We must work together with our European colleagues to tackle the root causes of this crisis
I was encouraged to see Jeremy Corbyn spend last weekend visiting refugee camps in Calais and elsewhere, so he could witness first-hand the awful conditions that refugees endure every day.
When I visited Calais in August of last year, I was appalled by what Jeremy rightly called the ‘fetid’ state of the camp, whose population has now reached 3,000 refugees including many children. Six months of rain, snow and an expanding population have made what was already a desperate humanitarian situation much worse.
So far the UK has largely stood apart from other European countries faced with exactly the same refugee crisis to deal with – the largest movement of refugees since the Second World War. It took months for the UK government to liaise properly with French authorities and to start making the security changes necessary to improve safety in Calais, and when they did respond it was too little, and too late.
The Channel tunnels for freight and passengers are still regularly disrupted and refugees are still dying while trying to get through this incredibly unsafe route.
Rather than supporting attempts to have a coordinated EU response, David Cameron has, time and time again, positioned himself at the sidelines. Yes, the UK has an opt-out from EU asylum policy, but countries like Ireland which also have such an opt-out have supported, rather than jeered at, EU initiatives for emergency location of refugees from the worst-hit European countries.
Even when it comes to the no-brainer of better coordinating search and rescue, Cameron only abandoned his previous objections when he was forced to by public horror at the death toll in the Mediterranean.
In the next few months, we will see temperatures rise and seas calm, which means we could witness even more desperate families trying to make the perilous journey to Europe. We risk a repeat of Operation Stack on our roads and yet more casualties trying to perilously cross into our country under the Channel, and into other EU member states over the Med and through Turkey.
We must work together with our European colleagues to tackle the root causes of this crisis and bring peace and stability to Libya, Syria and Eritrea. Federica Mogherini, the EU’s foreign policy lead, has been quietly but effectively making some progress here; sadly, the UK government has largely been conspicuous by its absence.
We also need to engage with attempts to relocate those refugees who are already here in the EU; and to improve security and safety in Calais, now effectively the UK’s border with France.
The Dover-Calais route is essential not just for the UK but for all of Europe, yet it has been left down to Labour politicians to try and work with our European partners to improve the situation, in the absence of UK government action.
We need to acknowledge that the best – and only – way of responding to the refugee crisis is to work with other countries to solve it, and that the UK can do this by participating in, and trying to shape, EU initiatives. Cameron can act like a latter-day King Canute if he likes, trying to ignore developments in the rest of the world. Thankfully, on this issue Jeremy Corbyn’s feet are much more firmly on the ground.
Anneliese Dodds is Labour MEP for the South East of England
62 Responses to “Comment: Corbyn gets it right on refugees”
Stoney Huff
I don’t hear Cameron or other EU leaders condemning Russia for pouring gasoline (furious bombing) on Syria leading up to the “Peace Talks” so much so that Assad now refuses to concede anything – “Surrender or STARVE” is how he puts it.
The TWO MILLION REFUGEES heading your way in 2016 – you can thank one man, Vladimir Putin.
Rowdie111
He is 100% cynical in everything he does….he knows that what is going on in Calais and all over Europe is something that touches the heart strings of everyone and so he as ever…appeals to those emotions. ” Surely we can’t in the 21st Century, we can’t have people living in such squalor ”
He know full well like the rest of us that there are millions living in such squalor the world over.
What does he want us to do …a Frau Merkel and invite them all to come to the UK? It is just cheap electioneering posing he does.
vote.leave
the moment we vote to leave the shambles that is the eu we can safely forget about the whole immigration issue and make our own minds up what we want to do.
we may well choose to be generous and allow quite a number in but we also have the god given right to not let any in at all.
the biggest problem we have in this country at the moment is our political class. a bunch of people who don’t work for us, don’t care about us and take a great delight in spending OUR money as if it grew on trees. these wasters seem to think it’s ok to flood the country with any number of immigrants without any thought as to how or where we would accommodate them. no consideration of the strain on our public services.
what i find most stupefying is the fact that a labour mp wants MORE immigration when it’s blindingly obvious that it’s their own core vote who will have to put up with higher rents, longer nhs waiting time, never getting a council house or any other social housing, their kids being taught inclasses of 50 or more and of course a hefty tax bill to pay for all this largesse.
Bradley B.
We also should not ignore this video. Its importance is not in the content but in the number of views in the space of three days. Britain First vids have climbed from low tens of thousands viewings to this one – over 800,000 over the last 12 months. Imagine if labour could do that.
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=fA6XcyXsxXU
britbob
It is important to sort out the genuine refuges from the economic migrants. Corbyn means well but is ill advised. He’s also got it wrong in respect of the Falklands and has swallowed Argentina’s mythical Malvinas claims without checking the facts. Always advisable to Google: ‘Falklands – Some Relevant International Law’ first.