Our response to this week’s news coverage and political scapegoating of people crossing the Channel in small boats.
We are not easily shocked, but we have been horrified and appalled by this week’s media coverage and political scapegoating of people seeking safety across the English Channel.
We are not being invaded. People have sought safety at our border for decades.
People move, it’s what we do.
The real crisis is the brutality already faced by people at our hostile, outsourced border. To make an already broken situation worse, Priti Patel has announced this week that she is seeking to use the Navy to prevent people reaching the UK. These are unarmed, deeply traumatised human beings fleeing war and persecution, who are arriving on our shores with nothing but the clothes on their back. What happened to the “compassionate” Home Office announced just weeks ago?
The real crisis is the dehumanising coverage of people crossing the Channel in the press. The damage done by the media over the past few days has been enormous, and there have been some truly unacceptable reporting methods by the BBC and Sky News. The refugee journey is not a spectator sport. It’s a deeply traumatising, perilous and humiliating experience. What people need is empathy and support, not misdirected fear and suspicion.
The real crisis is the persecution, war and terror which people are fleeing in their home countries, which has forced millions of people into dangerous situations at every turn in order to survive. The right to seek asylum is a legal right which we all share.
The real crisis is the lack of safe and legal routes which would enable people to seek safety without putting themselves and their families in often fatal danger. Current global resettlement schemes are only for people from certain nationalities. The only route for anybody else to claim asylum is to find a way get to the country, taking increasingly dangerous risks to do so. We call on the Home Office to provide more safe and legal routes for people to seek safety in the UK.
We should be proud that we are a safe country for people to rebuild their lives. Instead, the behaviour of influential media and politicians this week has been shocking. Force and scapegoating is never the answer. We need practical solutions and safe, legal routes to save lives.
Campaigns from our colleagues across the UK
Template letter to complain to Ofcom and BBC about their coverage.
Write to your MP for more safe, legal routes.
