Speakers at Movement Against Xenophobia public meeting call for an end to the scapegoating of immigrants and warn new Immigration Act will cause discrimination
At a public meeting yesterday, the Movement Against Xenophobia campaign group called for political parties to stop scapegoating immigrants in an age of austerity.
A panel of five speakers expressed concern that, with the rising profile of UKIP, the debate on immigration in British politics was seeing a race to the bottom.
Also of particular concern to the Movement Against Xenophobia and the panel was the Government's new Immigration Act 2014.
JCWI's Saira Grant, chairing the event, called the new Act pernicious. It seeks to turn landlords, health workers and other public sector workers into border guards, and will cause discrimination on the basis of race.
Lee Jasper, co-chair of BARAC and a one-time advisor to the former Mayor of London Ken Livingstone, said the Immigration Act 2014 was the latest in a long line of similar legislation and he bemoaned the number of Immigration Bills and Acts that the UK has seen in recent decades.
However, Jasper warned that the new 2014 Act went further. He noted that John McDonnell MP had called it "the most racist piece of legislation in the last 30 years".
Jasper said the new Act is a codification of discrimination and racism into British law.
In a contribution from the floor, the Chief Executive Officer of Freedom from Torture (and former EIN Chair of Trustees) Keith Best said he believed that the Immigration Act will be seen as so racist that it will become untenable.
Best drew parallels with the infamous 'sus laws' which disproportionately targeted black and ethnic minorities communities.
Best said that the new Immigration Act would lead to the same level of racial discrimination.