Injustice and the Migrant : No Justice in Calais !

 

Democracy and Class Struggle says the hysteria in the British Media about migrants in Calais show how the ideas of justice and humanity live uneasily within the British Capitalist State.

Modern neo liberal capitalism is the engine that drives people to the shores of Europe just as Anglo/American Imperialism robs and bombs its way across the globe creating the crisis that it then blames on others  - especially its victims.

The article below is by Tim Chester is against the tide of racism and xenophobia and holds to human values of justice and humanity but we also need to recognise the class character of mass migration and defend the poor and dispossessed of their dignity has human beings as the same system that robs us our rights and dignity also robs migrants of theirs.

The British State is always happy to discuss immigration on the media as it acts as a lightening rod for peoples anger against the neo liberal capitalist system and diverts people from the necessity of global and national class struggle to overthrow the Jurassic neo liberal capitalism which tries to create carnivores and cannibals of us all fighting and devouring each other instead to creating the basis for the transition to revolutionary socialism - a form of society long overdue which can ensure the survival of the human race.

End the inhumanity of neo liberal capitalism before it ends us or it will not just be our hearts buried in Calais but humanity itself.

30/07/2015
 

 

 

LONDON —Another man died in Calais Tuesday night. The victim, believed to be in his late 20s and from Sudan, was crushed under the wheels of a truck as he tried to stow away on a vehicle bound for England.

He's not the first - nine have died since June - and he almost certainly won't be the last.

He was one of some 1,500 people attempting to enter the Channel Tunnel that connects northern France with England on Tuesday night, a huge desperate wave that followed quick on the heels of a surge of some 2,000 on Monday. Eurotunnel, who say they have blocked around 37,000 attempts since January, insist it's a "nightly occurrence."

See also: 1,500 migrants storm Eurotunnel at Calais leaving one dead

 

As the situation escalates, France deployed extra police and the Home Office pledged to spend £7 million on 1.2 miles of extra fencing.

Here's a look at some of the popular myths around the people lining up to reach England, and their motivations

 

Myth 1: Britain is getting flooded with more migrants than anywhere else

 

The UK received over 29,000 asylum applications in 2013, according to a report from Oxford University's Migration Observatory, placing it fourth in the European Union after Germany (126,000), Sweden (54,000) and France (66,000). As for the number of asylum applications per capita, the UK places 16th out of 28.

By 2014, applications to the UK had grown to 31,300, according to The Office of the United Nations High Commissioner for Refugees (UNHCR), far lower than Germany (173,100), Turkey (87,800), Sweden (75,100), Italy (63,700) and, for that matter, the U.S. (121,200).

The migrants at Calais represent a tiny fraction of the displaced people across Europe, UNHCR’s Andrej Mahecic insists. “They are a symptom of what’s happening elsewhere,” he told Mashable. "The big crisis in the Middle East and Africa is pushing an increased number of people to cross the Med.

Very few end up in Calais. Most end up in other countries, mainly Germany and Sweden.”

 

Very few end up in Calais. Most end up in other countries, mainly Germany and Sweden.”
By the end of last year, refugees, pending asylum cases and stateless persons made up just 0.24% of the UK's population, the UNHCR say, adding that "the vast majority of refugees stay in their area of displacement."

The Oxford University report concludes that "for many reasons, including geographical location, the UK currently receives below the EU average number of asylum claims per capita, and receives fewer asylum seekers in absolute numbers than several other EU member states."

Myth 2: Britain is a "soft touch" for asylum seekers

 

 

An accusation that's fired again and again, with the Mayor of Calais, Natacha Bouchart, insisting, "everyone who comes to Calais, comes because they believe they will be looked after if they get to Britain."

"Under British rules they get free accommodation, they can work on the black market easily and they are given money. For poor people from Africa this is very attractive.

Britain is too soft on migrants."

Adult asylum seekers are offered £36.95 per week, or £43.94 if they're a lone parent. Couples get £72.52. In France, adults receive £56.82 per week.

The offering is purposefully meagre - amounts paid were deemed "cripplingly low" by Refugee Action last year - and many other EU countries offer more appealing options. Sweden, Germany and Italy allow asylum seekers jobs if they fulfil certain criteria, for example.

Illegal migrants, on the other hand, can't work, can't claim benefits, don't have a legal right to healthcare and are subject to deportation if discovered. Cameron announced in May he would seize the wages of any workers who are found to have entered illegally or overstayed as proceeds of crime.

Immigration was a key battleground at the general election in May, with most of the main parties promising a hardline approach and the victorious Conservatives insisting that migrants will have to wait years to be eligible for certain benefits. They pledged to reduce net immigration from 243,000 to under 100,000.

Myth 3: Migrants are coming for your jobs

 

Asylum seekers can look for work if their claim has taken more than a year to process.
However, the majority of the migrants huddled in makeshift camps have other things on their minds, having fled war and persecution, from countries including Ethiopia, Eritrea, Sudan, Syria and Afghanistan.

 

"Many making the perilous journey are coming from conflict, human rights abuses and so on," UNHCR's Mahecic told Mashable. Their main priority at this point is finding refuge.

 

Myth 4: Migrants are coming for your houses

 

Asylum seekers are indeed offered "a flat, house, hostel or bed and breakfast," but they have no choice where to live, and places in London or south-east England are highly unlikely.

For every "Asylum seekers housed in hotel with 'spectacular sea views'" headline, there are nine people crammed into a room in another spot.

As the Red Cross points out, asylum seekers don't get offered council houses, but specific and often cramped accommodation. If refugee status is given, they have to pay for housing or ask for government help like any other UK citizen.