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PRESS RELEASE:
RAPAR // The Manchester-based Human Rights organisation working with displaced people // PRESS RELEASE for immediate release // Download this press release as a Word document here
October 1st 2013
*Poster attached* (bottom of page)
CITY RECORDS OFFICE POSTER SHOWS THAT REFUGEES WERE ONCE WELCOME HERE
As the Home Secretary makes drastic cuts to grounds for asylum appeals, RAPAR discovers post war publicity material assuring refugees “You have friends here, anxious to help”…
Home Secretary Theresa May told yesterday’s Tory Party conference that the Government’s new Immigration Bill would “make it easier to get rid of people with no right to be here.”
She also promised the party faithful that she would slash the number of asylum appeal grounds from 17 to FOUR – and said the next Conservative manifesto would pledge to scrap the Human Rights Act.
The same day that May made her vicious attack on people seeking asylum, a RAPAR member uncovered a post war poster at Manchester’s City Records Office which shows that attitudes towards refugees were once very different.
The poster (see bottom for actual image) reads:
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TO ALL FOREIGN REFUGEES
If you expect to remain any length of time in this district, you will no doubt be pleased to know that you have friends here, anxious to help you.
The police will give you a leaflet on the subject.
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RAPAR’s Chair Manjeet Kaur, who was interviewed on national television last night responding to Theresa May’s anti immigration rhetoric, said: “The Home Secretary’s comments show that they don’t see us as human beings, they see us as numbers.
“When you are in the asylum system, you are made to feel you are like a criminal but seeking asylum is NOT a crime.
“It is clear from this post war poster that refugees were once welcomed here – and RAPAR believes that many people in this country still welcome refugees, despite the anti asylum tirades which come from the Government and the right wing press.”
For more information, please call: Kath Grant 07758386208 or Rhetta Moran 07776264646