It’s not political difference, it’s a difference in humanity.
As you may know, in the last 24 hours 6 people have died in the English Channel, attempting to cross on a small boat to England to seek asylum. They join the 213 other people registered as missing or dead whilst trying to make the journey since 2014. Home Secretary Suella Braverman said that her “thoughts and prayers” are with those affected by the “tragic loss of life” in the channel.
It’s an interesting way to describe the deaths of these people. Tragic. To me it is tragic, because there is nothing I can do to change the circumstances that lead to this outcome. To me it is tragic, because it is devastating that there are human beings existing in such desperate situations, with no safe or viable way out, that risking death for a chance at safety is preferable to staying. But I have no power to stop that. For Suella Braverman to say she thinks it is tragic is disingenuous. Her thoughts and prayers should have been to those affected by the inevitable outcome of my hostile and dehumanising policies. Because she could offer a whole lot more than thoughts and prayers.
The 6 people who died yesterday were all from Afghanistan. In 2021 when Afghanistan fell back into the control of the Taliban, the UK government had stated it would take in up to 20,000 people, including up to 5,000 in the first year, who were forced to flee Afghanistan or faced threats of persecution from the Taliban. In January of 2022 they launched The Afghan Citizens Resettlement scheme. Pathway 1 focused on resettling people who were evacuated from Afghanistan at the time the Taliban took power again. In June 2022, they launched a second pathway. Pathway 2 of this scheme is currently the only open route for resettlement for Afghan’s who are not currently in the UK. It involves receiving referrals from the United Nations High Commissioner for Refugees, for vulnerable people forced to flee Afghanistan. This is not something they can apply for either, it’s not an easy to understand or access option, and less than 1% of the world’s refugees are submitted for resettlement each year. 99% have to find alternate routes to safety. By February of 2023 they had resettled just 22 Afghan people using Pathway 2. This is by design. People are pushed to take drastic measures because they don’t have access to safe and legal routes.
And let’s talk about those shall we? Safe and legal routes. They’re big buzzwords for the Government. They love to say that they simply want to stop the dangerous crossings, that it’s about saving vulnerable lives and encouraging the use of safe and legal routes. Just some things to consider:
To claim asylum in the UK, you have to physically be here. Not at an embassy, but physically here on our island.
To be eligible for asylum you must have left your country and be unable to go back because you fear persecution.
The refugee council found that 91% of people came from just ten countries where human rights abuses and persecution are common, including Afghanistan, Syria, Iran, Sudan, Yemen and Eritrea. Those countries do not allow visa free travel to the UK.
To get a visa to enter the UK, you have to prove you have access to sufficient funds in order to support and house yourself and any dependents throughout your stay without accessing public funds.
You also have to prove you are fully intending to leave the UK at the end of your visit and do not plan to stay for longer than six months.
There is no asylum visa, to get here legally you need either a short/long term visa, a work visa, or a student visa. The minimum cost is £100.
Since the passing of the Illegal Immigration Bill 2023, if you arrived to the UK to claim asylum from Tuesday March 7th 2023 onwards, your claim to asylum would be ruled inadmissible if you came by boat or in a truck, and you would be detained within the first 28 days of arrival.
So to summarise that, there is no way to get a visa for the purpose of claiming asylum. You cannot get any visa without providing proof that you are fully intending to leave the UK at the end of the visa length - which you obviously cannot do if your intention is to claim asylum. Without a visa to enter the UK, you cannot enter the UK via plane or train. However, you have to be physically in the UK to claim asylum and that leaves you with only a boat or truck as an option, the most dangerous of all the options. But it’s after March 7th 2023 so even if you do manage to get across safely, if you attempt to claim asylum at the port or beach where you arrive, your claim is immediately inadmissible. So they can’t fly, they can’t get the train, they can’t use a boat or a truck, they can’t get current visa’s, there’s no such thing as an asylum visa, and yet somehow they have to be here to claim asylum. Does that sound to you like this has ever been a policy about reducing dangerous crossings?
The unsafe crossings are a direct result of hostile policy. And the hostile policy is a direct result of the dehumanisation of those viewed as “other” by the ruling class. In the exact same week that 6 people died trying to reach UK shores, the first 15 people boarded the barge off the coast of Dorset that is to serve as a holding facility for asylum seekers. 39 people were placed on the barge before they were promptly removed because Legionella bacteria was found in the water supply. Thankfully none of the men on board have showed any signs of having contracted the bacteria which causes the incredibly serious lung infection Legionnaires, however it can take up to 16 days for symptoms to show. The tests were done on July 25th, however the government decided it wasn’t necessary to wait for the results of the tests before moving people onto the barge, therefore willingly playing roulette with their safety.
And ultimately, that is the point of this whole piece. We are being fed the idea that this is about a difference of political opinion. If you don’t agree with the small boats policy, if you don’t agree with putting human beings on floating prisons, if you don’t agree with the hostile way this government treats the most vulnerable, if you think they lack empathy or compassion or care, it’s simply that you disagree with their politics. But it is not about politics, and it is obscene that it’s being treated as such. It is about humanity. It is about our own personal humanity and whether or not we engage in the dehumanisation of others based on something as arbitrary as which man-made borders they were born within and which ones they crossed seeking safety. It’s about whether or not our humanity is okay with watching other people’s being stripped from them and treated like a bargaining chip in a sick game of political chess that benefits only the ones playing for power.
This isn’t about disagreeing on politics, it’s about what it means to be a person, what it means to be human. I would say I stand diametrically opposed to the version of humanity on display in government but the reality is, I think it’s entirely devoid of any humanity at all.