On 20 January Tyneside Community Action for Refugees held a militant demonstration through the centre of Newcastle to protest against deportations of asylum seekers and to launch the pledge of resistance to snatch squads. Over 100 protesters from diverse communities marched under the banner ‘Here to Stay. Here to Fight. Defend Asylum Rights!’ and demanded an end to dawn raids, the name given to the brutal policy of snatching failed asylum seekers from their homes in the early hours of the morning.
The march was followed by a rally at Grey’s Monument with a diverse range of speakers, including asylum seekers from Ivory Coast , DRCongo , Ethiopia and Turkey and representatives from Fight Racism! Fight Imperialism!, Stop the War Coalition and Jesus Army.
Danny Matthews a British member of TCAR had this to say, ‘The government wants us to think that the asylum system is fair but it will never be fair as long as it is managed by the Home Office of a racist and imperialist Labour government which has vested interests in every corner of the world. The immigration service is not impartial. For example the deportation Kurds back to Turkey and Iraq are political in nature and must be considered unjust and illegal’.
TCAR made the following statement, ‘We call on all those in Tyneside who support justice and democracy to sign a pledge of resistance against the snatch squads, a pledge that you will come out if an asylum seeker near you is attacked. Snatch squads are a matter of life and death to asylum seekers. Once a family is snatched there is very little that can be done directly to prevent their deportation. The government wants to be able to snatch people quietly, in the early hours of the morning, when local people will not see. We will oppose them. We will expose them by all means at our disposal. We will make a noise. When the snatch squads arrive in our local area we will arrive too, and we will stand between them and the family they intend to snatch. Join us!’
Danny Matthews a British member of TCAR had this to say, ‘The government wants us to think that the asylum system is fair but it will never be fair as long as it is managed by the Home Office of a racist and imperialist Labour government which has vested interests in every corner of the world. The immigration service is not impartial. For example the deportation Kurds back to Turkey and Iraq are political in nature and must be considered unjust and illegal’.
TCAR made the following statement, ‘We call on all those in Tyneside who support justice and democracy to sign a pledge of resistance against the snatch squads, a pledge that you will come out if an asylum seeker near you is attacked. Snatch squads are a matter of life and death to asylum seekers. Once a family is snatched there is very little that can be done directly to prevent their deportation. The government wants to be able to snatch people quietly, in the early hours of the morning, when local people will not see. We will oppose them. We will expose them by all means at our disposal. We will make a noise. When the snatch squads arrive in our local area we will arrive too, and we will stand between them and the family they intend to snatch. Join us!’
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