As winter nears, increasing numbers of desperate asylum seekers have been attempting the Channel crossing from France to England, with 1,185 arriving on 11 November alone. In total some 26,000 migrants have arrived in southern England by boat so far in 2021. On 24 November a boat capsized resulting in at least 27 deaths. Despite this criminal loss of life, Home Secretary Priti Patel is pushing ahead with draconian measures to deter and criminalise asylum seekers, and indeed the government is spinning tragedy into further justification for its racist policies. NICKI JAMESON and TOM VICKERS report.
Criminalising asylum seekers
The Nationality and Borders Bill 2021, which is likely to become law in spring 2022, divides asylum seekers into two groups: the handpicked few who arrive by ‘legal routes’ and those who come independently, often at great danger to themselves. The latter group will be denied rights and effectively criminalised by the new measures. In a legal opinion published in October, four human rights barristers say that the Bill breaches both the European Convention on Human Rights and the UN Refugee Convention in ‘the biggest legal assault on international refugee law ever seen in the UK’.
The Bill also provides potential legislative cover for Border Force guards to turn back boats coming from France. Following the recent deaths, Patel has refused to rule this out, although it is hard to see how it would be implemented, given that international maritime law, which is incorporated into British shipping regulations, stipulates that every state is required to ‘render assistance to any person found at sea in danger of being lost’. Channel Rescue and other organisations have begun legal challenges against the proposed ‘push backs’ and even Border Force staff, not known for their progressive stance, have expressed reservations. These are not shared, however, by Labour leader Keir Starmer, who on 19 November complained to the BBC Radio 4 Today programme that Patel had not done enough to prevent asylum seekers crossing the Channel.
Visas for cheap labour
Even as it formulates laws to keep one group of migrants out, the government has announced measures to encourage another group in. British capitalism is structurally reliant on super-exploited migrant labour, and it was always clear that Brexit would require new arrangements to replace the ready supply of Eastern European labour that employers have used and abused under EU rules since 2004. The Office for National Statistics estimates that while the number of EU nationals employed in Britain and the north of Ireland from wealthier EU countries in Western Europe actually increased by 51,000 between April-June 2019 and AprilJune 2021, the number from Eastern and Central Europe fell by 226,000. This latter group are disproportionately concentrated in sectors like haulage, food processing, social care and hospitality, which have reported some of the most critical labour shortages.
The government’s new Points Based System for immigration is tailored primarily to Britain’s needs for skilled workers, with minimum salary thresholds, but as the economy opens up following pandemic lockdowns, shortages in other areas have become apparent. In October the government expanded the ‘Seasonal Worker’ visa scheme, which already applied to agricultural workers, to fill shortages in some areas of food processing and HGV drivers. These visas are short term, with no opportunity to transfer to long term settlement – they are therefore highly advantageous to the capitalist class because they allow workers to be brought in for just so long as their labour is needed, without placing any demands on state support during periods when their labour becomes surplus to capitalists’ needs. Such schemes can be continued for as long as there is a need for this workforce, and the constant churn prevents workers from putting down roots and makes it much harder for them to organise to demand more rights or better wages and conditions.
No right to work for asylum seekers
Liberal commentators are asking why the government does not solve both its problems by allowing asylum seekers to work and fill the labour shortages. The answer is that this is not simply an economic question, but also a political one, and is tied to how capitalism views migration as a tap which it can turn on and off at will. Asylum seekers have historically come to Britain on their own initiative, make claims that are fundamentally about their need for safety and, if they are granted refugee status, ultimately gain far more rights than workers on short-term visas.
In 2002, the Blair Labour government – which coined the term ‘managed migration’ – banned most asylum seekers from working, not because their labour wasn’t needed but because it saw a need to isolate them from British workers and make their lives so impossible that they would cease pursuing their claims and leave Britain. Subsequent governments have maintained the ban, despite repeated successful legal challenges, most recently in October 2021. The current government’s only minor concession has been via the ‘Displaced Talent Mobility Pilot’ announced in July, which is solely for refugees who have been handpicked from outside Britain, excluding all those who have travelled here independently.
Both the Seasonal Workers’ visas and the Nationality and Borders Bill 2021 are designed to limit migration to what is necessary for capitalism. As recent events have once again shown, this can have deadly consequences. The blood of all those who have died crossing the Channel is on the hands of the British government. FRFI opposes all imperialist border controls and stands with migrants fighting for their rights as refugees and as workers.
Fight Racism! Fight Imperialism! No 285, December 2021/January 2022
