Priti Patel’s Stance Against Refugees

Priti Patel, the Home Secretary, has faced public backlash recently following her decisions based around the migrant crisis. From hiring an intimidating Clandestine Channel Threat Commander, to re-designing immigration policies, to seemingly militarising the issue by bringing in the Navy - Priti Patel has covered as many controversial bases as possible whilst attempting to single-handedly decide the fate of thousands of families seeking desperate refuge and support in the UK.

Political turmoil, war, climate change, conflict and the summer heatwave (and ‘safer’ than usual crossing conditions) are all factors attributing to the rise in attempts to cross the Channel. It is also thought that due to the decrease in the number of cargo vehicles making the journey via the Channel Tunnel or ferries, refugees are left with limited options other than the perilous journey of travelling by small boat.

Priti Patel’s Stance Against Refugees:

Priti Patel’s post-Brexit immigration plan has come under fire majorly, as the points-based system will seemingly not allow lower-skilled workers to be able to prove that they should be allowed to enter the UK.

During the Coronavirus pandemic, ‘low-skilled’ workers have been some of our most treasured heroes, and have kept the country running during lockdown. These so-called low-skilled jobs include roles such as hospital porters, admin assistants, factory workers, public transport workers, taxi drivers, customer service and sales workers, and carers.

The privilege of the class-divide strikes again as the people who are keeping the base of Britain running are deemed less worthy than those in higher-paid professions. Yes, working in retail and in brain surgery do require different skill sets, but neither is more worthy of the safety of asylum than the other. Without potentially hundreds of thousands of new employees to add to this workforce, how will Britain work in the future?

Further recent decisions by the Home Secretary such as chartering deportation flights for refugees and sending in the British Royal Navy as Border Force assistance are also controversial, but are all part of her plan to make crossing the Channel an “unviable” route in the future. By intimidating and intercepting crossings with the Navy’s presence, it is hoped that refugees and those smuggling them across the Channel will not make the dangerous crossing.

After meeting with French Interior Minister Gérald Darmanin, a decision was made to create a new "intelligence cell" to enable the disbanding of illegal crossings facilitated by smuggling gangs. Monitored by both French and UK officers, the plan was drawn to intercept boats and small dinghies, make arrests, and return refugees to France.

Former Chancellor of the Exchequer, Sajid Javid, previously announced that in this bid to deter future crossing attempts, the UK were to pay £6million for surveillance equipment such as drones to the French authorities to be placed along the Calais coastline.

Imagine how many refugees could be supported in the UK safely with this money (even if for a very short period of time whilst they receive support or humane guidance).

The two nations are also collaborating on ideas surrounding the deportation flight and returning to the EU system. Not only does this decision encourage a dangerously dehumanising rhetoric around refugees, but it also makes a huge story for far-right media to use - potentially fuelling further hatred of refugees in some UK communities.

[T/W: Mention of S*ic*ide]

The departure of Priti Patel’s planned deportation flights has reportedly coincided with 8 suicide attempts of refugees in the Gatwick detention centre, which is not a coincidence at all. The desperation of refugees seeking new opportunities and an escape from war and turmoil is evident, and something which any human being should be able to see. Campaigners against Patel’s decisions to charter these flights have called them “dangerous and rushed”, expressing concerns that the welfare of those being detained has not been fully accounted for ahead of forcing them to return to the continent.

In a Guardian article, asylum seekers claimed to have been flown to Spain by the home office, with many of them being removed from the UK without their official identifying documents and credentials. This shows the threat that these swift decisions have on the future livelihood of individuals who have already risked their lives.

As a result of aiming to eliminate illicit and illegal crossings, Priti Patel has recently appointed former-Marine Dan O’Mahoney as the new "Clandestine Channel Threat Commander", with a duty to ensure that those organising the criminal gang networks are arrested and to end illegal crossings.

O’Mahoney has openly discussed in the press how one of his priorities is to ensure that no further lives are lost and that it is those who are exploiting desperate migrants that are arrested. They also point out that there are “safe and legal routes in place” for those trying to move to the UK.

Political forces such as Nicola Sturgeon and the Liberal Democrats have both come out to encourage Priti Patel to take a more humane approach to this crisis, with the Lib Dems even encouraging the Attorney General to intervene over some of Patel’s claims and scapegoating social media posts relating to the subject.

