Residents of Dover District and Kent will be affected far more by Covid, Covid lockdown, by loss of income, poverty and by tax evasion, by power-grabbing plans to carve-up local govt, by new border regulations + lorry queues, by Conservative hi-jack of NHS and public health, by climate and wildlife crisis, by knock-on effects of corruption of London property market, than they are by 4000 migrants arriving on Dover shores, whatever self-seeking loud-mouths say about migrants and migration.
In some cases the loud-mouths are politicians of right-wing, and far-right parties who take party funding from billionaires in Russia—which some of us think unpatriotic. We need to work together on real problems in Dover; we do NOT need far-right egotists sowing seeds of division in our communities.
Well done everyone who saves lives in Dover District and the straits of Dover.
Facts
(based on Refugee Council publications, checked and rechecked )
- In 2019, 35,566 asylum application were made in UK; in Germany 142,500 were made; in France 123,900 were made; in Spain 118,300 were made and in Greece 74,900.
So a very small proportion of refugees who come to Europe claim asylum in UK.
When they do, it is often because they hope their English language skills will allow them to work or because they have friends or family here. People whose life is made unbearable are more likely to make life-risking decisions and be exploited by criminal people smugglers. Safe, legal routes would stop the market in people-smuggling. - People seeking asylum in the UK have to comply with strong immigration rules and provide high-level evidence to be successful.
- 85% of the world’s refugees are hosted in impoverished countries. The proportion of refugees who travel to Europe is tiny on a world scale, and an even smaller proportion come and claim asylum in the UK.
- UK is the only country on this continent where indefinite detention is legal. It locks up people while their case is being processed, before it is proved that they are not allowed to stay in Britain. And on appeal nearly half of those locked up are judged to have legal grounds to stay.
Green Party national polices to end hostile environment
P39 2019 Green Party Manifesto
We would ‘Scrap the Home Office, and end its decades-long creation of a hostile environment for Black Minority Ethnic (BME) and other minority communities. We will instead create a Ministry for Sanctuary and a Ministry of the Interior.
The Ministry for Sanctuary will be responsible for enforcing migration rules with compassion, and due regard for human rights, as well as providing recompense for those affected by the Windrush scandal.
One of the Ministry of Sanctuary’s first acts will be to abolish income requirements for people wishing to come to the UK to join a loved one – no families should be separated because of how much someone earns.
The Ministry of the Interior will oversee domestic security with full regard to human rights and the needs of diverse communities.’
We would ‘tackle our toxic political culture, by exploring measures such as new codes of conduct to embed compassion and co-operation in all aspects of public life’. P.37 2019 Green Party Manifesto
Green Party policies on Europe’s migrant crisis
P.31 2019 Green Party Manifesto
‘We should reform European refugee policy, centring it on principles of humanity and compassion. We will campaign to re-establish a European sea-rescuing mission, to save all lives in danger in European waters.
Press for an urgent review on the safety of all migrants travelling to and across Europe.’ In June 2018 Green Members of the European Parliament proposed a motion calling on EU states to stop criminalising humanitarian assistance for desperate refugees.
This came after cases when countries had detained and tried to prosecute European citizens working to save the lives of refugees at risk of drowning in the Mediterranean.
The motion was won by the Greens, with then Green MEP for London Jean Lambert saying: ‘I am delighted that the European Parliament has sent out a strong message calling on the European Commission and EU Member States to stop criminalising those who provide humanitarian assistance to people in desperate and life-threatening situations. We can, and must, do better.’
