Confronting the Hostile Environment - Saturday November 3rd Granville Centre

A Labour Party event but open to all on an important topic.

From Hampstead and Kilburn CLP

A Black History Month Event

CONFRONTING THE HOSTILE ENVIRONMENT – FROM WINDRUSH TO HOUSING TO UNIVERSAL CREDIT

Saturday 3 November 4-6pm

Granville Centre, Carlton Vale, London, NW6 5HE

Tube:  Kilburn Park (Bakerloo line) Buses:  6, 316

Fully wheel chair accessible. ALL WELCOME!

Hampstead & Kilburn Labour Party is holding a Black History Month event to mark the 70^th anniversary of the Empire Windrush arriving at Tilbury Docks (1948). The ship carried over a thousand passengers, mostly from the Caribbean (but also Burma, Mexico and Poland) who had been recruited to leave their homes to rebuild Britain after the war.

While Home Secretary, Theresa May imposed a ‘hostile environment’. She said that British subjects who had uprooted themselves and their families at the invitation of the British government, their children and grandchildren, now had to prove their right to be in the country they helped rebuild and worked hard in, often for the lowest pay. People have been sacked from their jobs, robbed of their homes, benefits, pensions, and denied healthcare. Some were put in detention centres and sent back. Many still live in fear of deportation. Others died from the suffering inflicted by these racist policies. Many are still waiting for recognition of their citizenship and for compensation for the years of injustice and insecurity they suffered.
This event will give a platform to Windrush families and many others affected by racist immigration laws as well as by austerity cuts, which have targeted women and people with disabilities.

Labour’s grassroots membership, spearheaded by BAME women, won a landmark motion at Labour conference to support the Windrush generations. A growing movement is calling for an end to detention, deportation and destitution of any of us.  
Jeremy Corbyn and Diane Abbott have pledged that a Labour government would abolish racist immigration laws and end the requirement for landlords, employers, teachers and health professionals (and even MPs) to act as border guards on behalf of the government.  We’re inviting all our communities – African, Asian, Caribbean, Latin American, immigrant and native born, with or without papers, to take part. We want people to know what’s been won and what obstacles we still face. 

Speakers include:
·  Windrush families, asylum seekers, EU nationals
·  Families affected / threatened by Universal Credit & other benefit cuts
·  Council tenants and local residents resisting evictions and “regeneration” 
Refreshments, and time for discussion and informal networking.

Greens warn that Brexit negotiators are closely watching Windrush developments

The UK’s Government’s appalling treatment of the ‘Windrush generation’ will not be overlooked by the EU’s Brexit negotiators and Members of the European Parliament, a UK MEP has warned.

Jean Lambert, London’s Green Party Member of the European Parliament, has called on the Government to ditch its damaging ‘hostile environment’ policies, stating:

That some of the Windrush generation have been ‘deported in error’ is appalling, but it’s hardly surprising. Over the past 12 months, the Home Office has admitted to a string of mistakes that have caused immense anxiety, stress and upheaval to the many affected.

This is not mere incompetence from the Home Office; it’s the successful implementation of Theresa May’s pet‘ hostile environment’ project. This callous and inhumane policy deliberately seeks to make life difficult for non-British citizens who have built lives in the UK, depriving them of jobs, healthcare, and homes.

After Brexit, the 3.2 million EU nationals living on UK soil will also become exposed to this policy. It’s no wonder that so many feel anxious about their futures. The Government should take note – the EU’s Brexit negotiators are watching this ordeal closely, as are MEPs who have a vote on the final Brexit deal. This isn’t a good look.

The Prime Minister’s agreement to meet with representatives of 12 Caribbean countries is too little, too late.  And conciliatory gestures from the Government are meaningless so long as people continue to be hauled off to immigration detention at dawn. It’s time for the Government to stop stoking the flames of fear and anxiety, and scrap the ‘hostile environment’ for good.