I would suggest, for a place to start, stop calling them “asylum seekers.” From BBC News,
Illegal migration is “tearing the country apart”, the home secretary has said, as she prepares to unveil major plans to overhaul asylum policy.
New measures set to be announced by Shabana Mahmood on Monday will include people granted asylum needing to wait 20 years before they can apply to settle permanently.
I wish her all the luck in the world.
The changes are aimed at making the UK a less attractive destination for illegal migrants, leading to reduced small boat crossings and asylum claims.
Mahmood is also to announce the UK will stop granting visas to people from Angola, Namibia and the Democratic Republic of Congo if their governments do not rapidly improve co-operation on removals.
A Home Office source said the countries were being targeted “for their unacceptably low co-operation and obstructive returns processes”.
It seems awfully late in the game to be waking up to these basic truths. But I am mildly surprised to see the BBC using the word “illegal” in this context.
The home secretary added her plans also aimed to address “unfair” conditions that she said gave some asylum seekers better provisions than UK citizens.
I guess we’ll never know how these “unfair” conditions arose in the first place. And I’m not sure how she will be able to implement even these rather modest reforms in the face of opposition from her party’s (Labor) base.
Baby steps.
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