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HABIB
RAHMAN
Habib
Rahman is the Chief Executive of the Joint Council for
the Welfare of Immigrants (JCWI), a position he has held
since 1999. Before joining JCWI, he served for over fifteen
years as a Senior Caseworker/Community Worker with management
responsibilities at Tower Hamlets Law Centre.
 |
| "All
the bad publicity [about immigration] in the tabloid
press and other irresponsible media has not helped
to carry on a reasoned and intelligent debate."
|
After
completing his university studies, he joined the private
sector as a manager, but was more interested in peoples'
rights as he was already involved in student politics
both in Dhaka University and University College London.
Whilst working in the private sector, he became aware
of the poor working conditions of workers in the catering
industry and went out of his way to help them to organise
themselves into a Trade Union to achieve their rights.
In the late 70s and early 80s he became involved in the
anti-racist movement in the East End of London which led
him to change his career from the private sector to the
community sector and he applied successfully for a job
at the Tower Hamlets Law Centre.
Habib
started work in Tower Hamlets at a time when it was changing
fairly rapidly into a multi cultural community.
"New
people were coming into the community and many were facing
severe difficulties including homelessness and destitution
because of the unfairness associated with the immigration
and nationality law and housing policies of both local
and central government at that time."
Whilst
at the Law Centre, Habib was involved in many organisations
on a voluntary basis including Tower Hamlets Association
for Racial Justice (THARJ), which was formed as a pro-active
race relation organisation to confront racism in the area.
He was a founding member and acting Chair of THARJ, the
then Bishop of Stepney was the Chair. The activities of
THARJ were recognised by the community which resulted
in amalgamating all the race relation organisations in
the borough into one.
As a consequence of his work in Tower Hamlets, Habib was
elected to the JCWI's Executive from 1985. JCWI was already
a well established organisation since its formation in
1967. He became the Chair of JCWI for a period of 4 years.
During his tenure Anne Owers, the current Chief Inspector
of Prisons and Claude Morales, now a Member of the European
Parliament, were the Directors of JCWI.
Based in neat shop front offices, JCWI's head office in
Old Street in London is surprisingly small given the influential
position it occupies in the field of asylum and immigration.
JCWI is as well known for the free advice and case work
it provides to immigrants and asylum seekers as it is
for its campaign work. The organisation produces a prodigious
amount of fact sheets, briefings and policy pamphlets
on immigration and asylum, and has recently published
the eagerly awaited 2006 edition of its Immigration, Nationality
and Refugee Law Handbook which has grown from 600 pages
for the last edition to the current over 1,500 pages document.
Habib
Rahman is a staunch critic of government immigration policy,
although he points out that JCWI is a responsible organisation
that does not criticise the government for criticism's
sake.
"Immigration
has, until recently, been depicted in a negative light.
The political parties perceive encouraging immigration
to the UK essentially as a vote loser. Immigration control
is about controlling the number of people from black and
minority ethnic communities entering the country."
"My starting at JCWI coincided with the Labour government
introducing the 1999 Immigration Act. I spent my initial
weeks in the post being interviewed by the media about
the Act. One of the main aspects of this Act was to disperse
asylum seekers in cluster areas of the country and the
introduction of the demeaning voucher system instead of
cash."
This
negative approach to immigration and asylum seeking is
not confined to successive governments, he maintains.
"All the bad publicity in the tabloid press and other
irresponsible media has not helped to carry on a reasoned
and intelligent debate."
Habib
Rahman describes himself as a human rights activist and
considers his position as fortunate in that he has been
able to pursue this calling in his professional life.
He sees no contradiction in working closely with the government
and being a frequent critic of its policies.
"We
take pride in not taking central government funding since
our inception 1967. That was one of the founding principals
of the organisation; because we wanted to preserve our
independence."
There
are many positive elements of JCWI's relationship with
government.
"We
got involved with the government's Managed Migration Policy
which helped in opening up legitimate avenues for migrant
workers to fill the skill shortage in the UK. It also
minimised the risk of becoming victims of traffickers."
"If
people are coming here it is because there is a job to
be done here," he adds. "In the globalised
economy, it is inevitable that labour will move from country
to country with the movement of capital. In the age of
easier communication, people tend to move around the globe
more freely and therefore an intelligent immigration policy
is needed. What is required is a well thought out managed
migration policy."
Habib
has a particular concern for what he calls the undocumented
sector - unskilled people who come to the UK for a short
time to work but who do not have many rights. He gave
some examples:
"They
come here for a short time to work in the agricultural
and food processing industry, and stay for six months
or so and then they are shunted back to their country.
Many of these people remain here to make enough money
for themselves and their families before they return to
their families."
"A
number of such people are in the UK without any documentation
to prove their immigration status. Depending on which
estimates we take, it is estimated that around 200,000
to 400,000 people are in the UK without documents. These
are the people we call undocumented workers. Some tabloids
negatively quote figures of around half a million of such
people."
"It
is not the fault of these people; they are being exploited,
working here without any rights, living in fear as second
class or third class citizens. They are, at the same time,
not able to contribute to society financially through
taxes and National Insurance, and also by playing a positive
role as equal members of society."
"How
are we going to incorporate these people into society?
How are we going to transform that energy in the interest
of this country? We need to get them out of hiding and
into the mainstream, and regularise their involvement,
freed from exploitation and discrimination. These are
some of the positive things we are trying to achieve with
the government."
JCWI's
campaign of information also includes getting the message
across as widely as possible that immigration is good
for Britain and therefore immigrants deserve better protection.
JCWI's contribution to the last General Election campaign,
Habib says as an example, was to produce a leaflet that
explained how immigrants made a net contribution to UK
GDP in the region of £2 billion. He believes that
initiatives such as these helped change the tone of the
debate during the last general election.
Habib
has not given more thought about his future career; the
present is all consuming. "My work at JCWI is
stimulating; in immigration there are always new challenges.
Perhaps in the future, when I feel I have completed my
work here, I would like to become more involved in international
human rights work where I think I have a contribution
to make."
By
Louis Julienne, Temp (Maternity cover) Director, EIN
