On Monday 19 June, 58 Chinese were found suffocated to death in a sealed container carrying tomatoes at the port of Dover. They died trying to evade the government's hardline measures to deter foreigners seeking work in Britain. Home Secretary Jack Straw's response was predictable: 'This terrible tragedy must serve as a stark warning to others who might be tempted to place their fate in the hands of organised traffickers.' To underscore his attack on the victims, Straw charged the two survivors with illegal entry as they recovered in hospital.
But in other respects the Dover tragedy may mark a turning point in the asylum discussion. This spring politicians and newspapers competed to see who had the most hysterical stories of 'aggressive begging' by asylum-seekers. As the new Immigration and Asylum Act came into force, dispersing asylum seekers to unwanted accommodation across the country and making them survive on vouchers, the press focused on 'racial friction' created there and in Dover. This week, though, a new argument has emerged.
Lawyers and refugee workers have challenged government plans to intensify the crackdown on illegal immigration. Mark Lattimer of Amnesty International, called it 'a tragedy waiting to happen' because people 'are fleeing the risk of imprisonment, torture or death and are forced to take desperate steps to reach safety.' But others have gone further. As long as Britain's economy needs more workers, they argue, (official jobs have expanded since the last low point in 1993 from 26.05m to 27.9m last year), stopping immigration will be impossible and the government ought to introduce a 'positive' immigration policy. Rather than control the borders by trying to close them, the proponents of an economically based immigration policy argue that control would be better achieved by regulating the flow into Britain.
The truth is 58 people paid with their lives for the government's attempt to demonise migrants. All sides of the debate still seek to control the flux, but the tragedy has forcefully exposed the failure of the government to deter would-be immigrants and brought into the open what many have been saying quietly for some time. The temptation of supporting a 'rational' immigration policy, though, should be avoided. People, not states, should decide where they live. The attempt to dictate has only led to slaughter.
-- James Heartfield
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