How Shabana Mahmood of all people, nominally more sensible and measured than many of her predecessors, could possibly have seen merit in the booklet published earlier this week, “Understanding behaviours and expectations in the UK: a guide to asylum seekers”, beggars belief.
On Wednesday, the Home Secretary – no doubt with a nod of approval from her new boss, Prime Minister Andy Burnham – decided to test the theory that all that was needed for young men from countries with very different societal norms where women and girls are regarded as little more than chattels and subservient to men, whatever the circumstances, was a booklet on how to behave. In the face of a litany of sexual crimes committed by asylum seekers (according to the Centre for Migration Control, Afghans are many times more likely to be convicted of sexual offences than British citizens) the Home Office, rather than securing the borders, is issuing new arrivals with a series of leaflets advising them to avoid raping or assaulting women and children. You can read the full booklet here.
Education Secretary Lucy Powell MP’s defence of the booklet was typically revealing:
“I think it’s pretty straightforward that we should be explaining to people…. the rule of law in this country. People coming from other countries do have different cultures, and we have to be absolutely clear with people of how much we abide by the rule of law in this country, what the rule of law is about, and that if people break those laws, they will be treated very harshly… that’s something that we have to constantly educate lots of people about.”
We are glad Ministers finally accept what most sensible people intuitively understand, that cultures have different norms, that their people are not immediately interchangeable, that integration is a difficult and lengthy process, and that failure to integrate incoming populations poses a clear danger.
But for a moment, let us imagine Ms Powell decided to up sticks and move to Afghanistan. Upon arrival in Kabul, she is presented with a booklet similar to the one her government has published, informing her that men and women are not equal; that consent does not matter; that rape is acceptable; that a woman who is raped will be seen as the guilty party, stigmatised and even punished for allowing herself to be raped. And if she has the misfortune to be assaulted, the law will regard her as the guilty party. Would Ms Powell suddenly see the light, acknowledge the error of her English ways and embrace the cultural and behavioural norms of her new country? Exaggerated, maybe, but that is effectively what our government is expecting of young, fighting-age men from parts of the world like Afghanistan. How naïve.
The same day that Ms Powell appeared on LBC to defend this booklet, two Afghan asylum seekers were convicted of raping a woman as she was stargazing in a public park, one of them holding a knife to her partner’s throat. Two more Afghan migrants appeared in court accused of raping a 14-year-old girl on a train. Earlier in the week, an Eritrean man was convicted of raping a pensioner outside a church. An Italian citizen of Nigerian origin who raped a sleeping woman was allowed to stay in the UK by an immigration tribunal.
Would any of these horrendous crimes have been prevented by handing the perpetrators a booklet asking them to behave like the British? Would the men who committed those crimes have changed their views on women and children because Ms Powell handed them a focus-group-tested booklet?
Looking at this from another perspective, the booklet does also show that the politicians finally accept that the flood of undocumented migrants arriving illegally poses a threat, especially to women and girls. What the government must also now acknowledge is that the open borders – by which, in this case, we mean admitting (mostly) young men without being able to check who they are or what their motives, are, are making Britain less safe. The government must stop treating the British people like fools. The people this absurd booklet is intended for should never be admitted. If they arrive without passports or any other document that shows who they are and what their nationality is, they should be detained, refused entry and returned whence they came – as Section 24 of the Immigration Act 1971 requires.
One, particularly mealy mouthed extract from the booklet is the following: If you have sex with someone without their consent, this is called rape. Rape is a serious crime in the UK. You could go to prison, lose your support and accommodation, and it will affect your asylum claim.
“Affect your asylum claim”? It should read:
If you have sex with someone without their consent, this is called rape. Rape is a serious crime in the UK. You will go to prison, you will lose your support and accommodation, your asylum claim will be annulled, and you will be removed on the first available flight out of the UK after serving your sentence.
