compulsory 'dispersal' to impoverished
inner-city estates like Glasgow's Sighthill.<BR
class=NetscapeDummy><BR
class=NetscapeDummy></FONT></TD></TR>
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<TD class=bodyp><FONT size=2>By marking these
refugees out as alien scroungers, then dumping
them in the middle of hard-pressed communities
where being given a second-hand fridge looks like
privileged treatment, the asylum law invites the
kind of violence and tensions that exploded there
this week. <BR class=NetscapeDummy><BR
class=NetscapeDummy></FONT></TD></TR>
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<TD class=bodyp><FONT size=2>After the murder, one
Glasgow newspaper revealed that the Turkish victim
was not a 'genuine refugee' at all, but a poor
fruit-and-veg seller who had come here under false
pretences in pursuit of a better life. Under UK
law, that is an offence. But why should you be
treated like a criminal because you are attempting
to escape from poverty rather than persecution?<BR
class=NetscapeDummy><BR
class=NetscapeDummy></FONT></TD></TR>
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<TD class=bodyp><FONT size=2>If we want a bold
solution to the problem, let's try getting rid of
the immigration laws. Since there are no
categories of 'real' and 'bogus' human beings, all
surely deserve equal treatment. And let them work
when they get here.<BR class=NetscapeDummy><BR
class=NetscapeDummy></FONT></TD></TR>
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<TD class=bodyp><FONT size=2>Despite the scare
stories, there is no danger of developed societies
being 'overpopulated' through immigration. As the
home to 34million people, many of them immigrants,
California is the most populous state in the USA.
Yet the US immigration authorities admit that its
economy could probably sustain around twice as
many people.<BR class=NetscapeDummy><BR
class=NetscapeDummy></FONT></TD></TR>
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<TD class=bodyp><FONT size=2>Indeed, studying the
declining birth rate, some demographers are now
coming to the conclusion that economies like the
UK will need more immigrant labour in the future.
Yet even this hard-headed capitalist case for
immigration is not enough to shift the political
class from their close-the-door attitudes. A
combination of prejudice, lack of nerve and a
contemptuous fear of 'the mob' prevents the
politicians from daring to break free of the
stultifying 'how can we keep them out?' debate on
asylum and immigration.<BR class=NetscapeDummy><BR
class=NetscapeDummy></FONT></TD></TR>
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<TD class=bodyp><FONT size=2>The paradox today is
that, while the etiquette of anti-racism has
become compulsory among the New Labour elite and
their allies, nobody wants to appear 'soft' on
asylum. The upshot is, as we have noted on <I
xmlns:script="urn:my-script-blocks">spiked</I>
before, that you can treat asylum-seekers like
dirt, so long as you don't use any rude words like
'bogus' in front of the Commission for Racial
Equality.<BR class=NetscapeDummy><BR
class=NetscapeDummy></FONT></TD></TR>
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<TD class=bodyp><FONT size=2>This poses an
important test for those of us who want to make a
consistent stand in defence of liberties during
New Labour's second term. We should challenge all
attempts to impose censorship and conformity under
the banners of anti-racism. At the same time,
however, we need to oppose the divisive asylum
system and the immigration laws that underpin it.
We cannot have a free society so long as people
are not free to come and go.<BR
class=NetscapeDummy><BR
class=NetscapeDummy></FONT></TD></TR>
<TR>
<TD class=bodyp><FONT size=2>(1) <I
xmlns:script="urn:my-script-blocks">Daily
Express</I>, 10 August 2001 <BR
class=NetscapeDummy
xmlns:script="urn:my-script-blocks"><BR></FONT></TD></TR></TBODY></TABLE></TD></TR></TBODY></TABLE></TD></TR></TBODY></TABLE></TD></TR></TBODY></TABLE></TD></TR></TBODY></TABLE></FONT></DIV></BODY></HTML>