Thread by @MammaCliff

I don’t know who needs to hear this (well actually, I suspect I do) but, here comes a 🧵 for #WorldRefugeeDay full of stuff I have learned as a @Care4Calais volunteer 1/

There is nothing illegal about seeking asylum in the UK - however you get here - so long as you present yourself and immediately begin your claim. To conflate asylum with illegal immigration is to demonise the desperate and to misunderstand the solutions needed. 2/

Refugees don’t risk their lives in the channel for the chance of a hotel room or because people like me give them a cheap pair of trainers. They have no idea about the systems we have in place for processing asylum or what charitable help is available at any given time. 3/

When fleeing a dangerous situation refugees don’t start by googling which country will give them the most in benefits. If they did they would never come to the UK; most EU countries are more generous. Few asylum seekers have heard of our NHS. None know about universal credit. 4/

People aren’t choosing near-drowning just for fun. Refugees are being forced to make more treacherous journeys with the help of smugglers, in a large part, because the UK Gov has closed down all other options - Aside from a select few countries, including Ukraine & Hong Kong 5/

No, they can’t just catch a plane directly. You can’t get a passport & permission to travel from a corrupt regime out to get you. Even if you could, should events take a sudden turn - as in Afghanistan - it might not be possible to find an open airport chartering fights. 6/

There is no magic queue refugees can join or jump by crossing the channel in a dinghy. In the absence of a regulated scheme such as the Ukrainian one, alongside the necessity to physically be in the UK before you can make a claim, people are forced to take often fatal measures 7/

Those who can’t pay smugglers to get them out - which is traumatic enough - become obligated to traffickers. Will leave the differences between smuggling & trafficking for another time, but the solution to both is to provide safe passage, not punitive measures after the fact 8/

More punitive measures on arrival simply drive the business models underground & disincentivise refugees from presenting themselves for help. This drives up ACTUAL illegal immigration, pushing more vulnerable people towards trafficking and the perils of modern day slavery 9/

This is an important one: International law in the form of the 1951 Refugee Convention does NOT require a person to claim asylum in the first safe country they reach. People trying to cross the Channel can legitimately claim asylum in the UK if they reach it. 10/

If the UK uses geography as an excuse not to accept people at our borders, so can France & Italy & Germany… and Hungary & Romania & Greece… and then the whole system of international asylum breaks down. There’s a reason Ukrainians weren’t all expected to stay in Poland 11/

Despite this, the vast majority of refugees (approx 73%) do actually stay in the first country they get to, and around 85% of the world’s refugees remain in developing countries 12/

So contrary to panic stricken tabloid headlines, most refugees aren’t in fact trying to get to the UK. In 2020, the UK received 37,550 new applicants for asylum. This is significantly lower than the peak of 84,000 in 2002. It is also much lower than France, Germany and Spain 13/

Far from being “invaded” numbers* of refugees and asylum seekers make up around one quarter of a percent (0.26%) of the U.K’s total population. Per head we are 18th in Europe.
*This will have risen with the recent arrival of Ukrainians, but “invasion” still questionable 14/

A common reason a small % of refugees want to come to the UK is family. No deterrent will stop a father trying to get to his son, a teenager who has no one left trying to reach their uncle, or two siblings with shared trauma trying to find each other to heal 15/

Another factor in coming here is many refugees speak English (which there are obvious colonial reasons for). If I was rebuilding my life as a vulnerable & traumatised individual, being able to understand my new surroundings would be key. We’re dealing with people. Not objects 16/

In some cases (eg Afghanistan) there are ties with our armed forces which has put them at increased risk. They were once promised protection in return for their services. We should honour that. They don’t understand why we aren’t. And yes, they are now turning up in boats 17/

The reasons so many teenage boys and young men come are complex. But in the spirit of ALL LIVES MATTER, last time I checked boys and men are still human beings and deserve to be protected from torture too 18/

Lots of women & children attempt the crossing. But because of how dangerous it is, often they will send their fittest & most likely to survive to help establish safe passage for the rest. The men are trailblazers for their families, risking everything to bring them to safety 19/

The Rwanda scheme will risk encouraging more women & children to join their men on dangerous boat crossings, as it seems to be targeting those who present as single young males. This will lead to more women & children facing rape, torture and death along the way 20/

Spend any time in the company of the guys who arrive and it’s not long before you are smacked in the face by the reality that: they are somebody’s son or brother or husband. They haven’t come to fight us. They have come to beg for our help. They deserve dignity and compassion 21/

They are as witty & goofy as my teen sons, as protective & chivalrous as my husband, as compassionate & giving as my father and as hard working as any male colleague I’ve ever head. They are also clever and resourceful enough to make it here. They would be an asset anywhere 22/

I suspect the reason security cheered when the news came of the cancelled Rwanda flight, is because they had actually looked into the whites of their eyes and understood what it means to see both the vulnerabilities & potential of our fellow humans 23/

mirror.co.uk/news/politics/…

I have come across more boys trying to convince me they are older than they clearly are, than grown men trying to tell me they are younger. They think if they can prove more beneficial to our country (ie able to work) it will help their claim. They are surprised it won’t 24/

Not that this should ever be the reason to offer sanctuary when it’s needed, but one way to make it cheaper for the tax payer, would be to allow asylum seekers to work. Most want to contribute and pay their way. We also have a labour shortage 25/

But before we risk conflating economic migrants with genuine refugees… the vast majority in boats claim asylum on arrival. Approximately 75% of claims from those arriving via the channel are successful at the first stage, with even more granted asylum subsequently 26/

Wanting to ensure people don’t drown trying to get their asylum claim simply considered by the UK is not the same as wanting open borders with unchecked mass immigration, disregarding security checks 27/

One way to ensure safeguards are met more robustly, is to have a managed asylum system assessing applicants without them needing to be physically here first - like we have done for Ukrainians. The French Gov have offered the UK that ability in France. Our Gov have refused 28/

Another way to make the system cheaper for the tax payer and more robust from a security POV, is to speed up the time it takes to assess an asylum claim by employing more staff at the Home Office to do the job. It’s currently taking years 29/

Making it harder to cross the channel & deporting people on arrival, won’t remove peoples motivation to try or the smugglers’ & traffickers’ ability to take advantage of desperation. The Gov must take its head out of the sand on this & stop using asylum as a “wedge issue” 30/

Finally (h/t someone else): if geography was reversed and we had refugees lined up on our coast desperate to get to France, how many French foot soldiers would we be happy with on our soil to stop them leaving & how invested would we be keeping them here against their will? 31/

And breathe… If you’ve stuck with what became a v long thread, thank you. I’m off for a lie down. Will mostly be hoping I haven’t buggered up any numbering…! With thanks to @Care4Calais and every single refugee I have met for teaching me so much
#RefugeeDay
#RefugeeWeek2022