ICLA Expresses Concern About The British Government’s Restrictions On The Freedom of Movement of Dutch MP Geert Wilders
The ICLA representative made the following statement at session 3 of the OSCE 2009 Human Dimension Implementation Meeting:
The International Civil Liberties Alliance would like to raise the issue of Dutch MP Geert Wilders being denied entry into the United Kingdom earlier this year.
He was barred entry to the UK on grounds that his entry “would threaten community harmony and therefore public security”, even though he has never advocated the use of violence or threatened anyone. On the other hand, a member of the House of Lords, Lord Nazir Ahmed, threatened to mobilise 10,000 Muslims to protest Mr Wilders’ appearance and the showing of his short film Fitna in the British Parliament. Rather than reprimanding Lord Ahmed for this act of intimidation, the British government chose to ban Mr Wilders from entering Britain, returning him to the Netherlands on his arrival at Heathrow Airport.
This constitutes not only giving in to intimidation, but is also in our opinion and abuse of the law to restrict freedom of movement within the European Union.
The International Civil Liberties Alliance therefore calls upon the OSCE to encourage Participating States to refrain from restricting movement on such whimsical and apparently politically motivated grounds.
