Refugee Follow

REPORTS OF war crimes began circulating within days of Israeli tanks rolling into the Palestinian refugee camp of Jenin in April this year. There were dozens of eyewitness accounts of people buried alive as their homes were bulldozed, and of women and children shot dead in the streets. The friends and families of the victims had to wait for four months until the UN produced a report on events in Jenin. The report has serious weaknesses.

THE KEY myths about refugees in Britain have been trashed in a recent report that was commissioned by the Home Office. Vaughan Robinson and Jeremy Segrott from the University of Wales produced the report that investigates why asylum seekers end up in Britain. The report takes on the arguments poured out by press and politicians that refugees flock to Britain because it is a "soft touch".

IMMIGRATION MINISTER Beverley Hughes ordered a police deportation squad to smash down the doors of a West Midlands mosque and snatch two traumatised asylum seekers on Thursday of last week. The abduction of Farid and Feriba Ahmad has created outrage.

OVER 1,000 protesters converged on the Woomera detention centre for refugees in the south Australian desert last Easter. This video is an inspiring account of what happened. Woomera is one of six privately run camps used by the Australian government to detain all "illegal entrants".

ANTI-DEPORTATION campaigners will be holding a vigil at the Home Office in London next Thursday to highlight the case of Aziz Ahmed and his family. Aziz, a political refugee from East Africa, has been held in detention for over a year, in four different centres.

THE DUMAN family's claim for asylum was refused on Thursday 4 July. They are to be deported to Germany on Wednesday morning, 10 July. The Dumans' solicitor is making further representations. The family had left Turkey because, as Kurds, they had suffered years of harassment.

Morris: fight for refugees BILL MORRIS, leader of the TGWU union, again attacked New Labour's policy over refugees last week. He said at the union's Irish conference:

PROTESTERS OPPOSED to the government's treatment of refugees lobbied a Labour Party regional policy forum in Canterbury last Saturday. The meeting was attended by around 80 invited party members, three Kent Labour MPs and transport minister John Spellar. Tom MacGowan, a spokesperson for Kent Committee to Defend Asylum Seekers (CDAS), said, "We handed out an open letter calling for opposition to racist government policies on asylum seekers.

TONY BLAIR used the European Union summit in Seville last weekend to drive through more attacks on asylum seekers. Before the summit Blair announced that he wanted to "force the pace of change" on asylum to make life even harder for desperate refugees. "Tony Blair gets on better with the centre-right leaders than with his comrades on the left," said the Financial Times.

THE WAR against refugees intensified again this week. Home secretary David Blunkett welcomed the election of a Tory government in France because he believes it will crack down on asylum seekers. Tony Blair is meeting European leaders at Seville to organise warships to sink refugee boats. He also wants European states to slash aid to the poor countries that refugees flee from.

APARTHEID FOR children-that is what David Blunkett pushed through the school system this week. The government wants refugee children educated separately from the rest. They will be treated as second class and labelled as "problems", and then blamed for the crisis in schools.

"SOME people coming to Britain are denounced as economic migrants, yet economic migrants from all over the world are encouraged to be doctors and nurses to fill the gaps." So says former Labour MP TONY BENN.