Share this page!

Zoe Gardner Profile picture
@ZoeJardiniere
Mar 28 • 5 tweets • 3 min read Twitter logo Read on Twitter
Not only has the government been housing Afghan refugees in inadequate temporary hotel accommodation for years.

They will also pass the #RefugeeBanBill today that blanket denies protection to ALL Afghans coming & asking for our help & says we’ll send them to Rwanda.
#r4today
I’m not sure how it happened.

How can it be that #r4today has a story on Afghan refugees on THE SAME DAY the government will pass a law through its next stage in parliament that will deny ALL Afghans reaching us protection from now on and not mention it?
How can a Tory MP- WHO VOTED FOR IT be complaining on twitter that:

refusing asylum to Afghans who reach us through desperate means and sending them to Rwanda

Is not what they want? It is EXACTLY what the #RefugeeBanBill does & MPs & the media seem not to have noticed? #r4today
This happened with the last bill too. There just did not seem to be any kind of willingness to engage with what it actually does.

Too busy talking about in terms of “stopping the boats” it’s like they’ve casually forgotten to mention it entails sending Afghans to Rwanda #r4today
I promise you. Most people in this country do not want to send Afghans to Rwanda just because they crossed in a small boat.

Christ, not even @Tobias_Ellwood does & he VOTED for the damn thing.

People have no idea. What are we supposed to do with this kind of democracy? #r4today

• • •

Missing some Tweet in this thread? You can try to force a refresh
　

Keep Current with Zoe Gardner

Zoe Gardner Profile picture

Stay in touch and get notified when new unrolls are available from this author!

Read all threads

This Thread may be Removed Anytime!

PDF

Twitter may remove this content at anytime! Save it as PDF for later use!

Try unrolling a thread yourself!

how to unroll video
  1. Follow @ThreadReaderApp to mention us!

  2. From a Twitter thread mention us with a keyword "unroll"
@threadreaderapp unroll

Practice here first or read more on our help page!

More from @ZoeJardiniere

Zoe Gardner Profile picture
Mar 29
I wrote a piece on how to respond to the #RefugeeBanBill and whether safe routes/humanitarian visas are the answer.

Proud of this one, although I don’t know how many friends it will make me..

It’s the principle of territorial asylum we have to defend now opendemocracy.net/en/beyond-traf…
In short, we’re dancing on the head of a pin contorting our demands into the space considered “politically viable” to protect ever shrinking numbers of “good refugees” through safe routes.

No proposal I’ve seen would actually remove the need for some to take irregular journeys..
(And my own proposal I worked on at jcwi is included in that criticism)

So while these visas would be great & help some people, they’re not where our energy should be spent. There’s a bigger principle we’re losing here.

The right to come here however you need to & ask for help.
Read 4 tweets
Zoe Gardner Profile picture
Mar 19
All the client media puff pieces about Braverman’s Rwanda stunt don’t change the fact that it’s morally abhorrent to transport men, women & children and dump them halfway around the world in a country the size of Wales, whose people live under dictatorship & largely in poverty.
The real impact of deportations to Rwanda or of Braverman’s anti-refugee Bill will be to push people back into hiding in trucks, back into the shadows, staying hidden from authorities and at the mercy of criminals & exploitation in our communities. Undocumented numbers will soar.
None of this pagent is really about solving the issue, it’s about laying the ground for the next election, which the government is scared it will lose.
Braverman thinks taking us out of the human rights protections of the ECtHR, like Russia, is the way to save her political skin.
Read 5 tweets
Zoe Gardner Profile picture
Mar 9
By my reading, this is actually very bad news for the government.

The only chance of realistically removing large numbers of people to safe countries is, of course, a deal with the EU.
& Sunak is definitely hoping for that from the FR-UK summit on Friday.
news.sky.com/story/eu-warns…
EU states are furiously trying to pass their own asylum law package & France is in the process of passing a new immigration law (which experts tell me is extremely bad news too, I'm afraid).

The UK isn't their priority & I doubt they're keen to be associated with the new mess.
And there's more to this mess, as the excellent @StevePeers points out here - there are wide ranging implications to being a rabel state that openly plans flagrant breaches of the human rights of vulnerable groups. theguardian.com/uk-news/2023/m…
Read 4 tweets
Zoe Gardner Profile picture
Mar 8
This is my favourite question 🥰

Let’s be clear: if the Home Secretary cannot say that her Bill respects the fundamental rights of the most vulnerable in society, it. must. be. thrown. out. #r4today

Here are some ways you good folks can help:
1. Write to your MP.

If they’re a Tory, tell them that you want them to throw this Bill out & focus on fixing the NHS & getting sewage out the rivers instead of wasting our money defending its illegal cruelty to refugees in court.

If not, say you expect them to fight it 💪💪
2. Raise your voice!

They justify all this cruelty off of you, you know. They say YOU want this.

If you’re able get your neighbourhood association, faith group, school parents’ association, ANYTHING to write a joint letter to local papers saying your community rejects the bill.
Read 8 tweets
Zoe Gardner Profile picture
Mar 7
When Suella Braverman lays her hateful anti refugee bill in parliament today, she’ll say refugees should take legal routes, or we will wash our hands of them.

When she does, think of Yosra, a 52 female Afghan judge, refused safe travel to the UK. #r4today independent.co.uk/news/world/mid…
If Yosra, like many other brave Afghans escaping the Taliban, made her way to the UK on her own, this government says it will do “whatever it takes” to restrict her access to human rights defences, that they’ll detain her, remove her - to anywhere - & ban her from the UK #r4today
Moving from danger to safety is a natural thing to do. Seeking the best possible chance at safety & a bright future for your kids is reasonable & totally inevitable.

Crossing borders is what you or I would do to. It can’t be stopped. It can be facilitated, not punished. #r4today
Read 5 tweets
Zoe Gardner Profile picture
Mar 6
The anti refugee Bill, take 2, won’t work, any more than before.

Except of course to cause misery, cost vast amounts of money, drive people into hands of criminals & further divide us.

People move. People crossing the Channel have nowhere else to go & nothing to lose. #r4today
#r4today
#r4today
Read 4 tweets

Did Thread Reader help you today?

Support us! We are indie developers!

This site is made by just two indie developers on a laptop doing marketing, support and development! Read more about the story.

Become a Premium Member ($3/month or $30/year) and get exclusive features!

Become Premium

Don't want to be a Premium member but still want to support us?

Make a small donation by buying us coffee ($5) or help with server cost ($10)

Donate via Paypal

Or Donate anonymously using crypto!

Ethereum

0xfe58350B80634f60Fa6Dc149a72b4DFbc17D341E copy

Bitcoin

3ATGMxNzCUFzxpMCHL5sWSt4DVtS8UqXpi copy

Thank you for your support!

Follow Us on Twitter!

Send Email!

:(