Why are we surprised that yet more migrants have drowned? It is a product of our animosity towards them

Throughout the past week, we have seen the political blame-shifting that the UK government has become accustomed to using as a panic-button since their election in 2019. In response to the most fatal loss of life of anyone crossing the Channel, Boris Johnson saw it fit to use Twitter to ask that France do more to take back migrants who reach the UK. 

The result has been a small-scale diplomatic row between the two countries, for both of whom the issue of migration has long been a contentious issue. France's hostility to so-called "others" has been reflected through domestic laws such as banning the burqa in 2014, whilst immigration as a topic has snowballed in UK political discourse since the seismic events of Brexit in 2016.

Perhaps I wouldn't make a good journalist, discussing this a week after the news cycle. Nevertheless, now that the political spiel has died down, it is of heightened importance to reflect on and humanise the 27 victims of a tragedy that should not really come as too much of a shock to anyone. 

For this is a regular occurrence, and the antipathy towards migrants in the UK has been illustrated through both political and social circles. Brexit language focused on "taking back control" of borders and "keeping them out", which is somewhat ironic given that the British were the colonisers who started shipping these migrants in for slave labour, in the first place. Even more ironic is the fact that migrant crossings in the Channel are higher this year than in the last five years, and it seems to be only increasing.

In social settings, I encounter ever-baffling arguments about migrants coming in for a "free-ride", to take advantage of "ordinary Brits" - as if ordinary in this country means to have white skin and like we are living in the 16th century. It can only be assumed that this knowledge has been indoctrinated into people by right-wing newspapers, whose purpose serves on finger-pointing and dividing, so much to the extent that they have forgotten the conditions that migrants put themselves through all to get the faintest chance of building a life in the UK.

Maybe it's worth a reminder. Imagine the conditions you must be facing in your homeland (if they even have one, given that millions are stateless) to want to drag young children on a boat no little secure than a paddling pool, through hundreds of miles of choppy, freezing sea just to get one chance. The odds feel like practically one in a million. 

Some will object to this with economic concerns, along the lines of "we don't have enough money to finance them". Maybe then we should not be spending hundreds of millions on a glorified expression of an outdated monarchy. Or voting to cut ties with our closest economic partners - and suffering supply issues as a result.

Credit: The Epoch Times

Others will suggest they ought not to be so stupid to attempt this, given the little chance of success. In actual fact though, they are sold a dream by crooks and conmen who profit through their deaths. And it's a measure of their desperation that they are willing to accept the chance of death rather than continue their current plight.

I get that most of my frustrations so far have been strawman arguments, but I think it's safe to assume these opinions are dominant in the UK. Anecdotally, I have no doubt that we can all recall situations in which family members, friends, or colleagues have said things along those lines.

Fundamentally, immigration always ends up becoming an emotive, political issue. And that's a trap that I probably fall into as badly as anyone else.

But for us to dehumanise these people, to dismiss their plight as any sort of human problem, shows a callous lack of humility for the place and privilege we find ourselves in. No-one decides their birthplace, whether that is within a prosperous country, or war-torn. 

People may want to worry themselves, about those who they can more likely identify with, and whose problems seem more valid. That is fine, but that doesn't mean we shouldn't try to put ourselves in others shoes, empathise with their situations - and ultimately lobby for policies that will benefit not only them, but us too. There have been countless cultural developments aided by immigration, and many migrants who have been pioneers in their fields. 

Perhaps if better systems were in place to assist some of these people, tragedies of this ilk that are all-too-common may be prevented. The funding is there, but the drive and desire is not. 

Why is it a surprise when it becomes a media story every once in a while? Because every once in a while, we feel guilty and squirm in our feet at the grim realities of the world that this country sits back and lets happen. And then, we forget about the mothers, fathers, sons and daughters that could be any of us, but for a roll of the dice.