The government finally had to concede and accept the halt to the deportation of asylum seekers to Rwanda. This is a major victory for the civilised humanity. A victory for the civilised humanity and all those who have been continuously protesting against such an inhumane policy against the people who have fled war zones and persecution.

The policy of deporting the very people who have risked their life and gone through a passage that is rift with danger, shows total disregard to the basic right of any human being to a safe shelter. Rwanda, a country whose record on human rights is common knowledge, has been paid to accept asylum seekers from Britain and process their asylum applications! Moreover, the authorities in Rwanda may decide to refuse the application of asylum and deport the asylum seeker back to their original country! This is even a clear violation of the expected protection of the Geneva Convention on Refugees, to which the Britain is a signatory.

This deportation policy goes even further than the doomed attempts of the 1980s, when asylum seekers were detained on a ferry at the port, so that they do not even feel the security of being on the land. It is the same policy of “voluntary deportation” that Israel adopted and had to abandon, or that of Australian government’s detention centres in Papua New Guinea, which were so inhumane that they had to be closed down.

It is shameful that the government is presenting asylum seekers as thieves, who seek “illegal entry” to benefit economically, or as agents who are feeding “human traffickers”. It is shameful that in the 21^st century, asylum seekers are still held in detention centres, hand-cuffed and treated as criminals.

Asylum seekers are not the cause but a consequence of the wars, conflicts and devastation, which the world powers have created or propagated through the repressive rule of their allies in different corners of the world. Once again, asylum seekers are presented as the cause and the reason for the current lack of social provisions in health, education, housing, …  There is nothing novel in such racist rhetoric and propaganda. Over the years, asylum seekers, similar to “foreigners” in the 20^th Century, “Eastern Europeans” in the prelude to Brexit, and in a word, some of the most venerable people have been continuously used as a scapegoat in order to divert the attention of the real causes of the suffering in this country and the failure of the whole system.

Today, more than ever, it is clear that the whole issue of treatment of refugees and asylum seekers is nothing to do with the safety and shelter of people fleeing their countries, but a reflection of the politics of the day. Fleeing horrors of war in Ukraine is “legal”, whereas fleeing from war and persecution in Africa, Asia, Middle East, ... is “illegal” ! It is also just as evident today, that there is a deep-rooted sense of solidarity and care for fellow human beings in the society at large which has manifested itself once again in the widespread opposition to this racist deportation policy. This is a glimpse of a broad movement that has stood against the double standards and hypocrisy of this government, against segregation, discrimination and criminalisation of people who have fled wars and persecution. A movement, that despite all the attempts of the government and the right-wing media, continuously insists on echoing “refugees are welcome here”.

Worker-communist party of Iran – Hekmatist (Official Line) - Organisation Abroad – Britain

15 June 2022