Islington News: Jeremy Corbyn | Somali Children | Immigration

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Islington Tribune - by TOM FOOT
Published: 23 May 2008

MP Jeremy Corbyn

MP: Somali kids face being sent home

MP JEREMY Corbyn believes a “considerable number” of Somali children living in Islington could be sent home under strict new immigration rules.
The Labour MP for Islington North hit out at the new system, which forces immigrants to prove they have not been trafficked into this country.
He said that under the rules any asylum seeker who is unable to supply documentary evidence of departure and arrival was “threatened with removal”. Under the changes, asylum seekers thought to have “deceived” the Home Office would be banished and would not be able to reapply for up to 10 years.
Mr Corbyn told the Commons: “My constituency has a considerable number of Somali people who sought a place of safety in this country because of the war in Somalia.
“I have encountered many people who arrived in this country as children and who cannot remember how they got here, do not know by what route they came, do not know who brought them, and do not know what documentation was involved.
“It was probably false, and they were probably smuggled, with a people trafficker involved. There were probably some desperate parents somewhere back home in Somalia who just wanted to get their children to a place of safety.”
The MP added: “Above all, why are we penalising children – they are not the ones that have created the deception.”
A spokesman for the Refugee Children’s Consortium said: “These changes make no distinction between refugees and other immigrants, nor between children and adults.”

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