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If the UK Government goes ahead with proposals to detain asylum seekers on cruise ships and barges today, it will be repeating history 🧵Please RT #IllegalMigrationBill #AsylumSeekers @BBCNews @guardian 
In 1776, British politicians decided to bring in a temporary act that authorised the use of disused trading ships to be used as floating prisons. ‘Hulks’ were in fact used for over 80 years, across the Victorian era.
Have you seen the new @BBCOne #GreatExpectations? Hulks are hitting the headlines again today, but not for the right reasons
Before hulks were managed by the Home Office (see any parallels?) they were under the control of private contractors – Duncan Campbell, a rich Scottish merchant with estates in Jamaica who held people in slavery, lobbied for the job and got it.
As a private contractor, Campbell let management slip – convicts routinely ran out of food, had no clothes, and died at a rate of one in four. More here: blogs.bl.uk/untoldlives/20…
The Home Office stepped in to run the hulks in 1815 – just over 200 years ago – in the belief that centralised management would turn a dangerous, and slapdash system into a working, reformatory prison. It didn’t work.
Life on prison hulks was hard – convicts sentenced to transportation were cut off from land and working back-breaking labour in the dockyards led many to attempt escape. In Great Expectations, we see Magwitch do just this
Today, the @ukhomeoffice may outline plans to use disused ships (this time @guardiannews says cruise ships, not old naval vessels) to house asylum seekers. This is causing as much public outrage and parliamentary discussion as in the 18th/19th centuries theguardian.com/politics/2023/…
In the nineteenth century, people saw convicts as dangerous, liable to corrupt morals and do harm – you can’t tell me that the rhetoric around asylum seekers and the #IllegalMigrationBill has been much different
When we think ‘cruise ship’, we think of holidays and luxury – this won’t be that. @thetimes is reporting they’ll use ‘barges’ – whatever the vessel, it will be cut off from land, and therefore difficult to regulate, difficult to keep people safe thetimes.co.uk/article/barge-…
The ships would be moored off the coast of England – just like the hulks of the Georgian and Victorian era. And if they were in military barracks instead? The British government has done that too.
@DominicRaab says ‘nothing is off the table’ - but history has shown us that when a housing crisis arrives, you should not place vulnerable groups in the hands of private contractors, you should not cut them off from land, and you certainly should treat them as human beings.
Housing people on ships is a practice we tend to associate with criminality due to its historical implications. In turn, this promotes a certain way of thinking about asylum seekers – they are not the enemy.
History shows us that finding a solution can only come with sound policy – prison hulks were used in England and its colonies for over 80 years. They were designed to deter would-be criminals from offending. Read my @HistoryExtra article here: historyextra.com/period/victori…
People seek asylum for different reasons – the threat of being detained on a ship isn’t going to stop the flow. @ukhomeoffice might be considering ships because they are cheap, easy to move, and can house hundreds of detainees. But they are not the answer.
If you want to talk: drannamckay@gmail.com @JamesCleverly @SuellaBraverman @RhonddaBryant @guardianopinion @NewStatesman @FinancialTimes @thetimes @BBCNews @Independent @simonmayo @SkyNews @Peston @MailOnline @itvnews @standardnews
@digipanoptic @DigiVictorian @ECWLiv @LivUni @ihr_history @DavidOlusoga @greg_jenner @RoyalHistSoc @exitthelemming #twitterstorians please RT!
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