there is no such thing as an illegal asylum seeker
Aye, it’s the law that makes an act illegal, not a person, and when people are trying to escape danger, there’s no question of illegality.
Britain is often the country to which refugees gravitate when there’s war, poverty and other threats at home. Why? Because after so many British invasions and involvement in countries around the world, mainly due to imperial expansion, trade and the need for oil, English is the second language of millions, plus, compared to many political and religious dictatorships, the country has a reputation for being decent and humane, so it’s a natural choice.
Course, the main reason we know about the problems besetting refugees is because of the BBC. If public service broadcasting were abandoned to the profit motive, who on earth would bother to make a programme about problems in Syria, Afghanistan etc? There’s no money in it, and it only makes people empathise and question global inequality. Much cheaper and more profiable to make a cheap game show or similar.
And yes, there are abuses of our generosity, just as there are abuses of any system created to help those in dire straits. The Tories said the same when the welfare state was set up here. But it’s a right-wing trick to focus on the few abuses and argue they are widespread and typical, when they are neither. True, these arrangements will never function perfectly, but we shouldn’t let the perfect be the enemy of the good, as every Christian knows.
