Dear Secretary of State for the Home Department,
I am writing in regard to the latest government proposals regarding asylum seekers. Your plans – which are both cruel and incomprehensible – aim to deny those already granted legal asylum the right to apply for British citizenship.
The proposal to remove the right of citizenship from anyone who has “arrived illegally” or via a dangerous route, may have hit the headlines, but for all the wrong reasons. Not only will the plan further the demonisation of vulnerable refugees but seems destined to usher in a return of the ‘hostile environment’ – something we had hoped to have seen the last of with the demise of your Tory predecessors.
I can only assume this is yet another desperate Labour attempt to court right-wing voters, even as you visibly haemorrhage support from a public far more tolerant of freedom of movement than you are. What you may also have failed to notice is that the support you are losing is emanating from the left, not the right.
Flying in the face of reason
According to the Refugee Council, over 70,000 former refugees could be prevented from being granted citizenship by this new proposal. A decision, they say, that “flies in the face of reason” and for which there has been no debate in parliament. I therefore urge you to read the Council’s official statement, and to reconsider, as they have suggested.
With the exception of the far right, it would appear the idea is also unpopular in Westminster. Carla Denyer, co-leader of the Green Party has described the plan as “performative cruelty” and commented that it takes no account of how long or engaged an immigrant has been in British society. Human rights campaigner, Labour Lord Alf Dubs, described the move as “shocking” and “small-minded”. Not only was it “a mean-spirited gesture”, he said, but it “would not deter anyone”.
Even Labour’s own Stella Creasy says the move would deny a refugee “a place in our society” making them “forever second-class”. I assume that is not your intention.
Concessions welcome but not enough
Many refugees granted asylum will have been in the UK for years, if not decades. Many will be married, with children, working or running businesses and well-integrated into British society. Those who arrived in the country as children could, at least in theory, be allowed to apply for citizenship. But in the current political climate, will immigration caseworkers be willing to take a stand and use those discretionary powers to make those exceptions?
While any concessions you would be willing to make would be welcome, I really can’t see how this sow’s ear of a policy could possibly be turned into a silk purse. Surely, it would be better to get ahead of the political, media and public pressure and dump this controversial policy now.
Have Labour lost the plot?
If one incomprehensible plan to outdo Reform UK and the Tories on immigration wasn’t bad enough, then there’s your inexplicable and expensive plan to film and share the deportations of failed asylum seekers. In a move that’s worthy only of Farage or Trump, it’s understandable why migration expert Zoe Gardner would ask “has Labour finally lost the plot?”. It’s a question that many of us have been asking ourselves, and one for which there seems to be only one answer.
Not only is the whole approach dehumanising, but it could destroy trust within migrant communities. Surely the staggering cost of the scheme would be better spent on clearing the asylum backlog, fixing asylum accommodation issues and rebuilding migrant communities damaged by last year’s race riots.
Not what we voted for
After 14 years of Tory rule, a Labour government – especially one with a large majority – was a welcome relief. The country had high hopes of the much-hyped “change” that the prime minister repeatedly promised us.
We didn’t assume that things would change overnight. We weren’t expecting miracles. But we did at least hope the new government would distance itself from the policies of the right and far right.
We expected compassion, decency and common sense. We dreamt of an honest debate about the value of immigration to our society and our economy. We even dared hope for the introduction of safe routes for asylum seekers. Instead, we have had to deal with a government increasingly afraid of its own history and its own shadow.
I don’t doubt that there is genuine concern in government about the growth of the far right and the threat they present in the polls. However, jumping on the far-right bandwagon is not the answer – surely the demise of the Tory party is proof enough of that.
No, there is only one way to beat the Farages and Trumps of this world, and that is to expose them for what they are, and by demonstrating to the country – and the world – that there is a better way.
You must not allow compassion, decency and honesty to go out of fashion, or your party will inevitably suffer the same fate. And it will be nobody’s fault but your own.
Yours sincerely,
Sue Wilson MBE
