Jeremy Corbyn
Fourth World (Morning Star)
Last week Tony Blair came back from the European Union summit full of all the usual blather about unity and progress, and in passing he referred to the need to protect borders and deal with the problem of asylum seekers.
In response to the usual headlines in the Mail and Express, asylum is routinely identified as a problem with very little reporting of the life of asylum seekers or the size of the problem, or indeed anything about reasons why people seek asylum.
I don’t know if Tony Blair read the UN Report in April on the “The State of the World’s Refugees: Human Displacement in the New Millennium”. Had he done so he might have taken a more sanguine view of the situation.
The report shows that across the globe there are 9.2 million refugees, the lowest figure for twenty five years. Only fourteen years ago the comparative figure was 18 million. However, this can be misleading as the 1951 Geneva Convention does not identify internally displaced people who are usually fleeing conflicts conveniently identified as “internal”. This accounts for some 25 million people.
Whilst the European leaders seek ways to deport people to countries that are not signatories to the 1951 Convention, or indeed the 1988 UN Convention on Torture, they would do well to reflect on the reality of life in the 21st century for many thousands of very poor people.
The lives of tourists in the Canary Islands are apparently disturbed by African migrants arriving in tiny open boats from Senegal and Mauritania. Those that make it apply for asylum in Spain and try and head for mainland Europe. Tragically many do not make it and even Spanish Police admit to at least 1,200 deaths every year trying to make the dangerous crossing. This grim death toll is on top of all the other deaths in attempted crossings of the Mediterranean either to Spain, Malta, Italy and Greece. It is no exaggeration to say that many thousands die every year.
It might be convenient for the EU leaders to blame “people smugglers” for the deaths, but this completely misses the point. We seem to have reached a nadir of inhumanity when these human tragedies gain barely a passing mention in the world’s media, whereas a fairground accident in the USA is flashed around the globe by satellite TV as a major story.
Europe is not alone in this, with many deaths every year of migrants trying to enter the USA or in South East Asia to go to Australia.
To look into this whole issue is to start to uncover the murky fourth world of twilight existences that the gloss of western information does not want to admit to.
Western countries always proclaim their determination to prevent illegal immigration, but in reality they prosper from it and almost encourage it. In the Gulf States the poor from Somalia, Bangladesh and Pakistan build the glittering high rise hotels, clean the rooms and care for the babies and sick. They have no civic rights and their discipline is the fear of being deported to poverty.
In the USA the vast number of Mexican and Central American people ensure that agriculture, office cleaning, tourism personal care are provided for the relatively better off. Denied rights and protection by their lack of status, they work to send money home in the desperate hope that one day their family will be able to join them and lead normal lives. The growing sense of anger and unity of the community lead to the recent marches and demonstrations when Middle America was forced to wake up and realise their dependence on people they had hitherto despised. The political reaction was interesting, with the White House talking vaguely about assimilation whilst at the same time deploying the National Guard to the US – Mexico border. It can only be a matter of time before the poor and desperate from Central America, having travelled by bus, truck and on foot in search of survival, are shot as they try to enter the USA. The treatment of Mexicans in the USA, and the inability of the Government of President Fox to defend them, has become an election issue in next Sunday’s presidential election. The left candidate of the PRD, Lopez Obrador, hopes to win on a wave of anger and indignation.
What is happening in the USA is also repeated in Europe with a large number of people leading similar “twilight” existences. These people from all over the world build the motorways and railways, just as Irish navvies did (150 years ago) clean the offices and serve in the restaurants. Denied access to minimum wage legislation or health care they are an attractive option for many employers. The Home Office becomes the discipline of these workers.
It was only when it was “discovered” that the Home Office itself was cleaned by “illegals” that the media took up the cry and attacked Liam Byrne for even considering an amnesty.
In Spain an amnesty was granted in 2005 for all illegals and of the 700,000 who applied for regularisation 557,000 were granted. It is widely reported that this has gone a long way towards deconstructing Spain’s informal economy, and it must be increasing tax revenues for the Spanish Government.
In Britain “Migration Watch”, a rather sinister Right wing organisation has led the attacks on the Transport and General Workers Union for their call for the regularisation of all workers in Britain. This is a brave and principled demand by the Union who recognise the obvious rubric that an illegal worker is an exploited worker and can be used to damage all.
In Britain 25,000 asylum applications were received last year and under Immigration Laws the highest ever number were being detained, 2,250 as of March 31st. The system that operates to deny benefits to “failed” applications is brutal and inhumane. It is supposed to be a deterrent to people seeking safety in Britain; in reality it drives people underground where they are prey to exploitation and danger. It makes no sense to continue this policy; instead of brutality of poverty we need humanity and recognition of the needs and rights of everyone. We also need the mainstream media to recognise the enormous contribution made to the economies of Europe by migrant workers. The alterative is the brutality of detention and starvation.
On a wider scale the treatment of the economic needs of West Africa is so cavalier that it drives the poorest to do what the poor of Europe did in the 19th Century by migrating elsewhere in the hope of a better life.
Those who make up the “fourth world” suffer terrible exploitation, no rights at work or home, and a constant fear of persecution by populist politicians. It is past time their voices were heard.
