Further Afield – Conflict and Migrant Boats

With conflicts on the rise, the New Statesmen described the summer of 2014 as “the summer of blood”. Ban Ki-Moon, Secretary General of the UN, himself a child refugee of the Korean War has said that “never before in UN history have we had so many refugees, displaced people and asylum seekers.”

In response to the question of whether or not the UK should have any involvement in rescue missions, the Rt Hon. Baroness Anelay of St John’s, Minister of State, Foreign and Commonwealth Office, made the rather dishonourable remark that this would only encourage more people to make the journey and so lead to more “tragic and unnecessary deaths.”

In an article in The Guardian, the Chief Executive of the Refugee Council, Maurice Wren disagreed with the Baroness, stating:

“The British government seems oblivious to the fact that the world is in the grip of the greatest refugee crisis since the second world war. People fleeing atrocities will not stop coming if we stop throwing them life-rings; ……boarding a rickety boat in Libya will remain a seemingly rational decision if you are running for your life and your country is full of flames. The only outcome of withdrawing help will be to witness more people needlessly and shamefully dying on Europe’s doorstep. The answer isn’t to build the walls of fortress Europe higher, it’s to provide more safe and legal channels for people to access protection.”

Anne Dickinson (extract from our 2014 annual report - click here to read more)