Have you noticed the swarm of ‘illegal immigration’ content being frantically released recently? I thought we had ‘taken back control’ of our borders thanks to Brexit, but clearly this was a mistaken belief!
Anti-migrant rhetoric
Some examples:
Now that the Brexit-supporters no longer have the EU to blame for all the UK’s problems, many have gone to the next best thing to stir up hate against – people seeking asylum. This xenophobic stance (used to the same effect during the Brexit referendum) has been employed to direct people’s attention away from the objective failure that is Brexit.
But more and more people are instead questioning why they shouldn’t be furious for being lied to about Brexit supposedly allowing us to control our borders?
Dublin Regulation
A little fun reminder – when the UK was part of the EU (and able to work closely with other EU members), it was part of a legal framework called the Dublin Regulation (Dublin III). This enabled the UK under certain circumstances to return some asylum seekers to EU member states without considering their asylum claims.
One of the main ideas behind the Dublin Regulation was to recognise that “no Member State should shoulder a disproportionate responsibility and that all Member States should contribute to solidarity on a constant basis”.
The amount of ‘upset’ this has caused among those that determine the increase in channel crossings as an ‘invasion’, is clear evidence of how control was never taken back. Ironically, we had more control while in the EU.
Give up control of our borders?
It is unusual that people like Nigel Farage went from being welcoming back in June 2016 –saying that after Brexit “More black people will be allowed to come to Britain” and that Brexit would help immigration become a “non-issue” – to him patrolling the beaches in 2022 tweeting “the invasion will continue unless we act”.
In 2019, David Lammy pointed out that Brexit supporters needed to ready to give up more control:
“When we enter negotiations with countries like India and China, they will ask for three things. Visas. Visas. And more visas.
“And they will get them because we will be weak.”
Visas aside, despite having now taken back control, it would appear that the concept was only ever a myth. One day they may realise how much value people from other countries bring with them. A little compassion goes a long way.
As we are all aware (including those peddling the anti-migrant rhetoric), it is not illegal to claim asylum nor must asylum be claimed in the first safe country. If those preaching this stance found themselves in the same situation as the people seeking to claim asylum, you can bet they would be asking that compassion be shown.
