Windrush scandal shows value of Movement as a right
Brexiteers often respond snidely to those who say that Brexit will mean losing the right to Freedom of Movement. They say things like: "well people have always travelled" or "are you saying no one will be able to move to Europe anymore?" as well as the slew of usual, colourful insults that characterise their social media decorum.
Yet their empty platitude, that you don't need Movement as a right when it always existed before, is painfully empty as we watch the children of the Windrush generation being stripped of their dignity and threatened with a wide array of inhumane abuses. These are people who had put their trust in this country, who had believed that they could be assured of the government's good word and integrity. At the flick of a switch, all this has vanished and the Windrush children are being attacked and hounded by the forces of border control.
Our rights and freedoms have to be upheld by law. We can never rest complacently so long as they rely purely on the goodwill of the government of the day.
If we really care about our ability to move freely across borders, then we need this secured in law. This matters in the context of Brexit because this is precisely one of the freedoms the government is hell-bent on taking away from us. Unilateral guarantees from a government are simply not good enough.
Moreover, wherever possible, we need these protections to not just be in legal form but to be upheld internationally, as part of treaties. Under the UK system, with its often shaky constitution, it is all too easy for one Parliament to undo the acts of another. That is why neither assurances from the UK government on the 'easy' movement of EU citizens, nor indeed the same assurances from other EU states for UK citizens are not good enough. These are words in the wind that in time can easily be restricted or undone entirely.
In whatever context, Freedom of Movement as a right is the only real protection from a world of wire fences and detention centres.
Yet their empty platitude, that you don't need Movement as a right when it always existed before, is painfully empty as we watch the children of the Windrush generation being stripped of their dignity and threatened with a wide array of inhumane abuses. These are people who had put their trust in this country, who had believed that they could be assured of the government's good word and integrity. At the flick of a switch, all this has vanished and the Windrush children are being attacked and hounded by the forces of border control.
Our rights and freedoms have to be upheld by law. We can never rest complacently so long as they rely purely on the goodwill of the government of the day.
If we really care about our ability to move freely across borders, then we need this secured in law. This matters in the context of Brexit because this is precisely one of the freedoms the government is hell-bent on taking away from us. Unilateral guarantees from a government are simply not good enough.
Moreover, wherever possible, we need these protections to not just be in legal form but to be upheld internationally, as part of treaties. Under the UK system, with its often shaky constitution, it is all too easy for one Parliament to undo the acts of another. That is why neither assurances from the UK government on the 'easy' movement of EU citizens, nor indeed the same assurances from other EU states for UK citizens are not good enough. These are words in the wind that in time can easily be restricted or undone entirely.
In whatever context, Freedom of Movement as a right is the only real protection from a world of wire fences and detention centres.
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