“We are sinking”
In November 2021, Tuvalu’s foreign minister Simon Kofe spoke to world leaders by video feed at the COP26 climate talks. He was standing knee-deep in the ocean, to show how his Pacific island nation is one of many under threat from rising seas.
“[People crossing the channel in small boats] possess values which are at odds with our country.”
In April 2023, British home secretary Suella Braverman went on national radio to drum up support for her ‘illegal migration bill’. This new law would make it much harder for people escaping disaster and persecution to get protection in the UK.
These speeches happened two years and 15,000km apart. But if we want the environmental movement to win, we need to understand how they’re connected.
Right now, the climate crisis is contributing to making entire regions of the world near-impossible to live in. Droughts, floods, food shortages and dwindling water supplies are forcing people to migrate because they can no longer live on their land.
Climate change (usually combined with other factors) is already displacing millions of people. And even if we ramp up our carbon-cutting efforts, the situation will get worse before it gets better.
How will we treat those whose homelands have been made unliveable? This isn’t a question that UK environmentalists can ignore.
No matter how much the government tries to deny it, this country has a responsibility to welcome vulnerable people seeking safety. As the birthplace of the industrial revolution and the ruler of a vast empire, the UK led the world into the fossil fuel age. Many in this country got immensely rich, even as they sowed the seeds of the climate crisis. That includes companies which still operate here today.
The exploitative mindset that sent ships out to plunder India and Africa is the same one that fuels the fires of climate change today. The environmental movement needs to challenge that mindset, and work to build something better.
The illegal migration bill, explained
People seek asylum when they fear they are unable to live safely or freely in their own country. People who are threatened or persecuted have a right to leave their country and seek refuge elsewhere.
Under the new illegal migration bill, almost all asylum-seekers, including their children, who do not have a safe or legal way to get here are likely to be blocked from seeking asylum in the UK.
If the bill is approved in parliament, it will give the government new powers to detain people – including pregnant women and children – for coming to the UK in small boats. They can then be put on a plane and removed from the UK.
In practice, this will mean sending victims of violence, conflict, or climate disasters either back to the danger they’re fleeing, or to third countries that may send them back. It will also affect asylum claims and stop people without ID documents getting protection from modern slavery.
The bill currently allows for the detention of pregnant women indefinitely, ending the current 72-hour time limit that was put in place as a safeguard in 2016.