In June the Home Office announced the opening of ‘safe and legal routes’ for people seeking refuge from 2027. It is a measure designed to ensure the ‘right kind’ of refugees come to Britain and further reduce the cost to the state of supporting asylum seekers while maintaining a veneer of humanitarianism. There will be three routes: a community sponsorship scheme, a university sponsorship scheme and a refugee work route. The numbers of people allowed to arrive will be set by the government and anyone who arrives will be subject to stringent background and health checks.
The community sponsorship scheme will allow government-approved organisations such as churches to sponsor refugees to settle in their area and these organisations will be responsible for supporting them, rather than the state. The university sponsorship scheme will allow universities to sponsor qualified refugees to come to Britain to study. The work route will allow the government to select businesses which will be allowed to sponsor refugees and work for them – humanitarian protection will therefore be reserved for those with skills needed by British capital.
This is a backwards concession to liberal demands which argue that putting people seeking refuge to work would be beneficial to the economy and that safe and legal routes would ‘stop the boats’ more effectively. Subjecting the right to seek refuge to the discipline of the labour market will further divide migrants. Those who can work in industries where labour is needed, those who can study and those who are selected by government-approved community organisations will be designated as ‘good refugees’ and therefore receive rights and protections. Those who do not – dependents, the poor and the most oppressed – will remain forced to make unsafe and dangerous journeys to get to Britain and face the full brutality of the state.
Kotsai Sigauke
