Asylum Seekers
TABLOID LIES BLUR THE ISSUE AND DIVIDE THE WORKING CLASS
The Refugee Issue has become controversial. The people of Scotland are worried about the state of national and local services. They worry about what effect asylum seekers entering Scottish communities will have.There have also been a significant number of tabloid myths which have stirred up a debate based on lies and deception rather than on human rights, justice and fairness.
Many tabloid articles refer to "bogus refugees", "economic migrants who are a drain on services", and suggest that refugees "just walk in and get everything given to them". It's little wonder then that Sighthill in Glasgow was the location of racist attacks. Sighthill is the tenth poorest area in the whole of the UK, and has been consistently neglected by successive Governments.
The rise of a number of tyrants and dictators throughout the World (many of whom have been armed by successive UK and US governments) is a tragedy. That the victims of horrific human rights violations should be dismissed by the media as liars, fraudsters and spongers is shameful beyond words. That the good people of Scotland should swallow such garbage wholesale is an indictment on the country which is famed for its welcome to visitors as well as the ambassadorship of the Tartan Army.
On entering the UK, asylum seekers are eligible for support from the Government equivalent to 70% of the rate of Income Support, around £36 – only £10 of which is in cash, the rest in humiliating and stigmatising vouchers. That is 70% of what most in receipt of 100% income support would argue is not enough to live on. It can take up to six weeks to receive any payment whatsoever. Meantime the asylum seeker families will have been housed in properties that no-one else wants to live in, either because of the area or the level of dilapidation the properties are in – hence the reason these properties lie vacant.
Asylum seekers are prevented from working for the first six months of their stay in Britain, and so are unable to earn a wage and pay tax to give back a contribution. The tabloid response to this has been to accuse asylum seekers and refugees of being lazy and ungrateful.
The tabloids would have us believe that the UK is a "soft touch" on the asylum seeker issue, but the fact is that most other countries in Europe are financially more supportive of asylum seekers and refugees. Moreover, they will have already welcomed far greater numbers of refugees into their communities. UN figures for 2000 show that Britain ranked seventh out of fifteen EU countries in terms of the number of asylum applications relative to the size of proportion with 1.66 applications per 1000 people (in Belgium the figure was 4.2). We are out of step with Europe, but because we are not doing enough!
