In all the political drama and legal argument over the Rwanda bill, the lives of the people affected are too easily forgotten. Ministers, politicians and legal experts give media interviews without even talking about who they are: the men, women and children – our fellow human beings – who come to our shores seeking safety from countries such as Afghanistan, Iran, Sudan and Syria. Countries ravaged by war or run by totalitarian regimes that willingly torture their opponents.
It has taken the tragic news of the suspected suicide on the Bibby Stockholm to remind us all that, while we do not yet know the reasons behind this sad death or the background of the individual involved, the lives of very traumatised people are at stake. Lives that are so fragile. Lives that have had to cope with unimaginable adversity.
