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Mar 8 • 7 tweets • 4 min read
Mishal Hussein rightly sceptical: it took the govt more than 6 months to establish its resettlement scheme for Afghan refugees & still hasn’t brought anyone new to safety under it since, so how can we have faith when we see similar news of chaos & delays for Ukrainians? #r4today
Ben Wallace full of misleading bluster about the 600 or so Ukrainians currently stuck in Calais he says will have their visas processed soon…

This chaos is a direct result of the govt’s brutal approach to refugees: they should be able to travel without needing a visa. #r4today
What if a Ukrainian family gives up on this farce and gets onto a small boat alongside refugees from Sudan and Iraq and Afghanistan? Will the government finally listen and provide safe, regulated travel from Calais to the UK for people who wish to seek asylum then? #r4today
The one thing Wallace got right in that #r4today interview was that really all these questions about chaos & confusion over travel to the UK for Ukrainian refugees are questions for Priti Patel. Where is she? Posing for photos in Poland, rather than answering questions. #r4today
And when she finally is asked questions I do sincerely hope #r4today or whoever else it is draw links between how the UK’s response to Ukraine is lagging MILES behind the European one, and her #AntiRefugeeBill, which she still has time to THROW OUT of parliament entirely #r4today
It frustrates me. I know they have a lot of ground to cover but they rarely draw the threads together to expose govt failures adequately.
A couple days ago Tom Tugendhat said on #r4today he was sure we’d stop requiring visas for Ukrainian refugees. That hasn’t exactly happened.
But the govt just send someone new in today and they make up all of their own rubbish about what they don’t know and what they reckon might be the case. It’s pathetic. #r4today

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Zoe Gardner Profile picture
Mar 7
Apologies for linking to the S*n, but this would be an absolutely enormous win. Patel seems to concede we need humanitarian safe routes for Ukraine.

We must continue to push for this level of response. 50 Ukrainians jumping through our visa hoops is not good enough. #r4today
This must force her to change track on her #NationalityAndBordersBill which is coming back to the Lords again this week.
That Bill criminalises refugees reaching the UK. If she recognises the need for humanitarian visas, she is conceding that cannot be right & must throw it out.
If Patel concedes that Ukrainian refugees must not be expected to all stay in Poland - their “first safe country” and that the UK must play our part, then the argument is won. The Bill must go. Throw out the #AntiRefugeeBill #r4today
Read 7 tweets
Zoe Gardner Profile picture
Mar 2
An interesting thread.
Ukrainians are “Europeans like us” now, but when just a few months ago they were seasonal agricultural workers, they were “replacements” for EU free movement labour, they were expendable after 6 months, campaigns for their workers’ rights ignored entirely.
We saw the racialisation of Eastern Europeans during the Brexit campaign and the years before, and we could see it again. If numbers of Ukrainian refugees grow and the conflict continues, leaving them displaced for long periods, how will they be seen across Europe longer term?
How much of Western Europe’s generosity is based on the tacit understanding that the vast majority of displaced Ukrainians will in fact remain among their “brothers” in Poland? How long will the suspension of usual arguments about “illegitimate secondary movement” apply?
Read 5 tweets
Zoe Gardner Profile picture
Mar 1
While we hear of a huge Russian advance on Kyiv, here’s Lord Kerr explaining clearly how the government’s #NationalityAndBordersBill will mean no Ukrainian could receive full refugee protection in the UK.

The Lords did the right thing last night, will MPs change course? #r4today
And while we are all eyes on Ukraine, we cannot forget the other refugees that this #AntiRefugeeBill is going to harm.
#r4today report of Afghan fathers selling their organs in order to feed their families has knocked the wind out of me. The least we can do is THROW OUT THIS BILL
Yvette Cooper rightly says it’s so wrong Ukrainians living in the UK cannot bring elderly parents to join them here.
The rules on family reunion, for refugees and all migrants, are unnecessarily limited & cruel - and the #NationalityAndBordersBill will make it much worse #r4today
Read 4 tweets
Zoe Gardner Profile picture
Feb 28
🔔🔔 LORDS VOTE TO REMOVE CLAUSE 11 FROM THE #NationalityAndBordersBill

And after this knock-out blow dealt by the cross bench Peer Lord Kerr, how could they do anything else?

A blow to the government's #AntiRefugeeBill and a stand taken in solidarity with Ukraine & refugees
They also voted to remove Clause 9, which allows people to br stripped of British citizenship without notice.

It's a sorry state of affairs when our elected representatives are so venal & corrupt that we must rely on the Lords to protect what's right
For the blow-by-blow of today's Lords' debates and votes on the Bill tonight, Jon's excellent thread is where you need to be. I'm tapping out after that high on Clause 11. Knackered. Take her away, Jon.
Read 4 tweets
Zoe Gardner Profile picture
Feb 28
Today the House of Lords debate & vote on the #NationalityAndBordersBill #AntiRefugeeBill

Under this law, Ukrainians reaching the UK for protection would be considered criminals, denied the right to seek asylum, sent to offshore detention. It must be thrown out. #r4today
Tom Tugendhat on #r4today says he thinks UK is likely to “end up” doing the same for Ukrainian refugees as the whole EU has: visa free travel and no need to seek asylum on arrival, automatic grant of work visas.

I will believe THAT when I see it….
Tom Tugendhat, who was in Afghanistan & was praised for his emotional speech about how we must not abandon the Afghans who served with him to the Taliban, who reckons we’re about to give Ukrainians visa free travel, was not asked his feelings on the #AntiRefugeeBill on #r4today
Read 7 tweets
Zoe Gardner Profile picture
Feb 26
After Ukraine, there will be others. There will always be refugees denied protection as long as the borders of the rich, safe world are closed.

We must keep in sight a world that is different, where movement is free.
There’s plenty of people happy to shout about their straw man interpretation of what this means. I’d be delighted to have conversations about the serious, long-term & achievable global vision outlined in the piece. Not with loons raging about “millions of Africans” thanks. 😑😌
One interesting thing about Ukraine is, since 2014, 10s of thousands of refugees have already entered Poland.

Just they did so visa-free & were immediately able to work & didn’t have to leave their rights behind at the border. That system has worked. It could exist world wide.
Read 8 tweets

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