Get ready to stop Tory plan to snatch refugees
The Home Office will launch a surprise operation to detain refugees waiting for their asylum decision
By Isabel Ringrose
Sunday 28 April 2024
SOOCIALIST WORKER
Prime Minister Rishi Sunak has a new plan to attack refugees (Picture: Simon Walker)
The Tories are coming for refugees—and they want to block anti-racists from stopping them.
The Home Office will launch a surprise operation to detain refugees waiting for their asylum decision from Monday to prepare them for deportation to Rwanda. This will be done to refugees attending immigration appointments without warning.
The state will also begin to pick-up refugees nationwide in a two-week operation, and hold them for up to ten weeks before the first flight takes off to Rwanda. From here they will be immediately transferred to detention centres who have already been prepared for the rounding up. The first flights are due to take off this summer.
It’s clear why Rishi Sunak has decided to do this—to time with the local elections on Thursday. Sunak hopes cracking down on refugees will secure at least some seats and avoid a landslide humiliation.
The Rwanda bill passed through parliament last week after two years and Sunak wants to waste no time seeing the first flight taking off.
Sunak said, “To detain people while we prepare to remove them, we’ve increased detention spaces to 2,200.
“To quickly process claims, we’ve got 200 trained, dedicated caseworkers ready and waiting. To deal with any legal cases quickly and decisively, the judiciary has made available 25 courtrooms and identified 150 judges who could provide over 5,000 sitting days.”
Cops in Scotland are also on alert to evade street protesters who block detention vans and stop the state snatching refugees. This is because of the strength of anti-racists who have stopped deportation vans before.
Anti-raids mobilisations stopped deportation raids in Glasgow on Kenmure street in May 2021 and Nicholson Square in Edinburgh in June 2022.
And anti-racists across Britain have done similar—in Peckham and Hackney in London and this week in Kent.
Some 100 protesters in Margate last Wednesday blocked the Home Office from taking 22 asylum seekers from a hotel to the Bibby Stockholm barge. The men have been in Margate for seven months and have suffered with ceilings falling down in their rooms.
The Block the Barge group tried to stop the move through letters to MPs and the Home Office, but instead stood last Tuesday night ready to block the removal coach.
This is the type of action that the Tories want to avoid. They know that anti-racists will fight to stop refugees being transported to Rwanda.
And that’s exactly what anti-racists have to do. The Home Office wants to snatch refugees without warning or support, and it can’t be allowed to.
Charity Care4Calais said to those who may be taken, “Please be assured that we remain firmly on your side and ready to help anyone targeted by this inhumane plan.
“Our caseworkers helped stop the first Rwanda fight and with your support we can do it again.”
Anti-raids groups need to be organised and prepared—networks have to make sure that any attempt to transport refugees and lock them in detention centres doesn’t happen. They have to block vans and organise occupations of immigration centres when refugees don’t return from their meetings.
Mass disruption outside Home Office buildings, in town centres and in workplaces have to demand any refugees that are taken are returned from their holding cells—and kept off flights.
And if any refugees are put on planes, they cannot be allowed to take off with a single refugee on board.
It’s time for trade unionists, anti-racists and any who hate the Tories to unite to stop the mass round-ups.
The Home Office will launch a surprise operation to detain refugees waiting for their asylum decision
By Isabel Ringrose
Sunday 28 April 2024
SOOCIALIST WORKER
Prime Minister Rishi Sunak has a new plan to attack refugees (Picture: Simon Walker)
The Tories are coming for refugees—and they want to block anti-racists from stopping them.
The Home Office will launch a surprise operation to detain refugees waiting for their asylum decision from Monday to prepare them for deportation to Rwanda. This will be done to refugees attending immigration appointments without warning.
The state will also begin to pick-up refugees nationwide in a two-week operation, and hold them for up to ten weeks before the first flight takes off to Rwanda. From here they will be immediately transferred to detention centres who have already been prepared for the rounding up. The first flights are due to take off this summer.
It’s clear why Rishi Sunak has decided to do this—to time with the local elections on Thursday. Sunak hopes cracking down on refugees will secure at least some seats and avoid a landslide humiliation.
The Rwanda bill passed through parliament last week after two years and Sunak wants to waste no time seeing the first flight taking off.
Sunak said, “To detain people while we prepare to remove them, we’ve increased detention spaces to 2,200.
“To quickly process claims, we’ve got 200 trained, dedicated caseworkers ready and waiting. To deal with any legal cases quickly and decisively, the judiciary has made available 25 courtrooms and identified 150 judges who could provide over 5,000 sitting days.”
Cops in Scotland are also on alert to evade street protesters who block detention vans and stop the state snatching refugees. This is because of the strength of anti-racists who have stopped deportation vans before.
Anti-raids mobilisations stopped deportation raids in Glasgow on Kenmure street in May 2021 and Nicholson Square in Edinburgh in June 2022.
And anti-racists across Britain have done similar—in Peckham and Hackney in London and this week in Kent.
Some 100 protesters in Margate last Wednesday blocked the Home Office from taking 22 asylum seekers from a hotel to the Bibby Stockholm barge. The men have been in Margate for seven months and have suffered with ceilings falling down in their rooms.
The Block the Barge group tried to stop the move through letters to MPs and the Home Office, but instead stood last Tuesday night ready to block the removal coach.
This is the type of action that the Tories want to avoid. They know that anti-racists will fight to stop refugees being transported to Rwanda.
And that’s exactly what anti-racists have to do. The Home Office wants to snatch refugees without warning or support, and it can’t be allowed to.
Charity Care4Calais said to those who may be taken, “Please be assured that we remain firmly on your side and ready to help anyone targeted by this inhumane plan.
“Our caseworkers helped stop the first Rwanda fight and with your support we can do it again.”
Anti-raids groups need to be organised and prepared—networks have to make sure that any attempt to transport refugees and lock them in detention centres doesn’t happen. They have to block vans and organise occupations of immigration centres when refugees don’t return from their meetings.
Mass disruption outside Home Office buildings, in town centres and in workplaces have to demand any refugees that are taken are returned from their holding cells—and kept off flights.
And if any refugees are put on planes, they cannot be allowed to take off with a single refugee on board.
It’s time for trade unionists, anti-racists and any who hate the Tories to unite to stop the mass round-ups.
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