Stop witchhunt against Ayslum Seekers - Just four myths agai

[revolutionary spirit]

Stop the witchhunt against refugees

We answer the government and media lies about asylum seekers

Myth 1: Britain is flooded with refugees

Fact: New refugees only made up 0.1 percent of the population in Britain last year. Britain has a population of 59 million. Last year only 71,700 people applied for asylum here. That is nearly 10,000 less than the year before.

Myth 2: Many asylum seekers are "bogus"

Fact: The top three countries refugees to Britain come from are Iraq, Somalia and Afghanistan, all torn apart by war. People are forced to be refugees through war, repression, economic crisis and dire poverty. Britain ranks only seventh of the 15 European countries for asylum applications per 1,000 inhabitants.

Myth 3: Britain is a soft touch for refugees

Fact: Refugees live on only 70 percent of income support. They don't even get milk tokens for their children. A single adult has to survive on just £37.77 a week.

Myth 4: Refugees are a drain on the economy

Fact: Many refugees are educated and skilled-they are doctors, teachers and engineers. Our public services need them but refugees are not allowed to work. Yet immigrant workers contribute £2.5 billion to the British economy every year. Refugees add to and enrich all aspects of our society. That is why everyone should stand up to say that refugees are welcome here.

These are the people the government and press are demonising. Ziyan and her disabled son, Qodoo, fled from Iraq and were refugees at the Sangatte refugee camp in France. Read their story on page 7

[Son of Scargill]

Very good examples rev. spirit,although I thought the population figures for Britain were above the 70 million mark.Maybe they meant England,as that would be about right.
Nit-picking aside,it really pisses me off that refugees are constantly used as scapegoats for a mis-managed economy,and compassion for peoples worse off than ourselves goes out the window.It just goes to show what a bunch of shallow,self-centered bastards the British public really are!

[revolutionary spirit]

it's the fucking Sun

[Son of Scargill]

No way!!

[revolutionary spirit]

hard to believe isn't it?

[Kez]

thanks rev spirit, those are some good stats to kill the fascists with

[revolutionary spirit]

they are useful to have,shame they aren't publically known

[Angie]

*sniff* Too close to home. Inhumane to start with, but especially inhumane that it's occuring everywhere. :angry:

(In the case of Australia, I can see why our Government would want to slow down and/or cease the flow of "people-smuggling rackets", that's obvious - but to traumatise the refugees - MOST (not all, some are just in there to stir the others up, but MOST) of whom are actually the victims? Unforgivable.

[Natalenko]

In australia, the situation is MUCH worse than in britain.
We have what is called "Mandatory detention" if you are an illegal immigrant who is not from a first world country, then you are immediately detained in australias refugee detention centers for "processing" most of these centers are in LITERALLY the middle of the desert, they have enourmous gates and razor wire, they are EXACTLY like a prison!!! you CANNOT phone home or out of the center, you are not entitled to more thatn your daily ration of food, even if you are ill, and you must obey every instruction given to you by the higher autorities. In fact, its far worse than prison, because these DESPERATE people are locked up in prisons for commiting NO CRIME! around 84% of the refugees which were processed last year were ligitimate asylum seekers. But they were still locked up for up to 9 years!

Also, its not just men and women, chilren as young as 2 years old are in these prisons, and just recently, one was born in there. Was it taken out? NO! it will grow up in a prison, just because it escaped war and famine. It may grow to be a teenager in there, and never see another life!

I CALL ON ALL AUSTRALIANS TO TAKE A STAND AGAINST THE INHUMANE TREATMENT OF REFUGEES!!!

[peaccenicked]

Great thread.
Let those racist imperialists know that they aint gonna get away with this crap forever.

[Mac OS Revolutionary]

Australia's government is terrible

[revolutionary spirit]

John Howard is the PM is he?I saw some pictures of asylum seekers of a young age in the water,an Australian newspaper said their parents threw them in the water from their boat so the coast guard would take them in.But what it failed to mention is that their boat had sunk or was sinking and that's why they were in the water.

[Angie]

Quote from Mac OS Revolutionary:
Australia's government is terribleCouldn't have said it better myself. :)

[Mac OS Revolutionary]

Quote: from revolutionary spirit on 2:02 pm on June 8, 2002
John Howard is the PM is he?I saw some pictures of asylum seekers of a young age in the water,an Australian newspaper said their parents threw them in the water from their boat so the coast guard would take them in.But what it failed to mention is that their boat had sunk or was sinking and that's why they were in the water.

Apparently the soldiers threw the children overboard and the govrnment claimed that the asylum seekers did it. It was(still is) a big deal.

[Natalenko]

no, the soldiers were rescuing the children, but out of 25 photos shown to the government of the sinking ship, they showed 2 to the public which didnt prove or disprove the governments "theory" that the refugees threw the kids overboard. That was one week b4 elections, then they were voted for again, 5 months into the Liberal party's 2nd term, and the other 23 photos were released, CLEARLY showing that the government was lying to win the election. The government said that they hadn't previously seen these photos, and using the 2 that were shown, they used "intelligent intuition" to suspect them of throwing THEIR OWN CHILDREN overboard.

This was a clear lye, but the PUBLIC STILL DOESNT CARE most say "yeah, the government had a right to lie to us, they needed that vote so now we dont have that refugee problem no more"

Fuck most aussies are dumb!.

[Mac OS Revolutionary]

Quote: from Natalenko on 10:27 am on June 9, 2002

This was a clear lye, but the PUBLIC STILL DOESNT CARE most say "yeah, the government had a right to lie to us, they needed that vote so now we dont have that refugee problem no more"

Fuck most aussies are dumb!.
Too bloody right mate.

[marxistdisciple]

I work for social services and one of my bosses is handling asylum seekers in Nottingham....there has been protests about the new "detention" centre that is being built on RAF Newton. ....the reasoning? The asylum seekrs will "flood" the nearby town of Bingham, and disturb residents, etc. I have talked about this before to people....asylum seekers are a great asset to our country, and are not "flooding" our country like the sun and the Mail make out. I say stand up against this jingoism (I like that word, it sounds as silly as what it means, ultra-nationalism)
I wish the British public wouldn't keep believing what the tabloid press throw at them!

[deimos]

i don't understand y the australians are against refugees.Most of them are people from europe who had no luck there adn so emigrated to australia.They are economic refugees.

[Needssomeconvincing]

The best way to combat ignorance is through education (duh!). In our school a few asylum seekers from west africa were invited to speak to classes. They told them why they are in Ireland, about their home countries and the law regarding asylum seekers. A lot of the pupils didn't know much about the asylum seekers plight other than sensationalist stories in the media. We're told that Ireland is flooded by refugee's when in reality the number is very small. It was really annoying to see so many politicians in the general election campaigning on an anti-emmigration platform,my second cousin included :( Many didn't make it through but got a substantial proportion of the vote.

[Natalenko]

Thats the fuckin problem though, in Aussie, most teachers are anti-refugee, my old principal was and how do you get a refugee to speak in a school like that? Thats like getting a jew to speak at a Nazi school, it aint gonna happen!.