‘Legislation like this gets through when MPs fear for their careers – because of obedience.’ Photo: by Markus Spiske on Unsplash
Out of order? Elizabeth Coleman on personal responsibility
‘When people are free to act according to their own moral compass, they show more wisdom and humanity.’
Some decades ago, a Quaker called Rachel Pinney taught me the slogan ‘Obedience is a sin’. She said that, in her experience, much more evil happened because people were obedient to authority than because they rebelled. She told of surgeons who drank heavily and were a danger to their patients, but nothing was done because their subordinates would not report them.
A country can be judged by how it treats its most vulnerable. Among these are asylum seekers, people who have had to flee their homes because of persecution or war. Even within this disadvantaged group, there is a hierarchy: there are those with access to funds to pay an air fare, and the poorest, who come across the Channel in overcrowded, dangerous small boats.
The government wants to criminalise those who arrive in small boats simply for arriving in the UK to claim asylum. More than that, it wishes to process some of these asylum claims outside the UK, which means that applicants’ legal rights are almost impossible to enforce.
The UK has chosen Rwanda as the place to send asylum seekers to be processed. Rwanda is a tightly-controlled dictatorship, where opposition figures are routinely murdered, not only in Rwanda itself, but also when they flee abroad, as detailed in Michela Wrong’s book Do Not Disturb. In the UK, there are individuals and organisations that can support asylum seekers, and do their best to ensure that they are fairly treated. This may not be allowed in Rwanda.
It seems to me that legislation like this gets through not because MPs lack humanity, but because they fear for their careers – because of obedience. When people are free to act according to their own moral compass, they show more wisdom and humanity. In the House of Lords, peers are free to vote as they choose, and often oppose legislation proposed by the Commons. The Lords voted against the parts of the Nationality and Borders Bill, including the parts that aim to move the processing of some asylum claims overseas, but these were reinstated by the Commons. The Commons is now reconsidering these amendments; if the bill becomes law, it will be because of those MPs for whom obedience overrides morality.
At present there is huge sympathy for asylum seekers from Ukraine, which does not extend to those fleeing Africa or the Middle East. I wonder if an asylum seeker from Ukraine who arrived in a small boat would be criminalised and sent to Rwanda for processing. Maybe the fact that they are white European would protect them from this treatment.
