Refugees are innocent

The BBC calls them ‘migrants’; the prime minister and some other media call them ‘illegal’; some Tory MPs and Nigel Farage call them ‘invaders’. They are none of those. 

Refugees: Is it them versus us?

Our poor, unemployed, homeless and disadvantaged - many in Britain think they should be helped rather than refugees.

Refugees fleeing terror, war and torture? We’re full. People here need looking after first. Charity begins at home. We don’t want them. We can’t afford them.

The anonymous haters of refugees and migrants

This week The Independent ‘Voices’ section published my article calling on Britain to ‘put a brake’ on the country becoming ‘fundamentally inward-looking and xenophobic’. 

But many of the readers’ comments responding to my article seemed to be just that: inward-looking and xenophobic.

Labour leader visits Calais and Dunkirk refugee camps

Yesterday, Britain’s Leader of the Opposition did what the Prime Minister hasn't done – he visited the squalid, dilapidated refugee camps in Calais and Dunkirk to see the situation for himself.

Asylum and the rights of unaccompanied children

In case of any doubt, the rights of unaccompanied child refugees are clearly defined in the European Union regulations that cover how EU member states should treat asylum seekers.

And contrary to reports in the media (especially the BBC, which should know better), there is no law that requires refugees to claim asylum in the first safe country they reach.

There are, however, obligations under the Dublin 3 Regulation for EU member states to take responsibility for asylum seekers who arrive in their country first.