In late December, Sajid Javid, the first British Asian to hold the position of Home Secretary in the U.K., cut short a family holiday to South Africa to “get a grip” on what the government described as a “deeply concerning” increase in the number of people attempting to cross the English Channel. He declared a “major incident” and swiftly ordered the redeployment of two border force boats to patrol the waters. Their concerns focussed on the attempt by about 400 people, most of them believed to be from Iran, in the past three months to cross from France by boat. The number of those attempting to do so itself is far from large: tens of thousands seek asylum in the U.K. each year, while net (legal) migration to the U.K. amounted to 2,73,000 in the year to last June.
However, in a country where the movement of people has gained particular focus ahead of Britain’s impending exit from the European Union (EU), the issue has swiftly become a hotly debated and deeply political one. Some on the right have accused the government of being too lax and responding slowly to the issue, distracted by Brexit as well as the Windrush immigration scandal over the wrongful treatment of Commonwealth migrants to the country.
In the Commons, one Conservative urged the government to get tough on the issue. Mr. Javid himself appeared willing to play to their tune. “If you are a genuine asylum seeker, why have you not sought asylum in the first safe country that you arrived in?” he asked in a recent TV interview — a sentiment which has triggered alarm from refugee groups. They noted that it was disturbing that the person in charge of movement in and out of the U.K. needed reminding that asylum was a right and that the U.K. had an obligation to assess claims fairly and on their individual merits, no matter how the individuals reached the country.
One Green Party Member of the European Parliament also contrasted Britain’s outcry with the reality in the rest of Europe — noting that the several hundreds who arrived in the U.K. in small boats in 2018 paled in comparison with the 1,16,295 who arrived by sea to Italy, Greece, Spain and Cyprus (excluding the over 2,000 who perished in the sea).
Mr. Javid has continued to defend his position, insisting that there was a “definite increasing trend” that needed to be dealt with before the situation got out of control. Britain’s strategy involved protecting its borders as well as the lives of those who risked the journey, exploited by people traffickers and others who placed them in great danger for personal profit, he insisted.
Wider controversy
The debate has also fed into a wider controversy in Europe about how to tackle the issue of those seeking asylum in a country other than the one they first arrived in. EU rules enabling countries to send back asylum seekers to the first countries of arrival has triggered tensions among neighbouring states, putting the onus on front-line countries such as Greece, Spain and Italy, as well as others such as France. Mr. Javid himself suggested that the failure of those coming to the U.K. to claim asylum in France could adversely impact their claim, also alarming campaigners.
To many, Mr. Javid’s move speaks mostly of his own personal ambitions — he has been touted as a potential successor to Prime Minister Theresa May, who has pledged to step down before the next election. Recent polls have put him as the second- or third-most popular candidate among Conservative Party members, though he is likely to prove a less divisive figure among party MPs than Boris Johnson, who leads in most polls.
Vidya Ram works for The Hindu and is based in London