HOSTILE ENVIRONMENT and TARGETS - the Jersey dimension.
“Hostile
Environment” and “Targets” are words that have brought down the UK Home
Secretary Amber Rudd. She has resigned.
Britain has
suddenly woken up to the reality of the obscene policies that lie behind such
words and has conveniently labelled this as the “Windrush” problem after the
ship that brought in about 600 Jamaican ( and some Polish) immigrants to London
in 1948.
Unfortunately the
penny has not yet dropped in Jersey (or Guernsey) where the policy of creating
a “Hostile Environment” for “immigrants” has been accepted for decades and is
being enforced now with greater enthusiasm than ever.
During the current
Jersey General Election there is hardly a candidate who does not propose the
application of even harsher “immigration controls”.
Coupled to this is
the demand for “targets” of the number allowed in each year and for a maximum
population “target” to be achieved.
Making life
unbearable so that “immigrants” leave the territory should be so obviously unacceptable
to any decent person but where election votes are concerned such values can be
trampled on with impunity.
Of course in the UK
the pretence that it is “illegal immigrants” that are the “target” has now been
exposed as wholly false because the use and mis-use of deportation powers and other
punishments have been widely inflicted on almost anybody whose face did not fit
the “British” profile.
In part of course,
this prejudiced application of arbitrary controls has been fuelled by the
campaigning of such groups as UKIP and the BREXIT referendum and its continuing
aftermath.
In the UK,
landlords, employers, the NHS, Charities, banks and many more have been sucked
into the “policing” role of demanding ID cards and police checks to help create
an underclass of “foreign”, mainly ethnic origin workers and their families,
vulnerable to exploitation with limited access to the social and welfare safety
nets.
Those persons in
abusive relationships with partners, employers or landlords are often so
intimidated that they do not seek help from the Police or other agencies.
UK Immigration laws
do apply in the Channel Islands but how they are actually administered is
vague.
Deportations from
the Islands are usually made known only when a person enters the territory
illegally and is arrested at the Ports – usually from St Malo.
However, the next
stage of UK controls that demand English language tests, for example, will be
in force here and will be added to the disgracefully discriminatory housing and
work restrictions that are already in force in the Islands. Those “immigrant”
persons who fail the language test – we are told - may be deported from the UK
and presumably the Channel Islands too.
Furthermore,
Senator Routier’s extraordinary Jersey “population control” measures based upon
10 months or 4 years work permits will be added to the controlling mix. These
will apply to ALL so called immigrants into Jersey whether they are British
from the UK or “foreign” from EU or any other “non EU” but “foreign” place
around the globe.
The status of
persons from the BOTs (British Overseas Territories) arriving in the CIs for
work or play is not clear.
How the UK
government will be induced to approve of such legislation which adds to the
existing 5 years (work) and 10 years (housing) qualifications is anybody’s guess.
The Guernsey
government already has had to relax recently introduced and restrictive
regulations based upon short-term “work permits” because they caused so many
workers to leave the Island. Some of these workers – rather like “Windrush”
immigrants - were long term residents of Guernsey.
It was the loss of
workers and complaints from business that stimulated the panic changes.
Not any sudden
discovery of a lost morality.
But evidently, The
Channel Islands have been operating policies specifically designed to create a
“hostile environment” for decades and the deliberate intention has been to make
life so difficult that many (so called) immigrants leave after a few years.
In other words they
do not become established in order to claim the benefits of the Social Security
and Income Tax or other impositions that they have paid and gain no status in
the job market or to obtain proper housing accommodation.
They are second
class residents by design.
The Jersey system
already requires that all new arrival must obtain a “registration card” for a
fee from the Social Security Department and this must be shown before taking employment.
Jobs for new
arrivals (except special “key workers”) are generally restricted to those
officially described as “low skilled” and not in demand by “locals” – such as
catering, cleaning, tourism or agriculture.
After 5 years in
such employment a person can enter the general employment market and claim
Social Security benefits but there is no unemployment benefit payable in Jersey.
New arrivals are
also restricted to lodgings type accommodation for 10 years continuous
residence. All resident are supposed to notify changes of employer or home address
to the Social Security Department and registration cards must be shown to
employers and landlords.
Under the new
Routier plan, “immigrant” workers will be required either to leave after about
10 months (seasonal workers) whilst longer term employed must leave after 4
years.
Thus neither
category will progress to the 5 year (work and benefits) or 10 years (housing)
qualifications sector.
The poor standards
of housing accommodation currently available to the 13,000 resident “non quals”
workers and their children have not gone entirely unnoticed.
The recent death of
a farm worker in his accommodation has highlighted the dilemma and the Independent
Jersey Care Inquiry Report (into child abuse since 1945) drew particular
attention to the social problems created by such discriminatory policies.
It has featured in
several past election campaigns and politicians have promised to deal with the
problem and the allied lack of security, low pay and substandard working
conditions.
So far there is
little actual improvement to be seen although some legislation is now in place
regarding the standards of properties to let.
Yet, the “hostile environment” is not
a critical feature of the current Jersey election but rather - as already
referred to - there is almost a competition among many candidates to put forward the most repressive
policies that purport to limit population growth and preserve jobs and housing accommodation for
“locals.”
What might happen
as a result of BREXIT is also uncertain.
Whether there will
be “free movement” across European borders is still being discussed in London but
where those borders might be, whether visas will be required and if the “Common
Travel Area” might survive are all uncertain.
What future relationships
might exist for the Crown Dependencies with the UK, the EU and the rest of the
world is not determined.
The status quo will
not prevail.
So far it has been
suggested that all those “EU” nationals resident in the UK and the Islands must
apply for “settled status” and will thus have a “right to remain” but how this
will relate to their dependents in other places, future children, marriages
across nationalities or gender or changed circumstances and many other factors,
is not at all clear.
Because of the
difficulties already found in recruiting workers, the Islands are suggesting
that (having virtually exhausted the supply from the UK and the EU) recruits
might be found from such as Kenya or the Ukraine who are willing to accept the
low pay and poor working conditions instead.
This seems very
unlikely – even if the new post BREXIT arrangements with the UK and the EU
allow it.
There are about 2
million Filipinos in the Middle East. Many are exploited and abused.
The Philippines
government has responded to the death of 7 workers in Kuwait by banning
nationals from taking up “low skilled” jobs in that country. The ban may be
extended to other countries even though there is a great shortage of employment
in the Philippines.
The artificial
creation of a “hostile environment” for so called immigrants in Jersey is
totally unacceptable and any population control policies based upon “targets”
needs to be examined very carefully with Human Rights standards, rather than
profit from growth, being uppermost in the minds of those who promote them.
The "Empire Windrush" made just one voyage in 1948 carrying Jamaicans and some Polish refugees to London.
She caught fire and sank in 1954. Four crew members died.
We should burn the "Hostile Environment" policy for Jersey in her memory.
