On 3 June the High Court ruled that the use of dormitory accommodation at Napier Barracks in Kent to house asylum seekers was unlawful and irrational. The Home Office ignored the ruling and continued sending migrants to the Barracks. On 20 July the Nationality and Borders Bill 2021 had its second reading in Parliament; among the measures in the Bill is a clause providing for accommodation like that at Napier to be used on a permanent basis. NICKI JAMESON reports.
Monday 19 July was a hot day in southern England and northern France, and 430 adults and children took the opportunity to cross the Channel on what they hoped would be the final stage of their journey from danger and hardship to a safer life in Britain. The British media responded with headlines such as ‘“Totally unacceptable!” Boris vows crackdown after huge surge in Channel crossings’ (Daily Express) – conveniently timed to galvanise support for the draconian measures in the Bill being discussed in Parliament the following day.
Criminalising asylum seekers …
In March this year Home Secretary Priti Patel set out her ‘New Plan for Immigration’. This has now been turned into the Nationality and Borders Bill 2021. The Bill was debated in Parliament on 20 July and then voted through 366 to 235, with all parties other than the Tories and DUP voting against.
The Bill divides would-be refugees into two different groups. Group 1 are ‘good asylum seekers’ who have come ‘directly from a country where their life or freedom was threatened’, without travelling through or stopping over in any other country and ‘have presented themselves without delay to the authorities’. Group 2 are ‘bad asylum seekers’, who get into the country by whatever means or route, and then claim asylum. The details of the differential treatment are not set out in the Bill but the ‘New Plan for Immigration’ described different levels of legal protection, with the first group provided with a route towards eventual citizenship, with the second – even if their asylum claims are accepted as valid – remaining in a state of continuing uncertainty and precariousness. To make all this even more difficult, the Bill introduces a new criminal offence of arriving in the UK without ‘valid entry clearance’.
… and those who assist them
The Bill increases the maximum sentence for assisting illegal immigration from 14 years to life imprisonment and extends the scope of those who can be punished to include people who help migrants for no financial gain. The explanatory notes to the Bill say that this will not include people working for migrant support charities; however other charitable organisations which come to the aid of migrants – such as the Royal National Lifeboat Institution which rescues people stranded at sea – do not appear to be exempt. The RNLI has come under right-wing attack for rescuing migrants from the Channel but responded robustly: ‘Our mission is to save every one. Our lifesavers are compelled to help those in need without judgement of how they came to be in the water. They have done so since the RNLI was founded in 1824 and this will always be our ethos.’ Indeed, since being attacked by the likes of Nigel Farage who labelled it a ‘taxi service’ for migrants, the RNLI has reported a £200,000 increase in donations.
Overcrowded and unsuitable accommodation
Newly-arrived asylum seekers have by law to be provided with somewhere to stay while their applications are processed. Whilst the Blair Labour government passed legislation creating ‘accommodation centres’ – effectively open prisons – these were never actually built. Current asylum-seeker accommodation consists of a mixture of temporary housing, hotels and hostels, all privately managed by three different companies according to area. In 2020 the government began using three disused military facilities, two with dormitory accommodation, to house male asylum seekers. Conditions at both Napier and at Penally Barracks were appalling and the use of the facilities was condemned by inspectors. Penally has now closed but Napier continues to be used, despite the High Court ruling that the Home Secretary had ignored advice from Public Health England with the consequence that it was ‘virtually inevitable that large numbers of residents would contract Covid-19, a disease which was capable of causing hospitalisation, long-term harm and/or death’.
On 27 July members of the parliamentary Home Affairs Committee visited the Kent Intake Unit, a Home Office facility where newly-arrived asylum seekers are taken prior to being sent to other accommodation. The MPs sent a shocked letter to Priti Patel, describing how they saw ‘56 people packed into the small waiting room … including many women with babies and very young children alongside significant numbers of teenage and young adult men.’
Fight racism! Fight imperialism!
Following England’s defeat in the Euro football final on 11 July, government ministers claimed to be shocked and angry at racist comments directed at young black players, with Boris Johnson claiming to be ‘appalled’ and Patel saying the ‘vile’ abuse ‘has no place in our country’. As was eloquently pointed out by footballer Tyrone Mings, this is rank hypocrisy from a politician who labelled the anti-racist ‘taking the knee’ at the start of matches as ‘gesture politics’. However, the hypocrisy goes further. Britain is still a thoroughly racist country and immigration laws – which prevent people who are fleeing war and oppression, whether physical or financial, from entering Britain – are an intrinsic part of the racist infrastructure. This is a link which the government is deliberately obscuring when it promises to clamp down on racism, even as it brings in another law which institutionalises it yet more deeply.
Fight Racism! Fight Imperialism! No 283, August/September 2021
