.png){kind=small}
Immigration
"The way a government treats its refugees is very instructive because it shows you how they would treat the rest of this if they thought they could get away with it" -Tony Benn
​Immigration being a political football is nothing new. When a government messes up their economics, immigrants are one of the first groups they'll scapegoat. From migration being the focus of the Brexit debate to "stop the boats" being the strapline of Rishi Sunak's Conservative Government.
​
Blaming immigration for society's problems is both factually wrong and inhumane. But cynically, plans to prevent immigration also aren't cost effective.
​
No matter how someone comes to the UK, we are all human beings who deserve to be treated like human beings.
​
Are there legitimate concerns, what are they?
We cannot afford to take more immigrants
​
Critics argue that more immigration is a drain on the country’s resources. But studies have shown immigrants contribute more than they take.
The government are happy to take immigrants, given that net legal migration increases year on year, but not to invest to accommodate the growing population. We could raise more money to prevent public services being so underfunded by making the super wealthy pay their fair share to the economy. But the government would rather invest in enabling the already rich pay less tax and get handouts than ensuring the majority have a decent standard of living.
​
"Illegal" migrants cause the UK taxpayer too much money
​
Policing and enforcing immigration policies is expensive, however it is arguably deliberately inefficient. Wasting a lot of money on "immigration" is beneficial to failing governments because it will anger the public, which justifies immigrants role as scapegoat.
​
Supporting migration would be more economically sensible, but the elites don't care about this. They care about sowing division, which better serves their interests.
It is estimated to cost £8 million million per day to house asylum seekers in hotels. As of October 2023, there were over 50,000 asylum seekers living in hotels. This is the equivalent of around £160 per head per night, a high figure given the poor quality of the accommodation and the fact people up to 10 people in every room. There would clearly be a more efficient, comfortable and less costly solution if the government really wanted to look for it. However, close Conservative party allies are making a lot of money which we'll look at later.
We're a soft touch
​
A common lie we are told is that the UK is a soft touch who pay too generous benefits. This is untrue. For example, you would get more in benefits in France.
​
In the case of asylum seekers, they are entitled to just over £5 per day. This pales in comparison what the rich get off the state, who are the bigger drain on our resources.
​
Many migrants are coming here illegally and that's not fair on those who play by the rules
International law states that there is no such thing as illegally claiming asylum.
Importantly, there are no legal methods for most people to claim asylum from outside the UK.
​
Suella Braverman, Home Secretary as of 2022, admitted that the only way to claim asylum in the UK for many fleeing persecution is to do it once you arrive.
An excuse for harsher treatment of people who come to the UK through irregular means is to stop people smugglers. But by closing all legal routes for refugees to come to Britain, the government is giving people smugglers an opportunity to exploit the vulnerable.
​
If the UK Government instead provided safe and legal routes to those seeking refuge in the UK, people smugglers would go out of business.
​
In 2021, the French Government offered to help open a migration processing centre in France, to save people crossing the channel in small boats. The UK Government refused.
Many asylum claims are not genuine
​
73% of asylum claims were granted protection as of March 2023, with more granted on appeal.
​
In 2022, Albanians been have scapegoated. The Government argue they are gaming system by lodging false human trafficking claims to gain access to the UK. However, in 2022 the majority of asylum claims from Albania were successful, within which 89% of women had their claims upheld.
​
Many people coming to the UK on small boats, for example, are fleeing war. The six people who died in the Channel in August 2023 were from Afghanistan.
​
A more efficient processing system would confirm who have genuine claims, preferably before people make the deadly journey to here.
We already take more than our fair share of refugees, other countries should do as much as us
​
Another argument is that the country is full, and we already take our fair share. But this is completely false.
Against any actual evidence that the UK takes too many refugees, the processing backlog is used as a proxy. This figure gets continually higher because there is not enough staff to process claims.
Is this a deliberately inefficient system to make the problem seem worse than it is, so that the Government can justify increasingly cruel treatment to those on the list?
Asylum seekers are supposed to go the the first safe country they come to
​
The Refugee Convention does not state that asylum seekers must reside in the first safe country. This lie is an attempt, by virtue of geography, to absolve the UK of any responsibility to accept those seeking safety.
How people coming the the UK are currently treated
Those fleeing war and persecution are treated badly by the current system. It is a feature to treat people as cruelly as possible.
​
Processing Centres
​
Processing centres are supposed to be temporary accommodation for asylum seekers while their application to stay in the UK is being processed. However people often are held there for weeks. The conditions of processing centres are appalling. In 2022, there were reports from the Martson Centre in Kent that people were sleeping in tents on the floor with little means to keep warm. There are regular infectious disease outbreaks of, for example, norovirus, scabies and diphtheria.
Children are also being treated less than human by the UK Government.
​
In July 2023, it emerged that while Housing Minister, Robert Jenrick ordered a Mickey Mouse mural to be painted over in a refugee centre in which unaccompanied child asylum seekers were being held in case it made these children feel too welcome. It cost the taxpayer over £1500.
Hotels and temporary accomodation
​
The UK is facing a housing crisis, where there are not enough affordable homes to meet demand. There, there is limited accommodation for refugees, which means that many are housed in hotels while awaiting appropriate housing. These hotels are awful and expensive.
​
One asylum seeker hotel as refused the mum of a 16-month old baby with sickle cell disease access to a microwave to cook or heat for her. The baby is malnourished.
