Human rights barrister, Sangeetha Iengar, shares 5 quick reads to help you learn the key developments around asylum and migration in the UK.
1. The dripping tap
Hostile immigrations policies have been encroaching on the rights of migrants for years. Maya Goodfellow takes us through a series of changes from the new points based system to the exploration of processing applicants on an island in the South Atlantic. Read here.
2. New changes
So what are these recent immigration policy changes? This article by JCWI lays out in 3 paragraphs how the new system invents a distinction between ‘good’ and ‘bad’ migrants and puts some at risk of people smugglers.
3. A slippery slope
While these new changes are harsh, they’re compounded further by data that is being secretly collated and stored for “status checking” using the GDPR laws that came into force a few years ago. Check out gal-dem’s piece on this shady migrant database here.
4. Affecting real people
It’s easy to get lost in the policy but they impact real people. See through a lived experience in a short article on detention in the UK.
5. It’s not just a legal issue
How we treat our most vulnerable draws a picture of our humanity, ethical reasoning needs to be taken into account. This piece by Colin Yeo highlights what we risk by defying the only international agreement on the status of refugees.
“International mobility is on the rise and it’s a natural consequence of our more globalised world. The UN estimates almost 250million people live outside their country of birth. Immigration should be approached not as a ‘crisis’ or a problem to be solved, but as a reality to be humanely managed.”
Sangeetha Iengar
We hope this list is a good starting point into understanding the current state of asylum and migration in the UK. Thanks to Sangeetha for providing these resources!
If you still have some burning questions, why not….
Watch our Instagram LIVE with Sangeetha Iengar and our director, Maryam Pasha, on Wednesday 21 April at 12:30pm UK time.
Watch Sangeetha’s TEDxLondonWomen talk here.
