Bishop William Nolan, Bishop President of Justice and Peace Scotland, reflects on a visit to Calais, and the effect this week’s parliamentary vote may have on migrants like those he met there.
It is a cold November morning. We come to a clearing in the woods and see the remains of a makeshift fire. We are in Calais and this is obviously a spot where migrants gather. There is no one there when we arrive but as we wait, one by one, young men appear.
Most of the group are Ethiopians, Christians. They welcome our visit, and welcome also the hot tea we bring with us. One or two are chatty, but most take their tea and sit on a wooden log and stare into the distance. The vacant look on their faces makes me wonder about their mental health. Their one hope is to get on a lorry and get into the UK. It is then, the aid workers tell us, once they reach their goal, that their mental health problems will come to the surface.
For these young men are traumatised: by the events in their homeland that caused them to flee; by the journey through Africa and across the Mediterranean; by the constant harassment in Calais, as they are woken in the night by the police and pepper sprayed, their tents and sleeping bags confiscated.
While they see the UK as the Promised Land, they will be sadly disappointed when they get there. They want to work, but they will not be allowed to work; they want to begin a new life, but that new life will be put on hold while their asylum claim is assessed. They risk being put in a detention centre, locked up for any length of time. The UK government don’t call them detention centres, they are called Immigration Removal Centres, and while in other European countries there is a limit on how long a person can be detained, there is no limit in the UK. A criminal guilty of murder knows how long they will be locked up, but not a migrant whose only crime is to seek asylum.
There was a hope that Parliament might put a legal limit on detention, but on Tuesday 332 Members of the Parliament thought otherwise, and that amendment failed.
And the fate of child migrants is not any better. At the moment the Dublin III Regulation means that child migrants in Europe who have family in the UK can come to the UK and stay with their family while their asylum request is considered. This is an EU agreement and so will lapse when the transition period ends in December. On Tuesday, 342 Members of Parliament voted against continuing to allow children that legal right to come here.
Pope Francis tells us that we should look in the eye the person in need and see a fellow human being. There are many in our country who do just that and show concern for migrants and refugees. But sadly the Westminster Parliament puts us to shame. Maybe one day we will live in a country where Parliament votes to respect the human dignity of those who seek our help – but not yet.