\n Her studies have taken her around the world. She regularly visited Gaza<\/a> before the current conflict, in which she has lost many friends. She has also worked in nations like Zimbabwe, Ethiopia, Jordan and Sudan.\n<\/p>\n \n \u00a0\n<\/p>\n \n Prof Alison Phipps of Glasgow University.\u00a0 Photo: Gordon Terris \/Herald & Times\u00a0\n <\/p>\n \n Part of her expertise is the study of genocide, including the causes of the Holocaust, and work on the Bosnian genocide. Phipps says her work has led her to conclude that the political rhetoric around refugees and migrants in Britain has taken the country into \u201cthe foothills of genocide\u201d.\n<\/p>\n \n She points to some of the extreme behaviour and comments around anti-asylum protests, such as demonstrators holding banners reading \u201ckill \u2018em\u2019 all\u201d, Lucy Connolly \u2013 a Conservative councillor\u2019s wife \u2013 calling for asylum hotels to be set on fire, and demonstrators giving Nazi salutes.\n<\/p>\n \n \u201cWe\u2019re getting very close to something terribly tragic like Rostock happening,\u201d she says. Rostock, in Germany, was the scene of violent rioting when mobs set light to an apartment block housing asylum seekers. Neighbours cheered on the rioters.\n<\/p>\n \n Phipps refers to the \u201cthe 10 stages of genocide\u201d by the international organisation Genocide Watch. The full list includes: discrimination, dehumanisation, polarisation, preparation, persecution, denial, and extermination.\n<\/p>\n \n Britain has ticked off a number of these warnings signs, she believes.\n<\/p>\n \n When it comes to \u201cdehumanisation\u201d \u2013 which is stage four \u2013 Phipps says that political rhetoric, such as refugees referred to as \u201cswarms\u201d or an \u201cinvasion\u201d, fits the definition.\n<\/p>\n \n When asked directly whether she is saying that academic checklists warning about the steps towards genocide are now being ticked off in British society, Phipps replies: \u201cAbsolutely.\u201d\n<\/p>\n \n Phipps said that dehumanisation by political leaders appeared in David Cameron\u2019s reference to \u201cswarms\u201d of refugees in 2015. \u201cWe had a Prime Minister doing stage four. We turn on the news and hear hate speech and propaganda from the media. It\u2019s in our press on the front page.\u201d\n<\/p>\n \n Phipps also noted Theresa May\u2019s calls for a \u201chostile environment\u201d.\n<\/p>\n \n Murder<\/strong>\n<\/p>\n \n STAGE five of the Genocide Watch list is \u201corganisation\u201d. Phipps believes that the organisation of far-right riots, co-ordinated on social media and with \u201cmoney flowing in\u201d, ticks that warning box.\n<\/p>\n \n Another stage is \u201cdenial\u201d. Phipps says this involves people saying \u201cwe\u2019re not like that, we don\u2019t do that, this isn\u2019t who we are, this isn\u2019t something we could ever do in Britain\u201d. However, she points again to banners urging the murder of asylum seekers and calls to burn down hotels. She refers to another stage: \u201cpreparation\u201d. To Phipps, this means the \u201csetting aside of international law\u201d. She notes Reform\u2019s plans to leave the European Convention on Human Rights, and the UN Convention Against Torture, as well as calls for refugees to be interned in camps.\n<\/p>\n \n \u201cIt\u2019s important to state that every society is always on a path to genocide potentially,\u201d Phipps explains. \u201cIt\u2019s something humans keep doing to ourselves. We say \u2018never again\u2019, but it happens again and again. The reasons it happens repeatedly is that states didn\u2019t have the courage to act and society suddenly finds itself over a cliff.\n<\/p>\n \n \u201cGenocide is something humans are capable of when international and domestic safeguards are eroded.\u201d\n<\/p>\n \n Read more Neil Mackay<\/strong>\n<\/p>\n \n Neil Mackay: English nationalism will be the death of the union<\/a>\n<\/p>\n \n Neil Mackay: Nazi salutes and why you should believe the evidence of your own eyes<\/a>\n<\/p>\n \n Neil Mackay: Politics is a sadist realm, a whirlwind should sweep these monsters away<\/a>\n<\/p>\n \n Neil Mackay: We badly need a legal route to indyref2 \u2026 here\u2019s how we do it<\/a>\n<\/p>\n \n Genocide, Phipps says, \u201cbegins culturally, often in language first. Violence always has cultural seeds. It\u2019s why hate speech legislation is vital as a preventative measure\u201d.