A year in power, and so much needs to change

A year in power, and so much needs to change

It has been a year since this government took power, and it has been a busy one in regard to its policies on immigration.

Despite a positive start with the cancelling of the previous government’s horrendous Rwanda plan, and the ending of the contract for the floating prison ship the Bibby Stockholm, things have deteriorated dramatically for many migrants.

On asylum, the Border Security, Asylum and Immigration Bill, currently going through parliament, further criminalises those seeking safety in the UK. While it does rescind elements of previous policy, including the Safety of Rwanda Act which would have allowed for the removal of people to the country, it goes further in other areas in denying people the chance to seek asylum.

The Immigration White Paper, proposals from which are already being pushed forward to become policy, goes further than anything we have seen in years in stripping migrants of rights and treating us as second-class people, our worth only determined by our income.

The White Paper contains numerous issues, including increasing the duration of visa routes from five year to ten, including retrospectively. This increases uncertainty, stress and extreme financial obligations. Other areas will see even more families separated, loved ones denied the ability to be together based solely on where one of them was born, and children left without a parent.

In addition to this, the denial of citizenship for refugees living in the UK, some who have been here for years, based on their manner of entry prevents some people from being able to fully rebuild their lives, despite being recognised as needing a safe country to live in and do so.

The use of artificial intelligence in processing asylum claims decisions risks seeing even more errors, already at a high rate, and the nuance and complicity of people’s situations missed. Talk of “return hubs” in third countries for those denied asylum, but who this government is unable to return to their country of origin, will see people detained in a strange place, where they have no ties, potentially indefinitely.

Meanwhile, we have seen a huge increase in immigration raids, detention and deportations. These ignore that many of us who become undocumented do so through no fault of our own, and need better routes to be able to regularise our status if it is lost. Not only that, but for those who are trafficked or exploited it makes it harder to come forward to seek assistance, putting more of us at risk.

We have even heard the Home Secretary talk about “looking at” Article 8 of the European Convention on Human Rights, the right to a family life, in order to be able to circumvent it in cases of deporting migrants. Pushing even further, we have heard them talk about plans to continue denying citizenship to migrants who have been stripped of it, even when a court of appeal has ruled that it should be reinstated.

It is not just the policies themselves which cause the issues, as we have also seen with previous governments. The very language and rhetoric used by politicians around immigration in general, but especially asylum, fans the flames of hostility. While some of the comments made by this government have been apologised for, the overall rhetoric remains hostile to migrants, and leads to further division within communities.

Immigration policies for years, and across multiple governments, have been based on politics, but overlook the human beings they affect. This is by far and away not an issue limited to the current government alone. However, it is this government at this moment in time, which has the power and opportunity to change the narrative and focus on policies which help support migrants, which treat us with respect and dignity, and which allow those seeking safety to be able to find it.

Despite the way immigration is reported, and the policies which are made surrounding it, it is a minority of people who wish to see it reduced. A year into this government we are seeing migrants continued to be demonised and scapegoated. We continue to see hostile policies and rhetoric aimed against us. This government has four years left to turn things around. To listen to the voices and experiences of migrants, and implement policies which show why we should not be treated as “less than” anyone else.

This first year in government has seen so much more of the same, tired old, policies of anti-immigration. It has seen the same types of policies and rhetoric which so fuelled the riots of last year. There is still the chance for change though. There is still a better way forward. We need policies which do not deny migrants rights or create a two-tier system of them. We need politicians to recognise that language matters and roll back the inflammatory rhetoric. In short, we need a system which treats everyone with dignity.

Photo: Copyright House of Commons