Thread by @docrussjackson

#THREAD

A Home Office immigration video is fronted by an ex-UKIP MEP. The Govt is silencing critics of its grotesque rhetoric. Even Priti Patel is concerned about the barbaric immigration Bill, which allows deportation of unaccompanied children.

We now have a far-right Govt.

The @Conservatives' political survival strategy could not be clearer: they have lost the trust of the overwhelming majority of the British people; Ministers are happy to lie; & their economic & social policies are an abject failure - all they have left is divisive culture wars.

The only people the Govt care about are themselves, their donors, the right-wing press & media which have propped them up for a decade, & the small minority of multimillionaires & right-wing voters who are fed a diet of polarising culture war & far-right scapegoating rhetoric.

Squeezed by Richard Tice's far-right Reform Party, the Tories feel they have no choice but to go ever further to the Right.

We now have BY FAR the most authoritarian, antidemocratic, intolerant, polarising, & dangerously irresponsible far-right Government in Britain's history.

Not content with destroying lives, public services, the #NHS & our economy with their authoritarian & ideologically extreme deregulatory policies, the Migration bill will allow the detention of families with children & even the barbaric deportation of unaccompanied children.

Even hard-right extremist former home secretary Priti Patel - who herself was criticised by fellow senior Tories (including Braverman) for using dangerously irresponsible rhetoric - is considering a potentially explosive intervention over the bill.

theguardian.com/world/2023/mar…

Several senior Tories are particularly worried about changes to the way children will be treated when arriving in the UK, & the way in which the new bill comes close to breaching - or almost certainly breaking - international law.

https://twitter.com/crimlawuk/status/1634330359839031301?s=20

One former minister said changes to rules on children “make me sick just to mention. God knows what happens around safeguarding, & access to medical treatment. Could [children] be removed from the country without parental or family consent? The mind boggles.”

The return of large-scale detention of children & families represents a U-turn on a policy to end child detention pursued by the coalition Govt & passed into law in 2014 by Theresa May, during her time as home secretary.

We have a brutal, uncaring, out-of-control far-right Govt.

The plans were described as “shocking” by some parliamentarians, while attempts to alter the bill to protect children from detention were already being drawn up. The change in the treatment of children is likely to become a focus of opposition.

Lord Dubs, the Labour peer who has led parliamentary campaigns to help unaccompanied children head to the UK, said that he & others would try to alter the bill. “It’s a reversal of undertakings the government gave some time ago that they would exempt children.” he said.

“It’s shocking that children are going to be subjected to pretty well the same stringent proposals. They will not be able to claim asylum, & then be removed. I think it is a shocking departure from a little safeguard that’s built into the system earlier.”

Ed Davey: “I’m afraid it doesn’t surprise me that this Conservative Govt plans to effectively bring it (child detention) back. Liberal Democrats believe the Govt should be focused on stopping the traffickers from exploiting vulnerable people, not punishing innocent children.”

Tamsin Baxter, executive director of external affairs at the Refugee Council, said the bill did indicate that children could be detained & claimed that it also opened the door to unaccompanied children being detained – something government sources denied.

“The Conservative-led coalition government under David Cameron actively sought to end detention for children and families yet now the government is planning to do the exact opposite and expand it in a draconian move that shows no compassion or fairness,” she said.

“It’s vital that refugee children are supported & protected just like any other children in the UK are. The asylum system must provide children with the support they need, & ensure they are looked after in dedicated child welfare settings by skilled staff who... keep them safe.”

Kamena Dorling, Refugee & Migrant Children’s Consortium: “In 2010, the Govt committed to ending the ‘state-sponsored cruelty’ of locking up children in families for immigration purposes... clear evidence shows the long-lasting psychological & physical damage it causes them.”

“If this draconian legislation passes, thousands of children could be held in mass detention centres for months on end, causing unimaginable trauma & harm.”

Govt Ministers know this, & have clearly formulated this draconian & barbaric Bill to appeal to right-wing extremists.

Beth Gardiner-Smith, Safe Passage International: “Refugee children, including those torn from their family during the chaos of fleeing war or persecution, will also be denied protection here – trashing our reputation not only on refugee rights but on children’s rights as well.”

