Fear and Loathing in London -Brodie Clark

Fear and Loathing in London

The not so savage journey of lost 124,000 into a bleakly bright future

They did not arrive with pomp and circumstance. Nobody organized a confetti parade in their honour. No anthems were sung. On the contrary, in the media, their coming was stylized to a cloak and dagger achievement, especially during a time of growing queues in front of pass port controls in summer 2011, when border security had been relaxed. They, the 124,000 asylum seekers, as well as the 13,000 immigrants to the United Kingdom got the ticket and took the ride. And we made them criminals.

The Guardian reports in November 2011 that the UK Boarder Agency lost contact with 124,000 asylum and migration applicants in Britain. The huddled masses went incommunicado for a while and the headlines in The Sun boisterously shouted a warning:”13,000 people came through with no checks for foreign criminals or terrorists” and border security this summer was relaxed over 2,500 times at 28 airports across Britain. Some journalists at the Daily Mail even went so far as to blame the Tottenham riots on the “disaster of multiculturalism”. Civilisation does seem to end at the waterline, especially with the media whipping the public into a pulp of whimpering slaves to fear - the fear of the Scourge of the seven seas: the immigrant.

The head of the UK border force, Brodie Clark, responsible for immigration control at all air- and seaports was suspended, even before official inquiries came up with any results and home secretary Theresa May hastily denied any involvement, putting the chip on shoulders of her senior civil servant, accusing him of “improperly relaxing passport checks”. On message boards all over Britain this earned her the dubious sobriquet Theresa Mayhem. For months, nobody knew anything definite. Yet, nobody seemed remotely worried about the fact that our government can just lose almost a quarter of a million people, no questions asked. The only thing the brass acquiesced to, was the perceived perilous situation those outlaws created. Britannia, the Mother of the Free, yet definitely not one of the Laboulaye-Ladies, was threatened by an “open-door immigration system”, at least according to Prime Minister David Cameron. After the slow rising central horror of “Brodiegate” in late autumn, the political lightweight in Downing street NO. 10 with a lack of experience in controlling his environment reiterated the great bogus Tory truths of the immigration myth and menace to the British way of life.

Especially in times of crisis, with the Euro down and unemployment high, Britannia, the symbol of a unified Great Britain, will never deign to become the Mother of Exiles, waiting to provide a safe haven for the poor, the tired and the homeless. Her mighty shield has seen better days, well-worn with the years the once white tunic is flayed and her Corinthian helmet sits somewhat askew on her dirty blond locks. Defending a country under constant under siege is hard work. According to official numbers of the British home office, 4912 asylum seekers filed their application at Lunar House, a 20 story office block, in Croydon (South London) in the third quarter of 2011 and 6834 were sent to immigration detention camps. They came to Old Blighty as refugees, yet alone in the three months, from July to September, 13,253 were returned to their indigenous countries, probably as cold- blooded, disenfranchised revolutionaries. The majority of all applicants are rejected. The British government considers their claim as not genuine.

They are undesirable foreign elements, unassimilated strangers who are not able to integrate themselves into British culture. In countries, torn apart by a war with no frontlines and guerrilla warriors blowing tradition and culture to smithereens, THEY are the ones punished. All they may have wanted, was a chance to live in freedom, without fear of persecution or the threat of torture hanging like a Damocles sword over their heads – the promise of new life in liberty where they can pursue happiness. All we gave them was a glimpse at a different life, a glittering world oh so far away.

You, old chap, may be a great person, cooperative with the UK-border agency, truthful, you proved your dedication by meeting your case worker regularly and you obeyed the law of the land but like in the old days of Belshazzar biblical judgement determined: You have been weighed on the scales and found wanting.