Thread by @stand_for_all

How many times does it have to be said before the government pays attention? "Deterrents" don't work. If you want to cut channel crossings it needs to be done by making it easier to reach the UK and access the asylum system. 1/

#r4today #RefugeesWelcome

theguardian.com/uk-news/2022/a…

Removing carrier liability fines would be a great start, these are what airlines, ferries, Eurostar etc may have to pay if they are found to have facilitated the transportation of someone without correct visas. 2/

Fairly obviously refugees don't often get the chance to apply for a visa and then wait around for it to be issued when fleeing for their lives, so being prevented from reaching the UK via more "normal" routes forces them into having to rely on smugglers. 3/

The UK takes a fairly small number of asylum seekers in the grand scheme, but those who do come here normally have very good reasons for doing so, family ties etc. Those reasons don't change no matter how many inhumane, and frankly illegal, plans you implement. 4/

Currently 98% of those crossing the channel seek asylum. About 3/4s receive asylum. So, despite all the mindless hysterical shrieking about "illegal migrants", we are talking about people with very clear and legitimate needs to be provided with safety. 5/

"Why don't they seek it in France"? Okay, well, as already mentioned, family ties for one thing. You tend to feel safer where you know people. Language is another. Again, you feel safer where you can communicate more effectively. 6/

Then there is the not so minor matter of how asylum seekers are treated in France, and across Europe. The reality for the handful of people seeking asylum in the UK is it is their safest option. 7/
hrw.org/news/2021/10/0…

Plans such as deportations to Rwanda and "pushbacks" in the channel are pretty clearly illegal, both domestically and internationally. Leaving the European Convention on Human Rights doesn't change that either by the way. 8/

We're talking about a wide range of international laws and treaties spanning human rights, humanitarian law, the UN Refugee Convention and the law of the sea et al, which need to be broken to deny asylum seekers particular rights to safety and remove them. 9/

So, on the basis that making your country a pariah state to appeal to a dwindling number of, albeit vocal, xenophobes, and wasting hundreds of millions on unworkable plans and the inevitable legal costs, among other things, is a bad idea... 10/
theguardian.com/politics/2022/…

The solution to "tackling gangs" and cutting channel crossings has to start from the position of recognising that people have good reasons for seeking asylum in the UK, and the legal and moral right to do so. So we need to make it easier and quicker for them to access it. 11/

It is also worth noting that none of the asylum or immigration policies put forward by either #LizForLeader or #ReadyforRishi will do anything other than increase the hold which gangs have. If anything they are more likely to actually increase human trafficking. 12/