Letter to the Guardian from Jean Lambert, Green MEP for London

25 January 2005

Michael Howard, by seeking to limit the number of asylum seekers who enter this country is now blatantly reneging on international conventions (The 1951 Convention on Refugees). This is fortress conservatism at its most fanatic and desperate. Is he planning on taking Britain out of the Geneva Convention as well? What next? Break links with the Commonwealth?

Because as Michael Howard surely knows, the highest number of migrants who come to the UK do so from Australia and New Zealand, as do the highest number of people who overstay their visas. Refugees do not just arrive on our shores. For example, some will come as a result of British arms sales to their repressive governments. They each come with their own story and with their own context. Surely, in the scramble for votes Mr Howard has not forgotten this?

Jean Lambert

Ref: The Guardian 'Fear Mutes Response to Tory Migrant Policy' p5

Contact: Alex Rowe, press officer to Jean Lambert

tel; 020 7407 6280 email alexrowe@greenmeps.org.uk