During the early 2000s the UK was suffering from one of its regular bouts of anti-refugee hysteria. The then Labour government, led by Tony Blair, had stripped people seeking asylum of the right to access state benefits and tried to ban refugee children from going to school. The all too familiar justification was that these policies would protect the asylum system from ‘abuse’ by ‘bogus asylum-seekers’.
This 2002 contribution by Yasmin Alibhai-Brown explored how the tide was turning against refugees across Europe, as populist anti-immigration politicians gained traction. Condemning the racism driving this movement, she highlighted the disparities between Europe’s response to incoming white South Africans compared to those from Kurdistan, China and Sudan. The frontiers remain selectively porous today, seen in the opening of hearts and borders across Europe to Ukrainian refugees while Afghans and Syrians fleeing similar horrors clamber into small boats. As leaders of the rich world unleash ever-more draconian measures to keep out the ‘wrong’ kind of refugee, this piece from two decades ago remains depressingly relevant.
People attending a Holocaust Memorial Day in London in 2001 will
