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KIRSTY STRICKLAND: Asylum seekers aren’t the problem, it just suits the Tories to pretend they are

photo shows Suella Braverman and the French Interior Minister Gerald Darmanin signing an agreement aimed at tackling the small boats crisis in the Channel.
Suella Braverman, who has previously said asylum seekers are invading the UK, has now signed a historic deal with the French Interior Minister Gerald Darmanin aimed at tackling the small boats crisis in the Channel. Image: Stefan Rousseau/PA Wire.

We now know that the man who firebombed an immigration centre in Dover last month was motivated by ‘’extreme’’ right-wing terrorist ideology.

This conclusion by counter-terrorist police makes Home Secretary Suella Braverman’s recent comments about asylum seekers all the more shameful.

In the wake of the attack on the centre, the Home Secretary made a statement to the House of Commons.

After half an hour or so, I had to turn it off.

The callous way that both she and some of her Conservative party colleagues spoke about people who come to the UK seeking refuge was sickening.

image shows the writer Kirsty Strickland next to a quote: "There’s nothing patriotic about a mean-spirited approach to some of the most vulnerable people in our society."

When the Home Secretary described people crossing the channel as an “invasion’’ it was clear the audience she was pandering to.

And – spoiler alert – it wasn’t one that sees people seeking asylum as worthy of compassion or respect.

On Monday, the UK Government and its French counterparts reached a deal to increase patrols to detect small migrant boats leaving France.

There will also be investment in port infrastructure and drone technology will be used to detect crossings.

photo shows a group of people thought to be migrants arriving in Dover aboard a Border Force vessel.
The UK Government wants to reduce the number of asylum-seekers crossing the Channel in small boats. Image: Gareth Fuller/PA Wire.

This news is sure to set off another wave of anti-asylum seeker rhetoric from those who should frankly know better.

UK Government language demonises asylum seekers

The UK government seems intent on reframing hatred as patriotism.

In the warped world they live in, you judge how much somebody loves their country by how much they hate the people that seek refuge there.

This kind of divisive language has real-life consequences.

The Home Secretary has suggested – both implicitly and explicitly – that a sizeable proportion of the people who cross the channel in small boats are deceptive infiltrators, motivated only by money.

photo shows a group of six men thought to be migrants boarding a coach in the Border Force compound in Dover, Kent.
A group of people thought to be migrants board a coach in the Border Force compound in Dover, Kent. Image: Gareth Fuller/PA Wire.

I wonder, how much money would somebody have to offer you to risk your life in dangerous waters?

I bet the figure you arrive at is a damn sight more than the £6 a day that asylum seekers get to survive on.

If their temporary accommodation includes meals, it’s even less: a paltry £8 a week.

An £8 budget from which you need to somehow afford public transport to Home Office appointments, toiletries, tampons and a sweetie as a treat for your child who is feeling unsettled in a brand new country.

Photo shows a woman, thought to be a migrant, carrying a baby, aboard a coach in the Border Force compound in Dover, Kent.
Asylum-seekers must exist on as little as £8 a week under UK Government rules: Gareth Fuller/PA Wire

Could you do it? I know I couldn’t.

UK Government policy is the reason asylum seekers are housed in Perth hotels

The reason the UK is seeing an increase in the number of hotels – like The Station Hotel and the Queen’s Hotel in Perth – needed to house asylum seekers isn’t because the UK is being “invaded’’ by economic migrants.

It’s because the Home Office has utterly failed in its duty to process asylum applications in a timely manner and ensure there are safe routes for those who want to come here.

According to research by the Refugee Council, more than 40,000 people seeking asylum have waited between one and three years for a decision to be made on their claim.

Photo shows the Station Hotel, Perth.
The Station Hotel, Perth, is housing refugees as part of the UK Government system for processing asylum seekers.

Seven hundred and 25 people, including 155 children, have waited more than five years for their claim to be processed.

That is a shocking indictment on our broken asylum system.

Although, I suppose it’s a lot easier for politicians to misrepresent asylum seekers than it is to deal with an administrative backlog that was created by their own incompetence.

‘Charity begins at home’ claims ring hollow

There’s nothing patriotic about a mean-spirited approach to some of the most vulnerable people in our society.

The Conservative Party are now trying to pretend that the reason we have to treat asylum seekers and refugees with so little compassion is because the UK has its own problems to deal with.

Protesters outside the Manston immigration short-term holding facility in Thanet, Kent, holding cardboard placards saying 'No human is illegal' and 'You are welcome here'. Image: Gareth Fuller/PA Wire
Protesters outside the Manston immigration short-term holding facility in Thanet, Kent. Image: Gareth Fuller/PA Wire

TIt’s the “charity begins at home’’ argument and coming from that lot, it is a hollow one.

Low-income Britons used to be the Tories favoured bogeyman.

They were the “shirkers and scroungers” who necessitated an outright assault on our social security safety net.

We are still suffering from the legacy of brutal austerity as the cost of living crisis bites.

Politics is all about priorities. The UK Government has shown in recent weeks that its main priority seems to be shifting the blame for its own failures onto vulnerable people seeking refuge.

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