Lawmakers in UK's Turkish districts speak out on Brexit

By Michael Sercan Daventry

LONDON

British lawmakers representing Enfield – the London district with the highest number of Turkish-speakers in the U.K. – have expressed concerns about the level of anti-Turkish rhetoric in the country’s EU referendum campaign.

Joan Ryan, who is the opposition Labour Party MP for Enfield North and wants Britain to stay in the European Union, said she believed the tone of the referendum campaign had caused tensions among communities.

And pro-Brexit, ruling Conservative Party MP David Burrowes, who represents the adjacent Enfield Southgate district, said there was an issue concerning anti-Turkish sentiment that needed to be countered.

The north London borough of Enfield is home to the largest number of Turkish-speaking people in the U.K. Nearly 20,000 residents named it as their main language in a 2011 population census and thousands more are British citizens originating from Turkish, Kurdish and Turkish Cypriot families.

Ryan and Burrowes, on opposite sides of Britain’s European Union debate, are hoping to persuade voters across their borough to support them in Thursday’s referendum.

Ryan told Anadolu Agency: “I would say my view is that the majority of that tone and that content that I think is divisive and unhelpful in the extreme, I don’t think that’s, in the main, coming from the Remain camp.”

Brexit supporters in particular in particular have used Turkey prominently in their electioneering ahead of the June 23 referendum, highlighting potential Turkish membership of the 28-nation bloc as a reason why Britain should leave.

Former Mayor of London Boris Johnson and Michael Gove, the Justice Secretary, wrote an open letter to U.K. Prime Minister David Cameron last week urging him to immediately block Turkey’s EU membership.

But Cameron responded by saying Turkish membership is not “remotely on the cards” and has said the country’s accession talks could last until the “year 3000”.

Turkey ‘not the main focus’

David Burrowes – the Conservative lawmaker campaigning for Britain to leave the EU – said he did not see Turkey as “the main focus” of the debate on Britain’s future in Europe

He continued: “I agree that it’s not something I would particularly focus on in terms of my reasons for leaving membership of the European Union. I think [on] both sides, frankly, there’s been a concern about the way Turkey’s been misused.

“I mean, the prime minister, I know, and ministers have talked very positively [previously] about how much they support the accession of Turkey to European Union; they’ve talked very positively about that. And they’ve kind of rowed back from that.”

Burrowes said there were many Turkish-speaking business leaders who were going to vote to leave the EU on Thursday.

“The Turkish-speaking counsellors in my party are voting Leave. There’s many others voting Leave – businessmen around here who themselves don’t appreciate and don’t understand why there is such freedom of movement for European Union citizens to be able to come here,” he said.

Visa danger

Ryan – the Labour lawmaker – said leaving the EU would cause a range of immigration and visa problems in Britain’s Turkish-speaking communities, particularly in the field of family reunions.

“What I would say is, if you listen to some of the leading members of the Leave campaign, they say their aim will be to get immigration to this country from anywhere down below the 40,000 mark,” she said.

“Currently the numbers applying for a spousal visa to come and join their husband or wife in this country is running at 43,000 a year. So rather than actually help, it is going to hinder. People are not going to get their loved ones in on a visa.”