THE Secretary of State for the Home Office Suella Braverman made an announcement the other day that the government is moving thousands of asylum seekers out of hotels around Britain and Northern Ireland.
The number of asylum seekers that will be affected by this particular policy is around 5,000. Braverman's idea is to accommodate these vulnerable people on huge vessels at sea. It is strange that these people, many of whom have already experienced extreme situations travelling on rough seas, are now having to deal with vessels again. The last thing they really want to see or hear about is Braverman's boats.
The argument of the British government is that the boats – or barges – will put an end to the expensive hotel life that asylum seekers have living at taxpayer cost. As if! Despotic reactionary regimes have used boats before to humiliate those at the receiving end because there is nothing more degrading. Let us for two milliseconds be the Devil's Advocate. This was a shock-provoking Channel Four TV programme of the early 1990s that was broadcast by Trinidadian-born Darcus Howe. He was a tireless campaigner against racial injustice. He would be turning in his grave now just imagining the rules of human rights that are being broken today by a Home Office minister of Asian descent.
More vessels are being taken to different sites around the United Kingdom so that the hotels are emptied as quickly as possible because the Tory government is responding to criticism of its migrant policy. Again, it is very disturbing that the minister who is launching these racially motivated policies is herself a beneficiary of immigrant parents who originally came to the UK from Kenya and Mauritius.
The level of gratuitous racism and bigotry in this policy is second to none. Housing asylum seekers in hotels has had its major drawbacks where these people have been targeted and profiled. They have been harassed and intimidated by reactionary protestors who just want them out of their towns.
Why, I ask, can't the government expedite their cases and let them get into full employment quickly? This mentality of old prison ships will end up causing more divisions in society. We still don't know the consequences that will follow.
Some people are asking daft questions like, ‘Claim asylum from what?’ When Adolf Hitler was wreaking havoc in Europe, would that have been a question to ask? There are hundreds of mini-Hitlers in this globe and that is why many asylum seekers have crossed the seas into the UK.
ellyomondi@gmail.com
