on: How To Make Asylum Seekers Feel Subhuman

Hi lovely reader,

Hope your week has started off okay. The UK is full of local lockdowns, so we have hunkered back into our little house, plodding along and figuring out our ‘new’ life as we go.

This week, I want to share with you what is happening in our little corner of the world. I absolutely love living in Wales. But I do not love the racism that we often see.

Have a read. Please comment. Please share. And please subscribe (it really helps!). If you aren’t finding these emails in your inbox, make sure to add ‘Letters from Lauren’ to your contacts, otherwise, they may go to spam.

Lauren

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If you ever visit the UK, you would be missing out if you didn’t visit the picturesque coastline of West Wales. The Atlantic’s clear water crashes against the staggard cliffs of quintessential seaside towns, all inviting people to walk along beaches and paths to appreciate her beauty. That is, unless you are one of the 230 asylum seeking men that are due to arrive at the military base near the village of Penally.

This weekend, 150 protestors and counter-protestors demonstrated outside the army camp in Penally, where up to 230 asylum seekers are planned to be housed while their asylum claims are being processed. The Home Office quickly sprung the decision on locals and the Welsh Government a few weeks ago, without warning and without permission. The decision has attracted attention from concerned locals, far-right extremists, and those that would happily welcome the idea of having the opportunity to help refugees.

When I got in touch with a Tenby local, Dave, he communicated why locals are concerned. ‘The lack of communication wasn’t good. Locals made aware of the, up to, 250 males arriving a few days before wasn’t good enough. We should have been invited to a meeting with local authorities so the facts could have been explained and any concerns raised.’ His point is valid. Penally is a small village that doesn’t have much experience with diversity or change. It would have been sensible to call for a ‘town meeting’ where locals could have had a forum to raise opinions and concerns.

However, it isn’t just the lack of communication that is a concern for locals. Many feel that the site is ‘completely inappropriate for vulnerable people who have fled terror and suffering.’ If that concern is genuine, then locals need to consider that the asylum seekers may have no choice except for the ‘inappropriate’ housing. During the COVID epidemic, asylum seekers that were already in the system have had move-on housing frozen. Claims have slowed, which has created a back-log of people that should have been moved out of temporary housing into more permanent housing. But that hasn’t happened. Meaning, that ‘fresh’ asylum seekers don’t have any temporary housing to go to- it’s full. They need a place to stay, any place, otherwise, they may become homeless as winter approaches. The army base may not be a warm, cosy home, but it is a roof over a head, with food, beautiful scenery for walking, and safety.

Some say that the infrastructure isn’t set up for asylum seekers. That there isn’t a decent surgery, things to do, or services that they can access. But these concerns are ones that should be raised to the Home Office and Local Councils as points of action, instead of reasons to turn them away.

The protests do make one wonder if the concerns for the inappropriate placement of the asylum seekers are smokescreens for xenophobia. Are locals concerned about the well-being of the 230 men that could be their neighbours, or are they fearful of how the black and brown men will affect tourism and their personal preferences?

Not only are locals protesting, but far-right extremists are using the decision to serve their own agendas. Dave continued, ‘My biggest concern isn’t of migrants arriving - it’s of the far right movement online and the pure hatred being shared. That was what really shocked me.’

The first minister of Wales, Mark Drakeford, observed the same. ‘It has led to Tenby becoming the target for hard-right extremist groups from right across the United Kingdom who've heard about this and think this is a cause that they can latch on to and exploit,’ he said. Drakeford has made it clear that he didn’t condone any threat of extremists rallying locals. ‘Those people are not welcome in Wales,’ he stated.

Extremists have filled Twitter with hate speech, which is what Dave finds most concerning. ‘If you type Tenby or Penally into a twitter search, it will take you no longer than 2 minutes to come across shocking comments. For me, the far-right movement online is more of a concern.’ He’s right. When I searched as he suggested, I came across accounts with thousands of followers, all encouraging each other that the asylum seekers view British women as ‘fair game’ and will abduct your children, stirring up fear amongst already scared locals.

Finally, there are those that are making an effort to ensure that the asylum seekers feel welcome. They have gathered both on the local beaches and near the camp, recognizing that the men that will be coming could have’ easily been them. ‘The men who are coming here, the only difference between them and us is luck, and I want to be here to welcome them,’ Sue Hagerty, one of the local counter-protesters told BBC reporters. ‘If I was in that situation and I had to flee to another country, I would hope they would be here to welcome me.’ Last week, counter-protestors wrote welcome messages and pinned them outside the army base.

The Home Office could have handled the situation better – community involvement should have happened before the decision was made. But the Home Office’s mismanagement is not an excuse to protest the housing of asylum seekers. They are humans that have rights and dignity, not inconvenient problems to be pushed onto someone or somewhere else.