Image: IWGB picketing outside University of London. Credit: IWGB.
Images of ‘that’ poster depicting desperate refugees rambling to reach Europe, accompanied with the headline ‘Breaking Point’, designed to whip up a frenzy of pro-Brexit, anti-migrant prejudice, will be engrained on Britain’s consciousness for a very long time. As will the decision to leave the EU, driven in part through this widespread anti-immigration sentiment and fear that freedom of movement is responsible for taking the ‘great’ out of Great Britain.
The Windrush scandal has pushed Britain’s harsh immigration policies into the limelight, forcing one ministerial resignation and an apology from the government. But people who have lived and worked hard in Britain for many years are still losing their jobs, homes, being denied NHS treatment, and even being torn away from their families. Then there’s the relentless drive to make life as difficult as possible for illegal immigrants. Post EU referendum, the number of enforced removals and detentions of all foreign nationals, including EU citizens, has risen sharply. Government figures show 5,301 EU nationals were removed during the year ending 2017, a 20% increase on the previous year and the highest figure since records began. Equally distressing is the six-fold increase in the number of EU citizens being detained since 2009.
