Someone I know is part of a friendship group with asylum seekers. She says people need to get to know these people as individuals. They are intelligent, articulate, many of them have skills that they are using to help both themselves and the local community. Isn’t it time that we regarded asylum seekers as individual people with a story to tell. That had a life in another country that we need to hear about so we can understand why they embarked on the perilous journey that they did. I realised the other day that people in the UK have got this idea that our nation has always been welcoming to people from other countries: that this is a wonderful country full of opportunities for everyone and that makes us some sort of soft touch. Our nation is made up of people from all parts of the world: some have invaded and some were fleeing persecution. But we haven’t welcomed them with open arms and have often treated them very badly even though we needed them eg Windrush. If people are fleeing wars, which many of them are, if we look at our history, we’re partly responsible for many of those conflicts because of the way we’ve meddled in world affairs for centuries. Look how we put borders in the Arab lands turning a nomadic people into people fixed in one territory, something that was alien to them. Look how we split India and the pain and hardship we caused by doing that. And, yes, even as someone that has high regard for Tony Blair for most of his political achievements, look at Iraq. And, even now, all the current government are doing with refugees is politicising them: making them into some sort of enemy that only they can save us from, even though they’re doing absolutely nothing. Yes, there is a problem and it’s a worldwide one but, until the world gets together and does something constructive it will continue to be a problem. And, quite honestly, I can’t see that happening. So, in the meantime, let’s try to look at these ‘boat people’ as fellow human beings that need our help.
