White supremacists clash with protesters
23/06/09
Confusion over the terms ‘asylum seeker’ and ‘immigrant’ has been blamed as the cause of a clash at a refugee protest in Newcastle, according to march organisers.
As part of Refugee Week, around 100 people from Tyneside Community Action for Refugees (TCAR) protested on Saturday against the conditions in detention centres, which have prompted hunger strikes in centres like Yarl’s Wood.
The march was disrupted by at least 30 members of the white supremacist group National Front, who are against immigration on racial grounds.
Chairperson of TCAR Noella Kamanga says the National Front deliberately lump the two terms together.
“They were holding placards saying ‘No more immigration, no more detention centres: problem solved’.
“They knew the protest was about asylum seekers in detention centres, not migrants, but they just put everything under the same banner,” she said.
The National Front believes that they are upholding the views of the majority of British people who want “Britain to remain a white country”.
Their website quotes: “The National Front would halt all non-white immigration into Britain and introduce a policy of phased and humane repatriation of all coloured people currently resident here.”
The National Front was unavailable for comment.