THE Home Secretary has outlined her plans for overhauling the UK’s asylum system – announcing that only those who come to the UK through “legal routes” will be entitled to asylum.
A strict interpretation of this rule would mean we will not accept any asylum seekers, as they almost certainly travel thorough a “safe country” before reaching the UK.
By helping asylum seekers we will actually be helping ourselves. As an example, around 1,200 medically qualified refugees are listed on the British Medical Association’s database. It is estimated that it costs around £25,000 to support a refugee doctor to practise in the UK. Training a new doctor is estimated to cost £200,000 to £250,000.
READ MORE: Priti Patel claims her controversial asylum system overhaul plan is not 'inhumane'
More than a third of the world’s asylum seekers come from just one country, Syria. Italy receives the majority of refugees and asylum seekers who reach Europe. An estimated 192,000 people have sought asylum in Italy since 2017. By the end of June 2020 the UK had resettled only 19,768 Syrian refugees. Turkey, which has a land border with Syria, has provided refuge for around 3.6 million refugees.
We should be sharing the burden of caring for those who are fleeing persecution, especially the gas and bombs inflicted on the people of Syria, but it seems that compassion is a rare commodity in a Tory government.
Pete Rowberry
Duns
READ MORE: Tories' latest asylum 'reforms' will only play into people smugglers' hands
WHAT a pity that the new conditions being proposed by Priti Patel were not in place in the days of Idi Amin! Had they been, her parents might have been excluded and we would have been spared her cruel, inhumane current treatment of asylum seekers and her even harsher new proposals, as well as saving the public purse thousands of pounds in compensation for her proven breaking of the Ministerial Code for a second time.
P Davidson
Falkirk
THE fall-out from the Alex Salmond affair is unsavoury and casting a shadow over our Scottish Parliament, of that there can be no doubt, alas.
While the phrase “breaching the ministerial code” has been common parlance of late (at Westminster too, let’s not forget) it was wholly unedifying to see a potential leak from a member of the committee looking into the Salmond affair, and their headline-grabbing “Nicola Sturgeon (albeit unknowingly) misleading the committee” comment, something which in turn was a breach of MSP guidelines, ironically.
READ MORE: Andy Wightman: Holyrood inquiry MSPs walked out as report was leaked during meeting
If this was undertaken to damage the reputation of the parliament, shame on them. Perhaps it was done on the basis of purely partisan politicking. If the latter, while equally appalling, it may come to backfire on the leaker(s).
The choice in the upcoming election was stark before these machinations and it still is. Douglas Ross, Scots Tory leader, for all his desperate attempts to garner media attention, has many unenviable traits, including a personality bypass, lack of any coherent policies, very little experience, and to top it all, being hamstrung as “Johnson’s man at Holyrood”.
The Scottish electorate will, rightly, make their decisions based on who wants to do what is best for Scotland and has the country’s long-term interests in mind. A luxury not afforded to the Tories since the mid-1950s (the last time they won the popular share of the vote in Scotland, let’s not forget).
David A Millar
Balloch
JUST read Kevin McKenna’s “healing article” (Here’s what needs to happen if Yes division truly are to be healed, March 24). I am not sure if he has his tongue in his cheek , but the whole article would seem to be the raking over all the negatives which he continues to peddle about the SNP ad nauseum.
First he picks his way through the Hamilton inquiry report and believe it or not rewrites what it actually does not say! He seems to think if you look closely enough, it provides a less than acceptable narrative about the FM’s leadership. As always the rest of the article provides his usual take on the divisions within the SNP.
READ MORE: Kevin McKenna: Here’s what needs to happen if Yes divisions truly are to be healed
I have recently been optimistic that the internal clamour and divisions within the SNP had subsided somewhat, but Kevin never lets you down. As I read somewhere recently, you can sort out any issues within the SNP party after independence but if we lose then we will be stuck with the right-wing post-Brexit Tories ruling us for a generation. So, Mr McKenna, can you “keep your powder dry” until after the election if you truly believe in ensuring a second referendum is a certainty and independence becomes a reality? Come on – be generous for once.
Dan Wood
Kirriemuir
IS the world population losing the plot? We have Bolsonaro in Brazil trying to reverse the miniscule ecological improvements made there and oppressing the indigenous people when they complain. We have the Spanish Government creating political prisoners of democratically elected Catalan politicians and physically assaulting those who support them. Jailing songwriters for their words. Now I read in Wednesday’s National of a Polish guy threatened with prison for insulting the head of state – apparently also a crime in Spain. Military dictatorship overthrowing elected government in Myanmar and shooting unarmed civilians protesting about it. (Not an exhaustive list.) DEEPLY worrying.
I had hoped that fascism and racism would have subsided after setting up of the UN, but sadly this has turned out to be as effective as the League of Nations, set up after World War One, and both seem to be on the rise. (Note the election of the current Tory government and their anti-democratic policies.) If we are to avoid OUR country going down this route, we MUST vote for self-determination.
Barry Stewart
Blantyre
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