Editorial – The Guardian
The circumstances of this tragedy should lead the government to rethink its small boats strategy
“Today is a day to demonstrate our sympathy for the victims and families of this deadly and tragic incident,” the home secretary, Suella Braverman, told the House of Commons on Wednesday. Sombre Conservative MPs nodded gravely as she spoke, following the death of at least four migrants in freezing waters off the Kent coast.
It would be wrong to view those words, or the response, as in any way insincere. And Ms Braverman was also right to praise the heroic work of first responders, who managed to rescue more than 30 people from the icy water in the early hours of the morning. But in the wake of this appalling news, almost exactly a year after 27 migrants died attempting to cross the Channel, it is hard not to reflect on the very different tone of parliamentary debate the previous day.
The timing of Rishi Sunak’s Tuesday statement on illegal migration was deliberate; it was designed to show tough leadership at a time when his government is presiding over a country in chaos and he has himself been accused of being weak. The prime minister announced a plan which doubles down on the notion that small boat crossings can be stopped by criminalising, confining and summarily deporting those who make them – if necessary to third countries such as Rwanda.
The red meat thus offered was rapturously received by packed Tory backbenches shouting “more!”. MPs representing “red wall” constituencies, in particular, believe that the more punitive the disposition towards small boat arrivals, the better their chances of holding on to their seats. Straight after Ms Braverman’s statement on Wednesday, a substantial minority backed a bill urging Mr Sunak to ignore future deportation rulings by the European court of human rights. As Brexit tropes are opportunistically replayed, asylum seekers and those who defend their legal entitlements are destined to become convenient scapegoats – and a diversion from the desperate state of the nation.
Sadly, and shamefully, it seems unlikely that Wednesday’s drownings will halt this trajectory. The archbishop of Canterbury, Justin Welby, observed that the deaths were “another reminder that debates about asylum seekers are not about statistics, but precious human lives”. When political discourse overwhelmingly focuses on “getting the numbers down”, that is a necessary thing to say. This was a tragedy foretold. Since last November, charities and maritime experts have urged that overstretched coastguard services be granted more resources. But in Mr Sunak’s statement on Tuesday there was no explicit focus on increasing search and rescue capacity. And while the prime minister gestured in pro-forma terms to expanding safe and legal routes, he offered scant detail and no assurances on family reunion.
It has been a telling juxtaposition: a day of empty rhetoric promoting a harsh strategy of deterrence, immediately followed by events that gave the lie to the bombast. Desperate people willing to gamble their lives on the sea in sub-zero temperatures are not operating according to some superficial rendering of rational choice theory. Many, in any case, will judge the environment they have left behind to be more hostile than any they may encounter in Britain. Large numbers, including children, are seeking to unite with family members and will do almost anything to achieve that goal. It is an abrogation of moral responsibility to ignore these evident truths and not to act upon them. But that is what this performatively heartless government appears intent on doing.
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Sunak’s asylum plan: tough talk can’t mask past failures
Tackling the backlog of claims is the right idea. But the government seems unlikely to achieve it
The UK’s backlog of asylum claims, which currently stands at about 140,000, has been building up since 2013. The government, and specifically the Home Office, bears responsibility for this. Try as he might to present himself as a new broom, sweeping away old cobwebs and cleaning up a scrappy system, Rishi Sunak must take his share of responsibility for the current dysfunction – and the acute suffering it leads to.
In the House of Commons on Tuesday, the prime minister sought to present his five-point plan as a blast of bold, fresh thinking. His ambition to drastically reduce the backlog next year, and promise of new resources including extra, specialist caseworkers, sound like constructive steps. But it is doubtful whether these aims will be met, and the rest of the announcement gave more reason for alarm than relief at the direction of travel.
Last month an accommodation centre at Manston airport in Kent was emptied out after unacceptable conditions including disease outbreaks were exposed. But ministers seem as determined as ever to avoid the expense of hotels, and Mr Sunak claimed in parliament that vacant holiday camps and army barracks will soon provide beds for 10,000 people. Citing his close working relationship with the home secretary, Suella Braverman – who should have resigned in October for breaching the ministerial code – Mr Sunak also signalled his support for the policy of deporting asylum seekers to Rwanda. And he promised new legislation that will – if passed – make it impossible for people arriving in the UK on small boats to submit asylum claims at all.
Mr Sunak said that “fairness” must be the overarching principle, and is fond of pointing out how tolerant and welcoming he thinks the UK is. But he declined to explain what is meant by the statement that the existing international framework for refugees is “obsolete”. And he offered no clear assurances that safe and legal routes, including specific provision for children and family reunion, would be put in place.
A reasonable case can be made for fast-tracking returns to Albania, as some EU countries are already doing, and for an enhanced role for the National Crime Agency in combating trafficking. But it is wrong to present such measures in militaristic rhetoric about “boots on the ground” patrolling French beaches. Whatever the reasons for the shift in demographics of small-boat passengers, the reality of life for most asylum seekers of all nationalities is a level of hardship difficult for people living settled lives to imagine. Disgracefully, the chaotic emptying of Manston led to a number of its former residents being dumped in central London, with nowhere to go. In October it emerged that 222 children have disappeared from hotels in which the Home Office put them.
The government’s cruel and wasteful Rwanda scheme makes it an international outlier. There is every reason to doubt the pledge to tackle waiting lists with new staff, given that recruitment targets across the public sector are routinely being missed. Following Liz Truss’s disgraceful suggestion in the summer that the French president could be considered a “foe”, Mr Sunak’s commitment to work with EU partners is a welcome change. For the sake of the thousands of people stuck in limbo, waiting for their claims to be processed, it must be hoped that his renewed focus on this issue will bring some beneficial effects, however limited.