Britain Tries to Deter Migrants Even as It Lets More In
Britain remains among the restrictive of European
countries when it comes to responding to those seeking asylum, and is
planning more measures aimed at further deterring migrants.
Yet
even British policy has been altered in recent days to make room for
more refugees, reflecting the intense crosscurrents of the European
debate over how to balance humanitarian response with an array of forces
on the other side, from domestic politics and budget concerns to
nationalism and race.
Pressured by public outrage over the photographs of a drowned Syrian boy on a Turkish beach, Prime Minister David Cameron
pledged on Monday to take in 20,000 more refugees from Syria over five
years — a commitment that was described as a “very slim response” by the
archbishop of Canterbury, Justin Welby, especially as France promised
to accept 24,000 over the next two years and Germany talked of taking
500,000 a year.
But
Mr. Cameron’s Conservative government remains under intense pressure to
further restrict immigration, against the backdrop of a fight over
whether Britain should remain in the European Union, whose stated
commitment to the free flow of people has long been at odds with
Britain’s desire to tightly control its own borders.
The
rise of right-wing parties opposed to immigration and globalization,
and growing public sentiment against bringing in more newcomers, have
resulted in policies that make it difficult to enter Britain and even
harder to secure asylum status once in the door.
Many
newcomers encounter meager benefits, stringent living conditions, long
waits for processing and a hard-line stance on what justifies asylum.
“Britain
has probably become one of the harshest countries for asylum seekers in
Europe if we think in terms of criteria like access to territory,
refugee recognition rates, the administrative process, available
benefits and conditions of detention and removal,” said Alexander Betts,
director of the Refugee Studies Center at Oxford University.
Still,
the government plans more restrictive measures this autumn in a new
immigration bill aimed at further deterring future migrants. Proposals
include cutting benefits for asylum seekers, who now live on the
equivalent of about $8 a day. Immigrants found to be working illegally
would face six months in prison, and asylum seekers could be immediately
deported. Companies hiring them would also be punished.
Britain
has also decided not to adopt new European Union directives on the
reception and protection of asylum seekers, which impose time limits on
detention and grant them access to jobs.
The
high bar for securing asylum has come as a shock to some, like Huruy,
29, a former soldier from Eritrea, who is appealing his denial.
“I was angry,” he said at a center to aid asylum seekers in Sheffield, where he has been living while he presses his appeal.
A
thin man with a deep crescent-shaped scar between his eyebrows, his
cheeks scarred from the sun, Huruy said he was repeatedly warned of the
dangers he would face fleeing to Britain: Eritrean border guards would
kill him, Sudanese Bedouins would attack him, smugglers would steal his
money and leave him to die in the Sahara.Traveling in Europe’s River of Migrants
Thousands of migrants and refugees are desperately pushing
their way into Europe. A team of New York Times journalists is
documenting the journey.
If
he made it that far, Islamic State militants in Libya would “chop his
head off like a chicken,” or he would drown in the Mediterranean like
hundreds of others.
He
managed to survive those hazards across five countries, one desert and
two seas, and was lucky enough to be rescued after the Europe-bound
cargo ship that carried him in December capsized, drowning those who had
not already died of suffocation.
But he was not prepared to be refused asylum by Britain, the country where he sought refuge, he said.
He
said he pleaded with the officers who found him hidden in the back of a
truck entering Britain through the Channel Tunnel that he was not an
economic migrant, and that Eritrea, one of the world’s most secretive
and repressive countries, was far from safe.
“I’ve
just escaped from a very, very difficult situation,” said Huruy, who,
like others interviewed, uses an alias because he fears deportation,
though asylum seekers are allowed to stay while their cases are under
appeal.
He
has hardly landed in comfortable circumstances as he has pursued his
case. He walked an hour to the asylum aid center because he could not
afford the bus fare, and lives in asylum housing outside Sheffield,
along with migrants from Afghanistan and Iraq. He wants to work, but
cannot under British rules that discourage newcomers arriving merely for
jobs. “I don’t know what to do,” he said of his free time.
The
idea that asylum seekers “are sitting in refugee camps with a
calculator in their hands, working out the benefits they’ll get if they
choose to go to one destination rather than another is far-fetched,” Mr.
Betts said.
Yet according to a recent poll published by the BBC, a majority of the public were in favor of Britain taking in fewer refugees, or at least maintaining current acceptance rates.
In
2014, Britain granted refugee status to 14,605 applicants, fewer than a
third of the number granted by Germany and half of that by Sweden,
according to Eurostat, the European Union statistics agency. France and
Italy each granted refugee status to around 20,630 asylum seekers.
Graphic
Seeking a Fair Distribution of Refugees in Europe
German and European Union leaders have called for
European countries to share the burden of absorbing the hundreds of
thousands of migrants who have poured into the continent this summer.
Taking
size into account, Sweden accepted 3,424 asylum seekers per one million
of its population, compared to 218 for Britain, which puts Britain in
14th place among European Union countries when measured this way.
Asked
for comment, a Home Office spokesman said: “The United Kingdom has a
long and proud history of offering sanctuary to those who genuinely need
our protection.” A person not found to need protection, he said,
speaking under regular rules of anonymity, would be expected to leave
voluntarily. “Where they do not, we will seek to enforce their
departure.”
Benefits
and processing of asylum seekers also vary widely among the 28 European
Union countries, said Minos Mouzourakis of the Brussels-based European
Council on Refugees and Exiles.
According
to data compiled by the group, single adult asylum seekers in Britain
receive about 158 pounds, or about $240 a month, while Germany provides
354 euros, or about $395, although that number is to be reduced later
this year as part of changes to the law pushed by conservatives. France
provides €343.50 and Belgium €276. In Sweden, an adult asylum seeker
receives 2,130 krona, or about $252 a month, but can also seek work.
In
Britain, asylum seekers face immediate deportation if they seek work,
to ensure migrants do not arrive for economic reasons, the Home Office
said. In Germany and Austria, asylum seekers must wait three months
before seeking employment, while in France, they can get temporary work
permits.
Britain
is the only European Union country where asylum seekers can be detained
for an unlimited period while their applications are processed, Mr.
Mouzourakis said. According to Home Office statistics, 40 percent of
asylum seekers spend more than a month in detention.
Britain
detains more asylum seekers than most European countries — around
30,000 in 2013, and 3,000 at any one time, according to the Migration
Observatory, a research organization affiliated with Oxford University.
Private
contractors run seven of Britain’s 11 immigration detention centers,
where migrants are under lock and key. In Germany, there are no special
detention centers for asylum seekers, while France does not detain
anyone for the purpose of examining a claim and limits detention to 45
days. Detention is not widespread in Sweden, but it has been used more
in recent months, reflecting the pressure from an unprecedented number
of arrivals and from gathering right-wing resistance.
Advocates
for asylum seekers in Britain said the system is a challenge. Migrants
file asylum claims in Croydon, near central London, and are typically
detained in immigration removal centers while their right to entry is
assessed. Some migrants are given housing, generally in the north, in
towns like Sheffield.
Huruy and another Eritrean, Daniel, 23, live with others from Afghanistan and Iraq, each on his £5.28 a day.
Isaac,
52, from Nigeria, said he saved for seven weeks to buy a shirt. “The
whole asylum system is set up to make you so frustrated and so angry
that you give up and you want to leave,” he said.
Nenhum comentário:
Postar um comentário