‘The government wants to frame migrants as criminals' campaigner tells Andrew Castle
17 December 2022, 11:44 | Updated: 17 December 2022, 11:47
Bridget Chapman: The migrants are 'not criminals'
The government is “taunting people with the possibility of a safe route but not actually providing it” says local campaigner Bridget Chapman.
A local campaigner has told Andrew Castle this morning that the government’s language about migrants is an attempt to frame them as “criminals”.
Bridget Chapman, who is organising a demonstration in Folkestone in a call to stop the deaths in the Channel said: "The government keeps saying the word 'illegal, illegal, illegal' because they want to frame the people arriving as criminals.
“They are not criminals - they are people seeking sanctuary."
Ms Chapman added that “no human is illegal” and that “it’s not illegal to enter this country by irregular means if your purpose is to seek asylum”.
“We cannot use the fact that we are an island surrounded by water as an excuse for not doing our fair share”, she said.
This call comes after a boat carrying migrants capsized in the Channel on Wednesday morning. Around 40 people were rescued, and at least four have died.
Andrew said it was a “horror” to watch the video clip of the rescue mission.
“How do you actually enforce any regulations that you’ve got? What’s the solution?” he asked.
“The solution is to give people better options…in theory they should have a safe route to get to the UK”, the campaigner replied.
“Under the Afghan Resettlement Scheme, the government, it was revealed the other day, has resettled exactly four people”, Ms Chapman added.
The campaigner described this as “quite sadistic…kind of abandoning that country, taunting people with the possibility of a safe route but not actually providing it”.
“There’s no other option for people, if we gave them a better option, they would take it”, she said.
