Campaigners plan unique guided tour to 'Leeds, the city of asylum shame'

The tour of 'Leeds, City of Asylum Shame' is organised by pro-migration group, Leeds No Borders, and begins at midday (12pm) at Leeds Town Hall. Two official tour guides will hand out alternative 'maps' - map front and map back - and take people to a number of key institutions and companies in Leeds city centre that are responsible for the forced detention, destitution and deportation of 'failed asylum seekers' to the countries they originally fled in fear of their lives.

John McCall from Leeds No Borders said:

"Leeds is the UK's fastest growing city and top destination for students. Everywhere you look there is prosperity and regeneration. But this city has a dirty secret - its central role in Britain's asylum shame. People flee to our city believing we will provide them with humane treatment and protection from persecution, rape, torture, war and murder. Instead, we imprison them, beat them up, place them in shoddy housing, destitute them, deny them access to proper legal aid, then deport them back to unsafe countries like Iraq, Zimbabwe and Afghanistan."

Tour destinations include: Leeds Register Office, Crown Court, Hilary Benn MP’s office, Morrisons, Job Centre, Housing Advice Office and the army recruitment office. Each place either plays a direct role in, or symbolises, the mistreatment of asylum seekers. The guides will expose key facts about the UK asylum system. Like how UK trade and foreign policies create 10,000s asylum seekers ever year, how companies like Global Solutions Limited with multi-million pound contracts to run asylum prisons such as Yarls Wood, are accused of pushing asylum seekers to suicide through racism, bullying and assault. The tour will end at City Square where candles will be lit for all those who have died or remain detained in the UK.

Emma Jones from Leeds No Borders said:

"Due to a hate campaign by the mass media, a lot of people think that asylum seekers are swamping our country, taking scarce jobs, living off benefits, jumping council housing queues, breaking the NHS and creating a crime wave. The truth is completely the opposite: Britain has less than 2% of the world's refugees; asylum seekers aren’t allowed to work nor access state benefits and are forced to live on just £39 a week, a third less than people on Income Support. Asylum seekers don’t jump housing queues as they aren't allowed to apply for council housing. They are even charged for NHS treatment, making it far less likely they will seek treatment in the first place. Asylum seekers are twice as likely to be the victim of crime than to commit a crime."

In the evening of 6 May, a benefit gig will take place at the Common Place social centre in Wharf Street to raise money to help support destitute asylum seekers and those fighting the Home Office's unjust decisions to refuse asylum. People are invited to bring their four favourite records and be DJ's for the night.

Notes for journalists

1. Leeds No Borders works in solidarity with refugees, migrants, asylum seekers and other campaign groups in Leeds and beyond. We are committed to practical solidarity, mutual aid and direct action in the fight against deportations, detentions, poverty and racism. We are part of a growing network rooted in the belief that all immigration controls are racist and divisive, and should be opposed and ultimately abolished.

2. The full tour for 12-3pm, Saturday 6 May, is as follows:

12pm: Assemble at Leeds Town Hall;
12.30pm: Leeds Register Office, Asylum Marriage Shame
12.45pm: Leeds Crown and Magistrates Court, Detention Shame: home to Global Solutions Ltd
1pm: Leeds General Infirmary - Asylum healthcare shame
1.15pm: Hilary Benn MP’s Office - UK trade, development, foreign policy shame
1.30pm: Morrisons - Asylum Voucher Shame
1.45pm: Housing Office, Headrow
1.55pm: Job Centre, Eastgate, 35 Eastgate, Leeds LS2 7RE
2pm: Millgarth Police Station
2.30pm: First Choice Travel, Albion Street, LS1 6HX
2.45pm: Armed Forces Careers Information Offices
3pm: City Square - final speeches and candlit vigil for deaths in detention

3. There are over 2000 asylum seekers currently imprisoned in UK 'detention centres' and some 30,000 will experience detention every year. More than 2,000 children of asylum-seekers are locked up every year, leaving them suffering depression, nightmares and eating problems. They have committed no crime and many are subject to beatings and racist abuse.

4. Failed asylum seekers, if eligible, get £35 of vouchers per week for food, which are only valid in shops like Morrisons, Starbucks, Wetherspoons. This prevents asylum seekers using local or culturally appropriate shops, creates harassment from staff and general public, and impedes integration. Vouchers cannot be used to buy tampons and nappies, and no change is given - unless goods match the voucher's full value, asylum seekers' lose out while companies profit at their expense.

5. Failed asylum seekers have just 7 days to vacate this accommodation - even if the government accepts they cannot be deported yet. With no right to access benefits, asylum seekers are forced to sleep on friends' floors or on the streets. It is illegal for other asylum seekers to provide support. One private provider, Angel Group, was given a 5-year contract worth £20m. Its director pays herself £½m a year. Angel has recently been exposed for appalling housing conditions and stands accused of defrauding the taxpayer by £millions.

6. There are around 2000 asylum seekers supported by National Asylum Support Service in Leeds. Many are living in destitution.

7. Section 55 of the Nationality, Immigration and Asylum Act 2002 enables the Home Office to deny support to asylum seekers who fail to claim asylum within just three days of arriving in the UK. An estimated 200 people per week are being made destitute by this law.

8. The mainstream media is responsible for spreading appalling lies about asylum seekers. Britain is not being swamped by claimants, it in fact hosts less than 2% of the world's refugees, making it 32nd in a worldwide league table. Opinion polls show the public overestimates the number of asylum-seekers in UK by 1000%. The countries with the highest numbers are all poor, developing countries. Even in Europe, Britain comes 8th for the number of applicants for asylum per 1000 inhabitants. Nor are any asylum seekers 'bogus' as anyone has the legal right to claim asylum here.