The spectacle of a torched police van outside a Merseyside hotel, and a mob chanting “get them out” at asylum seekers cowering inside, should provoke profound soul-searching in the Home Office. Amid evidence that far-right groups are monitoring hotels accommodating migrants, and after the recent petrol bomb attack on a Dover immigration centre, Friday night’s disorder in Knowsley must be a wake-up call. Performative politics in Westminster can have real-life consequences.
As the government seeks to leverage the small-boats crisis into a vote-winning asset, its rhetoric has shamefully dehumanised vulnerable and often traumatised refugees. The home secretary, Suella Braverman, has notoriously depicted the arrival of migrants on English shores as an “invasion”. In contravention of international law, the government has chosen to criminalise asylum seekers arriving via the Channel. Rishi Sunak has made it clear that he would like to swiftly deport small-boats asylum claimants to Rwanda; sources close to him have suggested that Britain may pull out of the European convention on human rights, if the move faces legal opposition.