\n<\/p>\n \n The political rhetoric in Britain around refugees \u201chas characteristics that you can find in descriptions of the processes of genocide. There are ticks being made on the list. Genocide is a process not a single action or event\u201d.\n<\/p>\n \n In terms of how many stages of genocide Britain has met, Phipps says: \u201cI think we\u2019re sitting at around four, but with elements of five.\u201d\n<\/p>\n \n She adds: \u201cWe\u2019re in the foothills of genocide, and worrying signs which scholars use to identify the process of genocide are present in society and require remedy.\u201d\n<\/p>\n \n Protesters and counter-protesters in Falkirk<\/a> where tensions are high\n <\/p>\n \n Phipps, however, says that in terms of deterring extremism she\u2019s \u201cencouraged by the rate of prosecutions from last summer\u2019s riots. Swift action is important\u201d.\n<\/p>\n \n However, she fears that \u201cmore lives will be lost\u201d. An asylum seeker was murdered, for instance, in Glasgow in 2001.\n<\/p>\n \n She believes newspapers which push dehumanising rhetoric should face harsh criticism from political leaders and be \u201cgiven warnings with regard to use of language\u201d. Society shouldn\u2019t \u201cconflate\u201d protecting free speech with hate speech.\n<\/p>\n \n Phipps wants a complete change to the \u201ctoxic\u201d discourse around refugees. She feels that even the term \u201casylum seeker\u201d fuels discrimination as it reduces people to just one aspect of their lives: their immigration status. She prefers the phrase \u201cpeople seeking asylum\u201d.\n<\/p>\n \n \u201cIt\u2019s a significant nuance,\u201d she believes. Words like \u201casylum seeker\u201d and \u201crefugee\u201d are now commonly used as \u201cabuse on the street\u201d.\n<\/p>\n \n Horror<\/strong>\n<\/p>\n \n THE term \u201cNew Scots\u201d, for people granted the right to live in Scotland, is an important step change, she believes. \u201cBeing alert to language is one of the key tasks.\u201d\n<\/p>\n \n She\u2019s critical of the way the UK Government<\/a> \u201cinflicted\u201d asylum policies on Scotland, beginning with the Blair and Brown governments.\n<\/p>\n \n \u201cThere wasn\u2019t consultation about how asylum dispersal would take place. The early days in Glasgow were a horror show. The city was ricocheting from the effects of government policy that hadn\u2019t been thought through, and hadn\u2019t the necessary supports and preparations place.\u201d\n<\/p>\n \n Phipps notes the changeability of politicians on migration. During the Syrian war, when refugees were fleeing, the body of a three-year-old boy washed up in Turkey in 2015.\n<\/p>\n \n \u201cWe had politicians in floods of tears,\u201d she says. That led to the creation of the vulnerable person\u2019s resettlement scheme by the Cameron government. It brought 20,000 Syrians to Britain.\n<\/p>\n \n Yet today the political rhetoric is \u201cfundamentally toxic and extremely dangerous. It\u2019s hysterical. Fear is being stoked\u201d. Social media discourse is \u201cterrifying\u201d. Refugees<\/a> have been \u201cothered\u201d and \u201ccrammed together in hotels, in a highly exposed situation\u201d.\n<\/p>\n \n Protesters, Phipps says, are being encouraged to blame \u201cfailing public services\u201d \u2013 like long waiting lists and decaying schools \u2013 on a group \u201cwho can be scapegoated. They want to blame someone, and they\u2019re being given that on a silver platter\u201d.\n<\/p>\n \n She adds: \u201cWe\u2019re in a precarious situation of increasing anger. We\u2019re at the point where, in Scotland, the kind of violence that we saw in Rotherham [where there was an attempt to burn an asylum hotel] could erupt.\u201d\n<\/p>\n \n Heavier policing is needed at anti-migrant protests in Scotland. The current level is \u201cinsufficient. We\u2019re at a moment where people don\u2019t know what to do with their rage\u201d.\n<\/p>\n \n Phipps, who is from a working-class background in England, says she understands the anger in \u201cmarginalised\u201d communities, but adds the wrong people are being blamed. Refugees aren\u2019t responsible for housing shortages and the inability to see GPs \u2013 bad government policies are to blame.\n<\/p>\n \n \u201cBrexit meant a lowering of living standards, services and life expectancy for everyone but the super-rich,\u201d she says. Protesters \u201care being actively encouraged to blame a tiny number of people\u201d.\n<\/p>\n \n She works with colleagues \u201cwho are now daily on the end of racial abuse, their families are scared to go out, things are thrown at them, they\u2019re abused on transport or walking the street, or in the park with their kids\u201d.