ANALYSIS: The tragic deaths in Essex have sparked fresh debate over Home Office refugee policy
5 min read
“It was only a matter of time before it ended in tragedy” is how Thurrock MP Jackie Doyle-Price reacted to the shocking discovery in her Essex town.
“Sadly, this is not the first time people have been found in metal containers in my constituency. I am sorry to say that it is an all too regular occurrence.”
Eight women and 31 men - believed to be Chinese nationals - were found dead in the back of a lorry in Grays on Tuesday, and while the full facts are yet to be revealed, it has pushed the horror of human trafficking and the plight of refugees into the spotlight.
The refrigerated trailer which held the victims had travelled from Zeebrugge in Belgium - a known port for people smuggling - to the docks in Purfleet. A 25-year-old man from Northern Ireland has been arrested on suspicion of murder and officers have raided three properties in County Armagh.
Earlier this month, the Home Office published findings that there has been "significant progress" on tackling modern slavery and human trafficking in the last year.
In the Commons there was a rare moment of unity to condemn the horrific event, but debate also turned to the wider context of the grim discovery.
“The Opposition have long argued that the Government should establish safe and legal routes for genuine refugees to make their way here,” Shadow Home Secretary Diane Abbott said.
“If they do not, I fear there may be further tragedies like this.”
The SNP’s Stuart C. McDonald added: “Does the Home Secretary accept that a sole focus—an obsession almost—on border securitisation will never stop desperate people using desperate means and routes to try to get here?
“In fact, such a focus simply means desperate people taking even more desperate and dangerous routes.”
Ms Doyle-Price described the issue as a “multinational problem” that needs international partnerships to stop “evil” traffickers.
Beefed-up security at the ports of Dover and Calais has also been blamed for pushing illegal traders to try other routes into the UK, with the national police lead on modern slavery and human trafficking, Shaun Sawyer, admitting to the BBC “you can’t turn the United Kingdom into a fortress”.
Beth Gardiner-Smith, head of the Safe Passage charity, told PoliticsHome the best way to break the business model of people smugglers is to boost the number of safe, legal routes.
The group, which works with child refugees across Europe, was among campaigners who gathered outside the Home Office’s Marsham Street HQ for a vigil to remember the victims on Thursday evening.
Existing routes include an EU regulation known as ‘Dublin III’, which allows children to join family members living in the UK, but the charity points out "they aren't many" ways to find sanctuary in the UK legally.
But asylum seekers can apply to stay in the UK as a refugee when they enter the country, even if they have done so illegally.
According to the UN migration agency's Missing Migrants Project, 97 people have died embarking on perillous routes across Europe so far in 2019.
Ms Gardiner-Smith added: “While the circumstances of their journey remain unknown, this horrific loss of life is a stark reminder of the extreme and too often deadly dangers that people are exposed to on journeys to this country.
“As a charity working with child refugees across Europe we know that when safe and legal routes aren't available, people are more likely to attempt dangerous journeys.
“We call on the Government and Priti Patel to act now to increase the number of safe, legal routes for those who need them and ensure existing routes from Europe including family reunion aren't closed as a result of Brexit.”
Claire Moseley from Care4Calais, who also took part in the Home Office vigil, said it has become “near impossible” to come to the UK in a safe way and the Joint Council for the Welfare of Immigrants accused the Government of being "ultimately responsible" for the fate of the 39 dead.
"Nobody should be in any doubt that the ultimate responsibility for these deaths lies with government policy which has deliberately shut down safe and legal routes to the UK," they said.
"We need more than empty expressions of sadness and shock from Priti Patel and Boris Johnson, we need a commitment to opening safe and legal routes to the UK and quick decisions for people seeking to make a better life for themselves in the UK."
According to the Refugee Council, the number of asylum applications to the UK increased by 21% in the year ending June 2019, with 32,693 requests made.
A total 18,519 asylum seekers were granted protection in the UK, and 40% were children.
Home Secretary Priti Patel told MPs: "At the end of the day, we must do the right thing as a country and uphold the right kind of values, to ensure that particularly for those who are fleeing war zones, conflicts and some of the most horrendous situations we see in the world, we are able to give people asylum in the right kind of way, which is exactly what we do."
No pledge to review provisions for asylum seekers, however, has been given.
While the true nature of what led to the deaths of the 39 Chinese men and women remains unknown, the emerging details bear similar resemblance to another shocking case 19 years ago.
In 2000, 58 Chinese nationals were discovered dead in Dover, also in the back of a refrigerated unit. The lorry had been driven from Zeebrugge, Belgium.
Amnesty International commenting at the time, called it “a tragedy waiting to happen”. Sadly, it would appear that history has repeated itself with tragic consequences.
