Panic and fear now gripping refugees in Calais
Today in Calais I talked to Ali, a 20-year-old refugee who was so confused and frightened by the news from the UK that it broke my heart. Ali had spent all weekend reading about the Illegal Migration Bill becoming law. “Why doesn’t the UK want me?” He asked. “Why don’t they understand?” Ali fled Sudan when his family were killed, and he knew he would be killed too if the militia found him. All he wants is to be safe. But now he’s in an impossible situation. In France, the police take his tent every few days. He …
The Illegal Migration Bill and the politics of fear
This week the House of Commons passed a new law that is terrifying in its potential. The Illegal Migration bill will allow this Government to detain and forcibly deport thousands of refugees, simply for having the temerity to ask for asylum in the UK. Its restrictions on people’s rights are truly chilling. The consequences will be appalling, but we must first understand how it came to pass in the first place. Its roots lie in the Brexit campaign’s politics of fear. In 2016, Leave campaigners instilled a terror of migration with billboards showing 1,000s of refugees supposedly marching supposedly towards …