The Tory Government's Rwanda scheme has placed the UK on a very dangerous path

Ethan Jones, director YesCymru

The United Kingdom is on a very dangerous path. Rishi Sunak’s decision to block every single reason that has been used to prevent flights, full of asylum seekers and refugees, to Rwanda has sent us further down this path.

To make this very clear, Rwanda is a country in which police shot dead 13 refugees in 2018 for protesting against cuts to food rations.

The path I’m referring to begins with an ‘F’ and it is a word many are afraid to use for fear of sounding over the top or extreme. But as calls for the UK to leave the European Court of Human Rights (ECHR) gather pace, I believe its use is justified. The ‘F’ word I am talking about is fascism.

Fascism does not arrive suddenly in jackboots, it creeps in with struggling governments and embeds itself in the mainstream political discourse of the state. When governments make drastic and often poorly thought through decisions based upon self-preservation, short termism and cronyism; that is when fascism starts to snowball.

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Vulnerable people

The United Kingdom is a state that is prepared to round up some of the most vulnerable people on the planet and send them to Rwanda, against their will, as if they were cattle.

Forget all the nonsense about “fighting age men” and “economic migrants” that you hear from weird little TV channels, washed up commentators looking to be noticed and shadily funded organisations masquerading as Think Tanks.

The vast majority of these people that are being vilified have their applications accepted; they are genuine bona fide asylum seekers and refugees.

The UK Government has manufactured this crisis by making it impossible for the vast majority of asylum seekers and refugees to arrive on these shores by conventional means, having closed safe routes.

As with every demographic on the planet, without exception, there is a small minority of ‘bad apples,’ however these have been weaponised by a struggling Government in Westminster, a power hungry Suella Braverman and a formidable machine of client media.

This has whipped up some ordinary people in the UK to hate on these vulnerable people and believe extreme collective punishment is necessary. This is an ecosystem in which fascism begins to thrive.

Plaid Cymru’s Westminster Leader, Liz Saville-Roberts MP stated; “if refugees can be denied human rights, the rest of us can too.”

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Rhetoric

That statement should flag up as a concern in all of our minds, even those of you who may have been seduced by the rhetoric vilifying these people. This is where concerns of fascism should be clear and obvious to anyone that’s awake.

If this goes ahead, what will a government desperate to cling onto power do next? What will they do if our human right of freedom of assembly becomes politically inconvenient for them?

Well the former Home Secretary, Suella Braverman, has already put the building blocks in place there with her introduction of new draconian policing powers.

What if they decide our human right to freedom of expression becomes politically inconvenient to them and then our human right to a fair trial? You see this is the road the UK is currently marching down draped in red, white and blue. If one domino falls against the human rights of refugees, then what domino falls next?

Complicit

This leaves Wales as complicit in the UK Government’s behaviour, as long as we are members of the United Kingdom then we have a hand in all of this and whatever its consequences are. I am very uncomfortable with the path the UK Government is now committed to and I am not reassured by the weakness of the Opposition to counter these extreme policies.

I find myself increasingly uncomfortable with the Westminster political elite and increasingly aware of a gaping chasm of political divergence between Wales and other parts of the current UK. Our Senedd has a majority committed to Wales being a ‘Nation of Sanctuary’ whilst Westminster is the polar opposite.

We must all be awake and vigilant of all threats to all of our human rights, that is why the ECHR is there to act as a safeguard against rogue governments. Moves to take these rights away impact us all, regardless of the rhetoric of targeting refugees and asylum seekers.

The United Kingdom is on a very dangerous path but Wales can, and must, take the decision to step off and say “not in our name.”