REFUGEE Week 2004 will be remembered as the week in which Home Office officials faced criticism for expelling Somali asylum seekers to face persecution and even murder at the hands of warring factions in the failed state, London MEP Jean Lambert warned today.
Mrs Lambert, Green Party MEP for the capital - who was re-elected this week with an increased share of the vote - said the UK was shamed by expulsion of six Somali men so far this year.
"Refugee Week is an opportunity to recognise the contribution refugees continue to make to our society and re-affirm our commitment to offering a safe haven to those facing persecution and tyranny," said the Green MEP.
"Yet again though the headlines are dominated by this Government's failure to meet its international legal commitment to protect those most in need."
Amnesty International and the UN High Commissioner for Refugees have condemned the expulsions, and rejected Government claims that those being returned would not be risking their lives.
Describing the move as "breathtakingly reckless", an Amnesty spokesperson said more than 100 civilians had died, and thousands displaced, by factional fighting in Somalia already this year.
Mrs Lambert, who has successfully intervened in a number of Home Office asylum decisions since she was first elected to represent the capital in 1999, will make her comments at an event to mark Refugee Week (June 14-20) organised by Just Peace in Wansted, East London, tonight (June 17th).
"While the media and right-wing politicians
both inside and outside government talk of limiting the small numbers of refugees
applying for asylum in the UK, victims of the world's tyrannies and failed states
are being sent 'home' to face torture, rape and even murder," Mrs Lambert
added.
"Shame on David Blunkett, Shame on the Home Office and Shame on the UK."
Somalia is the country with the largest number of asylum applications to the UK, with significant Somali populations throughout London.
Note to Editors
Mrs Lambert will make her comments at tonight's Refugee Week meeting organised by Just Peace, from 7.30pm at Our Lady of Lourdes Pastoral Centre, Cambridge Park Road, Wanstead E11