Not content with the dreadful anti-refugee laws they introduced last year, the government are at it again with their even more hideously awful Illegal Migration Bill, which they seem to be determined to rush through parliament without proper scrutiny despite widespread concerns about its legality (not to mention its morality).
I am not a lawyer, so I am not going to comment on the legality of it, instead I'd point anyone who wants a legal analysis to https://freemovement.org.uk/what-is-in-the-illegal-migration-bill/
Considerable discussion has revolved around the impracticality and unworkability of the proposals, but I am not going to comment on that, either, because for me at least that is a side issue to what is wrong with it.
Legality and workability aside, the new bill, and the rhetoric that surrounds it, heralds a dark day for the moral compass of our nation.
Those who seek sanctuary on our shores are among the world's most desperate people. Those who entrust their lives to the hands of people smugglers wouldn't do so if they thought they had any other choice. Those who enter by "irregular means", who risk their lives on a small boat across the channel, who face the fear of hoping fake paperwork will get them over the border, would not be doing so if they felt they had any other option.
They have suffered more than I will ever know or imagine. They have left behind an entire life to start again with nothing but their character and their resilience. They believe in a Britain which upholds human rights, dignity, safety and freedom: I wish I still did too. They make up in total approximately 0.6% of the people currently residing in the UK. They are, it seems, an easy target.
The new bill strips almost all rights and protections from this tiny group of people. Anyone who arrives on our shores by a means deemed irregular as of last week faces a lifetime of perpetual limbo; couple with the threat of deportation to a country deemed "safe". The ever-lengthening processing times of asylum claims means I have see the destructive impact of prolonged uncertainty. The idea of that continuing indefinitely as we as a country refuse to assess the validity of someone's need for safety and commit to offering them the sanctuary they require is simply appalling.
Don't get me wrong... I too would like to stop the boats. I don't want anyone else to drown in the channel. I don't want anyone else to have their sleep disturbed by flashbacks full of fear. I don't want anyone else to say that even though to stay meant certain death, they wish they had never come. But this is not the way to do it.
And so I am very angry, and deeply sad, and somewhat afraid about the direction the country I want to love seems to be headed.
And yet, and yet ...
The Monday before last, as Braverman and Sunak put the finishing touches to their speeches ahead of launching the bill in parliament the following day, I was in the community hub at the REP theatre, gathered around a long roll of paper, pulling together ideas for a play. We shared stories and we laughed a lot. We contributed suggestions and ironed out creative differences. I watched as people who I had known to be hesitant and hidden presented their ideas with such clarity and confidence. I revelled in knowing that this show, when it comes together, will be entirely their own ideas in their own voice.
The Monday just gone, as the second reading was rushed through parliament this week, I was in the midst of three wonderful days away with some of the most incredible people I know. We brought together people who had never met who left three days later as friends. We played probably the most hilarious games of Uno I have ever experienced. We shared stories and experiences: the incidental and the profound. We sat down and ate together. We offered a safe space to hold tears and lots and lots of laughter. We wrote poetry. We learned from one another. We braved the rain and enjoyed the sunshine. We created "loving chaos like a family" (not my words).
I will keep being angry.
But I will keep finding joy and hope too.
All of them are needed to play my part in building the world I believe in.
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