The immigrants found in a locked container at Tilbury docks last week (see page 20) only undertook their perilous journey because it was less daunting than the alternative.
The Sikhs from Afghanistan were fleeing persecution and war.
Mainstream newspapers talked a lot about the greedy people smugglers who had left them to their fate. They didn’t examine the real roots of the problem.
The history of Afghanistan is a history of intervention by the great powers that has caused chaos and encouraged divisions.
But Britain and other Western governments are responsible for the fact that people, in particular religious minorities, don’t feel safe in Afghanistan.
The migrants at Tilbury who were forced to flee are victims of the legacy of imperialist war.
These wars push people to seek security and a better life elsewhere.
Racist immigration controls then make that much more dangerous.
They treat vulnerable people as criminals.
When people come from the warzones our government helped create, or anywhere else, socialists should say—all migrants are welcome here.
A staffing crisis in the NHS
Health workers set to strike across four Manchester hospitals
Bus workers rejected an offer and came back out
