SABBY DHALU picks apart a centuries-old narrative that scapegoats BAME and refugee communities
This article originally appeared in The Morning Star
MAINSTREAM media headlines over the last week lead us to believe that the biggest crisis in Britain is that 900 people want to seek asylum here.
It would be nice if this was the case. It is easily resolved by simply allowing people to apply for asylum in Britain. A smaller and much poorer country like Lebanon which is the size of Cornwall, and currently gripped by a humanitarian and political crisis, has a population of 5.9 million people, and 1.5 million of them are refugees.
Lebanon hosts the largest number of refugees per capita, amounting to 25 per cent of its population and equivalent to Britain welcoming over 16 million refugees. Let that sink in.
Clearly, 900 people fleeing war, climate change, poverty, persecution and destitution seeking asylum in the seventh-largest economy in the world with a population of over 66 million is no crisis. In fact studies show that immigrants contribute disproportionately more to the public purse.
The refugee crisis is the lack of safe routes to Britain, the result of decades of legislation making it harder to seek asylum here, forcing people to make perilous journeys across the Mediterranean and risking their lives. Even ice cream company Ben & Jerry’s weighed into the debate on Twitter, calling out the government’s lack of humanity in response to desperate people.
So why the headlines? Why the calls for the navy to deploy patrol boats and send them to France? Why is Priti Patel promising to introduce new asylum legislation that would “send the left into meltdown?”
The answer? It’s a smokescreen for the government’s catastrophic failures in response to the coronavirus and the economic downturn. Wrongly blaming immigrants is a centuries-old tactic designed to scapegoat and distract from disastrous government politics.
One hundred years ago headlines blamed Jewish and Irish communities, then, in the post-war era, Indian, Pakistani, Bangladeshi, African and Caribbean communities were attacked and, today, Muslims and refugees are the chosen target for racist scapegoating from politicians and the media.
The real crisis is Britain’s disastrous response to the coronavirus and its equally disastrous economy. Following several weeks of decline, Covid-19 cases are beginning to increase again, rising to above 1,000 in the last few days.
In some regions in England the R value could be above 1. According to data released on August 7 2020, the R value is estimated to range between 0.8 and 1.1 for London, north-west England and south-west England. In cumulative terms, deaths per capita in the UK continue to be the worst of any major country and 34 per cent are people from black, Asian and minority ethnic (BAME) communities.
Covid cases are increasing again because the government prematurely eased the lockdown in a series of measures announced from the middle of May through to July. Daily deaths would have reduced to zero by early June had the government simply waited a few weeks before easing the initial lockdown.
In addition the UK’s 20 per cent GDP slump in the second quarter was worse than other major economies, plunging the economy into recession. The 20 per cent fall was much worse than in Germany and the US, where GDP for the last quarter fell by 11.9 per cent and 10.6 per cent respectively.
The government is failing to introduce measures to remedy this situation such as a zero Covid policy to eliminate the virus as recommended by the British Medical Association and Independent SAGE, reimposing a national lockdown (which is necessary especially if cases continue to rise above a thousand and the R rate is above 1) and extending furlough. We cannot live with a deadly virus and get on with our lives, and nor can the economy recover. Instead the government is stirring up racism towards refugees and easing the lockdown.
After the previous attempt at racist scapegoating spectacularly backfired, the Tories were forced to change course. Craig Whittaker, the Tory MP for Calder Valley, recently faced a fierce anti-racist backlash after he suggested that BAME and Muslim communities were not taking the coronavirus pandemic seriously. Such outrageous, racist and Islamophobic comments have no factual basis and received widespread condemnation.
Tweets from MPs, comedian Nish Kumar and others calling out the racist attempt to blame Muslim and BAME communities for the government’s repeated failures trended on Twitter and shocked mainstream media.
Similar comments were made by Bolton Conservative councillor Bob Allen who stated on Facebook: “Don’t penalise me over the increase in Covid cases in Greater Manchester. I’ve stuck to the rules for four long months. Blame the 48,000 illegal immigrants, the BAME community and the morons that never obey the rules.”
Allen now been suspended by the Conservative Party. However, no action has been taken against Whittaker. This casual racism from politicians and the media is not without serious consequences.
Online Islamophobic abuse has increased by 40 per cent from last year during lockdown. Gorton MP Afzal Khan tweeted that he and other prominent Muslims in Manchester recently received Islamophobic and abusive mail. In Leicester, according to police, there were 208 racially aggravated incidents in July, up from 156 in 2019. These and previous figures indicate a link between racism from politicians and media coverage, and racist hate crime on the ground.
The Black Lives Matter movement inspired people around the globe to take to the streets and force nations to confront racism today – and its roots in imperialism, colonialism and slavery. The Black Lives Matter slogan also applies to the black communities who have died disproportionately from Covid-19 and those making the dangerous journey across the Mediterranean. We must unite against racism — whoever the target is — and robustly oppose racist scapegoating.
Sabby Dhalu is the co-convenor of Stand Up to Racism.
