AN SNP MP used his appearance on the BBC’s Politics Live programme to take apart “offensive” Conservative claims about immigrants.
Home Secretary Priti Patel is today expected to reveal new laws on asylum and migration, with plans to criminally charge migrants “knowingly” arriving in the UK without permission.
Her nationality and borders bill could see thousands of refugees turned away, according to concerned campaigners. Patel insists the mission is focused on cracking down on “vile criminals” who run smuggling operations across the Channel.
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The UK Government also proposes setting up offshore centres for asylum seekers to be “processed” in.
Discussing the proposed measures on the BBC’s politics programme this morning, SNP MP David Linden dismantled the arguments being made by fellow panel member, Tory MP Tom Hunt.
“In this whole process, Jo, I think of the three-year-old toddler Alan Kurdi. Let’s not forget 2015, those incredibly moving images, of a toddler washed up on a beach.
“The idea that people get on these boats, put children on these boats and come into the UK for a food bank voucher really is quite offensive. The references to ‘asylum shopping’ that we’ve seen in the media in recent days, I think, is extremely distasteful.”
The phrase “asylum shopping” refers to asylum seekers passing through different states selectively in order to enter a country with perceived better conditions. The Home Office wants to implement tougher prison sentences to stop the practice, but campaigners say there are no laws saying refugees must seek asylum in one country over another.
Linden went on: “I represent a constituency that has one of the highest numbers of asylum seekers in the UK, and I think we’ve got to understand why it is that people are making these really dangerous journeys. Perhaps because there are no safe and legal routes to the UK. We also have to look at the broader treatment of asylum seekers, those dawn raids, the Napier Barracks, the inhumane conditions that we keep people in.
“There is a reality here, that the UK’s asylum system and this dogwhistle politics that we hear so often from the British government is just deeply offensive and completely misses the point of the much wider issue when it comes to treatment of asylum seekers.”
Hunt, the MP for Ipswich, responded: “I totally disagree. Every single illegal immigrant who gets into this country and is seen to stay in this country, encourages more people to try.
“And that risks more of them losing their lives and it feeds this evil trade in human lives. The message needs to go out – ‘do not try to come here illegally because you will not be successful’.
“We need to have a process in place. We need to have a legal process in place. And yes make the argument of why we should take more refugees legally in the correct way, but turning a blind eye to what is illegality, lawlessness, on our Channel, is totally wrong.”
But Linden hit back to ask why the Conservative government isn’t following advice from the likes of Amnesty International and opening up safe, legal routes to the UK.
Hunt admitted that’s a “debate” and a discussion he is willing to have – but insisted this is a “separate issue”.
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Linden responded: “So let’s look at why it is that people are making these dangerous crossings. Now for example you spoke about compassion. If the UK is so focused on compassion and people are fleeing countries with famine and starvation, why is the UK Government cutting the international aid budget and nutrition projects?”
Former prime minister Theresa May has said that the UK government is creating a “perfect storm” of lost funding and expertise with its aid cuts.
The Government has reduced aid spending to 0.5% of national income rather than the 0.7% pledged in the Conservative Party 2019 general election manifesto.
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