The PR machine has been working overtime for Suella Braverman in Rwanda this weekend. She is extolling how Rwanda will be a place supporting refugees’ wellbeing and integration – helping them make a new life, in safety.
Why on earth can’t this be the story she promotes of the UK?
Despite her attempt to seek to make the UK an unattractive place for refugees to come, she will fail because she is up against a centuries old reputation, established by our ancestors for generations, which tells a different story. That Britain is a place of inclusion and ethnic tolerance where you can live in peace, work, raise your family and live in freedom.
Given that she will inevitably fail to dent that long and proud reputation, she should instead be championing all the amazing work that goes on with refugees in the UK. Up and down the country communities are busy welcoming refugees and asylum seekers, opening their homes, teaching English, helping them find jobs, supporting refugee children in schools, hosting community events to help different communities connect.
This is who we are in the UK.
We welcome refugees and asylum seekers, we have due process which enables them to seek refugee status, we have so many amazing examples of how communities have surrounded refugees, supported them and cheered them on as they make that challenging journey of establishing themselves and their families in the safety of the UK.
Instead, she is happy to talk about how Rwanda will support the refugees who came to Britain for help. But of course, these are the same people who when they are in the UK, she calls illegal migrants, a threat to our communities and security, chancers who are trying to exploit our hospitality.
I want to speak of a Britain who does not want to pass on our responsibilities to others – who takes seriously our global responsibility to lead the way in how we treat refugees – not be the leader in the race to the bottom. We live in a global, interconnected community and it is ridiculous to think that if we only act in our own self interest, there will not be consequences to our ability to engage internationally. It’s not as if we are anywhere near the top of the league table of countries where refugees flee.
The actions of this Conservative Government are a conscious attempt to destroy our reputation on the vain hope for electoral benefit if the number of boats reduces. The Britain I speak of existed before this Tory government and it will exist long after it – they will fail, they are in a hole and they should stop digging.
