To pass internal agendas

UK and France play politics with migrants' lives

• Johnson delivered an undiplomatic rebuke to France, which he posted on social media.

  AFP

• Macron said he would not allow the North Sea to become a cemetery.

  Getty

• This year, the French government failed to prevent 25,000 people from risking their lives crossing the North Sea in small boats.

  Getty

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About a year ago, on the fifth anniversary of the drowning of the three-year-old Syrian child, Alan Kurdi, I speculated that perhaps, I say perhaps, his horrific death was not in vain, and naively speculated that the end of this frightening refugee child, transmitted by the shocking images of his tiny body lying on the The earth, his face stuck to the sand of the Turkish city of Bodrum, might save others like him from such a fate.

Unfortunately, my calculations fail to take into account the self-determination of politicians and governments to hold onto power by succumbing to the worst of human nature.

Last week, we were so accustomed to witnessing the high numbers of refugee deaths in the Mediterranean, but this spectacle has finally moved to the English Channel, this narrow and terrifying barrier, finally, to migrants hoping to reach the promised land that many have imagined Britain.

Twenty-seven people tried to cross from France to the United Kingdom, and their fate was to drown off the French coast, when the flimsy rubber boat they were riding broke down, and among the victims were seven women, one of whom was pregnant, in addition to three children, and this raises the number of victims of asylum seekers to 350 people. including 36 children who have drowned in the English Channel in the past 20 years.

What is even more astonishing about the latest catastrophe is the reaction of two governments that could have prevented it, had they focused on cooperating to prevent it from happening again, but focused on mutual blame, in order to advance domestic political agendas.

This year, the French government failed to prevent 25,000 people from risking their lives crossing the North Sea in small boats, either by preventing them from sailing or by dismantling the people-smuggling gangs operating without accountability in France.

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Pictures, which were shown last week, showed French policemen watching from a distance a large inflatable boat being lowered to sea on the beach in Calais, with about 12 adults on board, in addition to six children aged between three and seven years.

The French, and the rest of the European Union, see that there is little to gain by alleviating Britain's post-Brexit problems, especially those directly related to xenophobic "Brexit" supporters, as well as the referendum's pledge to "take back control of our borders." It is not in the interest of the European Union for its countries to begin to think that Britain made the right decision to break away from the European Union.

ignorance

After last week's disaster, French President Emmanuel Macron vowed that "France will not allow the Canal to become a cemetery," ignoring the fact that it has become.

Then, after Macron called for an emergency meeting of governments, including Britain, France played a role in fueling the discontent of its voters by not inviting the British Home Secretary, Priti Patel.

The French were offended by the undiplomatic and unusual reprimand that British Prime Minister Boris Johnson posted on social media.

Johnson is not well known for having mastered diplomacy, but that alone does not explain why he thought it a good idea to make public his demands that France should form joint patrols with the British and agree to turn back any migrants attempting to cross the Channel.

Not diplomatic

And this was not diplomacy, but the public waving of the isolationist flag by a government that is almost daily flogged on accusations of laziness and incompetence, and is desperate to prove to disappointed voters that “Brexit” had some kind of realistic goal, and at the same time Patel still Under increasing pressure from right-wing Tory MPs, she became "tougher" against illegal refugees, a goal she enthusiastically accepted.

Of course opening safe passages to the UK for migrants would end the people-smuggling trade immediately, but it would enrage many Conservative voters and their Members of Parliament, and most astonishingly, Patel had previously proposed a law that would help anyone to The entry of migrants by boat into the UK is a crime that can be punished with up to 14 years in prison.

Naturally, the staff at the Royal National Lifeboat Institute were horrified by Secretary Patel's suggestion, and they are highly respected, working to provide assistance to the thousands of refugees in distress in the Channel.

Meanwhile, as adults in Europe squabble and debate for political gain, children are drowning, and they say there is little focus on the causes of Britain's immigration problem.

Probably the greatest and least well-known 'pull factor' that attracts immigrants to the UK is the English language, which was imposed on most parts of the world during the centuries of the heyday of Britain's imperial adventures, and when people desperately looked to emigration as the only possible solution to difficult living conditions. It is natural for anyone with English as a second language to prefer going to Britain.

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As for the conditions conducive to emigration, whether economic or otherwise, let us not forget that many of the crises that are now creating such despair in the Middle East or beyond, have their origins in British colonial interventions in the past.

Now, with the wave of immigration increasing to Britain's southern shores, it is no exaggeration to note that it is in its infancy, and the least that the United Kingdom should do is own its history, and act non-political, to save the lives of those who have been cast on its shores by the currents of British history.

• With the increasing wave of immigration to the shores of southern Britain, it is not an exaggeration to point out that it is in its infancy, and the least that the United Kingdom should do is own its history, and work in a non-political manner, to save the lives of those who were thrown by the currents of British history on its shores.

• The French, and the rest of the European Union, see that there is little they can gain by easing Britain's problems in the post-Brexit era, especially those directly related to the xenophobic supporters of "Brexit".

Jonathan Journal - British journalist who has worked in the Middle East and is now based in London

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