On Mahmood’s monstrous plans for asylum seekers
JVL Introduction
There is much that will be written about the despicable proposals being put forward by Labour’s Home Secretary Shabana Mahmood and we will, doubtless, publish some of the commentaries and analysis but today a reminder simply that asylum seekers are human beings doing what anyone would do when faced with the terrible situations they have been in.
We note that several Labour backbenchers have spoken out against this, as have Plaid Cymru and the SNP while the proposals have, apparently, been welcomed by Tommy Robinson and Farage. Among other things Richard Burgon MP said ” this failing Labour leadership is choosing to fight on terrain set by Farage. In doing so, it is paving the way for the first far-right government in our history.”
As a Jewish led organisation, our own history as well as our common humanity compels us to oppose this in all ways possible. Every single Jewish person in this country was, or is descended from, at least one refugee or from people who migrated because of, at best, restrictions and quotas. I commend these two poems on understanding refugees and asylum seekers; one is the relatively recent “Home” by British Somali poet Warsan Shire and the other is “Refugee Blues” by W H Auden which is about the experience of German Jews but it is not difficult to imagine exactly the same words applied to people today fleeing from war and persecution. We remember, as one of far too many examples, that in May 1939, most of the 937 Jewish refugees were refused entry to Cuba and Canada and were sent back to Europe to face the dangers there. Whether for Palestine or for regugees, Starmer and Co have completely rejected the meaning of “Never Again”.
HOME
by Warsan Shire
No one leaves home unless
home is the mouth of a shark
you only run for the border
when you see the whole city running as well
your neighbours running faster than you
breath bloody in their throats
the boy you went to school with
who kissed you dizzy behind the old tin factory
is holding a gun bigger than his body
you only leave home
when home won’t let you stay.
no one leaves home unless home chases you
fire under feet
hot blood in your belly
it’s not something you ever thought of doing
until the blade burnt threats into
your neck
and even then you carried the anthem under
your breath
only tearing up your passport in an airport toilets
sobbing as each mouthful of paper
made it clear that you wouldn’t be going back.
you have to understand,
that no one puts their children in a boat
unless the water is safer than the land
no one burns their palms
under trains
beneath carriages
no one spends days and nights in the stomach of a truck
feeding on newspaper unless the miles travelled
means something more than journey.
no one crawls under fences
no one wants to be beaten
pitied
no one chooses refugee camps
or strip searches where your
body is left aching
or prison,
because prison is safer
than a city of fire
and one prison guard
in the night
is better than a truckload
of men who look like your father
no one could take it
no one could stomach it
no one skin would be tough enough
the
go home blacks
refugees
dirty immigrants
asylum seekers
sucking our country dry
niggers with their hands out
they smell strange
savage
messed up their country and now they want
to mess ours up
how do the words
the dirty looks
roll off your backs
maybe because the blow is softer
than a limb torn off
or the words are more tender
than fourteen men between
your legs
or the insults are easier
to swallow
than rubble
than bone
than your child body
in pieces.
i want to go home,
but home is the mouth of a shark
home is the barrel of the gun
and no one would leave home
unless home chased you to the shore
unless home told you
to quicken your legs
leave your clothes behind
crawl through the desert
wade through the oceans
drown
save
be hunger
beg
forget pride
your survival is more important
no one leaves home until home is a sweaty voice in your ear
saying-
leave,
run away from me now
i dont know what i’ve become
but i know that anywhere
is safer than here.
Refugee Blues by W H Auden read by Sheila Hancock
Such a powerful post. Each poem is heartwrenching. Thank you Leah.
Mahmood is McSweeney’s prine replacement stooge for failing Starmer and he has been grooming everyone for this for ages… this is just the last vile move in making the nodding dog puppet appeal to the bigoted right wingers by outdoing Farage. Of course as a brown woman she gets a racism pass, despite this being the most aggressive racist attack on innocent vulnerable victims. Apparently she has also announced taking any assets from asylum seekers on the excuse of paying for their future ‘care’… what next? gold fillings and hair? maybe organs?
