‘We will send you back’ says Johnson to refugees risking their lives crossing the Channel

Left - refugees arriving on British shores in a lifeboat. Right - British PM Boris Johnson
Support us and go ad-free

British PM Boris Johnson has told refugees and asylum seekers looking to come to the UK via the English Channel: “We will send you back.” In a statement to ITV News, Johnson said:

If you come illegally you are an illegal migrant, and I’m afraid the law will treat you as such.

His statement comes in response to the recent arrival of 64 refugees and asylum seekers, including four children, via the English Channel.

Inflammatory language

Human rights lawyer Annette Elder said the UK can’t just turn everyone away, because it’s “bound by legal obligations”. Elder said that this is an example of the criminalisation of asylum seekers. She also described the PM’s language as “inflammatory” and said, “Everyone has a right to seek asylum”.

Opposition leader Jeremy Corbyn has said it’s important to consider if people are seeking refuge from countries affected by war, such as Syria or Afghanistan.

Asylum seekers in France have previously said they left their home countries due to political persecution. The UN has described conditions in France’s migrant camps as dire, making some willing to even risk death to come to the UK.

Featured image via Youtube/ ITV News

Read on...

Support us and go ad-free

Support us and go ad-free

We know everyone is suffering under the Tories - but the Canary is a vital weapon in our fight back, and we need your support

The Canary Workers’ Co-op knows life is hard. The Tories are waging a class war against us we’re all having to fight. But like trade unions and community organising, truly independent working-class media is a vital weapon in our armoury.

The Canary doesn’t have the budget of the corporate media. In fact, our income is over 1,000 times less than the Guardian’s. What we do have is a radical agenda that disrupts power and amplifies marginalised communities. But we can only do this with our readers’ support.

So please, help us continue to spread messages of resistance and hope. Even the smallest donation would mean the world to us.

Support us
  • Show Comments
    1. Of course we need immigration Why? Because if we didn’t, with an ageing workforce and nobody being trained up sufficiently due to government cutbacks, and the obsession with living off house price inflation rather than getting people to make stuff, be it things or intellectual property, there are not enough people in the indigenous population to keep our systems going. Research into the “London effect”, which sees the capital’s schools outperforming the rest of the country in their GCSEs, puts the achievement down to the diverse ethnic make-up of its schools. Analysis published by the University of Bristol points out that only 34 per cent of Year 11 pupils (studying for GCSEs) are white British, the lowest performing ethnic group, compared to 84 per cent for the rest of the country. We know that immigrants, recent and long standing contribute more to the economy than they take out, we know that ethnic minority students make the most of their education, we know that the health service would collapse without immigrants, we also know that the most unpleasant and ignorant people in the land are white, wealthy, public school educated and in government!

      Here’s a new idea – get the f**k out of every Muslim country, stop killing Muslims with your bombs, soldiers, funding and discriminatory policy and let the Muslims sort out their own affairs without Western interference. Then the flow of refugees will stop… Terrorism and fight for freedom has always been there too. Unfair to single out Muslims. Germany, we Muslims will not forgive you for selling nuclear weapon submarines to Israel and giving that racist country a second nuclear strike capability. If you like Jews so much, give a piece of your own country to them as a homeland. The more Muslim countries are attacked, the more you can expect more asylum seekers to come to white countries. You only have yourself to blame. The overall problem when dealing with immigration, is the need to first ascertain where these people have come from:- If they are from Commonwealth Countries (most likely not Australia, Canada, or New Zealand – there the immigration goes the other way), this can be seen as 200 years of imperialism coming back to bite us. If they are from Eastern Europe, this can be seen as 20 years of moronic EU policy coming back to bite us. If they come from the Middle East, this can be seen as 100 years of never ending scheming and meddling in that particular region coming back to bite us.
      Western colonial powers made a mess in Africa, the sub-continent and in the Middle East couple decades ago. The least they can do is to accept people from the countries they have robbed and ruined. The western countries which colonised the world .Yes it is a duty to give them back some pieces of what they have stolen !

      One in 33 people on the planet is a migrant in search of dignity, safety, a better future, and sometimes even adventure. With 232 million people living outside their country of birth, this is not a small number. Put together, they would form the fifth most populous nation on earth. International Migrants Day on December 18 is therefore a good time to acknowledge their role in our societies and economies. Rapid demographic changes can also create friction in communities. Some long-time residents resent the change and newcomers feel unwelcome as a result. The Town of Richmond Hill, north of Toronto in Canada, faced this problem when its population doubled to 185,000 within 20 years, and the visible minority population grew to constitute almost half of the town. Outreach to diverse communities soon became a top priority.

