Labour needs to realise making cruelty part of UK's asylum system is immoral
Politicians intent on building a better world need to speak out against far-right rhetoric on immigration
Home Secretary Shabana Mahmood has outlined a series of proposed changes to the asylum system that would make it harder to navigate in order to dissuade people from coming to the UK. In the face of these proposals, we must be clear. Using cruelty to regulate asylum claims is immoral.
Her proposals are not designed to make the asylum system quicker, cheaper or more compassionate. Quite the contrary. The proposed changes would make it much harder to seek safety in this country when fleeing from danger.
These proposals would mean that some seeking asylum could never be reunited in safety with their spouse or family members. They would make asylum grants temporary, making it harder to build a stable life. Which employer wants to give a job to someone who might be removed by the government any day on a whim? And, under these plans, it would take 20 years in the UK to be granted settled status.
A welcoming society?
As I reflect on the new proposals, my immediate response is to remember how much my life has been enriched by countless people who have come to this country by one means or another.
They inspire me, heal me, fix my teeth, cook my food, take my blood pressure, entertain me, teach me and offer me friendship and love. Our reputation as a welcoming society is not the only thing at risk from the current rhetoric on immigration. Our wellbeing is at risk too.
These proposals are explicitly designed to “make it less attractive” for people seeking asylum to come to the UK. The Home Secretary is proposing to victimise those seeking asylum within this country in order to discourage others from doing the same. If her proposals become law, she will have succeeded in making the asylum system more cruel to discourage further arrivals.
The system will become slower. The system will become more expensive to administer. The system will cause the permanent separation of families who might otherwise be reunited.
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Language designed to demonise
This must lead to an immediate response. Cruelty should never be the driving force in any immigration or asylum system.
There can be no doubt that there are loud voices in society at this time who object to immigration in any form and to asylum seekers in particular. For many years, this has involved using language to demonise people.
The persistent trope of “illegal asylum seekers” – when no person is inherently illegal – is but one example of how this agenda has been pushed. This use of language makes it harder and harder to hold on to the fact that it is a positive good to offer compassion to those who are running towards safety from unimaginable horrors.
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Earlier this year, I had the experience of going to an asylum tribunal in order to give evidence for a young man who had fled his country in fear of his life. His first application for asylum had been turned down. At his second application, the hearing I attended, the tribunal found that he had, in fact, two separate legitimate grounds for asylum.
The process was tortuous, complicated and difficult. Aspects of it seemed arbitrary. However, he now has permanent leave to remain, giving him the opportunity to work, build a life and contribute to society.
How to fix asylum system
In recent weeks, I have become aware of people from other countries who have what they have hitherto believed to be permanent leave to remain in this country feeling at risk for the first time from the political rhetoric of the right.
These are not those who have come here through asylum but those who have come here to give or receive education, those who have come here to marry their loved ones, and those who came here because their skills were needed by others.
If there are things wrong with the current rules on asylum and immigration, they will not be mended by making the system more cruel. They will be fixed by enthusiastic participation in international bodies, co-operation with other countries and by seeking peace and prosperity in parts of the world that are currently ablaze with insecurity and danger.
Such internationalism cannot be dismissed as a far-off, romantic dream. It needs politicians intent on building a better world to speak out against far-right rhetoric on immigration by offering a different, better and more compassionate worldview. Those who do so offer hope. And hope is what people tend to vote for.
A valuable member of society
It is my belief that changes are needed in the asylum system but not those proposed by the Home Secretary. Those who are so opposed to asylum seekers at the current time might just dial back the rhetoric if those same asylum seekers had the right to work and the duty to pay taxes.
In the course of my own work in the last few years, I’ve met quite a number of people trying to find their way through the asylum process. One of the young men I’ve helped is now able to work in this country.
He’s a researcher and an academic and his speciality is in research dedicated to preventing heart attacks among young athletes. He is literally at work, day by day, trying to keep the children of his adopted country alive.
We need more people like him to come to this country to teach us compassion once again.
More. Not fewer.
The Very Rev Kelvin Holdsworth is Provost of St Mary’s Episcopal Cathedral, Glasgow
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