GLASGOW ANTI-RACISM MARCH.

       Today Saturday 27 November saw Glasgow's annual anti-racism march and rally. In spite of the snow and very cold weather, there was a good turnout and it was the usual colourful affair with an array of different banners. The banners varied from union banners to anti-cuts banners and Scotland Against Criminalising Communities, SACC.  The march started at St Andrew's in the Square and snaked its way through the city ending up at the GFT cinema where there were speeches from some well know names and faces.

      I'm sure that those on the march will be well aware that anti-racism cannot be separated  from the quality of life within our society and hopefully they will continue to demonstrate and protest at the onslaught being perpetrated on the living standards of the ordinary people of this country. It cannot be two separate campaigns, racism is woven into the fabric of this government's ideology, as it carries out a slash and burn policy with all our public assets.
      This coalition of millionaires has a very open campaign against immigrants, they will continue to throw up the usual scapegoats and the media will always swing the usual red herring, all to keep the focus from being on the real criminals in this society, the free market millionaire fundamentalists, the corporate cabal of the corrupt. Unity between all the groups, solidarity across all sections of the ordinary people of this society is the only way we can defeat this plunder of our assets and the privatisation of our welfare state.

ann arky's home.

END ASYLUM DESTITUTION.

       

     I suppose the measure of a civilised society is the way it treats strangers and how it helps those in need.  By these measures it would seem that we fall very short of the measure. Below is a page taken from a very infomative booklet called "TAKE ACTION, TO END ASYLUM DESTITUTION." produced by  Training Campaigns Advice and Positive Action in Housing, January 2008. It is certainly worth a read to see just how we treat strangers and those in need.

Could you survive on £6 per day?

This is how much a single adult asylum seeker has to live on. It is £6 more than someone who is destitute has.

How many destitute asylum seekers are there?

Nobody knows the precise number. Scottish charities are seeing ever increasing numbers, including many who are pregnant, disabled or in poor mental health. Refugee Survival Trust give out around 100 destitution grants per month to people in crisis in Scotland. The National Audit Office estimates that there are 283,500 refused asylum seekers living in the UK, who have not been removed – so the scale of the problem is huge.

Why are refused asylum seekers not removed?

In many cases it is simply not possible to remove people back to their home countries – for example there may be no safe route, no functioning airport or it is impossible to get travel documents from their country of origin. This raises the question, if it is not safe or possible to remove someone, why was their claim for protection refused?

Mary from Uganda was destitute for three months with twins aged 3, after fleeing a dawn raid. Eventually she won leave to remain – just one of the many refugees who faced injustice.

Why can’t destitute asylum seekers just go back to their home country?

Many refused asylum seekers are too afraid to go home voluntarily, not least as they are from countries - such as Iraq, Zimbabwe or Somalia - torn apart by conflict or where human rights abuses are rife. They consider starving and sleeping on the streets in Britain to be a safer option.

How long are people destitute for?

Refugee Action recently interviewed 125 destitute asylum seekers in England. They found that just under half had been destitute for up to a year, and of the rest, most had been destitute for between one and two years. On average people had spent 21 months being destitute.

Where do most destitute asylum seekers sleep?

We’ve met asylum seekers who have slept in parks, phone boxes, behind bins, in doorways or just travel on night buses. Others are taken in by friends who are mainly fellow asylum seekers; moving from floor to floor so that they don’t become too big a burden. What makes things even more difficult is that asylum seekers aren’t allowed to have people staying over in their NASS flats so by helping they are running the risk of having all their own support stopped as well.

ann arky's home.