Liverpool anti-racist rally on the 18th of Feb. 2023
"Serco report profit of £216 million in 2022, a 21% increase in profit worldwide. Hotel residents receive £9.10 each per week."
HUNDREDS OF PEOPLE GATHERED at an anti-racism rally in Liverpool on the 18th of February, 2023, organised in response to far-right violence outside a hotel providing refuge to migrants last week. Large crowds attended the "refugees welcome" protest outside St George's Hall in the city centre, where RAPAR were invited to speak. Vitalis, a leading member of RAPAR, stood alongside Shay Babagar to call for solidarity, rights, and justice, and to speak out about the conditions and inhumanities in global corporation Serco's 'contingency hotels'.
The Liverpool rally was on the same day that thousands of anti racists rallied in Dublin, and over 400 gathered in Rotherham, to expose and reject fascists' attempts to blame refugees for the current economic crisis.
Please view Vitalis's speech here and see the full transcript of the speech below. (And keep scrolling for photos.)
The Liverpool rally was on the same day that thousands of anti racists rallied in Dublin, and over 400 gathered in Rotherham, to expose and reject fascists' attempts to blame refugees for the current economic crisis.
Please view Vitalis's speech here and see the full transcript of the speech below. (And keep scrolling for photos.)
RAPAR’s Liverpool speech on Saturday 18th February 2023
1. Hello Liverpool! I am Vitalis, a member of RAPAR, the human rights organisation based in Manchester and also a leader in the said organisation.
2. Today, I stand before you with Shay’s family who are seeking asylum. They come from Balochistan in Pakistan. They came to the UK because, in their homeland, they fear for their lives.
3. We three are all human rights defenders. We stand in solidarity with everyone whose presence here re-asserts their commitment to working TOGETHER to make sure that we ALL achieve EQUAL human rights. I am now going to read Shays Family’s lived experience message.
4. Last summer, we arrived in the UK. Like all the other refugee people from around the world who have arrived here since the early days of Covid, the Home Office put us into ‘contingency accommodation’. That includes hotels that had become empty, suddenly, because of Covid.
5. The Home Office contracts privatised companies to look after the hotel residents and make sure we stay safe until their applications for asylum are processed.
6. In the Northwest it’s mostly the multinational corporation Serco. Serco is being paid £1.9 billion by the UK government. In 2022, Serco reported their profits worldwide rose by 21%, or £37 million, to £216 million. Hotel residents receive £9.10 each per week.
7. In July we reported belongings disappeared by Serco. We reported to Migrant Help, which is contracted to deal with hotel residents’ complaints.
8. In August and through to October, we reported abusive behaviour and physical assaults by Serco workers. At the moment, the police say they are not going to investigate the assaults any further.
9. In early November one of us went on hunger strike. We stopped after 35 days because, otherwise, irreversible physical damage would happen.
10. We stand BEFORE you today, continuing our campaign to stop the inhuman and degrading treatment, underpinned by racism and xenophobia, that has happened to us and other people INSIDE Serco-run hotels.
11. We stand WITH you today, to go forward TOGETHER to stop what happened OUTSIDE the hotel last Friday night.
12. Poverty has to exist for racist and xenophobic ideas to breed. We must end the poverty being lived by refugees AND all the people from here.
13. Going forward, the overwhelming majority of us - the 45,000 people seeking asylum living in contingency accommodation and all the other refugees in the UK, need to be part of this movement from below, to stop being divided and ruled from above.
14. Solidarity
1. Hello Liverpool! I am Vitalis, a member of RAPAR, the human rights organisation based in Manchester and also a leader in the said organisation.
2. Today, I stand before you with Shay’s family who are seeking asylum. They come from Balochistan in Pakistan. They came to the UK because, in their homeland, they fear for their lives.
3. We three are all human rights defenders. We stand in solidarity with everyone whose presence here re-asserts their commitment to working TOGETHER to make sure that we ALL achieve EQUAL human rights. I am now going to read Shays Family’s lived experience message.
4. Last summer, we arrived in the UK. Like all the other refugee people from around the world who have arrived here since the early days of Covid, the Home Office put us into ‘contingency accommodation’. That includes hotels that had become empty, suddenly, because of Covid.
5. The Home Office contracts privatised companies to look after the hotel residents and make sure we stay safe until their applications for asylum are processed.
6. In the Northwest it’s mostly the multinational corporation Serco. Serco is being paid £1.9 billion by the UK government. In 2022, Serco reported their profits worldwide rose by 21%, or £37 million, to £216 million. Hotel residents receive £9.10 each per week.
7. In July we reported belongings disappeared by Serco. We reported to Migrant Help, which is contracted to deal with hotel residents’ complaints.
8. In August and through to October, we reported abusive behaviour and physical assaults by Serco workers. At the moment, the police say they are not going to investigate the assaults any further.
9. In early November one of us went on hunger strike. We stopped after 35 days because, otherwise, irreversible physical damage would happen.
10. We stand BEFORE you today, continuing our campaign to stop the inhuman and degrading treatment, underpinned by racism and xenophobia, that has happened to us and other people INSIDE Serco-run hotels.
11. We stand WITH you today, to go forward TOGETHER to stop what happened OUTSIDE the hotel last Friday night.
12. Poverty has to exist for racist and xenophobic ideas to breed. We must end the poverty being lived by refugees AND all the people from here.
13. Going forward, the overwhelming majority of us - the 45,000 people seeking asylum living in contingency accommodation and all the other refugees in the UK, need to be part of this movement from below, to stop being divided and ruled from above.
14. Solidarity
18th Feb. 2023, Liverpool: Shay speaks with Jeremy Corbyn about his family's treatment in a Serco-managed hotel in Stockport and why they are here seeking refuge.
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18th Feb. 2023, Liverpool: Vitalis and Jeremy Corbyn talk together about seeking refuge in the UK's 'hostile environment'.
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