Open%20borders%20The%20case%20against%20immigration%20controls%20-%20Teresa%20Hayter

Refugees: Tightening the Screw 83
In August 1999 Jack Straw, on whom the connections were surely not lost,
launched an attack on ‘travellers’, accusing them of defecating in doorways
and suchlike, while saying they were different from ‘normal itinerants’ (as his
spokesperson put it in his defence). Malcolm Imrie, in a letter to the Guardian
of 21 August 1999, drew parallels. Quoting from an autobiographical book
by Otto Rosenberg, A Gypsy in Auschwitz, he wrote:
In 1936, Dr Robert Ritter, director of the ‘Racial-hygienic and Genetic Research Office’
claimed that many so-called Gypsies were ‘half-breeds’ and should be distinguished
from ‘racially pure Gypsies’. It was not clear who belonged to the latter category, but
the former, having ‘inferior genes’, were ‘highly unstable, unprincipled, unpredictable
... lethargic or restless and irritable ... work-shy and asocial’. Surprisingly, perhaps, he
didn’t actually claim that they defecated in doorways. The distinction between real
and fake Gypsies made little difference in the concentration camps where many
thousands of them were murdered indiscriminately.
A letter on the same date from Mita Castle-Kanerova, who works with Roma
refugee organisations, suggests Straw’s purpose may have been ‘to sway
popular support for tougher immigration law’, in spite of the Romas’
‘centuries-long fight against discrimination, marginalisation and outright
ostracism’.
The Asylum and Immigration Act included a provision to give powers to
marriage registrars to check on ‘bogus marriages’, to make sure they were
not contracted as a means of evading immigration controls. This enabled the
Express to print, under a front-page headline ‘WAR ON SHAM MARRIAGES:
Bid to end migrant scandal of 10,000 bogus ceremonies’, the following:
Sweeping powers to stop bogus marriages that flout immigration laws are on the way.
The crackdown is aimed at halting an estimated 10,000 sham ceremonies every year.
... A team of immigration officers set up to tackle the problem believes that eight out
of 10 marriages in London involving foreign nationals are bogus. But Home Secretary
Jack Straw’s move could hit problems because some registrars resent the idea of being
made to police the immigration laws, and some councils fear they could end up being
sued by genuine couples forced to scrap reception and honeymoon plans ...
The white paper paid a brief tribute to the contribution which refugees and
migrants have made to British society. But it dwelt at length on the ‘abuses’
which ‘false claimants’ are supposed to perpetrate. The words ‘abuse’,
‘abusive’ or ‘abusing’ occur on practically every page of the document.
‘Racketeers’ and ‘racketeering’, ‘fraud’ and ‘fraudulent’ are other favoured
words, and ‘bogus’ is to be found here and there, in phrases such as ‘bogus
marriages’. There is talk of ‘stemming the tide’. Paragraph 11.3 reads as
follows:
The Government is determined to stamp out the blatant and often cynical abuse that
clogs up the system with hopeless and unnecessary appeals. The existing criminal
offences directed at those who seek or obtain leave to enter or remain by deception
will be extended and strengthened. Failed asylum seekers whose claims have involved