Blair Govt. under fire on voucher system

By Hasan Suroor

LONDON, AUG 28. The Blair Government has come under fire from human rights groups and Britain's most powerful trade union, the Transport and General Workers' Union (TGWU), for refusing to scrap the ``hated'' voucher system for asylum seekers which they want replaced by cash benefits.

After an official review, they are reported to have been told that replacing vouchers with cash would make it more tempting for illegal immigrants to flock to Britain, already saddled with more refugees than it can cope with. The Times today quoted officials as saying that ``If you have 80,000 asylum seekers now, you would have 180,000 if we went back to cash benefits.'' It said the Prime Minister, Mr. Tony Blair, had made clear that he had ``no plans'' to scrap the scheme and the Immigration Minister, Lord Rooker, though believed to be sympathetic, apparently told a civil liberties' group that his hands were tied.

An Oxfam official told The Hindu that refugee support groups were dismayed by the government's insistence on continuing with a system widely seen as ``degrading''. ``But we will continue to campaign and lobby with MPs and Government Ministers,'' she said. Other groups which reacted strongly included the Refugee Council, the Joint Council for the Welfare of Immigrants and Asylum Aid. They said there was no evidence to support the government's argument that cash benefits would open the floodgates for refugees. There was a view that the Government was ``scared'' of a right-wing backlash, given the simmering hostility towards refugees seen by many as being ``pampered''.

``They are concerned that anything that might seem like a concession to refugees would be exploited by Tories and other right-wing groups'', one civil rights activist said.

The sharpest attack came from the TGWU whose relations with Labour have already been strained over Mr. Blair's plans to give greater role to private sector in running public services. Its militant and outspoken general secretary, Mr. Bill Morris, called vouchers ``crude and cruel'' and said it was a ``disgrace'' for Labour Party to persist with such a system. He indicated that he would raise the issue at the Labour Party conference in Brighton next month raising the spectre of a major confrontation with the Government.

Commentators said the review was seen as a ``farce'' by union leaders who believed that a review by an independent outside agency, rather than Government Ministers, would have produced a different view.

There has been widespread criticism of the vouchers system which, according to asylum seekers, has made them a target for racists. ``We may as well have asylum-seeker tattooed on our forehead. Carrying these damn vouchers makes a target for racists and thieves'', one refugee told a newspaper. Refugees complain that at supermarkets, people with vouchers are humiliated - pushed to the back of the queue, taunted by racists and generally treated like ``beggars''. As voucher-holders are not entitled to get change in return for the unspent amount on the voucher, they have to either forego it or make sure that they buy goods exactly worth the voucher. ``Let's say you have a five pound voucher and all you want to buy is a loaf of bread or a carton of milk. But if you do that you lose the rest of the money because you won't get your change back. So you are forced to spend the entire five pound or lose the money'', one asylum seeker explained.

The least that should be done, it is stated, is to rationalise the system to make it less humiliating, though most believe that the system is too flawed and deserves to be scrapped altogether.

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Section  : International
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