Home Secretary Suella Braverman said the country faces an ?invasion on our Southern coast? from people crossing the English Channel in small boats.

Home Secretary Suella Braverman said the country faces an “invasion on our Southern coast” from people crossing the English Channel in small boats. She said it is a “global migration crisis”, and that it is both “unnecessary as many have come from another safe country” as well as “lethally dangerous.” She said to the Commons:

“The British people deserve to know which party is serious about stopping the invasion on our Southern coast and which party is not. Let's stop pretending they're all refugees in distress.”

Her comments come after a 66-year old man from High Wycombe attacked an immigration centre in Dover on Sunday, throwing petrol bombs and fireworks before taking his own life. Braverman’s language is far-right and inflammatory, and has rightly come under criticism. Words like “invasion” parallel that of fascist political parties/groups, and is scarily commonplace when discussing migrants, refugees and those seeking asylum. MPs and lawmakers across the political spectrum have warned against her language. But her rhetoric, as worrying as it may be, is no surprise given her previous comments. She stated that, “I would love to have a front page of The Telegraph with a plane taking off to Rwanda, that’s my dream, it’s my obsession.”

Many campaign groups have called her out for her language. The Joint Council for the Welfare of Immigrants said, “We cannot allow Braverman's dehumanising language + decision-making to continue. She's putting lives at risk.” Care4Calais said “Refugees are escaping from conflicts – they know what being invaded feels like. We are lucky that many of us do not. To suggest they are committing an act of war when that is what they are fleeing is indefensible.”

Labour’s Shadow Home Secretary Yvette Cooper said that “No Home Secretary who was serious about public safety or national security would use highly inflammatory language on the day after a dangerous petrol bomb attack on a Dover initial processing centre,” adding that the rhetoric had deteriorated in line with the government’s performance.

Under Pressure

Braverman is also facing pressure over her repeated security breaches after she acknowledged she had sent official government documents to her personal email address six times. Last night in the Commons, Braverman claimed she is the target of a political “witch hunt” by people who are “ignoring the facts of the problem.” 

Andrew Slaughter, a Labour MP, asked if Braverman ever used other unsecure forms of communication, like WhatsApp, to pass on government documents. Braverman said she had sent a letter to the chairman of the Home Affairs committee which had been clear about the timeline and her actions, and that she had taken responsibility and resigned. Her resignation was under former Prime Minister Liz Truss, but only six days later she was re-appointed by new Prime Minister Rishi Sunak.

She has also allegedly failed to listen to legal advice on the prolonged detention of migrants at another processing centre and failing to secure adequate accommodation. She has denied the claims despite multiple reports and sources. But she did acknowledge that overcrowding at the Manston immigration centre was partly under her responsibility as she said she refused to “prematurely release thousands of people into local communities without having anywhere for them to stay.” 

Roger Gale, a Conservative MP whose constituency includes that centre, said her predecessors had found alternative accommodation such as hotels but that had stopped when she took over. Speaking to Times Radio, he said, “Her language yesterday, I’m afraid, suggested that she is only really interested in playing the right wing. The fact of the matter is that, of course, I’m also defending my constituents’ interest because the facility at Manston was designed to turn people around in 24 hours, maximum 48 hours, and move them on, it’s a processing centre, not a refugee camp.”

“Over the last few days, we have seen an almost doubling of the size of the number of people in Manston and a massive building of further accommodation, and that is not acceptable. It’s in breach of the undertakings that I was given and I’m not prepared to accept it. I don’t accept or trust this Home Secretary’s work.”

ITV’s Robert Peston tweeted that, “What [Braverman] has not explained is that if her critics are wrong, that she didn’t frustrate deals to procure accommodation, why there is an excess of 2500 asylum seekers sleeping on the bare floor at Manston. She has singularly failed to explain who is responsible for this disastrous mismatch, so damaging for the UK’s humanitarian reputation, if not her - especially since she has been heaping praise on her officials and colleagues.”

Despite Braverman’s rejection of the claims, the situation is this:

• The maximum time people are meant to stay at a processing centre is 24 hours, but the actual time many have been there is closer to four weeks.
• One Afghan family has reportedly been there for 32 days.
• The capacity for the centre is 1600, but the actual number of people there is 4000.
• The figure Braverman gave as the number of people who have arrived on the South coast this year alone is 40,000.
• Braverman said these are people who have “left another safe country”, but the legal definition of a person seeking asylum is “a person who has left their country of origin and formally applied for asylum in another country but whose application has not yet been concluded.” Therefore, those being held at processing centres were likely not legally accepted in another country before coming to the UK.
• 72% of the world’s refugees are living in countries neighbouring their country of origin.
• The UK is home to approx. 1% of the 27.1 million refugees who were forcibly displaced across the world.
• There is no such thing as an ‘illegal’ or ‘bogus’ asylum seeker. Under international law, anyone has the right to apply for asylum in any country that has signed the 1951 Convention and to remain there until the authorities have assessed their claim.
• There is nothing in international law to say that refugees must claim asylum in the first country they reach.
• The Home Office can take months or even years to make a decision on asylum case, and there is a growing backlog of cases. At the end of June 2022, there were over 117,000 people awaiting an initial decision on their asylum case.
• People seeking asylum do not come to the UK to claim benefits. Almost all people seeking asylum are not allowed to work and are forced to rely on state support – this is as little as £5.84 a day to live on.

(Sources: Reuters, The Guardian, Refugee Council)

Image credit: Sean Aidan Calderbank, Shutterstock