Refugees Welcome

 

We have been working with community sponsorship groups to settle refugees in Brighton and has been supporting people who have recently moved to the UK. We are also helping refugees from Afghanistan who had escaped the Taliban and now are stuck in third countries. 

A large number of people are forcefully displaced from their home either because of violence, poverty or/and persecution; people are stuck in countries of origin and spaces of transit en route, often without adequate access to essential services.

In recent years, the issue of forced migration in Europe has often been described in terms of a ‘migration crisis’. This is a problematic narrative as it suggests that migration, or the arrival of people in Europe, is itself a problem. Moreover, by locating the issue in Europe, a wider geography and history of mobility including Europe’s violent engagements in other parts of the world, is cut off from the frame of analysis.

The problem is not movement as such – people move all the time, due to the proliferation of borders, people in search of safety often have no access to legal routes to safety. One of the reasons that so many people embark on irregular, costly and dangerous journeys is that there are very few visas for people travelling on humanitarian grounds such as fleeing conflict, persecution, poverty or other conditions that endanger their lives.

A serious rethinking of the border regime is required to ensure that people on the move do not become illegalised – that is, have to resort to irregular and often dangerous journeys. Unfortunately the countries to the east of EU have adopted a policy of border proliferation which is particularly ironic as they recently had suffered from the same calamity. Making legal pathways more accessible to people who need them most and increasing their capacity is one step in the right direction.