August 2001 Volume 8 Number 4

Print-Friendly Version    

There has been violence between Asian and white youth and police in several northern English cities in summer 2001. Pakistani and Bangladeshi immigrants, many from rural areas, settled in the north of England in the 1960s to work in textile mills some 200 miles north of London. Many of their children, born in the UK, but living in relatively segregated areas of cities such as Oldham, Burnley and Leeds, in which unemployment rates rose as the mills closed, are jobless and frustrated.

Some Asian youth have declared the areas in which they live are no-go areas for whites. The British National party and the National Front, parties that favor a halt to non-white immigration, organized protests and no-go areas for Asians. These parties are especially strong in the segregated cities of northern England-they received 16 percent of the vote in Oldham and 11 percent in Burnley in June 7, 2001 elections.

The worst violence broke out July 7-8, 2001 in Bradford, a city of 500,000 that is 15 percent Asian-- 164 police were injured and more than 50 people arrested. Asian youth protesting the white-supremacists parties eventually battled with police. Prime Minister Tony Blair blamed the Asian youth in a statement: "there may initially have been an element of provocation from the far right at some point…but first evidence suggests that this is simply thuggery and local people intent on having a go at the police and, in the process of doing that, destroying their own community."

In 2000, the Immigration and Nationality Directorate spent £1.2 billion on asylum seekers - £604 million on direct support and £594 million on processing and operational costs. In 2001, the IND is projecting an expenditure of £403 million on support and £550 million on the processing and operational side.

The Greater London authority estimated there were between 352,000 and 422,000 refugees and asylum seekers in London, making them nearly five percent of the population. At least 75,000 are believed to be illegally in the UK. The IND plans to remove at least 30,000 failed asylum seekers in 2001-02-- the GLA says going into ethnic communities in search of failed asylum seekers poses "a serious risk that this will at some stage threaten harmonious community relations in London."

More than half of the 170 passengers on an Afghani airliner that was hijacked in February 2000 and landed in the UK were still in the UK in July 2001. Most of the Afghanis are staying in a hotel in a village west of London.

Asylum seekers who fail to travel to an area allocated to them through the government's dispersal system will be made homeless and have their vouchers or benefits withdrawn within 48 hours. Until now, those who have not gone to their assigned area, were given a second change. Beginning August 1, there will be a one-strike policy.

Each summer, the UK Benefit Fraud Agency checks farm workers to see if they are claiming UI or welfare benefits while working in the fields. On some occasions, the BFA winds up finding unauthorized migrants, most of whom are from Eastern Europe.

David Blunkett, UK Home Secretary, threatened to fine Eurotunnel L2000 for each foreigner that slips into the UK, after it was reported that 1,000 foreigners a month are arriving in the UK via Eurotunnel: "It cannot be right that their insufficient security tempts so many people, every day, to take advantage of these incomplete arrangements to board the freight shuttle to try to sneak into Britain and avoid immigration control." Five people have been killed after falling off the train or being electrocuted by overhead wires.

Eurotunnel, which loses money, said it was spending L8,000 a week to repair holes cut in fencing by migrants. A spokesperson said that Eurotunnel is doing what it can, and that its freight terminal at Coquelles, France, near Calais, "looks like a prison camp," a 22-mile long, 14 foot-high perimeter fence topped by razor wire. Since most migrants attempting to jump onto slow moving freight trains cut the fence, Eurotunnel has asked the French government to close a Red Cross camp at Sangatte, near the freight yard, which has recently been housing around 800 migrants a night.

Eurotunnel staff, with French police, intercepted 17,000 people trying to enter Britain illegally in the first six months of 2001, compared to 4,920 in all of 2000--one person has admitted being stopped 22 times. Eurotunnel says that machines that can detect carbon dioxide have made it virtually impossible for would-be illegal migrants to enter the tunnel concealed in trucks, so that some now storm the platforms en masse in an attempt to board a freight shuttle train bound for Folkestone. If caught in France, they are turned over to the French police, who return them to the Red Cross warehouse at Sangatte.

Czech Roma. Beginning in July 2001, British immigration officers have been stationed at the Prague airport to question UK-bound passengers, preventing several Roma families from boarding London-bound planes. The Czech Republic agreed to pre-inspections to avoid having the UK impose visa requirements on Czech citizens. In the first six months of 2001, some 1,233 Czech gypsies applied for asylum in the UK; no Czech gypsy has ever been granted asylum by the British government , although several have been granted refugee status by British courts on appeal.

Roma leaders in the Czech Republic complained "The racist content of this measure is obvious. It focuses solely on those Czech citizens who have dark skin and are of Roma origin." Several weeks after the checks began, Czech Foreign Minister Jan Kavan said that the checks will remain despite complaints.


"Czechs, Britain agree on keeping immigration checks," Reuters, July 27, 2001. Tony Wesolwshy, "British checks hit Czech minority," Christian Science Monitor, July 25, 2001. "UK gets tough on Czech immigrants," BBC, July 18, 2001Jan Tucek, "Britain blocks gypsies in Prague immigration clampdown," Agence France Presse, July 18, 2001. Sarah Lyall, "Race Riot in Another City in Northern England Is Worst So Far," New York Times, July 9, 2001. Sheila Jones and Nicholas Timmins, "Racial disadvantage of Asians in poor areas of Burnley, Oldham and Leeds has led to disillusion and rioting," Financial Times, June 27, 2001.