HURRAH FOR CATHY CONNOLLY
I’m happy Ireland beat Hungary
That woman who won the Presidency
Defeating Viktor Orban. It’s difficult
To imagine anyone much worse
Than Viktor Orban to be Prime
Minister of Hungary, and subverting
Every definition of European
Democracy with the ease of someone
Spitting in the gutter as they’re passing
A begging beggar who one day
Hopes for something better
Than a racist fascist bully who
Is aligned with Trump and Israel
Just like Keir Starmer. I prefer
Any number of migrants in dinghies
To the hate of Starmer’s Labour
But for the moment,
Hurrah for Ireland and the Irish
A Labour government going along with extremist opinion that immigration is our biggest problem is delusional. It is simply not true. Climate change is a far worse problem than all others. Climate change is all about us. It is very bad. The false government is incompetent about it. Even its talk is useless.
The unnatural right-wing false ‘Labour’ government is inevitably a failure. Its ministers are not at all the best. Many, including the prime minister, are fundamentally incompetent. The best were forced out of the Labour Party.
Sinking government blaggards are decending to competing in ugliness.
The ‘centre left’ Danish goverenment is adopting what only a few years ago was denounced as the unacceptable ideology of the Danish People’s Party…same here
This country will be getting a bad reputation due to the way asylum seekers are spoken about and treated. As far as the leader of Reform is concerned all asylum seekers are illegal and need to be sent back. .
It seems he doesn’t seem to know that all asylum seekers are just that asylum seekers and are neither legal or illegal until they are assessed to see if they have a right to claim Asylum. And if do they are here legally. And if they don’t then they are then here illegally.
But until that assessment is done they are just Asylum Seekers.
And as such it’s our countries responsibility to feed them, cloth them and provide suitable accommodation for them.
It is said that at least 86% of asylum seekers are found to be here legally. And the other 14% are either waiting for information to come back regarding their identification or are found not to be allowed to claim asylum.
Also I wonder if the leader of Reform is aware that in order to rush to get Brexit done The former PM and him himself the leader of Reform were so hell bent on getting us out of the EU that they took us out of the Dublin agreement where this country was legally allowed to send back asylum seekers who had been assessed and found not to have the right to stay, or if we could not take any more than the number we were obliged to take, as in as in line with other countries’ obligations.
But we never hear any one bringing up this in Parliament or in the MSM do we.
It’s not the asylum seekers fault for being housed in the hotels. This again is down to the Government. Who asked those…
[cut to our limit of 300 words – admin]
Know you are welcome in many of our hearts.
Thank you. Both very powerful poems.
Utterly disgusting what this Labour Party and government are doing on this and so many other issues.
Hope everyone will let their MP know they must reject these neo-fascist proposals.
Thank you.
This iteration of the Labour Party is bankrupt. It has lost my vote. I have much more to say but am too angry to be coherent.
Thank you for two wonderful poems (one new, one I knew but had never heard read).
It’s almost impossible to believe that human beings can and do blind themselves to the humanity of the “other” with so little provocation or justification. Most social animals – which is what we are – stay within limits when showing aggression against their own species. Why don’t we? Particularly when we know the next to be in the firing line could be us,
Truly disgusting.
This government creates refugees due to its refusal to take serious action on global warming and its policy of arms sales.
Hope Mahmood is defeated at the next election. It did not quite happen last time.
Her original selection was controversial:
“Ms. Mahmood, a barrister and daughter of Mahmood Ahmed, chairman of Birmingham Labour Party, won a hard-fought selection battle last year, when she received 118 votes from party activists against 99 for Coun Mosquito, who represents the Nechells ward. But Coun Mosquito’s supporters claimed as many as 30 people were prevented from voting for her after the party’s rules were changed to exclude members who joined less than 18 months ago. Usually, members need to belong to the Labour Party for 12 months before they can vote in selection contests.”
(Birmingham Mail, 14 January 2009).
Finally, I’ve run out of words for it all.