Leicester

Angry refugees protest

EVEN BUSH’S government now admits that Iraq is in a civil war, but Britain’s Home Office considers Iraq a safe place for refugees fleeing the bloodshed to be forcibly returned to. It has arranged charter flights of refugees.

Nick Parker, Leicester Socialist Party

To prepare for this, many Iraqis and Kurds have been detained in the past two weeks, which has led to angry protests in London, Manchester and Leicester on 8 February.

In Leicester, a Federation of Iraqi Refugees demonstration attracted 200 people. Several Kurdish speakers told us about the chaos in Iraq and Kurdistan and the repression there, and how much refugees can contribute to British society and the economy.

Steve Score from Leicester Socialist Party chaired the demonstration. He spoke about the crisis in the NHS, the huge levels of poverty existing across Britain, and how capitalism, the system of big business, fosters the false idea that asylum seekers are to blame.