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Zoe Gardner Profile picture
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22 Sep, 5 tweets, 2 min read
If I had a Home Office decision made right first time for every time someone has asked me, like this Tory MP did,

"Why don't refugees claim asylum in France?"

Well... we might have had a functioning asylum system by now...
Priti Patel and the Tories say they're motivated by compassion, but being compassionate really isn't that hard.

If you believe in protecting refugees, protect refugees.
Don't play absurd games between countries of "who touched it last" to pass people back & forth across borders.
So, the next time someone thinks they're being smart by telling you they "should have stayed in France"...

here's the @JCWI_UK 5-step guide to responding, which doesn't involve pointing out how deeply they are lacking in either humanity or imagination...
Full credit to @ruthstokes for these videos. I looove this one with the steps :)

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More from @ZoeJardiniere

Zoe Gardner Profile picture
24 Sep
Lukashenko could not “use migrants as weapons” if the EU did not behave as though people seeking sanctuary & to build a better life were a threat.

Turns my stomach when EU states say THEY are being threatened, while it is migrants literally dying at our closed borders #r4today
There have already been four confirmed deaths at the Belarusian border. This is what pushbacks do. They kill. Quite simply.

There is no border control defence for leaving people to die. Passing the blame to Belarus will never wash the blood from the EU’s hands for this #r4today
This is not the first despot on Europe’s periphery to use our hypocrisy against us by ferrying desperate people to our borders.

The world of militarised borders we have led the way in creating has resulted in human beings used as pawns in a deadly game no one wins 😔 #r4today
Read 5 tweets
Zoe Gardner Profile picture
24 Sep
The solution to labour shortages is not and will never be more short-term visas by expanding the seasonal workers scheme.
These visas are associated with a high risk of exploitation, debt & trafficking because they are so time limited & give people such limited rights #r4today
If we need migrants to fill jobs, we need flexible visas that allow ppl to settle in UK long term if they wish, allows switching employer, enables unionising, bans zero-hours contracts.
In short, a sustainable model to improve conditions whatever the worker’s nationality #r4today
Of course. They couldn't ride out the bad headlines, their convictions crumble at the slightest disgruntlement in the right wing press

We're looking at a short-term stop gap, bringing in temporary workers with few rights. Run by absolute donkeys, I swear. ft.com/content/833516…
Read 5 tweets
Zoe Gardner Profile picture
17 Sep
We need to talk about the Government's Equality Impact Assessment of the Nationality and Borders (Anti-Refugee) Bill.

More specifically, I could talk for hours about just this paragraph:
Let's take it line by line, shall we? I shall.

"There is a risk that increased security and deterrence could encourage these cohorts to attempt riskier means of entering the UK"

"These cohorts" specifically means Iranian, Iraqi, Sudanese & Afghan men.
This risk is indeed well-evidenced.
The Foreign Affairs Select Committee, which found in 2019 "a policy that focuses exclusively on closing borders will drive migrants to take more dangerous routes, and push them into the hands of criminal groups."
publications.parliament.uk/pa/cm201919/cm…
Read 16 tweets
Zoe Gardner Profile picture
16 Sep
Myself and some of my more excellent sector colleagues have been building a cross-border forum for collaboration between migrant assisting organisations in France, Belgium & the UK.

The situation colleagues reported to us today from Calais & Grande Synth is absolutely desperate.
Police have increased their violent raids on homeless migrant camps from every 48 hours to multiple times per day.

Access to food & drinkable water has been deliberately cut off.

Significant increase in numbers of women & lone children in these extremely vulnerable situations.
The trauma & mental health needs among this population are simply enormous.

A few thousand people trapped in the no-man's land we have created, at the mercy of the traffickers, or the waves, between two of the world's richest countries.

Who really thinks jet skis will fix it?
Read 4 tweets
Zoe Gardner Profile picture
9 Sep
On the level of wave machines: not only blatantly illegal & immoral,
Also speaks to sort of unhinged desperation, a willingness to genuinely make us a pariah state in the name of Patel’s job
& raises grim prospect of a standoff in dangerous waters w refugees as sacrifice #r4today
The irony is, cooperation w France to stop boats would be possible if we started by agreeing to take our share of refugees.
Instead, our position is that, due to geography, it is 100% their responsibility & we’re willing to put human lives at extreme risk to prove it. #r4today
This is, for incredibly obvious reasons, not a position that France or the EU can accept.
Patel is puffing up her chest for a fight to prove her dedication to the tabloid headlines.
The refugees are the ones, inevitably, caught once again in the cross-fire, or the waves. #r4today
Read 8 tweets
Zoe Gardner Profile picture
18 Aug
Today, MPs return early from their Summer break to discuss the crisis in Afghanistan.

Patel will claim her pledge to resettle just 5,000 people this year to the UK represents a world-leading response to the situation.

Here is @JCWI_UK's briefing #r4today jcwi.org.uk/briefing-the-a…
@JCWI_UK Andy Burnham outlines chaotic mismanagement in the existing UK asylum system, people being transferred between accommodation with no notice.

Rightly calls for a fully-funded national dispersal scheme, that leaves Local Authorities providing sanctuary struggling. #r4today
Burnham also questioned the low numbers of resettlement places pledged, highlighting the fact that we have been militarily implicated in Afghanistan for 20 years.

Says 35,000 would be more appropriate resettlement target. If he means this year, I'd say that's a start. #r4today
Read 13 tweets

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