Woolly but not Liberal

The outwardly benign immigration Minister, Phil Woolas (left), made the unusual step this week of choosing the New Statesman to set out in the simplest terms Labours pernicious policy on asylum seekers.

He had intended to exploit the 'gaffe' by London Mayor, 'Bonkers Jonkers' who had argued for a possible amnesty for illegal long-term asylum seekers. Woolas's argument (and indeed Home Office immigration policy) was clearly aiming to appeal to the least tolerant and most ignorant elements of Labour Party support. He spoke of the Government preventing asylum seekers from "going to the front of the queue for jobs and benefits." Using such bloke-down-the-pub vernacular obscured the reality for tens of thousands of people in the UK. Those asylum seekers who have been rejected are not entitled to benefits and are also denied the right to work. They're not even in the queue. He also asserted an amnesty would increase people trafficking but offered no supportive evidence.

I'm not sure why any Government press officer would have suggested the "Staggers" as a suitable publication for Woolas's pitiful logic and pitiless outlook. Unsurprisingly, the piece attracted severe criticism from the readership. Johnson, on the other hand, emerged as pragmatic and compassionate for having suggested a realistic resolution to this intractable problem.

In the States there was a similar but bi-partisan move toward amnesty in 2006 when the McCain-Kennedy Bill was laid before Congress. The Bill was killed by both sides; hope for some peace of mind for families who had lived, worked and paid tax in US for 20 or 30 years was destroyed by political pip-squeaks spouting the same nonsense as Woolas.

But there is an altogether more sinister consequence to Labour's 'tough, no nonsense' immigration agenda. The shameful Home Office policy of finding any pretext, however remote, for declaring dangerous places 'safe for return' reached a new low this week.

Darfur is synonymous with the ethnic cleansing of the Sudanese Africans by the Government backed Arab militia, the Janjaweed. In the last six years over 200,000 people have been murdered in Darfur, five million displaced - the whole population terrorised.

The 3,000 Sudanese people who have made it to the UK have found this country is not a safe haven for the persecuted and are now threatened with deportation. Last week failed asylum seeker, Adam Osman, 32, was flown back to Khartoum. He had pleaded to our UK Border Agency, he could expect a very hostile 'reception' from the police if he were deported. He was spotted by security police at the airport who followed his car to his house and on arrival, shot him dead in front of his family.

There is now institutional cynicism in the Border Agency, asylum seekers are seemingly all deemed bogus. Woolas and UKBA officials must be aware the President al-Bashi of Sudan was charged with war crimes and crimes against humanity by the International Criminal Court earlier this month. To proceed with any more deportations would effectively make our Government accessories to further killings of persecuted peoples.