Greens support demonstration for refugees

Oxfordshire Green Party will be supporting a demonstration urging the Government to take action in response to the needs of refugees trying to enter Europe.

Dr Hazel Dawe, Treasurer of Oxfordshire Green Party, explains:

Oxfordshire Green Party will be supporting the demonstration at 3.00pm outside the Sheldonian Theatre in Broad Street on Sunday 6th September. After the utterly heartbreaking pictures of dead children washed up on the shores of the Mediterranean in recent days, printed in many newspapers and distributed in social media, we cannot remain silent about our Government’s approach. The desperate risks people are taking to escape war-torn countries such as Syria, Iraq and Afghanistan, and repressive regimes such as Eritrea cannot be met by callous indifference. On this subject, our Government does not represent British values of tolerance or justice.

The Conservative Government, and UKIP, do not want to share responsibility for refugees with other European countries. Whilst Germany is expected to take 800,000 asylum seekers this year, the UK will only take a small fraction of this number. In fact, during that year the UK only received 4% of all asylum applications made in the 28 EU countries.

We can, and we should, accept more refugees into the UK for humanitarian reasons. Also additions to our labour force will help to address the many areas of skills shortages we have, including those in Oxfordshire such as nurses, care workers and teachers.