Personal Blogs

The morning starts well, birds singing weather hot and on the television news of the conflict growing closer but  of course  this does not worry you as you feel protected and of course it will not reach this far. Children off to school and hubby out the door to work and you off to the job you love. By mid morning your life is changed and out of your control. The complacency you had about the conflict has changed as you are confronted with it head on. The feeling of security has been stripped from you and all that you are left with is fear. You frantically ring to find your husband and collect the children from school. The bank has  been destroyed like wise your home.  What do you do ? Where do you go ?  Stumbling block all your papers and passports have been left at home, and so the journey begins. You become easy pickings for the traffickers with the promise of safe passage for the right price. If you do not have the money up front many will tell you that they can assure you work when you arrive and then you can start to repay your debt. What they do not say  is what kind of work you will be doing and how much you will have to actually repay. But you are desperate so you take the chance.

 This  could be you. How would you feel knowing everything you knew that made you feel  safe and protected  had gone and the only option was to get out of the country? What could be  worse for us is that many of us do not speak a second language ! Would that heighten your anxiety ?  The news that is broadcast mainly focuses on  the men that are fleeing but what the majority of us do not understand is the culture and background as to  why this happens. Do we really care or want to understand?  Many people now are fleeing from conflict, but through the generations there have always been people that have been fleeing famine and persecution. We take it for granted that it will never happen to us and  the closest many here ever get  to conflict are the video games they play.     

As well as the traffickers, other companies and people are making profits out of , the cheap labour that is offered to companies through networks of gangs within this country. The government uses private security companies that  also benefit from the profits and other people misery and fear. The system needs  a radical overhaul. Where is the  collaboration with the rest of Europe regarding this  issue? Have there been talks as to how to resolve the conflict issues ? Would it be beneficial to keep  Peace Keeping  troops in the conflict zones so that people would feel safe again? Would making the system easier to navigate for those seeking refuge and educating  refugees with a  true picture what life is actually like in the countries they seek to be in  assist in making the traffickers redundant ?  Many of the refugees only wish to stay until the conflict ends. How many people from the UK move to where the  glorious sun shines and the climate is hot such as  Spain and other warm countries ? How many actually speak the language of that country ? When asked if they  wish to go back to the UK the majority answer   'no' .So why would you automatically think others would want to stay here and not in their own country  if they had the choice ? 

Maybe we need to rethink our strategy of how we receive refugees and asylum seekers. The framework needs to be changed.   We should be assisting by listening , using resources such as  education to equip them with the knowledge and know how to rebuild  after the conflict. We may also learn and discover more in return. Why do we see  all asylum seekers and refugees as  the enemy? Why are we unable to to see the positives ?

RIP to all those that lost their lives in the channel seeking refugee. 

Footnote; if people wish to seek asylum  on the continent they are able  to be processed at the first country they enter and then move onto the country they wish to go to. For those coming to the UK this process is unavailable and therefore they can only be processed when they arrive in the UK.

UNHCR - Asylum in the UK    What is immigration detention? | AVID (aviddetention.org.uk)