The following motion, drafted and proposed by Cllr Shaista Aziz, was passed unanimously by Oxford Labour Party’s Rose Hill and Iffley Ward. The motion can be adapted for use in party political and trade union branches.
The governments Nationality and Borders Bill is a racist, divisive proposed legislation, especially targeting people and communities of colour in Rose Hill and Iffley and across Oxford, alongside our refugee and migrant communities.
Clause nine of the Bill makes it legal to strip the citizenship of potentially millions of British citizens without informing individuals.
This proposed legislation echos the ongoing injustices inflicted on the Windrush generation and Black British communities.
According to data analysed by the New Statesman, two in five people from ethnic minority background could become eligible to be deprived of their citizenship without warning and 6 million people could be at risk of having their British nationality revoked.
The Bill is also an attack on the rights of refugees who potentially face a four year prison term for not entering the UK directly from a country of persecution. If these refugees are granted asylum it will only be under the guise of ‘temporary protection’ which will need to be regularly renewed.
This branch calls:
For the House of Lords to throw out this racist, divisive, anti-refugee, anti human rights legislation.
On Oxford and District Labour Party (ODLP) and Oxford Labour trade union movement to campaign against the Bill and to support and amplify the voices of communities at risk of most harm.
On Oxford City Council to uphold the values of Oxford being an Anti-Racist City and a City of Sanctuary and to proactively condemn this Bill and actively speak out and campaign against it becoming law.
19th December 2021