{"id":605988,"date":"2025-12-01T20:52:34","date_gmt":"2025-12-01T20:52:34","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/605988\/"},"modified":"2025-12-01T20:52:34","modified_gmt":"2025-12-01T20:52:34","slug":"enver-solomon-restores-our-faith-in-britain-refugees","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/605988\/","title":{"rendered":"Enver Solomon restores our faith in Britain | Refugees"},"content":{"rendered":"

A brilliant interview as always from Zoe Williams (\u2018We thought the Rwanda scheme was the worst of it\u2019: Enver Solomon on leading \u2013 and leaving \u2013 the Refugee Council, 24 November<\/a>). I only wish this wonderful man had the fortitude to continue in this role, but I can understand why he would feel the need to move on after five years working within the confines of the political arena of \u201cmodern\u201d Britain.<\/p>\n

It exhausts and depresses me just reading about the lack of compassion and basic humanity shown by recent governments. I lost faith in and left the Labour<\/a> party after decades as a believer that \u201cthings could only get better\u201d. Now, as a 75-year-old retiree, I am beginning to realise that politicians cannot make things better, but the Enver Solomons of this world can. He restores my faith in the fact that the country is not all bad when we have such amazing people carrying out such extraordinary roles.<\/p>\n

I am fortunate enough to have seven beautiful grandchildren, four of whom are the offspring of my son and a wonderful Punjabi girl who we welcomed into our family 17 years ago. I cannot possibly comprehend the thought that they could feel at all threatened. What sort of country am I living in?<\/p>\n

I naively thought that this horrific attitude to anyone who is seen as having a different culture was a product of an ignorant dying breed. I now know that\u2019s not true when a government I had so much faith in includes a speech about an \u201cisland of strangers\u201d and now talks of vulnerable refugees and immigrants as if they are nothing.<\/p>\n

It\u2019s only by reading about people such as Solomon \u2013 and I have faith that there are many more \u2013 that I don\u2019t spend my time in despair about where Britain is heading.
Linda Payne<\/strong>
Leatherhead, Surrey<\/p>\n

Enver Solomon\u2019s mother\u2019s South African background, which I share as a former exile, reflects our current first world\u2019s not-so-hidden aims. The primary task of apartheid South Africa was, though, the use of its infamous pass laws system,<\/a> enabling a world of privilege to keep out, but also use, a poor population to bolster its lifestyle and maintain wealth. This is now the case for the global first world too.<\/p>\n

In an excellent Guardian article<\/a> several weeks ago about how Spain is progressively going about managing this dilemma in a far more humane way than apartheid South Africa did, it pays seasonal and other essential workers reasonably on the condition that they return to their country of origin when their tasks are completed, with the proviso that they can return.<\/p>\n

While nowhere near what I would wish for in sharing the world\u2019s wealth and resources equitably, it at least offers some direction apart from the punitive politicising of refugees who understandably wish to better their lives and that of their families. The poverty of most refugees\u2019 lives back home is beyond the imagination of most of us in our privileged societies that are still reaping rewards from our countries\u2019 exploitative pasts.
Peter Speyer<\/strong>
London<\/p>\n

Thank God there are still people like Enver Solomon in the world. The narrative around asylum seekers is chilling. I have totally lost support of Labour \u2013 I don\u2019t even recognise it as the party I have supported all my life. It\u2019s hard to feel positive about the future of the people who have left desperate situations to gain hope for themselves and their children. My heart sinks.
Jo Davis<\/strong>
Brighton, East Sussex<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"A brilliant interview as always from Zoe Williams (\u2018We thought the Rwanda scheme was the worst of it\u2019:…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":605989,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[5018,3,4],"tags":[748,393,4884,1144,712,16,15,1764],"class_list":{"0":"post-605988","1":"post","2":"type-post","3":"status-publish","4":"format-standard","5":"has-post-thumbnail","7":"category-britain","8":"category-uk","9":"category-united-kingdom","10":"tag-britain","11":"tag-england","12":"tag-great-britain","13":"tag-northern-ireland","14":"tag-scotland","15":"tag-uk","16":"tag-united-kingdom","17":"tag-wales"},"share_on_mastodon":{"url":"https:\/\/pubeurope.com\/@uk\/115646296532458992","error":""},"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/605988","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=605988"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/605988\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/605989"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=605988"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=605988"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=605988"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}