Thanks Mark for this extremely well written and thoughtful piece.
The emotions being unleashed by the UK government are disturbing.
It's perhaps a sign of our times that it's become a Lineker tweet storm rather than a debate on the real issues and a government that seems prepared to break international law to please its base.
Mark…we’ll said: The ‘boats and gangs’ issues will remain a problem as the imperative to arrive will always be with us - I was on Operation WEALD in 2015 as the CULAD, rescuing migrants in The Mediterranean (Ironically 12miles short of where I myself was born almost 60 years ago in Benghazi) - I spent over a hundred hours with the migrants in the Well-Deck on the return journeys to Italy, debriefing those that would, trying to discern their motives, routes and finances as well as the organizations that facilitated them. Yesterday’s love-in with President Macron may improve the ‘return to sender’ option for those who are evidently economic migrants but it needs to be allied with a genuinely viable, efficient and accessible asylum application process for the many genuine asylum seekers who need our help - then it might be effective. The difficulties we collectively incurred trying to process our Afghan and Iraqi friends and comrades through the current process would suggest that it is ‘broke’ somewhere. Whilst that remains the case genuine asylum seekers will sadly always be forced by desperation to turn to the ‘gangs and boats’
I don't think GL is overststing things, the language being used by the government sets the tone and the far right will pick up on it and amplify it. Over time, laws will become more draconian, norms will shift and what's unthinkable now will become acceptable.
Thanks Mark, insightful as ever.
Thanks Mark for this extremely well written and thoughtful piece.
The emotions being unleashed by the UK government are disturbing.
It's perhaps a sign of our times that it's become a Lineker tweet storm rather than a debate on the real issues and a government that seems prepared to break international law to please its base.
Mark…we’ll said: The ‘boats and gangs’ issues will remain a problem as the imperative to arrive will always be with us - I was on Operation WEALD in 2015 as the CULAD, rescuing migrants in The Mediterranean (Ironically 12miles short of where I myself was born almost 60 years ago in Benghazi) - I spent over a hundred hours with the migrants in the Well-Deck on the return journeys to Italy, debriefing those that would, trying to discern their motives, routes and finances as well as the organizations that facilitated them. Yesterday’s love-in with President Macron may improve the ‘return to sender’ option for those who are evidently economic migrants but it needs to be allied with a genuinely viable, efficient and accessible asylum application process for the many genuine asylum seekers who need our help - then it might be effective. The difficulties we collectively incurred trying to process our Afghan and Iraqi friends and comrades through the current process would suggest that it is ‘broke’ somewhere. Whilst that remains the case genuine asylum seekers will sadly always be forced by desperation to turn to the ‘gangs and boats’
I don't think GL is overststing things, the language being used by the government sets the tone and the far right will pick up on it and amplify it. Over time, laws will become more draconian, norms will shift and what's unthinkable now will become acceptable.