Facing down a barrage of twisted misinformation, it has been a relief to hear Brighton’s Labour and Green politicians speaking with one voice when it comes to standing up for refugees.
Earlier this month MPs returned to Parliament following a summer fraught with disturbing displays of intimidation and attacks targeted at asylum seekers. With my feet back on the ground in Westminster, I used my voice to call out the harmful mistruths that have dominated the news and social media coverage of these issues.
Speaking on Radio 4’s Westminster Hour, I even had to point out to a Conservative and a Labour MP the very basic fact that claiming asylum is perfectly legal. Anyone fleeing persecution in another country is allowed to do so, it is an important human right underpinning many others, and the majority of asylum claims filed in the UK are granted.
The relentless pandering of certain politicians, including in the centre, to far-right narratives means that, increasingly, Greens are becoming a lone voice for refugees.
It was heartening then, to hear Brighton and Hove’s council leader Bella Sankey in her own Radio 4 interview also strongly make the case that refugees are welcome in Brighton and that we are a proud City of Sanctuary. Like me, Bella pointed out that the immense backlog of asylum claims, and chaotic ‘system’ of housing asylum seekers in hotels, are entirely manufactured problems caused by years of Conservative policies aimed at trying to prevent people from ever claiming asylum.
We all agree that hotels are entirely unsuitable accommodation for refugees. Many are stuck in limbo waiting months or even years for a decision to be made on their claim. Media agitators claim that refugees are living a life of quiet luxury, but they have ‘no recourse to public funds’ and are banned from benefit support. Many asylum seekers are expected to survive on as little as £7 a day. They can only apply for permission to work if they have waited over a year for an asylum decision.
People who had careers and lives, who have been forced to flee unimaginable horrors and tyrannical regimes, have sought refuge here and been left to live in poverty. Our country’s treatment of asylum seekers should be a source of national shame.
The Labour Government’s reactive decision to pause family reunion rights for people who have been recognised as needing asylum, is something I wholeheartedly condemned on a recent Newsnight appearance. Keeping families apart and leaving family members in danger abroad is an immoral way to deter new asylum claims, it risks counterproductive and catastrophic consequences. If the children of approved claimants now risk their lives on small boats to join their loved ones.
Brighton recently played host to the annual conference of the Trade Union Congress. Activist Kobina Amokwandoh, speaking on a fringe event panel with our new Green Party leader Zack Polanski, gave me pause for thought when he urged us all to consider the many reasons why more people are becoming refugees. Wars, violence, and the effects of climate change create many direct victims, but often the people coming here are community leaders and campaigners -essentially ‘freedom fighters’- persecuted for standing up for the environment, indigenous rights, and against political regimes that seek to erode human rights.
It is not uncommon to hear me say that my eyes well up when talking about the Universal Declaration of Human Rights and all that it represents. So now, at a time when it is needed most, I will keep calling on our politicians to uphold, not ignore, the commitments of that Declaration, and support those who fight for it.