Dashty Jamal Secretary of IFIR speech today 29 July 2021 at 2 Marsham St UK Home office

1

Refugees should not be abandoned; they
must be allowed resettlement and safety here in the UK and every country they flee to”
Dashty Jamal Secretary of IFIR speech today 29 July 2021 at 2 Marsham St UK Home office

Good evening everyone

The Government are using the current refugee crises to justify an anti-refugee Bill in Parliament that seeks to rip up the Refugee Convention and prevent desperate people from finding safety in the UK.

Priti Patel home Secretary said” Enough of people trying to gain entry illegally ahead of those who play by the rule”

It is both harsh and unrealistic to suggest that a refugee who arrives irregularly (e.g. without a valid visa) should be accorded fewer rights. Anyone can recognise that people fleeing from violence and war will not be in a position to apply for permission to travel to the UK and they will not be deterred from making that journey. Refugees will be faced with insecurity, poverty and split apart from their families like never before. Yet the real harm this Bill will inflict is not less.

There was ongoing unease about criminalising those who enter the UK irregularly, for the purpose of seeking asylum. The proposed four-year prison sentence in such circumstances is cruel and authoritarian. The policy the UK state uses has led to war, destruction and displacement of millions of people, and not least backing the reactionary states that these refugees have fled from. And now under democracy roof these very victims of UK’s policy would be punished and imprisoned. What an inhumane and xenophobic policy this is!
The Bill have passed Second stage but that doesn’t mean that we stop fighting and when Parliament returns, there will be more opportunities to prevent the Bill becoming law in its current form.

IFIR was part of a campaign called by the refugee council asking MPs to stand against the Government’s discriminatory Anti-Refugee Bill. Over 5,500 of you responded to this urgent call for action.

As you know a huge wave of escaping and fleeing of millions has become a real crisis which is continuing and it is not related to just a specific area or country, but has become a worldwide phenomenon and it will grow due to the conflicts between the blocks of imperialists in order to divide areas of authority and find markets for their products.
Military intervention, economic sanction, war and proxy wars by states, groups, mercenary parties, and terrorist groups have made the situation inhumane. So, war, unsafety, nationality hatred between people has forced compulsory movement of millions of refugees.

We have witnessed people from Middle East and North and South Africa flee the situation they live in, and will continue till we can end the intervention and warmongering of the super power countries including the UK.

Therefore, it has been the struggle and duty of each and every freedom loving person to fight for a world, in which people who flee war, poverty and all other types of atrocities can benefit from a safe and secure life, right of settlement and fair living standards.
UK and The West and Europe countries should avoid their interference policy and to stop supporting the gangs, groups, and the oppressing countries that made their people face war and social unrest.

Ladies and gentlemen,

We have to work together to limit the tragedy of deaths in the seas, to make the countries that refugees cross through to immediately open their borders and to remove the barbed wires. Refugees should not be left alone; they must be allowed resettlement and safety here in the UK and every country they flee to.

IFIR will continue to fight alongside human right and refugee right organisations to fight racism, gender disparity, and also will struggle to achieve equality for refugees.