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Government Minister challenged on asylum
Frances Ballin, a member of CAP's Council of Management, had a meeting recently with a Government minister to talk about the forced destitution of asylum-seekers. She reports on how it went.
Frances addresses Stephen Timms
After attending a "Still Human, Still Here" event in Cardiff, Julie Morgan (MP for Cardiff North) invited me to come along to a meeting on 15 April at which the Minister, Stephen Timms, would be present.
He was not there in his usual capacity representing the Department of Work and Pensions, but as minister for religion, because he is a committed Christian.
The meeting took place in an Indian, or more accurately perhaps, Bangladeshi, restaurant at lunchtime, which was laid out very prettily for a buffet. I went along with my friend Anne-Marie and her little boy David. Anne is a "hard case" asylum-seeker from Cote d'Ivoire, who receives Section 4 support.
The majority of people present were Muslim men, though there was also a good number of white Welsh Labour stalwarts there. People were pleased to see Anne-Marie and David, because they were the only black Africans present.
We were all given bits of paper to write our details and our questions on. I wrote a question on the legislation that enforces destitution on people, suggesting that the Minister might think that it went against Christian principles. Anne wrote about the danger of destitution forcing women into prostitution.
Julie was very encouraging and made an opportunity for our questions to be put. Anne-Marie's question got a round of applause from everyone. She and David had their photo taken with the Minister and with Julie. Stephen Timms took everyone’s questions away with him, insisting that the Government welcomed dialogue. He also took a brief report from me of the "Still Human, Still Here" event of 4 April and my promise that we would have a full report and DVD coming up soon.
Dilwar Ali, the Ethnic Minority Officer for the Welsh Labour Party, came and introduced himself and said he would like us to work together. Let's hope we can do so, and effectively!
Concerned about the treatment of refused asylum-seekers? Join CAP's Living Ghosts campaign.
Could you meet with your MP or councillor and ask them to make poverty a priority? Join the Get Fair campaign.
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