The PM’s announcement yesterday contained no plans for an asylum visa system, no plans to protect the most vulnerable, no plans to save lives. Tragically, the very next day, we’re faced with further loss of life. This was predictable and preventable.
No amount of security, pledges, rhetoric, promises, cooperation, hostility, is going to stop people making perilous journeys. As we’ve seen with the crackdown on the Channel Tunnel crossings, it will simply make the next journey more perilous than the last.
The threat of Rwanda or a more hostile immigration environment is no deterrent. None of this will make a discernible impact on the level of immigration.
If my family faced death, starvation, environmental disasters, or simply the inability to reach one’s potential, I would make the same choice. Let’s face it, so will you.
We were blessed with luck – our place of birth or our parents moving when it was easier to do so.
Twelve years of Conservative governments have gifted us with one of the most inhumane, unworkable, destructive immigration systems on the planet. A system that is damaging our economy, our reputation on human rights, our conscious, with layers of pain and death.
We are wasting political capital, and tons of money, on this when it would be better invested elsewhere while making quick wins to improve the immigration system and save lives. But I guess that’s the idea, move the narrative away from a failing government and onto others.
Until we have safe visa routes for all asylum seekers, not just the nationalities we prefer, no amount of talk is going to protect the most vulnerable and save lives. There are vast number of options available, it’s just that our government chooses to be on the side of the mean.
Categories: AsylumHuman Rights