RISHI SUNAK plans new laws stopping people entering the UK on small boats from claiming asylum. 

The “Illegal Migration Bill” would involve the home secretary removing ‘’as soon as reasonably practicable,” to Rwanda or a “safe third country,” anyone who arrives on a small boat.

This is the latest attempt to ramp up the scapegoating of refugees following on from the Nationality and Borders Act and the “Rwanda plan.”

In recent weeks the talk of “invasion” by Suella Braverman and the tempo of the government’s anti-refugee rhetoric has opened the door to a series of mobilisations many involving or inspired by far-right groups — targeting hotels or hostels housing refugees. 

In Knowsley, Merseyside asylum-seekers were terrorised and forced to hunker down behind barricades as police were attacked and a police van set on fire.

Since then a swathe of towns and cities have witnessed anti-refugee protests with the far right and fascist groups like Patriotic Alternative and Britain First often at their heart. 

With electoral breakthroughs by the far right in Italy, Sweden and France there is no room for complacency here.  

We stand at a crossroads.

Amid the ongoing cost-of-living crisis the government is playing with fire — stirring up hatred against the victims of war, disaster, poverty and climate chaos.

It isn’t the handful of individuals making the perilous crossing of the Channel in small boats who are the cause of a collapsing NHS, spiralling prices or sky-high heating prices. 

But cynically this government is pointing the finger of blame at some of the most vulnerable people in our society.

We must stand together to defend the right to asylum and insist the government stops opening the door to the far right.

That’s why we are supporting the #ResistRacism demonstrations on Saturday March 18 in London, Glasgow and Cardiff, supported by the TUC. 

It’s time to mobilise the anti-racist majority against both government scapegoating and the growing threat of the racist and fascist right.

Signed:
Diane Abbott MP
Jeremy Corbyn MP
Chris Stephens MP
Kim Johnson MP
Richard Burgon MP
Mick Whelan, Aslef general secretary 
Lord Hain
Rabbi Lee Wax
Mohammed Kozbar, Finsbury Park Mosque 
Mohammad Asif, Afghan Human Rights Foundation
Sabby Dhalu and Weyman Bennett, Stand Up to Racism