30th September 2023
Suella Braverman – keen to maintain a hostile environment for migrants
The Tories head into their annual conference in a worse state than usual this weekend. After 13 years in power, with nothing to show but the impact of austerity, an ongoing wave of strike action, an NHS close to tipping over, schools collapsing and a poor Brexit deal to haunt them, it is no wonder that the fissures which have been evident for years are becoming fully fledged cracks.
Rishi Sunak is attempting to stake out ground on policies he thinks will be popular, being a ‘friend to the motorist’, rolling back on green commitments and generally fanning the flames of culture wars over any subject he thinks will win him votes. At least 30 Tory MPs, including Priti Patel and even Liz Truss, have come out to say that they will not support any policies which mean an increase in taxes.
Pretender to Sunak’s position, Home Secretary, Suella Braverman, has already set out her stall on the issue of refugees and migration policy. In a speech this week she challenged the basis of the 1951 UN Refugee Convention, suggesting that the criteria for asylum are no longer fit for purpose and ought to be revised. Braverman is essentially dodging the failure of the governments “stop the boats” policy by suggesting that it is the international rules that are wrong not the government policy.
Both Sunak and Braverman are keen to weaponise the issue of asylum seekers and refugees, playing upon the perceived prejudices and fears of sections of the population with whom they think a hard line on migration will win votes. This is both the voters in the South East, in areas where asylum seekers are more likely to enter the country, and in so-called former Labour red wall seats where the assumption is that the anti-migration thrust of right wing Brexiteers delivered the anti-EU vote.
The possibility that the anti-EU vote in working class areas was as a consequence of the fact that EU membership for 40 years had done little for working class communities, while enriching the City of London and the big corporations, is one that both Labour and the Tories dodge. The lazy view that working class voters are all anti-migrant, and therefore bound to sign up to hardline policies such as “stop the boats”, shows a high degree of condescension in the leadership of both political parties.
The narrative around asylum seekers and refugees is certainly more in line with the editorial position of the Daily Mail than it is on the facts. The reality is that, according to the Refugee Council, at the end of 2021 around 89.3 million people were forcibly displaced across the world. Of these, 27.1 million were refugees, while 53.2 million were internally displaced within their country of origin.
Far from the Britain being swamped as a consequence the Refugee Council calculate that Britain is home to around 1% of the 27.1 million refugees who were forcibly displaced across the world.
Under international law, anyone has the right to apply for asylum in any country that has signed the 1951 Convention and to remain there until the authorities have assessed their claim. The convention also recognises that people fleeing persecution may have to use irregular means in order to escape and claim asylum in another country.
That this is exploited by criminal gangs looking to take advantage of those seeking asylum, through the use of overcrowded boats for example, is clearly a scandal which has to be stopped. However, given that the vast majority of refugees are from areas of conflict, where NATO military intervention has been a key factor in causing displacement, Syria and Afghanistan being the key examples, stopping displacement at source will mean a decisive shift in the Western foreign policy of military intervention.
Part of the pushback in Britain, from the Tories and their right wing supporters, is that asylum seekers should be returned to the country they first entered in order to seek asylum. However, there is nothing in international law to say that refugees must claim asylum in the first country they reach, although a European regulation allows countries in the EU to return an adult asylum applicant to the first European country they reached.
Of the 12 countries that take in the most refugees, Germany (with a population of 1.2 million refugees) is the only high-income country, and the only one not neighbouring the countries most represented within the refugee community. Over 605,000 Syrian refugees, 147,000 Afghan refugees, and 146,000 Iraqi refugees are currently hosted in Germany. Britain does not even make the list.
The Tories are set to make issues of taxation, the environment and migration key battlegrounds at their conference in order to perpetuate a culture wars narrative which they think will appeal to voters. The Daily Express certainly reinforces the line taken by Suella Braverman, suggesting in a recent editorial that,
“The division between seeking asylum and economic migration has been muddied and the net result of this loose system, believes the Centre for Policy Studies think tank, is that the right to move to another country can potentially be extended to an astonishing 780 million people.”
This is scaremongering of the highest order and needs to be exposed.
While the Tories default to their standard position of blaming ‘foreigners’ for the country’s problems, the Labour leadership continues to run scared, rather than tackling the issues of the positive impact of migration, exposing Britain’s historical colonial role and present neo-colonial foreign policy positions, as being key issues to address.
These issues will continue to sharpen as the General Election approaches. Unless Labour is prepared to take the fight to the Tories the right wing will continue to offer easy answers to complex problems, in an effort to fuel prejudice, sustain a hostile environment for migrants and instil division in working class communities.
Mass mobilisation outside Parliament, as well as continued pressure upon Labour MPs, in particular, will be vital if the perception of asylum seekers and refugees is to change and an environment of welcome, rather than hostility, created.
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