Aug 24, 2007Quickie Link: Figures of disgrace -- By Peter Tatchell
By vanrozenheim
For the many genuine refugees who are wrongly branded by the Home Office as "failed" asylum seekers, this get-tough policy is a humanitarian disaster. Some are being sent back to countries where they are at risk of arrest, jail, torture, vigilante attacks, death squads and worse. The truth is that much of the government's "success" in cutting asylum numbers and hiking deportations is because it has shamelessly rigged the asylum system to ensure the failure of as many applicants as possible. This is a cynical, ruthless, immoral policy - devoid of compassion and humanity. Labour's pride in its rigged asylum system is one reason why so many people, like me, have left Labour in droves. We can no longer stomach this heartless, dishonest government, which brags that it deports one asylum seeker "every eight minutes".
