The revelation by LBC that small numbers of asylum seekers have attempted Channel crossings in unsafe rafts cobbled together from foraged materials or clinging to the undersides of lorries comes as somewhat of a shock when you realise that they were seeking to leave this country.
The apparent motives for this further exposure to mortal danger lie in the experiences of those concerned in England. It was not the danger of the crossing that put them off but the life they had to lead when here.
Conditions of detention and lack of processing by authorities have shocked those expecting a humanitarian, if not red carpet, welcome. People fleeing for their lives who have had the courage and hope to travel through appalling hardships to a country with a civilised reputation now find their existence here to be so unbearable that they are willing to risk their lives again to escape.
23 asylum seekers have committed suicide under Home Office care here since 2020. England is now its own deterrent.
A bleak outlook
Nor does this issue concern just a handful of unsettled newcomers. The cost of living and childcare are making thousands of UK wage-earners think twice about options for where to live. Wage levels in UK for many are insufficient for a decent standard of living. Financial support for low-paid workers or the unwaged is below what even the last government regarded as a minimum subsistence level and much lower than in many comparable countries.
Even with a government which, unlike its predecessor, has counted the cost of infrastructure shortcomings such as repair to schools, sewage and water supply, hospital and hospice capacity, additional prisons and detention facilities, road, rail and powerlines, and social housing, the total is so eyewatering that redressing this is far beyond any “fiscal rules” or “red lines” the Chancellor may proclaim.
Add to this the meagre state provision for mental health, pensions, disability and jobless allowances and this country has little to keep residents from upping sticks. The country has become a basket case. Whatever the causes, this embryonic emigration trend should not surprise but shame us all.
There will be a minority to whom this exodus is welcome news.
The “hostile environment” of Teresa May’s days; the ban on asylum seeker employment/earning; inhumane accommodation standards and the xenophobic bile of the right-wing media have all been deliberately confected to make asylum seekers feel unwelcome. Xenophobes may be congratulating themselves on having made this country a greater deterrent than Rwanda was supposed to be.
More and more people even with rights and a welfare system are finding life in this country unacceptable, expensive, poorly served, so are looking for change. One recourse touted by its proponents is to join Reform, as an alternative to the established politics. This will change nothing. Another is to leave the country.
What’s to be done?
Presumably most citizens do not actually want this country to go to the dogs in the way it has. Some may be immune to the state of things, insulated by their wealth or callousness, but these must be few in number.
The most hard-line of the Right may enjoy mistreating people they erroneously look down upon, but even they must surely draw the line at deliberately damaging the lives of millions of fellow citizens in order to show a few the door? Bad enough that we are sliding into a dystopian future by negligence without countenancing some malign purpose.
There is cruelty in a government knowingly allowing life to be unacceptable for its citizens and guests. There is cruelty too in the criminalisation of asylum seeking, a human right denied by the previous administration, unrestored by the current one.
Now it must be made possible for those in desperate need not only to be able to come to this country without risking their lives but also for the well-being of all here to be protected such that none feel the need to risk their lives to leave again.
Is this exodus not a signal for the government, which knows all too well the parlous legacy it has inherited, to use its majority and introduce emergency quantitative easing to rectify the Tory damage to the nation’s infrastructure and public services, so that all here have the chance of a good life, rather than reinstating Tory austerity? If this is not done when the government has such a large majority, it will surely never be done and the nation’s decline will continue.
What is government for if not to make life in this country better for everyone?
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