Thread by @stand_for_all

Johnson boasting about traumatising 50 vulnerable asylum seekers by notifying them they'll be shipped 4,000 miles away, while acknowledging he can't actually do it because of legal challenges, shows this is all about performative cruelty rather than practical policy #r4today 1/

It's sick and twisted. Are we seriously saying because a Ukrainian citizen gave up waiting for one of the mythological visas the government promised, and crossed the channel in a small boat instead, that they aren't a "genuine refugee"? Well, the same goes for everyone else. 2/

Shipping people thousands of miles away doesn't break up trafficking gangs. What the hell do you think happens next? The traffickers prey on them with promises of helping them return. You are creating a never ending supply of victims for them. A never ending trade in misery. 3/

Rwanda's record of human rights violations alone should have raised red flags, but this isn't about "safety". The government cares even less about asylum seekers than the trafficking gangs. All it wants is for them to be out of sight out of mind, and doesn't care how many die. 4/

You know why legal challenges can be made against the Rwanda plan? It isn't so human rights lawyers can make money. It's because the plan is illegal. If the Home Office wanted to stop getting taken to court the simple solution would be for it to stop breaking the law. #r4today 5/

There are ways to cut channel crossings. They rely on making access to the asylum system simpler and faster though. They rely on providing asylum. So instead the government blames lawyers rather than doing anything practical to tackle gangs. 6/
bbc.co.uk/news/uk-614471…