Crossing the Channel:

The Government were warned at the start of the year that their alterations to immigration policies would inevitably drive refugees to have to take more dangerous desperate routes to get to the UK. This is now no longer a warning, but a reality - especially due to the pandemic making it more difficult to travel via road vehicles on ferries or the Channel Tunnel.

In 2016, more than 20,000 ‘breaches of security’ by migrants were reported at Channel Tunnel terminals, showing just how popular it is usually for smugglers to attempt to use this "safer" route to traffic migrants.

One thing that has failed to be explored in depth is the true safety and protection required by those smuggled across the Channel. UK detainment centres are not unsafe environments but they are an isolating and intimidating setting for those that have already endured such harrowing experiences.

Safety is protecting people's personal welfare, having members of staff present who speak the appropriate languages and understand the culture, people that they can bond with and form a community, opportunities to begin discussions about starting a new life where they are more protected than they were before. All of these things need to be accounted for when creating a humane environment for people that have risked their own lives and those of their family members to get here to "safety".

Public Backlash:

The Home Secretary has faced extensive backlash by the public on social media, predominantly on Twitter, following her recent decisions and tweets about refugees.

Online anger began to appear especially after Patel suggested that “the British people” all wanted to pull the shutter on our borders and stop any immigration movement. Priti Patel has since lost the respect of many.

Streatham’s Labour MP, Bell Ribeiro-Addy, led the Twitter conversation of criticising the Government's scapegoating of refugees and the rush to deport these vulnerable individuals. Branded by Ribeiro-Addy as “completely inhumane”, the Home Secretary could have provided better security and welfare provisions for these families and people that are potentially facing the most important period of time in their lives.

It was also recognised on social media that Priti Patel failed to criticise the recent protests and clashes between anti-migrant protesters and police in Dover this week, but did come out to condemn the week-long Extinction Rebellion protest that she deemed an "attack on democracy." The anti-migrant protest saw little to no adherence to government guidelines of social distancing, and face masks were not worn by the large majority of protesters.

Not only are these protests a public health violation in this devastating pandemic, but are also a direct attack on desperate migrants whose race and religion appear to be the leading threat to some protesters.

It does have to be recognised that Priti Patel occasionally uses her social media platforms to publicly discuss tragedies and express condolences for the loss of life on the channel, all whilst reiterating her message that vulnerable people are being exploited by smuggler gangs who are profiting from these channel crossings.

It would seem that anybody who deems smugglers as “abhorrent criminal gangs” should be protecting the victims of their offences, but this does not always appear to be the case when Patel follows these tributes with discourse implying all involved in the crossings should be turned away.

What Needs To Change?

As Minnie Rahman, of the Joint Council for the Welfare of Immigrants, puts it:

“channel crossings are not a crisis of movement, they are a crisis of cooperation”.

With these already extremely vulnerable people now being passed from pillar to post between the UK, the EU and British and French Authorities, it is clear that the lack of consistency, cooperation and communication is having a detrimental impact on the livelihood and welfare of these individuals.

I cannot begin to imagine how difficult their life and situation in their home country must be that they choose to travel across continents and large, incredibly dangerous, bodies of water, deeming it the better option.

Placing your own family in this danger as it's the only option for you is already a clear indicator as to how much help these people need, and I cannot comprehend why that point still needs to be reiterated. The only things that divide us and them are borders and the UK’s privilege. From one group of human beings to another, there is more that we can do to support them, instead of "returning" them.

With Priti Patel being the daughter of immigrants herself, systems implemented such as the points-based entry system should never have been published with such a derogatory rhetoric.

By encouraging the discourse that people should only be valued by their skill set, employment history, and where they were born, we are excluding so many valuable people that could enhance our communities immensely. This also brushes over the fact that UK-nationals who have never worked or participated in any form of personal or professional development are likely to have fewer desirable employee qualities than someone who has risked the lives of themselves, family and children to start a new life away from war and conflict.

How can the contribution to society of an individual be monitored whilst they are on an illegal dinghy in the English Channel?

The welfare system surrounding the issue needs to change to provide varying degrees of support to refugees and their families. Clandestine crossings can be prevented if suitable provisions were in place in both the UK and EU so that refugees never have to need to have to make these potentially fatal crossings.

As public opinion of Priti Patel continues to diminish, it's time for the Home Secretary to stop taking on corporate giants such as Ben and Jerry’s whenever they disagree with her stance and to start understanding why the public want a humane approach promoted to accommodate these people who need us and our privileged services to save their lives.

Written By Caitlin Parr

Image by Gerd Altmann from Pixabay