compassionate yet controlled
Passboat by Grmalem, Youth Ambassador
By Rishan, Media Ambassador
As the refugee crisis escalates across the world, the UK faces urgent pressure to reassess its immigration policies. The solution is the introduction of humanitarian visas, which would offer safe passage for those in need.
There has been much talk of safe passage; it comes up in particular every time innocent lives are lost at sea (most recently on 5 October with the deaths of four people, including a two-year-old boy), but there is little explanation as to how a scheme would work.
Here is our focused approach to humanitarian visas - the only answer to this terrible and worsening crisis.
We believe the visas should focus on family reunification and unaccompanied young people, with a particular emphasis on prioritising vulnerable individuals. This aligns with the UN Convention on Refugees, which calls for heightened protections for these populations.
The urgency for such reforms has been recently underscored by not only the tragedy of 5 October, but those of 14/15 September, when eight people perished while attempting to cross the English Channel, and 3 September, when 12 more died, including six children and a pregnant woman. The total number of Channel deaths this year is 52.
And of course, there’s the ongoing and developing refugee/humanitarian crises in Lebanon, where so many children and families are being forced to flee their homes. And then there’s Gaza…
Refugees are forced to undertake dangerous and desperate measures in search of safety. Any loss of life is a stark reminder of the need for safe and secure routes as an alternative for those seeking refuge in the UK.
This issue has long been raised. In 2021, when Yvette Cooper was Chair of the Home Affairs Select Committee, she asked the-then Conservative Home Secretary (Priti Patel) what the replacement would be for previous "safe, legal" routes, including The Dubs Amendment (which ended in 2020) and the Dublin III Regulations, which ended when the UK left the EU (also 2020).
Ms Cooper is quoted as saying: "Ministers promised us they would put in place safe and legal routes in replacement, but they haven't done so, and things are not working. So talking about safe, legal routes isn't good enough if they don't materialise in practice.
“Does the Home Secretary not accept that, especially when it comes to vulnerable children and teenagers, the lack of safe legal routes to rejoin family will drive more of them into the arms of dangerous traffickers and make the situation much worse."
Three years later, Ms Cooper is now the Home Secretary and it is in her power to resolve this issue.
She has outlined plans to “smash the criminal gangs" that send boats across the channel, but this remains a theoretical approach which does not address the harsh reality.
news.sky.com/story/is-it-really-possible-to-smash-the-smuggling-gangs-1321059
Despite efforts to crack down on these gangs, more and more people are risking - and losing - their lives trying to reach safety. The recent deaths are a tragic reminder that current policies, which focus solely on stopping the boats, fail to address the root causes driving refugees into such dangerous situations.
Humanitarian - or refugee - visas offer a way forward, according to UNHCR(UK)
This model has been successfully implemented in countries such as Australia, allowing refugees to apply for visas from outside the country. Importantly, these visas could be introduced in alignment with the government's proposed cap system, ensuring that compassion and security work hand-in-hand.
By offering safe routes, the UK can not only prevent tragic losses of life but also uphold its moral and international obligations to protect the world's most vulnerable populations.
This is a unique opportunity to break the stalemate regarding safe and legal routes and the political rhetoric regarding Channel crossings. The introduction of humanitarian visas would represent a compassionate yet controlled response to the refugee crisis, allowing the UK to offer safety to those in desperate need while maintaining a structured immigration system.