\n<\/p>\n \n Phipps adds: \u201cThey\u2019re reporting fear in Scotland for the first time and we\u2019re having to change how we work to keep staff safe. We\u2019re in a very bad place indeed.\n<\/p>\n \n \u201cI fear for my grandchildren who are in school and hearing abuse they should never hear, manifesting in questions that should never be asked of anyone about the colour of their skin.\u201d\n<\/p>\n \n Phipps has received death threats. \u201cI\u2019m careful, but I do my work,\u201d she adds.\n<\/p>\n \n \u00a0\n<\/p>\n \n Prof Alison Phipps of Glasgow University. Photo: Gordon Terris \/Herald & Times\n <\/p>\n \n \u00a0\n<\/p>\n \n Violence<\/strong>\n<\/p>\n \n THE difference between today and the brief rise of the National Front is, says Phipps, down to the fact that, in the 1970s, \u201cpolitical leadership stopped it. I know from research I\u2019ve been doing for Unesco that leadership and language are absolutely critical to how the cultural seeds of violence \u2013 and the cultural seeds of peace \u2013 are cultivated\u201d.\n<\/p>\n \n There is, she adds, \u201cdefinitely very strong racism growing within Scotland now\u201d.\n<\/p>\n \n However, public attitude surveys still show a \u201csignificant gap between England and Scotland\u201d.\n<\/p>\n \n \u201cThe big difference isn\u2019t that Scots are more or less susceptible to being wooed into racism, and the fear that can be cultivated around \u2018the other\u2019,\u201d she explains.\n<\/p>\n \n The difference is that political leaders in Scotland have spoken out loudly against racism and the far right. \u201cYou need that leadership from your politicians.\u201d\n<\/p>\n \n At Westminster, the approach has been to tell refugees they \u201caren\u2019t welcome\u201d. She refers to Westminster politicians as \u201cspineless at best\u201d, and at worst \u201cdeliberately fanning flames for political gain from xenophobic policies\u201d.\n<\/p>\n \n The current political environment in Britain means animosity \u201cwill grow as there\u2019s nothing to stop it\u201d.\n<\/p>\n \n The vast majority of political rhetoric in Scotland led instead to an atmosphere which brought about Glasgow\u2019s Kenmure Street protest, when demonstrators prevented an immigration raid.\n<\/p>\n \n \u201cGovernments only govern with the will of the people,\u201d Phipps says. \u201cOn that day, the people withdrew consent for the politics of xenophobia.\u201d\n<\/p>\n \n Political language around refugees in Scotland is mostly \u201cvery good. Language has an important performative role\u201d.\n<\/p>\n \n She references First Minister John Swinney<\/a>\u2019s speech this week in which he spoke of \u201ccommon humanity\u201d and Scotland\u2019s \u201ccommitment to the oppressed and those seeking sanctuary\u201d.\n<\/p>\n \n Swinney said: \u201cOur Saltire is a flag of welcome\u2026 refugees are welcome here.\u201d\n<\/p>\n \n Phipps said the speech was moving and applauded it. She added that Scotland was the only nation which the UN High Commissioner for Refugees said was \u201cupholding the spirit and letter of the refugee convention\u201d.\n<\/p>\n \n She does worry, however, that the mood in Scotland risks being soured by Reform MSPs in Holyrood<\/a>. Despite the positive rhetoric from Edinburgh<\/a>, Phipps says the Scottish Government\u2019s powers over immigration are \u201ca sticking plaster on a sore that\u2019s having toxic microbes poured into it every day and is festering\u201d.\n<\/p>\n \n Phipps is astonished that Labour and Conservative politicians \u201ccouldn\u2019t see that their policies would produce\u201d the rise of the far right.\n<\/p>\n \n \u201cLook at our Prime Minister\u2019s X feed [his social media account on Elon Musk\u2019s platform], with its constant demonisation of people exercising their right to seek asylum in Britain \u2013 a country that has signed the Refugee Convention.\u201d\n<\/p>\n \n \u00a0\n<\/p>\n \n Prime Minister Sir Keir Starmer<\/a> and former Home Secretary Yvette Cooper\n <\/p>\n \n Empathy<\/strong>\n<\/p>\n \n THE only way to create a \u201cgood, healthy, integrating society is to exercise empathy\u201d. Phipps believes Westminster politicians have chosen to demonise refugees \u201cas they think it\u2019s a road to power\u201d.\n<\/p>\n \n At the same time as political decisions have gutted British communities, especially poor communities, UK policy has turned refugees into a \u201cdeliberately cultural alien life form\u201d.