Shoot Me for my Song -or change the words

[Stavros]

The UK's Home Secretary has given a speech at the American Enterprise Institute in Washington DC. Speaking to an audience made up of journalists, because presumably politicians had better things to do with their time, Suella Braverman is attempting to sound intellectual by challenging the words that make up the international definition of a Refugee seeking asylum from a life-threatening regime where they live.

Not intellectual but ineffectual, not challenging, but insulting. The overwhelming situation, she would have us believe, is an existential threat posed by people who are merely being discriminated against because they are female, or gay, and this is insufficient to merit the status of a refugee seeking asylum.

The existential threat does exist -in Iran, in Uganda, in Afghanistan, so to minimize the threat, but go further and seek a change to international law speaks to a different, domestic UK agenda where Braverman wants to be seen as the Toughest, Meanest Home Secretary determined to stop people coming to the UK who, to quote a previous comment she made, 'Do not share our values'. How does anyone prove they are gay and from Iran? There may be genuine issues with fakes, but to overhaul the entire system because some people cheat at it is weak policy and destined to either fail, or make a difficult situation worse.

She loathes Multi-culturalism, a breathtaking position to take for someone living in a country that is officially Christian while practising Buddhism, not to mention her parents to arrived in the UK in the 1960s from Mauritius and Kenya.

This is a summary of her proposals which, I suspect, will go nowhere, like her career in politics-

• ""Uncontrolled immigration, inadequate integration, and a misguided dogma of multiculturalism have proven a toxic combination for Europe over the last few decades", she said
• Multiculturalism has failed, she said and "you can see it play out on the streets of cities all over Europe. From Malmo, to Paris, Brussels, to Leicester"
• Immigration has been "too much, too quick, with too little thought given to integration and the impact on social cohesion"
• And she says uncontrolled and illegal migration is an "existential challenge for the political and cultural institutions of the West"
• She asks whether the 1951 UN Refugee Convention "is fit for our modern age or in need of reform"
• "We will not be able to sustain an asylum system if in effect, simply being gay, or a woman, and fearful of discrimination in your country of origin, is sufficient to qualify for protection"
• "We are living in a new world bound by outdated legal models," she concluded with. "It’s time we acknowledge it". "
• Suella Braverman criticises multiculturalism as she queries refugee rules - BBC News

See also
We Refugees - We Refugees Poem by Benjamin Zephaniah (poemhunter.com)

[Stavros]

"The UN’s refugee agency has rebuked Suella Braverman after she claimed that world leaders had failed to make wholesale reform of human rights laws because of fears of being branded “racist or illiberal”.The UNHCR issued a highly unusual statement on Tuesday defending the 1951 refugee convention and highlighting the UK’s record asylum claim backlog."
UN rebukes Suella Braverman over her attack on refugee convention | Suella Braverman | The Guardian

[filghy2]

According to the stats the UK is well down the list of refugee destinations, particularly relative to population. By 2022 the UK had a total of 1.82 refugees per 1000 population, which is less than most other European countries. This hardly suggests that they over-running the country or being a major contributor to social problems.
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/List_o...gee_population