Lindsey German:
I am in favour of equal rights for all people in Britain and this includes people who have come here to seek refuge from persecution.
I think people are tired of the scapegoating of immigrants that they get from the right wing parties and even Labour. There is so much misinformation in the press at the moment, if you believed everything you read you would think that Britain were under siege from refugees when in fact the UK is home to just 3% of the 9.2 million refugees world-wide. Even within a European context the number of refugees in the UK is low. In 2005, the UK ranked just 14th in the league table of EU countries for the number of asylum applications per head of population.
I think that asylum seekers should have the same rights as other people in this country. They should be allowed to work and to have the same housing and health services that the rest of us have. It costs more money to persecute people, denying them health care, deporting them and forcing people to remain on benefits when they want to work.
Fighting against racism and the right wing agenda of the press and the government is essential, followed by restoring funding to ESOL courses. I would also abolish the citizenship test, language tests and swearing allegiance to the Queen. Can you imagine if the hoards of Brits on the coast of Spain faced Spanish language tests and had to take an exam on Spanish history and culture?