'People seeking to build a new life in Britain are being targeted by those who want to divide us', Tony Conway told the Communist Party's political committee on Monday evening (March 27).
'The Tory government at Westminster, the far right and the big business media are using every weapon to stigmatise migrants and asylum seekers instead of addressing the real economic and social problems facing working people and their families', he added.
'The Tory government at Westminster, the far right and the big business media are using every weapon to stigmatise migrants and asylum seekers instead of addressing the real economic and social problems facing working people and their families', he added.
Mr Conway spoke as Home Secretary Suella Braverman was steering yet another Immigration Bill through the House of Commons aimed at so-called 'boat people'.
The Bill brands people who enter Britain by unrecognised routes as criminals who will be deported and banned from Britain for life and therefore - as Ms Braverman freely admits - is regarded as illegal in national and international human rights law.
'Even the Tories are split on the Bill - between those who believe it will undermine modern anti-slavery legislation and those who wish to abandon the European Convention on Human Rights', Mr Conway commented.
The convenor of the Communist Party's anti-racism anti-fascism commission pointed out that 160,000 migrants are currently awaiting decisions on their immigration status, yet 70 per cent of all asylum seekers are granted a right to remain once their cases are properly considered.
'The lack of investment in visa application points overseas, safe routes of entry and the civil servants who process these cases is in sharp contrast to the money lavished on 400 commandeered hotels here and special detention camps in Rwanda', Mr Conway remarked. He criticised the Labour Party leadership's 'feeble' objection to Tory plans that they are merely 'unworkable'.
The CP political committee finalised the Communist Party's involvement in a new campaigning initiative against Britain's racist immigration, asylum and nationality laws being launched with the Indian Workers Association, Caribbean Labour Solidarity and the Bangladeshi Workers Council.
Reaffirming the party's commitment to black self-organisation, Mr Conway urged support for the Liberation Movement and this summer's Windrush Festival as elements in the growing alliance of trade union, political, anti-racist and community bodies against exploitation and oppression.
Britain's Communists also demanded a 'root and branch' restructuring of the Metropolitan Police in light of the Casey Report, which found the force to be institutionally racist, misogynistic and homophobic.
'The Metropolitan Police has also long been a central part of the state apparatus aimed at trade unions, left-wing political organisations and other campaigners for reform and fundamental change', Tony Conway pointed out.
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