“If they really are refugees, why don’t they have to stay in the first safe country they reach?”
“Why don’t they just claim asylum in France?”
Here is my answer, once & for all. To Jonathan Gullis, and to everyone else who ever wondered. #RefugeesWelcome
The 3 things you need to know:
1. Most refugees never come to rich countries like the UK, more go to other countries.
2. Those coming to the UK have ties to this country.
3. Geography is no excuse to shirk responsibility & leads to a race to the bottom with disastrous results.
For those asking how he responded, I don't remember any response at all.
The full video is available here.
I & a witness from Border Force answered questions on why the government's plans would not solve the problems in our asylum system... & they haven't.
Suella Braverman is threatening to bring out another Bill any day now, not even a year after this one - which they promised was the only way to end small boats crossings - came into law.
The new one looks to be just as cruel, and just as useless in achieving its stated aims.
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So, let’s see if I’ve got this straight: this new report’s big shiny new proposal for how to finally make those pesky refugees disappear is…?
Oh no, it’s still just the Rwanda scheme.
But we’ll also leave the ECHR, like Russia did this year cause it invaded Ukraine… #r4today
Laughed out loud at Timothy’s response to questions on his magical thinking for how he expects to have everyone deported either to their country of origin or Rwanda “within days”
“These are high level proposals and we’d have to see about the operational details” I BET #r4today
Completely seriously, though, this document seems to be a mad, extremist, dangerous fantasy & shouldn’t be being given a plum spot on #r4today to spread completely unsupportable, authoritarian rubbish, especially with no expert there to give the other side (that of basic sanity).
Actual (qualified) good news! Of course the government desperately trying to dress it up as bad, though.
This policy-proposal-as-press-release sent out to test the waters on how to get back on top of massive backlogs they’ve created in the asylum system. Let’s take a look…🪡
The proposal is ostensibly a “two tier” asylum system, but that doesn’t seem quite right to me…
First, the good:
Most people crossing the Channel come from countries where there is a very clear risk of danger & persecution - Syria, Iran, Afghanistan, Sudan & Eritrea
These people forced to wait months/years in crap asylum accommodation without right to work or support is cruel & also useless: their claims are almost all accepted in the end.
Urgently fast-tracking (or just granting) their applications to get them out of the backlog makes sense
Every politician ever scoring points claiming both that we need to train Brits to do high paid jobs, & also only bring in migrants trained to do high paid jobs...
You only want “highly skilled” migrants? So… you’re reserving low-paid work for Brits?
Oh no we’re meant to also be training more Brits to take the “high skilled” jobs, right?
In this scenario who serves food? Who makes deliveries? Who provides care?
Just raise wages. For all.
Whether someone from UK or not does it, we need clean workplaces & food on supermarket shelves.
These jobs aren’t considered “high skilled” but they are highly necessary & politicians with the old lines on “importing cheap Labour” ignore them because the answer is to RAISE WAGES.
On Thursday 24th we will gather to remember the people who died trying to reach the lives we take for granted in the UK.
At 6pm we will stand on either side of the Channel, at Sunny Sands beach in Folkestone, and across the water Dunkirk, to say: Not one more death at our border
Oh I see it’s time to bring back out this thread of Tory Home Secretaries signing THE deal with France that is going to end unauthorised journeys to the UK… #r4today
I may have been unfair of course, I have to admit that there was one Tory Home Secretary from the last decade who didn’t sign an expensive, dangerous, hostile and most of all useless deal with France.
Kids born to refugees, seeking protection on the move in Europe are at risk of statelessness.
Parents without documents cannot always register their child’s birth, & women from some countries cannot pass on their nationality to kids born abroad. #StatelessJourneys
Migrants in Albania, Bulgaria, Czechia, Spain & Ukraine with stateless kids were given specialist support by @ENStatelessness members.
In this 5 min video, some of these families talk about their fight & what it means to be born without a nationality:
No child should be born without a nationality because of their parents’ migration status, or any reason
We urgently need to reform citizenship laws across Europe so any child born here who would be stateless can obtain nationality of the only country they know #StatelessJourneys