Government’s proposed legislation to stop immigration is repulsive - The Yorkshire Post says

Once again, our Government’s proposed legislation to stop immigration is revealed as a repulsive, ugly, disgusting policy which turns our country into an international pariah state amongst those which respect decency, international law and agreed conventions.

This Government seeks to force the boundaries of such civilised norms in a direction which flies in the face of any ethical/moral considerations, heedless of the fate of those driven by desperation to take a real risk with their lives in small boats.

Our ruling party is aware that the safe and legal routes advocated are not available to the majority of those who make it here, and even the numbers of those “legally” arriving here are to be capped – our Government will decide the number of desperate people they will accept as suffering.

Have we unilaterally extinguished the right to apply for asylum save for those whom governments permit to apply? What mind came up with this idea? What logic punishes the victims for the perpetrators’ crimes?

Our MPs are also aware that legally there is no such thing as an illegal asylum seeker and that the crusade against smugglers, despicable though they are, is merely a convenient cover for bankrupt policies which weaponise trash-media concerns about the unknown in our midst. The governing party promotes human trafficking by its anti-immigration policies.

We support smugglers and fuel their activities by denying remotely adequate safe routes to the desperate, while the distinction between economic and political migrant satisfies the intellect only of a simple Tory collaborator in racist policies.

Governments such as the one supported by our silence have abandoned their mandate to legislate for the decent people of this country! “ We are not doomed, but we have to try to smash the forces that have an interest in keeping us silent.”, says Rami Elhanan in Colum McCann’s ‘Apeirogon’.

I am reminded of a letter in the Guardian in 2016 from a Durham couple: - "Certainly, the more closely we approximate to North Korea, the more in control we shall feel."

Let us demand that our MPs raise their voices against this vicious policy contemptuously designed merely to distract by reinforcing prejudice and hatred.