Thursday, 7 February, 2002, 12:38 GMT
Immigration shake-up unveiled
 http://news.bbc.co.uk/hi/english/uk_politics/newsid_1805000/1805883.stm

(does not mention campsfield though)


Main plans
English test and citizenship exam for those wanting nationality
Nationality applicants will have to swear an oath of allegiance
Faster processing of asylum claims
Green card system for workers from overseas
Tougher sentences for people traffickers

The new requirements are at the centre of a package of sweeping reforms to the immigration and asylum system unveiled by the Home Secretary David Blunkett.

Funny, cos as a "british citizen" i don't ever remember swearing an "oath of allegiance." and i failed ALL my GCSEs including "English". looks like i'm gonna get deported back to my old man's bollox.
Bollox!

Link to website of Committee to Defend Asylum Seekers:

 http://news.bbc.co.uk/hi/english/uk/england/newsid_1806000/1806892.stm

is the link to the bbc page

This is an odd one - have spoken to some Campsfield campaigners & they are puzzled as to why this is happening now - the reasons they give aren't strictly true - especially Blunketts claim that "Campsfield is no longer appropriate in the 21st Century.". It was refurbished totally in 1993 to prepare it as a detention centre for asylum seekers,
having previously been a centre for young offendors.
And many asylum seekers are currently held in Victorian prisons, alongside regular convicted prisoners - less than ideal surely??

I believe that becasue Grope4 have been even more incompetent than usual at Campsfield, and because they have had more protests (both inside & out) and more escapes than any other
(5 Romanians that escaped the other week are still free as far as we know) detention centre they chose this as a political decision - closing one centre looks good on the surface with all these 'reforms'(they'll probably forget to mention the new ones being built at the moment) - except for all those knee-jerking bigots out there who'll complain bitterly about it - 'Britain is a soft touch' etc, but they may well be calmed down by the introduction of all this 'citizenship' bollox:-

What do Blunketts proposals mean?
The green cards proposal will mean that people will be let in to do jobs that we have a shortage of skills for in this country - probably some doctors & nurses, but could well end up being crap jobs that no-one else wants to do.

The proposal that everyone should learn english is fair enough (as long as they don't charge them for lessons)- I believe that anyone who lives anywhere away from their native country should make some effort to learn the language and at least have an understanding of local culture
(Brits & Yanks abroad especially) - but I think Blunkett & Blair will have different ideas to the rest of us about what that means.

And the 'oath of allegiance' is pretty meaningless but could keep the tory knees from jerking too much - and at least it doesn't mention allegience to the monarchy...

im 36 years old ,no O./Alevels,ive tried to learn french over a period of 10 years ,to no avail ,i recon im just crap at lingos....i imagine the difficulty some refugee would have , our letter system is chalk and cheese,if the refugee comes from the m/east ....china/etc ,the languages in certain regions looks like art to me!! what chance have some people got ...seems its LEARN OR DIE, i wonder if david blunket would be able to learn farsi braille?

If Blunkett could actually find ONE asylum seeker who didn't WANT to learn English, he might have a point...