I want failed asylum seekers to be quicky deported to Rwanda and I want anyone who crosses the channel illegally to be deported, but there is a caveat. I also want safe, speedy and legal routes for refugees to come here first.
I have treated asylum seekers. Too many have no safe and legal route to come here and thanks to government cuts, the waits to process their applications, be they here or in the nation they flee from, take too long. I am not going to say that all the cases should be taken in as some of the stories, in my view, do not justify asylum here, but loads do. We have a speedy safe and legal route for refugees from Ukraine, many of whom were in a safe country before coming here), we can and should have one for those seeking asylum from other nations such as Afghanistan and others. I do not want a system where Jesus (who was an undocumented child refugee when his parents fled the Massacre Of The Innocents) would have been deported to Rwanda, if he was able to overcome the barriers to get here!
The argument that we cannot afford to take them in, from a government who wishes to help the rich to get richer when others are getting poorer is wrong. Worse, it is an argument that is designed to spread hatred and division while distracting from the real reasons that we have increasing levels of poverty and hardship.
If we can get a speedy safe and legal framework to take in refugees from Ukraine, there is no reason why we cannot have one for refugees from other, non-white, nations.