Thread by @alexhallhall

Venturing into fraught territory, how do we establish a sustainable, coherent, long term approach on refugees/migrants, that is more humane than current Home Office policy of making life even more miserable for people who are already desperate?…A thread

(On which I have some experience, having headed FCO humanitarian unit in 1990s, covering refugees, war crimes, Geneva Conventions etc; and Hd Human Rights dept in 2000s)

And visited camps/discussed policy on refugees/displaced persons from Vietnam, Cambodia, Burma, Somalia, Rwanda, Syria, Palestine, Colombia, Angola, Afghanistan, Abkhazia, and many, many more over my career

Sustainable strategy needs short, medium and long term approaches, not shortsighted HO policy of just shoving boats away…addressing only the tail end of the problem

Long term need is to work with int’l partners to address underlying root causes of migration…war, famine, corruption, poor governance, climate change, human rights abuses, criminal gangs etc

That also means weaning ourselves of fossil fuels, corrupt money, oligarchic money in our financial systems, private schools, universities etc which prop up these dreadful regimes

Medium term need is to provide more support to those countries hosting the vast majority of refugees and migrants, to keep them safe in their first place of refuge, not leave burden just to the host countries

Like Turkey, Bangladesh, Columbia who host millions

As this report shows, 85% of world’s migrants are hosted by developing countries. Our burden is minuscule by comparison. unhcr.org/refugee-statis…

And short term need is, yes, to crack down hard on people smugglers, and prevent dangerous sea crossing. But this requires cooperation with our neighbors not public slanging matches. (Curious..how much help did we give It, Gr, Ger etc when they were inundated with arrivals? )

Then do all we can to protect and integrate those who do make it to our shores…eg special schools to integrate children, teach English, a “buddy family “ scheme to help migrants settle in, more support to charities helping arrivals, and…

Yes, jobs, so they have their own livelihood, are not dependent on govt handouts, and integrate quicker. Didn’t I read somewhere that post Brexit, and Covid, we have desperate shortage of drivers, care workers, farm workers etc?

Final thought…am in two minds over re-opening 1951 Refugee Convention. Agree it doesn’t really encompass/reflect majority of today’s migrants ….but risky if ends up weakening existing protection for refugees. But, we might need a new category of temporary protected status

Home Office emphasis on just making it harder to get here is futile and shortsighted. We need coherent strategy addressing all elements of the issue from source to here. And reflecting the humane and decent values we like to claim are the essence of the British.