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I'm Aaron Peters coming from London's Chinatown.
We are here today to observe what is going to happen.
There is, at 3 o'clock, a strike. Business led. By Chinese businesses here.
In opposition to recent UKBA raids
I'm joined here by Bo. Bo you are incredibly angry. What has upset you so much?
Well the way, as they say, the UKBA people come in Chinatown in the last 2 or 3 months. They questioned me myself.
It took them half an hour to treat me and they even shout at me and say don't answer my mobile phone, you know.
Thats why I told him I have to answer my mobile phone.
I have to look at it even if I don't answer it because my mother is in a nursing home and I'm sole carer for my mother.
Anything happen to my mother they will call me.
No respect, nothing. Even the police don't treat me like that, you know.
We didn't see 1 police officer at the protest. That was a marked change from what one would
normally expect, and I think it speaks volumes with regards to the tactics that UKBA and
the MET employ with these kinds of communities. Strong, organised, they have a voice. The
police know better than overstepping the mark, perhaps, in Chinatown. UKBA however, different
story. And now they are getting a response.
I'm joined my Suresh Grover, one of the organisers of today's demonstration. Suresh there is a lot of noise, we've spoken to several people:
business owners, workers. They anger seems pretty consistent. People are really annoyed.
I've been told that there have been an increasingly frequent raids, fishing trips as they are
being called, over the course of the last several months. How new is this?
Well I think what's new is that 13 raids have taken place that are known to us over the
last 6 weeks, on a weekly basis. These raids are aggressive. They are not intelligence led.
They cause harm and distress to people who are being raided. The immigration officers who raid them are rude.
There have been racist comments made to managers.
And they are so aggressive it has brought massive anger into the community.
The composition of the demonstration today here is fascinating. I've seen a lot of East
Asian faces, that's not a surprise. However you are also seeing a lot of Black Britons,
Unite banners, behind me are several Eastern European and Central Asian porters who work
in some of the wholesale food businesses around here. On the other side West Africans. I've
spoken to a few people and they are saying increasingly it feels that there is a very
generalised grievance. Specifically amongst the non-EU working community. That they are
being specifically targeted and that is a political consequence of change in migration policy since 2010.
We found this gentleman here with this sign.
Welcome to fake Britain. Government only care for inward Chinese investment, but not our
local labour shortage. An interesting angle, it is one I agree with. At first sight this
seems like a continuation of racist tactics by UKBA but there is a bigger story here right?
Absolutely. I think in a nutshell they are only trying to do a political game. They want
to be seen as doing something but they have already lost the control on the borders to
the EU. But they have to be seen to be doing something. And that is why they only want
the people coming in to invest, but when it comes to labour shortage they don't want to know.
So looking back on Tuesday's protests a few thoughts.
We have to remember this was a boss led strike,
a real rare occurrence. Over 100 businesses in Chinatown displaying these very prominent
posters against UKBA fishing raids as they were being described. And for now there is
a shared interest between workers and bosses with regards to migration caps and what is
deplorable, displaceable treatment by the British state against foreign owned non-EU
primarily businesses, particularly in the catering and restaurant industry.
What could change that? It is quite possible in the next 2 years, 3 years, leading up to
the next general election that the grievances of these bosses to be placated and we see
a change in migration caps in these industries. That doesn't change the racist, disgusting
treatment of many of these workers. They are saying frequently they are being treated like
animals. They were comparing UKBA to the SA. That doesn't seem to be the problem for the
bosses however. A final point. If this isn't resolved we see
a strange, mutual interest between euroskeptics and powerful bourgeois diaspora communities,
specifically the bosses. So if this isn't addressed by the Labour party or the Conservative
party where to they go? UKIP?