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Bridget tells Amnesty audience "Let Them Work"
March 20, 2010 3:45 PM
Bridget Fox has attacked Government policy on refugees as dehumanising, and called for refugees and asylum-seekers to be allowed to earn a living while their cases are considered.
Bridget spoke up in support of the Let Them Work campaign at the Asylum in the UK event organised by the Islington and Hackney group of Amnesty International. She shared a platform with the Earl of Sandwich, Maurice Wren of Islington-based charity Asylum Aid, and Islington North MP Jeremy Corbyn.
The audience also saw a screening of the film 'Still Human, Still Here', and heard first-hand from former refugees Marilynn Bonzo and Afshin Azizian, who fled persecution in Zimbabwe and Iran.
Asylum seekers are not allowed to work while they wait for a decision on their claim. Nor are they allowed to work if they are not able to return home. This leaves thousands of asylum seekers in limbo or even facing destitution.
Bridget told the packed meeting in Highbury Baptist Church:
"It's shameful that asylum seekers are kept in poverty, even criminalised, instead of being allowed to work; meanwhile the dehumanising bureaucracy takes years to process their cases while costing us all a fortune. If they were allowed to work, then asylum seekers, many of them highly-educated, could support themselves and their families, put their skills to service in society, and pay taxes.
"Jeremy Corbyn may agree with the Liberal Democrats on this: unfortunately his Government does not."
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