The Hindu : U.K. move on asylum draws flak

Online edition of India's National Newspaper
Friday, Nov 28, 2003

International

International

U.K. move on asylum draws flak

By Hasan Suroor

LONDON NOV. 27. The British Government was today accused of resorting to "baby-snatching" and "emotional blackmail' after it announced that failed asylum seekers who refused to leave the country would have their children taken away and put in official care.

The move, which shocked even the hard-line anti-immigrant groups, provoked condemnation from rights activists who said it amounted to holding children to `ransom' and might not stand scrutiny under the European Convention on Human Rights. "This is unreasonable, inhumane and a breach of fundamental rights," a spokesperson for Save the Children said

The Labour MPs also criticised the plan with the former Foreign Secretary, Robin Cook, denouncing it as `authoritarian' and a "step too far for any decent Government."

He accused the Government of going "heavy on social authoritarianism" instead of promoting "a pluralist, multicultural society."

In Parliament, even the asylum-bashing Tories called the move `despicable' and vowed to oppose it. "The Prime Minister and the Home Secretary should be ashamed.

We shall oppose any legislative provision that seeks to give effect to this despicable provision," said the new Tory leader, Michael Howard, whose own parents came to Britain as immigrants.

But the Home Secretary, David Blunkett, whose tough stance on asylum has annoyed his own party MPs, defended the proposal saying it would be used only as a "last resort" to enforce immigration laws which require failed asylum seekers to leave the country.

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