\n<\/p>\n \n Hotels \u2013 \u201ceffective detention centres with atrocious conditions\u201d \u2013 should be closed down, Phipps says.\n<\/p>\n \n Asylum seekers should be allowed to live in the community and work so they can integrate.\n<\/p>\n \n She notes that Ukrainian refugees can live in the community and work. \u201cThey were given respect,\u201d Phipps adds.\n<\/p>\n \n But refugees from countries like Eritrea and Sudan \u201care locked up in hotels with no hope of it actually ending, awaiting a time when we\u2019ll deport them\u201d.\n<\/p>\n \n Liberals failed to make the case for immigration, Phipps says. \u201cWe did the same with Brexit.\u201d\n<\/p>\n \n Good education policies could have \u201cnormalised living well with difference\u201d \u2013 which she sees as the key to integration. Instead, there are now \u201cpeople making a lot of money out of producing these very dangerous fissures in society\u201d, Phipps adds.\n<\/p>\n \n The \u201cwarning signs\u201d of violence, Phipps believes, \u201chave been there quite a long time\u201d. Westminster politicians and the media have \u201cdemonised\u201d refugees and encouraged the public \u201cto fear and hate\u201d.\n<\/p>\n \n This is how, she says, \u201cwe got to a place where \u2018Kill \u2018em all\u2019 is on a poster outside an asylum hotel. We\u2019ve got to protect the lives of people seeking sanctuary\u201d.\n<\/p>\n \n In terms of her belief that steps are being taken towards conditions which encourage genocide, Phipps says that matters are worse in America where the establishment of the detention centre known as \u201cAlligator Alcatraz\u201d could be seen as part of Genocide Watch\u2019s \u201cpreparation\u201d stage. \u201cIt\u2019s in violation of so many human rights.\u201d\n<\/p>\n \n Phipps also blames \u201cbillionaire tech bosses\u201d for \u201cmanipulating\u201d public discourse and speeding up the \u201cerosion of the guardrails that were put in place in democratic societies\u201d.\n<\/p>\n \n The \u201cglue\u201d that holds society together has gone, she adds.\n<\/p>\n \n \u201cThere\u2019s nothing left and blame is being allocated.\u201d\n<\/p>\n \n Most settled refugees are happy in Scotland, she says. Their biggest worry about life here is \u201cthe weather\u201d. However, in England, \u201cthey\u2019re scared. They\u2019re experiencing behaviour they fled from\u201d.\n<\/p>\n \n Everyone in hotels, though, \u201cfeels they can\u2019t walk down the street, they feel too scared to come out. There\u2019s genuine fear\u201d.\n<\/p>\n \n Over the years, Phipps brought 11 people to live with her and her husband. All were \u201cdestitute\u201d.\n<\/p>\n \n When Rima arrived \u2013 who Phipps later fostered \u2013 she was 15 and facing deportation.\n<\/p>\n \n \u201cShe was lost. She was basically put on the street and threatened with immediate deportation. She didn\u2019t understand what was happening to her.\u201d\n<\/p>\n \n \u00a0\n<\/p>\n \n One of two men are released from the back of an Immigration<\/a> Enforcement van accompanied by Mohammad Asif, director of the Afghan Human Rights Foundation, in Kenmure Street, Glasgow which is surrounded by protesters\n <\/p>\n \n Illegal<\/strong>\n<\/p>\n \n PHIPPS turns to the question of why refugees would come to Britain given how hostile the country has become. People need to understand, she explains, how strong Britain\u2019s cultural pull is for many overseas, particularly from former colonies. Britain\u2019s claim to defend the underdog resonates internationally, for instance.\n<\/p>\n \n Children in former African colonies \u201cread Enid Blyton\u2019s Famous Five\u201d. They are taught English, and learn about \u201cBritish culture. Zimbabwean textbooks have guys wearing bowler hats\u201d. Some refugees have family in Britain who came here decades ago. These are all pull factors.\n<\/p>\n \n No refugee is \u201cillegal\u201d, she says. Everyone has the right to seek asylum. There is just \u201cregular\u201d and \u201cirregular\u201d immigration, such as small boat crossings. Nor is there any requirement under the Refugee Convention, Phipps explains, to \u201cclaim asylum in the first country you come to\u201d.\n<\/p>\n \n Under the Dublin Convention, EU states agreed to \u201cburden-sharing\u201d \u2013 a phrase she hates \u2013 when it came to refugee numbers. But post-Brexit that ended.