The Truth About Immigration

General attitudes towards immigrants by some people can be pretty horrible. They believe what certain politicians tell them. I have seen with my own eyes the harassment and threats that the refugees have had to endure. 

We never had this attitude before Brexit and we certainly did not see all these boats crossing the Channel. We were part of Europe with freedom of movement. So often I hear people calling them illegal immigrants. 

I always correct them about this because they are NOT illegal.We are told that we are being swamped by immigrants. Again this is not so. They are asylum seekers and have every right to be here. There are 27.1 million refugees around the world. We have taken 0.026 %, a tiny amount. Sweden and Hungary, which have smaller populations, take many more refugees than we do.

The problem that we have is the British Empire, which was dreadful and certainly nothing to be proud of and caused so much damage to other countries. Because of it, we spread the English language all over the world. So when asylum seekers wanted to seek help from countries that were torturing their families they chose Britain, due to historical ties, language , family connections and safety.
The previous government did not deal with the system appropriately and this government has been left with a broken and backlogged asylum system. 

The press do not tell the truth about how the Home Secretary, Yvette Cooper, has been working very hard to clear the backlog and has already had some success. In just 6 months she has returned 16400 who had no right to be here which included:

• Enforced returns – 24%
• Foreign criminals returns – 23%
• Illegal working raids – 34%

In spite of her successful way of dealing with the asylum seekers, they very often have to wait six months for a decision.

The right wing press like the Daily Mail and the Sun do not mention the true situation, of course. They twist the truth to make the Home Secretary look bad.

Most refugees are families. You have seen films on the television of dead babies. You constantly hear people talking about how dangerous young men come over on their own. It is expressed like that to make us frightened. There are all sorts of reasons why men seek asylum on their own. They can be targeted in their own countries, as child soldiers, rebelling against torture in their own countries. 

Many make the dangerous journey to find safety for their families. They have to be housed and hotel living is not what it seems. Whole families live in one room or single people have to share rooms with complete strangers. They have overcrowded rooms, staff are abusive and they are undernourished and the rooms are often damp and mouldy. Those who are put into detention centres also have a very difficult time. There are approximately 2 attempted suicides every day.

There are 3 companies who run these refugee housing programmes. They are SERCO,CLEARSRINGS READY HOMES AND MEARS. They have recorded profits of £383 million over 5 years. Profits are made over the suffering of people.

They are not allowed to work without the proper status and many of them want to work. They often volunteer by joining community groups and they make an effort to learn English even though their futures are uncertain. Asylum seekers get £49.18 a week to live on and that is all. They are not allowed to claim benefits.

One of the myths is that we have no room for refugees. Actually we do. We have an ageing population, acute labour shortages especially in care homes and the NHS, for staffing. Immigrant employees have been a regular part of the NHS, keeping it going.

Another mistaken belief is that they are not real refugees. I have seen the results of what they go through, for example some hang underneath the high speed train from Calais to Dover. I can assure you the hell they go through to get here, no-one would willingly undergo this if they were not real refugees. It is not illegal to cross the channel but it is the criminal gangmasters who charge money for these horrendous journeys who should be arrested. There are no safe legal routes for refugees except the Ukrainians as they are white.

Britain has an enormous arms trade. All these weapons sold abroad are the reasons why we have refugees. It is British armaments that cause the horrors and create refugees.

No-one attacks these businessmen in their dark trade but everyone shows so much anger against the refugees who are the innocent victims.

I would like to correct another mistake which people make. They say that refugees cause more homelessness for our people. This is not the case. There are all sorts of reasons why we have the homeless. We could bring homelessness to an end in one fell swoop.

Prince William wants to end homelessness. How very sweet of him. He comes from a family which is worth £69 billion. To end homelessness the charity CRISIS says this will cost £1.9 billion. By the lift of his pen onto a cheque, Prince William could solve this all by himself.

Finally, to correct another myth, half of all Britons wrongly believe that illegal immigrants outnumber legal ones. To re-iterate,they are not illegal just seeking asylum. As I said before it is not illegal to cross the Channel.

Refugees only seek protection. Seeking asylum is a human right. Help them and do not let them suffer more indignities. They are the victims not the perpetrators.

The opinions expressed in this article are those of the columnist and may not represent those of the Llanelli Standard or Red Brand Media.