Our government’s disrespect for human rights – and that includes yours
(Scroll down for a couple of new videos, and news about our summer party at the home of Jackie Llewelyn Bowen – tickets selling fast!)
A couple of days ago I met Kochar (not his real name) from Kurdistan. He is one of “those people” who arrive in small boats as illegal immigrants. He is 32 years old, the son of a high-up public official who annoyed the local mafia to the extent that they said they would kill one of his sons.
The rest of Kochar’s family has been given police protection, but Kochar was abandoned by his father due to his disabilities, and left without protection. And the Kurdish mafia mean business.
So he left behind his wife and 8-year-old daughter, and fled.
For the last 18 months he has been housed in a run-down hotel near Malmesbury, waiting to have his application for asylum processed.
Now, he is terrified he’s going to be deported to Rwanda, or even worse, sent from Rwanda back to Kurdistan.
It’s too easy to forget that most of the people risking their lives in small boats represent a tragic story, a desperate situation, a willingness to grasp at the slenderest of lifelines to escape death, torture, or unlawful detention.
Here in the UK, for all the faults of our so-called justice system, we still enjoy the privilege of living in a country with a strong rule of law. Not everybody is so lucky.
But for how much longer will we enjoy this privilege?
The European Court of Human Rights (ECHR) is not a “foreign court”, as Rishi Sunak would have us believe. It was set up in 1959 to interpret the European Convention on Human Rights, which in turn was created by the Council of Europe – a council that was Winston Churchill’s idea.
He first mooted it in 1943, during World War II, with the intention of preventing future wars in Europe. It is “foreign” only in that it had to be physically located somewhere, and the Council of Europe decided on Strasbourg.
Also, remember that not only the European Court has said that the Rwanda plan is unlawful, but also the UK’s own Supreme Court.
So why does the Conservative government persist with this immensely costly (more than half a billion £, according to the National Audit Office), immensely ineffective (small boats crossings are up 25% on last year, according to the Home Office), immensely inhumane scheme?
To distract from their own failings.
The reason you can’t get a house isn’t due to immigrants. The reason you can’t get a GP appointment isn’t due to immigrants. The reason you can’t find an NHS dentist isn’t due to immigrants.
It’s so much easier for the Conservatives to blame it on “those people” like Kochar than to take a long, hard look at themselves and take responsibility for the present state of our country.
If Cameron and Johnson hadn’t jointly created the disaster that is Brexit, we could have had better arrangements with Europe for dealing with asylum seekers like Kochar before they got into boats.
If we had a Home Office that could process asylum applications efficiently and effectively, we could get asylum seekers like Kochar into jobs (over 100,000 vacancies in the care sector, close to a million construction workers needed over the next decade), so they can become productive, independent, tax-paying members of society.
If we hadn’t had 14 years of austerity, with chronic underfunding of public services, we might have enough social housing, GPs, and NHS dentists to go round.
I’m fed up with the government blaming everybody else for its own egregious shortcomings.
Ultimately, we’re all human, and we all deserve human rights.
Today is polling day in local elections across the country. Please vote. It’s time for a change, and the change starts here.
