Sucked Into the Westminster Cauldron?

In July 2008 at public meeting in Sheffield Town Hall, over 200 people heard Nick Clegg declare his support for asylum seekers’ right to work and for the ending of the detention of asylum-seeking children. In 2008, the idea that the Liberal Democrats would be a part of a UK Government and that their leader would be the Deputy Prime Minister was a far-fetched one.

Asylum Rights Election Pledge

A month before the May 2010 General Election, a coalition of 30 asylum-rights campaigns, refugee community groups, faith organisations and trade unions united to issue a call for parliamentary candidates in South Yorkshire to support a 6-point asylum rights election pledge.

Clegg: “The asylum system is uniquely unfair” Sheffield, 2008

12 parliamentary candidates gave their support. Four of these were elected, including Nick Clegg, who is also a patron of local asylum-support charity ASSIST. This attempt to hold politicians to account was partly inspired by comment of a South Yorkshire Migration and Asylum Action Group member whose experience of general elections (as a former opposition MP in Uganda) was that they were a time to “stock up on food, medicine and make sure you have enough ammunition”. He urged us – whatever our doubts about parliamentary politics – to take advantage of the relative political freedom of the UK.

At a hustings meeting, in April 2010 before the general election, on asylum and migrant rights (150 people attended - the biggest hustings in Sheffield) Liberal Democrat and Labour candidates for the marginal Sheffield Central seat tried to outdo each other in their support for asylum rights and commitment to the asylum rights election pledge!

Any Progress?

Since the General Election, we (a coalition of local asylum-rights groups) have held two meetings with Nick Clegg to monitor the progress of the Liberal Democrats proposed reforms and how the Coalition is handling asylum issues. Linked with the meetings, we have also maintained a high level of correspondence, directly with Clegg and via him to Immigration Minister Damian Green.

Have any of the 6 asylum rights election pledges, signed in 2010 by 4 successful parliamentary candidates: Nick Clegg and 3 Labour MPs (Kevin Barron, Eric Illsley and Clive Betts) been kept?

• Grant those seeking asylum the right to work: No progress.
• Replace vouchers and Azure cards with adequate cash support: No progress.
• End the detention of children and seek an inquiry into the use of detention for adults: Re-branded, reduced but certainly not ended. No official inquiry into adult detention.
• Give those seeking asylum full access to healthcare and to English courses: No progress, more restrictions on access to ESOL training.
• Give adequate legal aid and enough time to make legal representations: No progress, despite Clegg’s pre-election statement that “webelieve that independent legal aid is vital in the asylum process”. More restrictions on legal aid.
• Allow fresh claims and submissions to be lodged with the nearest Borders Agency office and meet related travel costs: No progress.

On other issues, however, we feel that our contact with Nick Clegg has at least raised questions for him and reminded him of our scrutiny:

• Monitoring outcomes of deportations: official policy is that there’s no need to monitor since (by definition) these are “failed asylum seekers” with an “unfounded” claim. Clegg, in contrast, appeared concerned that no monitoring system was in place.
• Deportations to Zimbabwe: we have stressed this issue (one of our team meeting Clegg is a refugee from Zimbabwe). Though it has been UKBA/Government policy to say Zimbabwe is “safe” enough to deport to (following the issuing of new UKBA Operational Guidance Note in April 2011) there have been relatively few deportations and a recent successful legal challenge.
• Refusal of UK to sign ILO Convention on domestic workers’ rights: he defends this position, we suspect, uneasily. It should be noted that Ed Davey, Liberal Democrat and Coalition Minister led the UK delegation to the conference.

“Show them the impact of their decisions on the ground”

Despite the obvious lack of policy progress on asylum rights (unless you share Nick Clegg’s repeated announcements that child detention has ended) many local activists believe that we should continue to try to hold Mr Clegg and his party to account regarding their pre-election asylum pledges. The process itself has been useful for some: “the meetings with Clegg have pushed us further in the direction of determining what are the crucial issues on which to lobby the Government”.

On a practical level, one activist explained that “Damian Green and UKBA will probably take extra care with correspondence if it is channelled through Nick Clegg’s office”. We now get detailed replies to our questions, even if they aren’t the ones we want!

“Nick Clegg has to face us”

Many people feel that local asylum-rights groups’ contact with the Deputy Prime Minister “act as a valuable counterbalance and alternative source of information on asylum for Nick Clegg who otherwise would be more dependent on the Conservative-led Home Office”. In a similar vein, one leading local activist explained “Don’t under-estimate the value of face-to-face meetings, if he (Clegg) knows he has to face us, it has impact, however small”. She went on to argue: “don’t let them (MPs) be totally sucked into the Westminster cauldron, use every opportunity to show them the impact of their decisions on the ground”.

The process of attempting to hold Nick Clegg – or any of the other MPs who have claimed to support asylum rights - to account is, itself a politicising one. The contrast between actual Government child detention policy and its public presentation is a case in point. It has been an education for all of us in the operation of UK parliamentary democracy, whether we’re from Uganda or South Yorkshire.