It’s happened again. Asylum seekers drowned in the freezing Channel trying to reach safety in Britain. And this tragedy is met yet again with a disgusting excess of crocodile tears from politicians like Priti Patel, her French counterparts and Johnson himself, who are in fact responsible for this ongoing, inhuman disaster!
Because that is what it is: inhuman. What kind of world is this, where thousands upon thousands of our fellow men, women and children are forced to flee the horror of war, famine and persecution, only to find themselves in prison-like camps, or filthy informal settlements like the Calais “Jungle”? Where European governments refuse to take responsibility for the critical situation in so many parts of this planet, which drives this growing migration? And in which they and their predecessors have a direct hand?
The excuse that there are no means of support, nor means to house refugees, is patent nonsense. But it is true that those in power refuse to make such provisions. Just as they refuse to provide for the “indigenous” homeless on the streets of Britain, or the 22% of adults (34% of children!) who were already living in poverty before this pandemic. And they throw up their hands in helplessness as the pandemic multiplies those in need.
Yet the lavish handouts to the bosses, the £56 billion wasted on private contracts which fail utterly to deliver Covid-19 testing&tracing, PPE, or elderly care, is ample proof, not only of the “means”, but also the priorities of government. Yes, their priority is to grease further the already greasy palms of their wealthy capitalist friends.
In fact 7 boat people have drowned in the Channel so far this year. Over 2,300 have had to be rescued. But instead of offering safe passage, Patel pledges to make crossings even more hazardous with wave machines, patrols, prison ships, and the navy, under the pretext that she is targeting “people smugglers”.
When there would be no smugglers if refugees could find the refuge they desperately need. In fact Patel’s cruelly “hostile” policy against all immigrants, is yet more proof that politicians like her and the class they represent belong in history’s dustbin.
Yes, borders should have been obsolete by now - and yet backward-looking dinosaurs like her and her Tory peers want to reinforce them, just as they want to float Britain itself away from Europe. Yet, as Covid proves - if such proof was needed - all countries are dependent on each other in this interconnected world. And (once this pandemic is over), the only rational way forward will be for people to be able to move around it, without restriction.