There are also concerns that there are serious public health hazards to the plans. Sunak has stated he believes the bill is legal under international law, but human rights campaigners have condemned it as inhumane, illegal & unworkable.

The UN refugee agency accused the UK of “extinguishing the right to seek refugee protection”.

The Archbishop of York has said in a powerful intervention that the government’s new asylum & migration law “amounts to cruelty without purpose” & is “immoral & inept”.

Stephen Cottrell’s condemnation came as a coalition of more than 350 charities, businesses, unions and legal groups condemned Rishi Sunak’s “cruel & unworkable” plans to detain and immediately deport those coming to the UK in small boats.

They wrote that they were “horrified by the proposed legislation that shames this government and marks the UK as running roughshod over human rights”. The group also write that some of the language used by ministers could only “draw frightening parallels from history”.

The letter was signed by groups including Doctors of the World, Ben and Jerry’s, Unison, Friends of the Earth, Save the Children and Refugee Action. It is the clearest sign yet of widespread civil society mobilisation against the proposals.

The signatories write that the illegal immigration bill “proposes we lock up families, children and other refugees simply for asking for protection [and] fundamentally undermines this principle and makes a mockery of our international commitments”.

“It will cause misery, cost millions to the taxpayer & drive desperate people to take ever more dangerous journeys as they are left with no other route to safety. The government boasts of our proud history of welcoming refugees, but this asylum ban does the exact opposite.”

“It shuts the door on desperate people in need of protection. The glaring racism at the heart of the Government’s hostile refugee policy - which pulls up the ladder on refugees from Africa, the Middle East, Afghanistan & most of Asia - must be called out.”

Echoing Gary Lineker's - & ALL decent people's - concerns, the groups make a stark warning about the political immigration rhetoric: “We urge ministers to rein in their inflammatory words that all too often echo the language used by racist groups.”

https://twitter.com/docrussjackson/status/1624347298640560128?s=20

“Dehumanising people in order to target minority & protected groups of people can only draw frightening parallels from history.”

The letter was prompted by Braverman’s “invasion” rhetoric, the day after the far-right terrorist firebombing of an immigration processing centre.

The legislation is likely to break the UN Charter & the European convention on human rights, established following the #Holocaust. Rabbi Wittenberg said: “Jews have every reason to oppose the breach of these essential protections for the world’s weakest & most vulnerable people.”

Rabbi Charley Baginsky said: “As Jews, many of us are here today because a generation before us was so desperate for safety that they put themselves and their families – or sometimes just their children – through often tortuous and dangerous journeys.”

“How can we now turn around and send this generation of refugees back to face persecution, war or famine? The very nature of the UK & its immigration history will be ruptured for ever.”
- Rabbi Charley Baginsky

“It’s important that we see the humanity on these boats and the lives that can be saved, rather than try to deal with a problem by punishing the victims.”

Bishop of Durham: the Govt must not abdicate its “legal & moral responsibilities to some of the world’s most vulnerable”.

The proposed legislation was “likely to push thousands of people, including children, into a prolonged legal limbo & imprisonment, & does nothing to support timely & effective consideration of asylum requests.” - Bishop of Durham.

'It would label all those crossing the Channel as ‘illegal entrants’ & therefore people to whom we do not owe a responsibility. Criminalising claiming asylum – without acknowledging many are vulnerable people escaping persecution & war, who have been left with no safe routes.'

Rose Hudson-Wilkin, the Bishop of Dover, said the bill lacked “in basic human compassion”, and was “dehumanising”.

https://twitter.com/docrussjackson/status/1619700278948937729?s=20

Migration was often “the only option between life and death”. Deporting asylum-seekers without a hearing was “a brutal response given that there is currently no fit asylum application process in place here. There has to be a better way.” - Bishop of Dover.

The Baptist, Methodist & United Reform churches issued a joint statement condemning the plans as “completely incompatible with our Christian conviction that all human beings are made in the image of God & are therefore inherently worthy of treatment which honours their dignity.”

“Instead of dignity, these plans will foster discrimination & distrust, & cause immeasurable harm to people already made vulnerable by conflict & persecution. If ever there was a contemporary example of ignoring our neighbour & walking by on the other side, this is it.”

Language matters.
#NeverForget #NeverAgain

https://twitter.com/docrussjackson/status/1599375650409717760?s=20