\n<\/p>\n \n The form of multiculturalism that developed in Britain was \u201cflawed\u201d. Too often, people of different cultures didn\u2019t live \u201cside by side in neighbourhoods where they could learn about each other\u201d.\n<\/p>\n \n Integration depends on people \u201cnot fearing each other\u201d but \u201cunderstanding each other and becoming familiar with each other, reducing the othering, the fear barrier\u201d. The best way to do that is \u201cjust hanging out together\u201d.\n<\/p>\n \n We cannot expect every refugee to \u201cbe exceptional or a Nobel Prize winner. That\u2019s not integration, that\u2019s exceptionalism\u201d.\n<\/p>\n \n She says the way Argyll and Bute Council dealt with the arrival of Syrian refugees was \u201camazing work\u201d. The community decided to \u201crub along and accommodate each other\u201d.\n<\/p>\n \n The EU\u2019s asylum migration integration fund was used \u201cto do this work in communities, which absolutely safeguards against those genocidal points\u201d. That funding has gone due to Brexit. The only people who can afford safe and legal routes into Britain are the rich through the \u201cextremely expensive visa process\u201d. For everyone else, \u201cthere are no safe and legal routes. It\u2019s a myth\u201d.\n<\/p>\n \n That leaves only \u201cirregular\u201d \u2013 not \u201cillegal\u201d \u2013 routes. The use of inaccurate terms like \u201cillegal\u201d only adds to \u201cdemonisation\u201d.\n<\/p>\n \n \u00a0\n<\/p>\n \n Today’s Herald on Sunday front page\n <\/p>\n \n Danger<\/strong>\n<\/p>\n \n WHAT if someone from Iran or Sudan \u2013 where a devastating civil war is unfolding \u2013 wanted to seek asylum in Britain and went to the UK Embassy in Khartoum or Tehran asking for help? \u201cThey won\u2019t process anything,\u201d Phipps says. \u201cI know that, as I\u2019ve people in Sudan who are constantly trying to see if there\u2019s a way.\n<\/p>\n \n \u201cIf you have a spouse or child under 18 in this country then you could apply through the Red Cross for family reunion, but it\u2019s a very long and precarious process. I know \u2013 as I\u2019ve gone through it with numerous people.\n<\/p>\n \n \u201cIt requires you to go to the UK Consul in, say, Tehran, pass an English test, and pay a lot of money. It requires your family here to demonstrate they have an annual income of \u00a342,000.\u201d\n<\/p>\n \n If you need to escape the Iranian regime, then going to the British Consulate in Tehran is evidently \u201cgoing to put you in danger\u201d, Phipps adds. So people can\u2019t and won\u2019t follow such \u201clegal routes\u201d due to cost and risk to their lives.\n<\/p>\n \n The last Tory government \u201cstalled the processing of asylum claims\u201d, allowing a huge backlog to build up, creating the \u201cticking time bomb\u201d we have today. \u201cIt meant we had the disastrous situation of more and more people piling up in hotels. It created a beacon of visibility.\u201d\n<\/p>\n \n The response of the Starmer government has been to ramp up rhetoric around \u201cstopping the boats\u201d as part of its \u201cdesire to stay in power\u201d.\n<\/p>\n \n She adds: \u201cYou don\u2019t stop the rise of the far right by trying to be far-right lite, or creating fear. If they really wanted to do something about this, they would lift the ban on people working and let them live normally in the community while waiting for their applications to be processed. We have people with exactly the skills we need within the asylum population. There\u2019s no argument why they shouldn\u2019t stay. They have well-founded fears of persecution.\u201d\n<\/p>\n \n Phipps warns that many of the post-war rules designed to \u201cstop the rise of fascism\u201d \u2013 like the Refugee Convention \u2013 are under threat, despite the fact that they were established in the wake of the Holocaust.\n<\/p>\n \n She says the housing of refugees and asylum seekers in poor areas shows that the UK Government \u201cis looking after the middle class\u201d. The system of using hotels \u201cshould never have happened\u201d.\n<\/p>\n \n Phipps \u201cfully understands\u201d why many in Britain\u2019s poorest areas are angry at their economic circumstances. She says that \u201ckid-glove racism\u201d from the middle class and elites gets much less focus. \u201cIt\u2019s worse as it\u2019s supposedly acceptable. It doesn\u2019t manifest in shouty language but it\u2019s very dangerous.\u201d\n<\/p>\n![\"Prof](\"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/wp-content\/uploads\/2025\/09\/19924683.jpeg\")
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