Thursday, August 10, 2006

[323.1] TALKING SENSE ON ASYLUM

Following on from yesterday's post... the "asylum debate" in the UK rumbles on ominously: the latest instalment being new Home Secretary John Reid's hectoring stance towards those (a minority, so it's good to see they have some impact in Daily Mail-land) who believe that many of the assumptions of the "debate" are brutal, ignorant and racist -- which, frankly, they are.

One of the many disturbing features of the news coverage about migration, refugees and asylum in the papers that shape governing opinion on the subject in Britain (the tabloids and the conservative broadsheets) is the extent to which they overlook both global trends and the particular stories and experiences of people at the sharp end.

For the stories behind the news, you need to see publications like CTBI's Asylum Voices (by Andrew Bradstock and Arlington Trotman)... or go to the website of the aforementioned Praxis, the admirable multi-agency centre for displaced people in East London - the location, by history and tradition, of those placed 'outside the gate' by kings and rulers in the capital.

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