Mothers and other parents and carers at Kingsgate Primary School in Camden, London, are circulating the following letter urging their children's school to oppose the government plan to detain children seeking asylum so they can no longer attend school with other children. We strongly object to this segregation. And we object to the aim of the policy as stated by the Home Secretary (see below): that children must be divided from each other because communities (children, parents, schools and local papers), far from being hostile, are in fact too supportive. We cannot let our children and communities be divided in this way as this can only encourage racism and victimisation from which we will all suffer. We urge other parents and schools to join us - the initiative has already been taken up by parents at Hampstead School (Camden) and Carlton Nursery (Brent), and a number of teachers have already expressed their support. The Brent local paper reports that Copland Community School and other schools are also opposing.

Time is short: the Nationality, Immigration & Asylum Bill is being debated
in the House of Lords from Monday 24 June and Amendments are being discussed on the 4th 5th and 8th July. Don't let them decide about our
children without hearing from us, the carers, who have their welfare most at
heart.

What you can do:
1. Ask your school and local education authority to protest - send them your
letter and tell them the community feels strongly about it.
2. Send your letter to: your local press, educational journals, education
editors of all the national daily papers, any school TV or radio programmes
and ask them all to cover it. (We can help gather names, addresses and
emails for you.)
3. Contact any teachers associations/trade unions you belong to or know
about and ask them to get their branches to write.
4. Write to the House of Lords as soon as possible. The Bill has already
been debated in the House of Commons. It goes to the Lords on Monday 24
June where it is debated and then to a Lords Committee where amendments are considered on 8, 9 & 10 July.

For the Lib Dems: Lord Dholakia Email:  dholakian@parliament.uk
plus Elizabeth Hannah (office) Email:  hannae@parliament.uk
Fax: 7219 2377

For the Cross Bench (i.e. independent): Lord Craig of Radley Email:
 craigd@parliament.uk
plus Julian Dee (office) Email:  deej@parliament.uk Fax: 7219 0670

For Labour: Lord Desai Email:  m.desai@lse.ac.uk
Lord Grocott (the government chief whip) Fax: 7219 5979
Lord Williams of Mostyn, Leader of the House
Email:  psqwilliams@cabinet-office.x.qsi.gov.uk Fax: 7219 3051

For the Conservatives: Baroness Anelay Email:  anelayj@parliament.uk Fax:
7219 4858
Baroness Blatch Email:  blatche@parliament.uk

We would be glad to talk to mothers, fathers and other carers, governors,
teachers and other school and nursery staff about this. Please don't forget
to send us a copy of your signed letter so we can circulate it too.

Kay Chapman Email:  kay@crossroadswomen.net

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To Kingsgate School

17 June 2002
Dear Teachers, Staff & Governors at Kingsgate School

We are writing as mothers and other parents and carers with children in
Kingsgate to urge you to protest against the government's plans to force
children who are seeking asylum from living and being "educated" in
detention centres away from mainstream schools.

During the Commons debate on the latest immigration and asylum legislation,
the Home Secretary David Blunkett revealed the government's real reason for
keeping children out of schools and nurseries: "It is virtually impossible
to drag a family away from a neighbourhood school. Local papers run local
campaigns to stop people being removed. But if I don't have a removal
policy and the government doesn't have a removal policy, we have no bounds, borders or asylum or immigration policy. We might just as well say: Invite everyone in." (11 June 2002) Recently released figures also show that
residents are four times more likely to be sympathetic to asylum seekers
than hostile.

The Home Secretary's comments and the above figures prove what those of us with children in schools and nurseries with many immigrant and refugee
children have always known and said: that communities do support immigrants' and asylum seekers' right to be here and do not want them detained or deported.

What communities object to, which the government and some media then turn
against immigrants, is having to compete even further for scarce resources.
We notice that there is no lack of money for wars that the UK is in some way
involved in, and no lack of will to sell arms to dictatorships and other repressive governments, all of which cause people to emigrate to escape the
resulting devastation and poverty. (80% of displaced people worldwide are
women and children.) We also note that while low income taxpayers are
encouraged to blame immigrants for our difficulties, corruption at every
level exempts large corporations from paying the taxes they owe which could
pay for education, health, affordable housing and other basic needs.

The government is so determined to cut off every support immigrant and
asylum seeking children enjoy that it wants to take them away from our
schools and communities, denying their human rights and the protection of
the Children Act.

The new law will be devastating for all the children and ethos of Kingsgate,
a multiracial school with children from 30 different nationalities and many
of them refugees from "interminable war zones". We strongly believe that
all our children, starting with English children, have greatly benefited
from growing up in an integrated environment where they can make friends and be educated with children from all over the world. These invaluable
relationships must be defended and strengthened. There is no better
anti-racist education for our children, so vital for a caring society, than
to grow up in a multiracial school which is ready to defend its most
vulnerable pupils and would-be pupils. What better way to learn first hand
that others don't need, want or deserve less than yourself? This is an
education many of us unfortunately did not get as we grew up and had to
learn from our children.

We know Kingsgate is very concerned about racism, sexism and other bullying which pupils and staff are constantly vigilant about. The law, which is
going to the House of Lords next week, will undermine this work as it
establishes an unprecedented apartheid system for some children in this
country. Separate is never equal - many of us opposed and celebrated the
end of separate education in South Africa. We don't want it here.

Schools have a responsibility to protect and defend the education and
welfare of all our children. We therefore urge the school to publicly oppose the segregation of any children on whatever pretext, and to be in touch with other schools and nurseries which also oppose it. There is such a thing as society and all our children and their families are part of it regardless of where they come from.

We would be glad to meet with other parents, governors, teachers and other
staff about this.

Yours sincerely

Maria Arpa, Jan Brener, Kay Chapman, Maria Coelho, L. Deppa, Diane Donaldson, Vicky Fox, Pamela Hastings, Antoinette Hennebert, Shirely Hensman, Ifrath Masih, Fatima Mekal, Tuba Mirzad, Caroline Nelson, Nicola Nimmo, Jennifer Palmer, Claudette Planter, Zara Rochfort, Renu Vasishta

 kay@crossroadswomen.net


Letter from Teachers at Kingsgate Primary School, Camden, London.

We the undersigned teachers and support staff at Kingsgate Primary School
are writing to express our concern about the government's plan to educate
children who are seeking asylum in detention centres away form mainstream
schools.

We believe that the interests of children will not be served if this
proposal becomes statutory. We strongly believe that all the children
benefit from learning in a multi-racial environment and that refugee and
asylum seekers make a positive contribution to the communities they live in.
The school would be a poorer place without them.

We are concerned that the Home Secretary's comments of June 11, 2002
(Hansard) are both divisive and inflammatory. They display insensitivity
towards vulnerable people who have already been forced to flee their country
of origin because of fear of persecution. We do not believe that these
views are representative of the country as a whole and appear to contradict
previous calls by the government for integration and inclusion of minority
ethnic groups.

We sincerely hope that this Bill will be defeated and that tolerance will
prevail.