​
In 2018, questions were asked about how the UK Government treats child asylum seekers after three unaccompanied Eritrean teenagers who escaped conflict took their lives while living in temporary accommodation waiting on a decision on their refugee status
​
In September 2023, the Home Office stopped paying for food for hundreds of Afghan refugees stuck in hotels because the government could not find homes for them. Many refugees risk homelessness as they are unable to secure housing for themselves, despite being offered little money and are struggling for employment.
​
In November 2023, Immigration Minister at the time, Robert Jenrick, blocked charity Care4Calaid from entering temporary accommodation to provide support, such as haircuts and clothing, to asylum seekers. Jenrick's excuse was that Care4Calais encourage residents to "complain" and "talk to the media."
​
Barges
​
In 2023, in response to the public outcry that the Government were spending £8 million per day on asylum hotels, they decided to try putting asylum seekers on barges off the UK mainland. They gave Australian company Corporate Travel Management £1.6 billion over two years to run the barge scheme without any competition.
The Fire Brigade Union warned of serious safety concerns due to the barges gong to be housing people at double occupancy. The first barge, the "Bibby Stockholm", was discovered to have the bacteria that causes legionnaires disease in the water supply after the first residents were put there.
Shortly after residents were put back on the barge, one resident took his own life. Charity Care4Calais said that the Government should take responsibility for the death, given they were aware of suicidal intentions of people on board yet did nothing about it.
​
It is not clear that this scheme is any cheaper than using hotels.
​
In July 2024, the new Labour government announced the use of the Bibby Stockholm would cease.
Detention/ Removal Centres
​
A UK public enquiry into abuses at UK immigration detention centres found evidence of literal abuse which breaches human rights law. They found many examples of a toxic culture in which use of force to intimidate or punish detainees was common. ​
Threatening deportation, even those with legal right to stay in the UK
In 2021, the Government passed a policy which would see people arriving to the UK on small boats having their asylum claims processed in Rwanda. ​If these claims were successful, they would live in Rwanda with no right to return to the UK.
​
This policy failed to come to fruition due to legal challenges, and was eventually scrapped when the Labour Party won power in July 2024.
​
The idea was both inhumane and expensive. Initial reports found it would cost £63,000 more to the UK taxpayer than allowing asylum seekers to stay in the UK. However, the incoming Labour government revealed that the Conservatives planned to spend £10 billion on the policy, of which they had already £700 million which was 3x higher than reported.
Treatment of unaccompanied children
The UK Government has been found to place more than 4500 unaccompanied children into hotels across the country, which is against the law. Even more shocking, is that 450 of these children go missing a third of which were never found.
Removing the rights of human beings
Treating people conditions that are not fit for humans is not enough, the Government want to ensure asylum seekers and refugees do not have the same legal rights as other humans either.
​
Prime Minister Rishi Sunak wants to stop asylum seekers who cross the channel in small boats from appealing against their deportation while in the UK.
​
Suella Braverman, while Home Secretary, wanted these same people locked-up indefinitely and banned from ever having an asylum claim in the UK granted, despite having not committed any crimes.
​
The language against asylum seekers
Politicians and the media tell lies to turn the public against those seeking refuge in the UK. This is clean in the language they use.
Do they really care about immigration? Why are they doing this?
The establishment do not care about immigration figures. Stoking up fear around immigration and hatred around immigrants is enormously beneficial.
​
Divide and conquer serves their aims
​
Scapegoating migrants is a divide and conquer strategy which is a convenient distraction technique from a government's own failings.
​
They think it's popular with the public, but only because of the manipulation by government and the media has turned the public against people coming here for refuge.
​
Governments think being cruel to vulnerable people will get them votes.
​
Making an example of a scapegoat is popular with the billionaire backed media.
​
The government is creating a problem, and then claiming that only they can fix it. This scapegoating of some of the world's vulnerable human beings is an election strategy.
​
The establishment and their friends can make a lot of money
​
As expensive as accomodating people who come here is, it is being handed to Tory donors.
​
Private companies, who have links to the Tory party, that provide the substandard accommodation for asylum seekers have seen profits double in a year.
​
Another company, Clearsprings Ready Homes, seen their profits increase 6x after being awarded asylum hotel contracts.
​
Corporate Travel Management (CTM) were paid £1.6 billion by the government to house asylum seekers on barges and hotels. The government have given CTM hundreds of millions in numerous contracts, all of which without competitive tender. The public do not know the full scope of the services provided or if they were good value for money for the taxpayer. In 2022 CTM announced record profits.
​
Pushing laws that help them but harm us
In response to the European Convention on Human Rights (EHCR) ruling that stopped Britain flying asylum seekers to Rwanda, there has been growing voices from hardline politicians to leave the EHCR, including former Home Secretary Suella Braverman.
​
The "Rwanda policy" could have been a cynical attempt to restricting further rights. The EHCR enshrines into law many human rights we take for granted. Leaving the EHCR would have other impacts, notably loosening the reins that keep the wealthy and powerful in check. Without the protection of EHCR legislation, the elites would have more power to exploit and mistreat all of us further.
​
A reminder that an attack on anyone's rights is an attack on everyone's rights
What is the alternative?
We don't need to treat human being this way.
​
Taking more people fleeing persecutions would be kinder and more cost effective.
​
-
Processing applications more quickly
-
Having safe and legal routes for people to claim asylum, so they don't need to get on boats
-
Investing in more housing to save the £6 million per day spent on awful accommodation
-
Allow people awaiting decisions on their asylum claims to work so they can contribute to the community