By Anu Shukla
The government’s Illegal Migration Bill proves racism in the Tory Party is historically “endemic”, Jeremy Corbyn told The London Economic at a rally on Saturday.
Suella Braverman’s ‘stop the boats’ plan empowers authorities to deport people to Rwanda if they cross the English Channel on small boards to reach the UK from France. If pushed through, the new Bill will impact 45,000 children who will be barred from UK refugee status.
Organisers from Stand Up Against Racism and STUC told TLE an estimated 10,000 anti-racism protestors joined the London rally outside BBC studios on Portland Place. Thousands also joined rallies in Cardiff and Glasgow.
Those in London marched to Downing Street where speakers, including Corbyn, said Gary Lineker was right to criticise the contentious new asylum policy and to compare the UK government to 1930s Germany. Lineker’s return to the BBC on Saturday after being suspended, coincided with the march where many carried placards bearing his face.
Addressing the crowd, Corbyn said: “Gary Lineker was right when he pointed out that it was that language in the 1930s in Germany that gave rise to massive antisemitism, which ended in the horrors of the 1940s.”
He added: “This Bill is directed against those people who have come to our shores out of desperation. It’s not a solution to incarcerate them in this country, it’s not a solution to send them to Rwanda.”
Corbyn told The London Economic this new asylum policy reflects the “endemic” nature of racism in the Tory party, which he said has been perpetual “since the evils of Enoch Powell and others.”
He added: “And we now have this disgusting spectacle of the Migration Bill, which is brutal and illegal in its own terms–breaching the Human Rights Act and therefore the European Convention on Human Rights.”
If the bill becomes law, he said “we’re going to end up outside of any human rights law in Europe.”
But he said the Labour Party could also “do better by making it very clear that refugees are welcome.” Corbyn said his first priority after being elected Labour leader was to speak at the Refugees are Welcome Here demonstration.
He said those refusing to welcome refugees and asylum seekers should check their family histories: “Look at your own family background–every single one of you comes from Ireland, Ethiopia, France, Germany. At the end of the day we’re all immigrants.”
Towards the end of the rally, a group of protestors with Ukrainian flags chanted anti-Putin slogans. Demonstrators from Somaliland who were at the march to demand International recognition of their country demonstrated solidarity with Ukrainians. by posing with them for photos and stamping on placards of Putin’s face. One woman bearing a Somaliland flag asked a Ukrainian supporter to swap flags to demonstrate mutual solidarity.
Corbyn said he supports Ukrainian refugees and their resettlement in the UK is a good example of how all refugees should be treated. “I absolutely welcome Ukrainian refugees. There are many in my constituency; I’m pleased to meet and support them and delighted they’re here, able to work and make a contribution to our society.”
But he said not all refugees are treated the same–especially those from countries including Iran, Iraq, Syria, Eritrea, Sudan, Yemen and Palestine. “They’re living in desperate poverty–no recourse to public funds. They include very well qualified people yet not allowed to work–even though we have a labour shortage. It’s a no brainer.”
Protestor Millicent Folkes agrees. Folkes arrived in the UK from Jamaica 23 years ago and told TLE some of her family are members of the Windrush Generation. “Regardless of how we got here, we’re all here as migrants. To send refugees to another country like Rwanda is to dehumanise them. Not everyone can successfully apply for asylum–and we all know they won’t be granted equal opportunity. Empathy is lacking.”
Rajinder Bains from the Indian Workers Association told TLE he arrived in the UK in the sixties and was forced to take a stand against “skin heads from the National Front and the British National Party.” He added: “The west is responsible for creating the problems that refugees are running from. The US and western powers must stop their wars. And together we have to fight the racism that is a disease in our society.”
During the march, a group of Iranian women carrying placards with faces of women who were tortured in Iran shouted “no human being is illegal, refugees are welcome here.” Others carried banners that read “fuck the Tories.” One man with a mobile sound system played dub reggae music. Attached to his bicycle was a Palestinian flag and a banner that read “say no to racism, say no to zionism.”
Crowds began to thin out towards the end of the day but plenty stayed to hear poet Michael Rosen speak. He said the new asylum policy racialises crime and aims to “unleash irrational fears; to blame people’s poverty and unhappiness on strangers.”
Walking in the opposite direction were right wing demonstrators with placards stating “take back democracy together” and “stop the toxic air lie.”
PCS Union chief Angela Grant who spoke shortly after said “children of immigrants with brown skin” were “fighting with fascists” and education was critical to help combat racism. She said the UK also has a duty of care towards asylum seekers because it supplies the same “bullets and bombs” they’re escaping from.
The Illegal Migration Bill will go to Committee stage next Monday before it returns to the Commons and is eventually heard in the House of Lords.
Related: Braverman howling with laughter outside Rwandan migrant centre provokes outrage
