It's a week old, but I've been recovering from the vaccine for the last couple of days, so forgive me, but...
We need to talk about the Times view on Channel Crossings. 🧵🧵👇👇 thetimes.co.uk/article/the-ti…
First para, of course we hear of "Britain's overstretched asylum and immigration services" but by what measure are they over stretched?
As my followers will be bored of hearing, numbers of asylum seekers dropped dramatically in the last year. They were stable & low before that.
If our asylum system is indeed overstretched, while France, Germany, Italy, etc all receive many more asylum seekers than we do, why is that?
The Times is not curious to ask. The blame is clearly allocated already, no need to inquire.
Why the government's current approach of criminalisation/throwing money at FR to contain a problem that is neither their responsibility, nor possible, to contain isn't expected to work by anyone.
It's not about FR "getting rid of them" though, a few WANT to leave FR & come to UK.
There's a bit next which really makes me laugh about how SOMETHING MUST BE DONE FAST LEST THE RIGHT WINGERS WHO DONT HAVE COMPASSION start to intervene in the conversation...............................................................
While the Times on the other hand, demonstrates its humanitarian concerns by pointing out how impractical and expensive it would be to do like Australia and introduce offshore processing for asylum seekers. Oh the humanity.
Right we're at the meat of it. This is just straight-forwardly wrong.
"economic migrants" by-which the Times means "not refugees" do not make up the majority of those crossing the Channel. Far from it. Even the Home Office admits this fgs freemovement.org.uk/channel-boat-p…
Onwards, here we really see that someone with no idea has written this article.
The simplest thing is just to set up our asylum system in France, right? That's smart. France TOTALLY wont mind. Asylum seekers can just hang out & eat baguette while they wait for assessment?
The reality is that the UK asylum system, properly funded and reformed, is the only appropriate or possible place for applications.
A travel visa for APPLICANTS would provide an alternative to using smugglers for many, but there's no substitute for a system that works in the UK.
The article ends admitting there's no panacea, here I can agree.
Until we have vastly more open and flexible borders, open to asylum seekers AND migrants, we will have those desperately trying to cross where they are closed.
This creates the smugglers' market. It's simple enough.
It's interesting and important that the Times have weighed in with a proposal that admits Patel's plans wont work & why, & gets close to understanding that it is safe, open travel from France that will protect refugees from smugglers.
They have a way to go on the detail, though.
Basic factual errors are concerning, claim that the majority of Channel crossers aren't refugees is wrong, easily verifiable, repeating people's prejudice back to them.
Any expert they could have consulted could have told them why asylum processing in France wont work either.
If I were "The Times" and I were going to write my newspaper's official opinion on the issue leading the national conversation (again) over the whole Summer, I'd consider basic fact-checking and a minimum of research to make it robust.
But I guess that's why I'm not.
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Textbook interview from Cleverly on how to normalise & empower the far right:
-Only problem he identifies with Farage is his plans to stop migration won’t work
-Reinforces the idea migration is bad & Farage’s aims are legit
-Says Tories are the real anti-migrant vote #r4today
Directly afterwards we hear from France where the EXACT same narrative pursued by Macron led to a far right victory in the election.
We hear the same again: we need remove migrants, more failed measures of immigration control, control Muslims, migrants are the problem🤦♀️#r4today
Europe is sick.
Some say history is cycles & I’ve never agreed.
But there’s seemingly insatiable appetite for MORE migrant hatred, MORE narratives of utterly failed “control” that causes chaos, MORE scapegoating, MORE promises that migration can or should be stopped… #r4today
Over 40 people killed at sea by the Greek coast guard.
9 of those people deliberately thrown into the sea.
There literally are no words for European (in which I absolutely include the UK) depravity in the name of border enforcement. #r4today
Literally leaving babies adrift at sea on rafts. On camera. In broad daylight.
That is “stop the boats” in action. There’s no way to push back asylum seekers that doesn’t kill.
Our borders kill every day, Greeks are just taking a bit more active involvement these days. #r4today
There is no question whatsoever that the Greek authorities deliberately kill migrants.
You can watch video of 36-year-old Greek, Antonis Karyotis, being pushed off a ferry by a Greek official who mistook him for “a black or Pakistani” & watches him drown last September. #r4today
This is only the “immigration election” because we’re all once again dancing to Farage’s tune who, unbelievably, is on one of the BBC’s flagship programmes #r4today AGAIN this morning.
To the public, it’s an election about the NHS & cost of living. For which we need immigrants.
Zero net is an insane anti-growth proposal that would see our NHS waiting lists explode, make it impossible to recruit teachers for our kids, trash our ability to build houses, and desperately damage our economy leaving us much poorer.
#r4today
Farage, again, completely comes unstuck when talking about refugees - he claims the EXACT same policies that failed for the Tories would magically work for him.
Eventually, ofc, he pivots to straight up racism. Absurd unsubstantiated claims about our Muslim communities. #r4today
Weird🤔
Because none of the 6 or 7 reports released this year by credible academics, researchers & service providers detailing horrendous exploitation, & debt bondage driven by the temporary work visa system Jenrick oversaw, seem to have been covered on #r4today🤷♀️
This @FocusOnLabour report reveals migrant farm workers are unable in practice to change employer due to visa restrictions, leaving them trapped when underpaid or not given enough work.
They can then be coerced into poor living &working conditions #r4today labourexploitation.org/publications/b…
This one from @TBIJ @CitizensAdvice reveals migrant health & social care workers suffer workplace sexual abuse & exploitation
But unable to speak for fear of losing their jobs & therefore their employer-tied visa permitting them to stay in the uk #r4today thebureauinvestigates.com/stories/2024-0…
Very few asylum seekers will ever be sent there, but this morning, thousands of homeless men, women & children who came to us with nothing & asked for help but we left in limbo, have fear hanging over them of violent deportation to a dictatorship #r4today
And it’s the violence I want you to think about today.
Because there is no way to carry out the deportations Sunak is crowing about without serious violence.
People will struggle, they’ll be restrained, may attempt to self harm or kill themselves. Over & over again. #r4today
The reason he can talk about flight after flight & bragged about hundreds of agents trained to enforce removals, that’s because it takes violence.
Multiple agents per human to force them onto the plane.
Flights filled with enforcement staff & a few desperate refugees. #r4today