IRR News 13 – 27 April 2023

In the week since the Illegal Migration Bill was passed by the House of Commons, our regular calendar of racism and resistance demonstrates how a deterrent mindset towards refugees works in practice.  For refugees from the civil war in  Sudan, it starts with the home secretary’s cack-handed attempt to whitewash the lack of safe and legal routes, an inhumanity  which even extends, courtesy of the Foreign Office, to the family members of  British citizens  who if they have Sudanese citizenship are refused passage.  For those who get here, the logic of deterrence (make life as miserable as possible so they leave) is encapsulated by   accommodation conditions – with redundant cruise  ships, ferries and barges, and possibly redundant oil rigs, commissioned to house asylum seekers. Finally, the government is even proposing a new draft law to exempt asylum landlords from HMO (house in multiple occupancy) licensing, raising fresh  concerns that asylum seekers will be legally housed in unfit and dangerous accommodation.