People who are seeking asylum are ordinary folk
LAST week I found myself talking about Scotland – and Northumberland, with a young woman, originally from Saudi Arabia.
“You can cross the border anytime, you might see a sign or a flag, but you probably won’t even notice’,” I said, to which she replied: “That must mean, in this country, we are free.’
I suppose it does. I don’t usually bother with flags, but I am proud of the United Kingdom of Great Britain and Northern Ireland. Grateful for being able to live my whole life in freedom, proud of the way that my parents and grandparents, the whole country, stood up to tyranny just a few years before I was born.
I am a British patriot. I believe in the core British values of fairness and tolerance, of freedom and the rule of law. In our efforts to spread those virtues across the world through the Commonwealth and the United Nations. I profoundly believe in Parliamentary Democracy.
However, talking to this young woman, a refugee, from a place where she was never allowed to be free, I was ashamed of a whole range of politicians who fail the very principles for which this proud Country stands. Those who play the oldest, most wicked trick of all and seek votes by stirring up fear and division, then a tawdry Government which seeks to undermine the human rights of victims while failing to tackle criminals. Some politicians and even public servants who collude with what they (disgracefully and wrongly) assume to be the inherent racism of the voting public, by hardly raising their heads.
There is nothing to fear from people who seek asylum, they are ordinary decent people just like us, if we had to escape monstrous situations. When ordinary decent people all get the chance to meet, we soon realise that our new friends are actually huge assets to our society. They should be welcomed, rather than mistreated by an asylum ‘system’ which is a disgrace to us all.
I am right about this. I know I’m right, because for almost eight years I’ve had the incredible privilege of working with about 100 volunteers and about 1,000 refugees, who have come together, in the charity we set up and continue to work in together – Northumberland County of Sanctuary (NCOS).
It’s our AGM next Saturday, where we celebrate all our work, in a ‘festival of volunteering’. You could come along too. Last year our annual meeting started some work on the need for a fair asylum system which has reached Parliament.
There’s still a long way to go, but refugees are not going to go away. There are 100 million people across the globe who are displaced from their homes and in order to address this we need to hugely expand and improve global efforts to tackle global warming, environmental degradation, war, oppression and genocide.
Refugees need to be supported through international co-operation. The vast majority of the world’s refugees actually flee to the next neighbouring country, among them some of the poorest countries in the world.
We need to provide better assistance for these countries and negotiate between international partners for a system to provide safe routes to asylum for those who need to move further.
There are no safe routes in the UK. Without an agreed assured way to get here, we actually promote organised crime, provide opportunities for people traffickers for the exploitation of victims and modern slavery.
The current delays are absurd. People are kept waiting for a decision for up to six or seven years, being maintained at huge public expense throughout this time.
Yet the Government’s own statistics reveal that 73% of initial decisions and 41% of appeals are successful, while applications from people from Afghanistan, Eritrea, Syria, and Sudan are accepted at 98%, 99%, 99% and 83% respectively.
People seeking asylum should be allowed to work. They often bring high qualifications and skills, they demonstrate personal courage and resilience and life experience. They model good parental behaviour. They are avid for education. They are grateful to the UK and the communities where they are living. They undertake voluntary work, they are very law abiding and peaceful.
The UK needs to treat decent people decently. People come here to reunite with family, because English is commonly encountered almost everywhere and because of our worldwide reputation for freedom and fairness.
Everybody coming into the system needs their documentation processing efficiently. Everybody seeking asylum needs a competent lawyer and access to effective translation services. Every child who arrives without their parents, every woman or man without their spouse require help with family tracing and reunification.
There are lots of people who know the truth of this.
Northumberland County of Sanctuary (NCOS) is entirely made up of volunteers, some have experience of the asylum system, some have lived in Northumberland most of their lives. Everyone is part of a joyous coming together, where people, often with busy diaries give a little more time to welcome others and help them.
We are growing and developing and need ever more volunteers, come along next Saturday and find out more – northumberlandsanctuary@gmail.com