The joint statement by @pritipatel and @Vbiruta in the Times this morning is a masterclass in lying and disingenuity. Not only does it rehash the tired, and demonstrably false, "economic migrants" and "queue jumpers" line, it also shows neither knows what trafficking is. 1/
Absolutely nobody is being "advantaged" by being trafficked. It is also the height of hypocrisy to claim you care whilst pushing policies which are 100% guaranteed to benefit actual traffickers. 2/
Oh, and by the way @pritipatel, we have all been telling you for a very long time how to tackle both trafficking and smuggling, but you haven't listened because it would also involve actually providing safety for asylum seekers instead of dumping them elsewhere. 3/
Removing carrier liability fines, so asylum seekers can fly, or catch a ferry or Eurostar, across the channel instead of having to use smugglers. Issue humanitarian visas so that it is harder for traffickers to prey on people. Facilitate easier access to the asylum system. 4/
Invest some of the hundreds of millions, soon to be billions, spent on "deterrents" in local communities to ensure they can be developed in parallel to benefit locals and asylum seekers alike. All of these would be more effective than shipping people 4,000 miles away. #r4today 5/
The #RwandaMigrationPlan won't be a "deterrent". First off, asylum seekers don't tend to know the asylum laws of countries they head to. Secondly, for those who do, people come to the UK primarily because of language or family ties, so likely to play the odds. #r4today 6/
We absolutely do know that the #RwandaMigrationPlan won't work #r4today. It has already been tried between Israel and Rwanda and led to a massive spike in trafficking, with zero impact as a deterrent. It is false to claim that we "can't know" until we do it. 7/
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I should be spending Easter Sunday with my family. I have spent part of it at church. I should not have to spend a nanosecond of it explaining why denying safety to people by forcing them to a country which commits human rights abuses is not in the least fucking bit "Christian".
Here we are though. The same people who claim that "this is a Christian country so refugees should integrate" trying to claim that Jesus would have condoned shipping off some of the most vulnerable people to appeal to bigots. How fucking dare you desecrate my faith like this.
My job is to try and ensure people are protected. I get not everyone agrees with that and we have different perspectives. I get everyone views faith in a different way. I've never been so angry as I am watching fuckwits twist the teachings of Christ to defend the indefensible.
We aren't just talking about the UK here. Johnson wants his Rwandan forced transportation plan to be a "model" for other countries. Not only does that mean denying even more refugees their rights, it means developed nations deliberately avoiding providing safety. #r4today 1/
About 85% of the world's 26.6 million refugees are located in developing nations. Note the 26.6 million by the way. When the government talks of 80 million they're conflating refugees with "displaced individuals", majority of whom are internally displaced in their own country. 2/
If this "model", a model which has already been proven repeatedly not to actually work as a deterrent in Australia, were to be taken up it would effectively end the international refugee regime and show that developed nations had no moral authority. 3/
Utter rubbish. 98% of those crossing the channel sought asylum and about 79% were granted it, so they were asylum seekers. This also ignores how families will go into debt to be able to allow one member most likely to survive to make the long journey to seek asylum. 1/
Safety is subjective. most asylum seekers who reach France stay there, but for the relatively small number, in the grand scheme, who do cross the channel the main driving factors are language and family ties, because you feel safer where you speak the language and know people. 2/
Many don't have identity documents. If you are fleeing persecution it can be hard to get everything together in a hurry, and then some get stolen or lost on route, because, guess what, it is a dangerous journey they are making, but they are doing so for good reason. 3/
While everyone is reading the stories splashed across the news about a deal with Rwanda to offshore asylum seekers, this is the question which needs to be asked. Asylum seekers don't normally know asylum law, so offshoring won't deter anyone. It will costs lives though. #r4today
The Australian model, as so lauded by the government has been shown not to work, be inordinately expensive, potentially violate laws, oh yes, and lead to deaths, and that is for a country where people have to travel further to reach it in the first place.
Scarily, what has worked for Australia are "pushbacks". That's what's led to the drop in arrivals, pretty hard to seek asylum when you are dead. That's the thing, like offshoring, pushbacks kill, just more immediately. So, again, how many dead bodies are acceptable? #r4today
Thread: It is not beyond the realms of possibility that the government has managed to strike a deal with Rwanda for offshoring, yet seems unlikely. If, if, they have though it will mean that there is a genuine risk of people who have fled Rwanda being sent back there. 1/
United Kingdom still receives asylum seekers from Rwanda, who generally based on the stats get their claims upheld and are provided with it. Why though? Well to say its current, let alone historic, record with human rights is dire is an understatement. 2/ amnesty.org/en/location/af…
This means that the UK would actively be sending people fleeing war and persecution to a country which refuses to sign a treaty preventing the state for "enforced disappearances" for example, not exactly a brilliant way to show your moral authority on the world stage. 3/
That. Is. Against. International. Law. An asylum seeker may not be penalised for their manner of entry, and that includes if they "pay a people smuggler". @AlexanderDowner's opening comment would clearly violate the refugee convention, as well as being barbarically inhumane. 1/
There is then the idea almost that people choose to pay people smugglers, with Downer's "it's a racket" comment. Obviously this is false. People are forced into using people smugglers due to no other viable alternatives to reach safety. 2/
Closing more routes to those people doesn't tackle gangs. All it does is mean that they can charge even more to put people on even longer and more dangerous journeys, thereby risking even more lives. 3/