Circuit error messages must have flashed before Priti Patel’s eyes when it emerged that Olympic star Mo Farah is an “illegal immigrant”.
It will be impossible for her to compute that she can’t vilify the man and have him deported because, unfortunately, he is a national hero. Had his life story taken a less triumphant turn, Mo would have now been facing the full wrath of the Home Office.
It would not matter that he was trafficked here and is actually a victim. Ultimately, as with most asylum seekers, he would be allowed to stay but the system is designed to ensure he would be put through hell first.
That’s the reality for thousands of refugees, asylum seekers and trafficking victims in the UK who are tyrannised by the hostile environment policy.
Sir Mo has revealed that he was trafficked to the UK as a child, forced to work as a domestic servant and hide his real name of Hussein Abdi Kahin. Xenophobia is Tory currency, as was shown by the campaign speeches of the Tory leaders currently in a race to the bottom.
It must be frustrating the hell out of them that they can’t hang Mo out to dry. The vast majority of the country stand proudly behind Mo but across social media the racists are airing the bile the Tory candidates wish they could. Some no marks are even calling for him to be stripped of his knighthood.
Kathy Gyngell, the editor of The Conservative Woman (don’t bother reading it), suggested Mo’s story “smells very odd” and asked whether he was given a knighthood “under false pretences”.
So... sleazy, tax-dodging rogues like Philip Green should keep their honours but not the most successful British track athlete in modern Olympic Games history. For those wondering why it has taken so long for Mo to tell his story, the likes of Gyngell is the answer.
Despite being a trafficking victim and regardless of his incredible success, Mo would have found it impossible to shift the ingrained fear in a country where the status of immigrants always feels precarious. But he has done a great service to trafficking victims, refugees and asylum seekers by speaking out.
Organisations such as the Scottish Guardianship Service deal with children every day who came here under the same harrowing circumstances that Mo did. In the last 12 years, the service has supported more than 1000 unaccompanied young people who have come to the UK – a third of whom have been trafficked.
Like him, many of these children have been forced into modern slavery and some are exploited by criminal gangs or sexually exploited.
The UK Government’s new Nationality and Borders Act will make it harder for children like him to be recognised as victims of trafficking and access the support they need. The UK should be a sanctuary for children like Mo, who fled conflict only to be exploited, but instead its brutal immigration policies victimise and disempower them further.
Such racism brought us Brexit chaos, economic damage and critical labour shortages. Despite the desperation for staff and the harm the shortages are doing to business, we still would rather have asylum seekers struggling on £5 a day than allow them to work.
It is inhumane and makes no economic sense to have asylum seekers languishing in poverty while in the hospitality industry alone there are 40,000 vacancies in Scotland. Staff shortages in hospitality are reaching “critical” levels, causing nearly 45 per cent of operators to cut trading hours or capacity and costing the industry £21billion in lost revenue.
SNP MP Carol Monaghan has proposed a Bill which would see the UK lift the ban on asylum seekers working and have us be both benefactor and beneficiary. Yet it is unlikely to become law any time soon.
It is estimated that allowing asylum seekers to work would benefit the UK economy by as much as £211.3million a year in tax and other contributions. But you won’t hear leadership candidates beating that drum when they can feed into nationalistic fervour and fear of “others”.
So much for fiscal responsibility, Rishi Sunak and your ilk.
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