      Immigrants, legal or illegal are the creators of Britain new wealth, otherwise, inner cities deprived areas could not get new lease of life. The native Brits regard such areas as ghettos. Integration is not religious and cultural, it is economic and Muslims are well integrated into British society and at the same time they are proud of their Islamic, linguistic and cultural identities, inspite of discrimination they have been facing in all walks of life. According to UN, 80% of British Muslims feel discriminated. They are less burden on social services. Immigrants made up 8.7% of the population, but accounted for 10.2% of all collected income tax.

      Anyone who arrives from overseas, to work, to pay income tax , national insurance, who wants to contribute to our economy and society should be made very welcome in our country. The vacancies they fill are mostly the jobs that most local people avoid like the plague. A vast majority of economic migrants are ambitious, resourceful, possess, “A Can-Do” attitude and a very strong work ethic. just like the ones who leave the U.K. to make their fortunes in Canada, Australia, New Zealand, The U.S.A.Dubai etc. So the next time we are served in a shop, or restaurant, when we are cared for in a hospital or taking the night bus home, or ask directions from a stranger and,” Shock of Shocks” they turn out NOT to be a White Anglo Saxon native English speaker. Perhaps we can be a little more compassionate, welcoming, considerate and refuse to, “Buy in” to the hysteria that the DM,U.K.I.P and all the other bigots would like to create. It’s funny how British people complain about Europeans. But Europeans are not the ones on benefits. Europeans that come to Britain cannot afford to be on benefits and that is not how they were raised in their countries, that is why they migrate don’t you think??? Otherwise they could sit on benefits in their own countries and still have (most of them) sun all year round! If it wasn’t for foreign workers, Britain would be far worse than it is. Employers have found that foreign workers are prepared to work much harder than the locals so he employs mostly foreigners. This is not to say that the Brits are lazy, but I would say that people who immigrate from their home country do so in order to earn money and therefore they are prepared to work harder. The vast majority work hard, pay their taxes and contribute to the British economy. How are they able to move to the UK and get jobs? Simple – the 2.5 million Britons who are parasites on capitalism and too lazy to get a job. If the Britons who are state scroungers got off their lardy arses and got a job, there’d be no jobs for immigrant workers and they’d go elsewhere. The root of the problem is that state benefits in the UK are too high and people see no economic reason for becoming a decent member of society.

      I have to say that this really can only be a good thing. If they are here for work, then great. These people provide better levels of service and are much more attractive and cosmopolitan. I have to say that I prefer the Mediterranean attitude to life. The Brits with their binge drinking, kebabs, street fighting and vomiting could really learn a thing or two from their new guests. So welcome, one and all. People from foreign countries have a reputation for working for a living, so what’s the problem? It’s people with a culture of thieving and dishonesty that I would baulk at.

      Eight illegal immigrants are better than all those natives who spend all their lives on benefits. They are not illegal because they earn their living by working. They should be allowed to stay in this country. They are not doing anything illegal.

      West must learn to respect and tolerate those who are different. The problem of extremism we are experiencing is not “mass immigration”, immigration has been happening since the dawn of mankind. The problem we are experiencing is a direct result of lack of respect and tolerance substituted by ignorance. The problem we are experiencing is the direct result of poor consciousness and awareness of selective “information” being conveyed to us through various mainstream media sources. There’s a new mainstream anti-Muslim racism that is built on fears for the survival of Western values. That’s the product of a nervous society in which social betterment is becoming increasingly difficult and in which there is a sense of omnipresent competition and struggle. The emotions generated by this are often not directed at a system, but at those who are different, at foreigners. This is also launched from the political arena and absorbed at grassroots level.

      I support immigration because I believe in the words of Thomas Jefferson: That “all men are created equal and that they are endowed by their Creator with certain inalienable rights, that among these are Life, Liberty and the pursuit of Happiness.” That works for me, it obviously doesn’t work for you. Why do people endlessly whine and whimper regarding the endless tsunami of mass immigration into the UK……..then go straight right out and vote for pro-mass immigration political parties like Labour, the Tories and Liberals. ? If they really are that stupid, then perhaps voting isn’t really for them and they get the Govt they deserve. You get what you vote for, so give the moaning a rest, please.
      IA
      http://www.londonschoolofislamics.org.uk

        1. No, they didn’t. Ever heard of an obscure book called the Old Testament? It describes the origin of Jewish people who are, as they tell us too, the children of Abraham (born in Ur Kaśdim, probably in southern Iraq) who migrated to Canaan, which is approximately where Israel is now. Once there, they proceeded to indiscriminately slaughter the people living there because, they claimed, their god told them to do so. That’s Israel’s claim to its land.

    Leave a Reply

    Join the conversation

    Please read our comment moderation policy here.