AN asylum expert has broken down “once and for all” why refugees coming to Britain do not stop in France or the first safe country they reach.
In a resurfaced clip, Zoe Gardner – who worked as a policy adviser at the Joint Council for the Welfare of Immigrants – explained why refugees claimed asylum in the UK if they passed through safe countries on their way to British shores.
She was responding to a question from the Tory MP Jonathan Gullis, a staunch proponent of the Government’s Nationality and Borders Act, which effectively criminalises asylum seekers and paves the way for the controversial Rwanda deportation scheme.
“If they really are refugees, why don’t they have to stay in the first safe country they reach?” “Why don’t they just claim asylum in France?” Here is my answer, once & for all. To Jonathan Gullis, and to everyone else who ever wondered.#RefugeesWelcome pic.twitter.com/JZuTi4hkqG
— Zoe Gardner (@ZoeJardiniere) February 22, 2023
The exchange came during a meeting of the bill committee in September 2021.
Gardner said the UK received less asylum claims than France and that most refugees remained in the developing world with a small minority travelling to the west.
Shunting responsibility to other countries would ultimately result in the international refugee protection system throughout Europe crumbling, she said.
Gullis asked: “If these people in Calais are legitimate, why are they not claiming asylum in France, Italy, Spain or Greece? Why do they need to come to the United Kingdom?”
Gardner responded: “The vast majority of people who seek asylum worldwide, firstly, 86% of refugees and displaced people worldwide remain in the country neighbouring the one they have fled.
“So 86% of people remain in developing countries. France received three times as many asylum applications as we did last year. Most people stop as soon as they feel safe.
“But people who are making their way to England and who specifically wish to the UK do so because they have ties to this country, because they have either served with our military, as is the case of people from Afghanistan or have family members… or speak the language because of our colonial history and have other ties of kinship and history here.
“So there are people who have legitimate ties to the UK and there is no good reason why they should particularly have their claims assessed in France, if they do not wish to.
“It doesn’t really work for us to say to the French that, given that we’re located geographically slightly to the west of you none of these refugees are our responsibility and they’re all on you because France can say the same thing. And then Italy can say the same thing and then the entire international refugee protection will crumble.”
According to the UN refugee agency, 69% of refugees and “other people in need of international protection” stayed in countries neighbouring their country of origin and 74% of refugees were hosted in low to middle-income countries.
The world’s poorest countries provide asylum to 22% of the total, according to the United Nations High Commissioner for Refugees.
Turkey hosts the most refugees – some 3.7 million people. Colombia is next, hosting 2.5m, with Germany third at 2.2m.
Pakistan hosts 1.5m refugees while Uganda hosts 1.5m.
