The UK’s strategy of shutting down safe migration routes is fueling the trafficking industry it claims it wants to break
Campaigners call on the UK to allow safe passage for refugees after 27 people drown in the English Channel, Malaysia agrees to ratify the ILO protocol on forced labour, and reports from Serbia claim that Vietnamese migrants are working in inhumane conditions at a Chinese-owned construction site.
The UK government must abandon its failed pushback strategy and instead provide safe routes for refugees, according to many activists and campaigners. Robina Qureshi, who runs homelessness and human rights charity Positive Action in Housing, argues that the government’s current policies are fueling rather than curbing the human trafficking trade and putting lives in danger.
The call comes after 27 people died when their boat – an inflatable rubber dinghy – capsized in the English Channel, as they tried to cross from France to the UK last week. More than 25,000 people have made the crossing this year but harsh winter weather currently makes the journey even more treacherous.
As the pandemic has disrupted migration flows and restricted other means of travel to the UK, and the government has ramped up security around the Channel Tunnel, Channel crossings in small boats have become almost the only option available to those seeking asylum there. Yet the government has called for pushback against these vessels, with a focus on preventing them from ever reaching English shores.
The UK response to the current tragedy has been to call for the “business model” of people smuggling to be broken, with home secretary Priti Patel reiterating her determination to “smash the criminal gangs” behind such crossings. This echoes her response following the deaths of 39 Vietnamese people who suffocated in a UK-bound lorry in 2019, when she criticized “organized criminals” for driving illegal migration and saying, “We must be ruthless in our response.” Following last week’s tragedy, Prime Minister Boris Johnson has proposed tighter border security measures including patrols at sea, electronic surveillance and increased intelligence sharing to drive more arrests. He has also suggested harsher treatment of migrants themselves, saying, “If those who reach this country were swiftly returned, the incentive for people to put their lives in the hands of traffickers would be significantly reduced… This would be the single biggest step we could take together to reduce the draw to Northern France and break the business model of criminal gangs.”
Yet observers note that it is the UK government itself that created the business model it demonizes. It has made it impossible for refugees to legally exercise their human rights to safety because they have blocked off safe routes to sanctuary, says Robina. Human trafficking is now a multi-billion-dollar industry that continues to grow as western governments forge ahead with these strategies, and the more steps that governments take to try to stop refugees arriving, the more they fuel the human trafficking trade and criminality, and the greater the number of refugees who risk their lives in the hope of a life free of persecution and war, she adds.
Since the 1980s, successive UK and other European governments have implemented draconian asylum and immigration legislation to curtail legitimate escape routes, forcing people into the hands of traffickers. Now, says Robina, the proposed Nationality and Borders Bill currently passing through parliament will torch the human rights obligations agreed under the 1951 Refugee Convention by seeking to prosecute asylum seekers arriving in the UK via boat, as well as any UK fishermen who help them. Ironically, this focus on criminality allows the Home Office to promote greater securitization of the Channel border, the very process that saw increased checks on lorries and led directly to small boat crossings.
That’s why campaigners and charities are urging the government to open safe routes for asylum seekers to apply to come to the UK without crossing the sea, says Robina. The UK government provided evacuation flights to take thousands of Afghans out of danger in a matter of days in August, and has some limited resettlement schemes in place which could be expanded.
The government needs to understand that the hostile environment is not a deterrent for people fleeing war and persecution, Robina says. “Despite the government’s best efforts, no amount of hostility or cold inhumanity will deter refugees from seeking a better life in the UK. We are in danger of committing crimes against humanity by turning away those in need of safety and treating them as criminals.”
Here’s a round-up of other noteworthy news and initiatives:
Malaysia has agreed to ratify the International Labour Organisation (ILO) Protocol 29 – the protocol linked to the Forced Labour Convention – to show the government’s commitment to ending forced labour. This comes following repeated claims of serious labour abuses this year involving firms in the glove-making and other sectors.
Around 500 migrant workers from Vietnam are being exploited at a Chinese-run company in Serbia, according to NGOs A11 and ASTRA. As reported by DW news, the Chinese company Linglong Tire plans to invest around US$ 900 million in the factory but has been hit by reports of slave-like working conditions at the Serbian construction site.
Unaccompanied minors from Bangladesh continue to be smuggled in large numbers to Italy via the Libyan coast and land routes in Europe, by organized rackets that are active in Bangladesh, in transit and at destination locations. According to UNHCR, at least 1,213 unaccompanied and separated children from Bangladesh arrived in Italy by sea routes from January to September 2021.
A new book, Undocumented: Stories of Indian Migrants in the Arab Gulf, examines the lives of Indian migrants in West Asia via the stories of people from Kerala in Oman. The book probes questions surrounding human rights, exploitation, marginalization, political and legal issues, and trafficking.
The United Nations Special Rapporteur on trafficking in persons, especially women and children, Siobhán Mullally, is preparing a report on trafficking of persons for purposes of forced labour or services, slavery or practices similar to slavery, or servitude, in the agricultural sector. To inform her report, she welcomes contributions from civil society organizations, academics, UN agencies and other stakeholders.
Collective Value Creation is currently conducting research into the field of risk relating to Modern Slavery and Labour Violations in South Africa and is looking for contacts with connections to the mining, manufacturing, textile, agriculture, and construction sectors.
One of our community members is discussing safe ways to send remittances from Thailand to Myanmar and recommending a local consultant for questions on this.
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