Labour peer who fled Nazis as little one hits out at asylum system shake-up – ‘improper path’
Lord Alf Dubs said the changes unveiled by the Home Secretary Shabana Mahmood on Monday, which has also caused unease among Labour MPs, will make the UK less welcome
A Labour peer who fled the Nazis as a child has hit out at the government’s hardline shake-up of asylum rules – saying it is the “wrong direction”.
Lord Alf Dubs said the changes unveiled by the Home Secretary Shabana Mahmood on Monday, which has also caused unease among Labour MPs, will make the UK less welcome. Plans announced yesterday include ordering officials to stop being hesitant about kicking out families including children and refugees having their status reviewed every two-and-a-half years – meaning they could be removed if their homeland is deemed to be safe.
Ms Mahmood told MPs in the Commons it is an “uncomfortable truth” that the UK’s “generous” asylum support is drawing people to the UK. But Lord Alf Dubs, a campaigner for refugees’ rights who fled Prague in 1939 as part of the Kindertransport, said he was “depressed” about the measures unveiled.
READ MORE: Shabana Mahmood warns of asylum ‘uncomfortable truth’ as plan sparks backlashREAD MORE: 14 major asylum system changes as Shabana Mahmood announces draconian shake-up
He told BBC Radio 4’s Today the government’s plans will “increase tensions in local communities, and will make this country less welcoming.” He added: “I find it upsetting that we’ve got to adopt such a hard line – what we need is a bit of compassion in our politics, and I think that some of the measures were going in the wrong direction, they won’t help.
“The hard line approach will not, in fact, deter people from coming here – at least on the basis of people I spoke to in Calais, for example – I don’t think it will deter them. There are some minor things in the proposal which will be okay but on the whole I think we’re going in the wrong direction – very much so.”
Told of families with children facing deportation, he added: “To use children as a weapon as the Home Secretary is doing I think is a shabby thing. I’m lost for words frankly. My concern was if we remove people who have come here, what happens if they’ve had children in the meantime?
“What are we supposed to do with the children who are born here, who’ve been to school here, who are part of our community and society? We can’t just say ‘out you go because your parents don’t claim to be here’.”
And he warned against proposals to send refugees back to their homeland if the country is deemed “safe” by the UK officials in the future. Lord Dubs said: “I think we need to be very careful before we return people to ‘safe’ countries to make sure they are safe.
“Otherwise, we are simply doing the worst thing of all, which is sending people back into danger. We’re a better country than that.”
Defending the measures on Tuesday, the Cabinet minister Steve Reed said all Labour MPs were elected on a manifesto to “securing our borders”. He said: “Compassion isn’t all on one side of this argument.
“If you look at take children… then over the last year 14 children who were put on those dangerous dinghies and pushed out onto the English Channel lost their lives when those boats capsized. What kind of system is it if it has within it incentives that encourage parents to put their child on such a perilous journey on the open seas that can result in that kind of harm and death in extreme cases.”
