Two very different sides to one coin
Two new stories dealing with different places and different areas show the complex moral dilemmas at the heart of arguments about asylum.
^ TOPRoberto Malasi
18-year-old Roberto Malasi is the son of an illegal immigrant from Angola who had an asylum application rejected but was allowed to stay here after appealing. Malasi had been given indefinite leave to remain in this country. He was part of an armed gang who committed a robbery at a christening party on the Wood Dene Estate in Peckham. Various other members of the gang were failed asylum seekers who had been allowed to remain here. Malasi shot Zainab Kalokoh, 33, as she cradled the baby, and then the gang callously went amongst the frightened guests taking their valuables. Ironically and tragically, some of the guests had been granted asylum having fled the violence in Sierra Leone. 15 days later in the same district Malasi murdered Ruth Okechukwu, 18, by stabbing her because he thought she had failed to show him respect .
^ TOPAnne Frank
In the same week details have emerged that the family of Anne Frank tried to obtain leave to emigrate to America in 1941, but failed. Had they succeeded she would not have had to spend her life hidden in Amsterdam, would not have been caught, would not have died in 1945 of typhus in the Bergen-Belsen concentration camp, at the age of 15. The story of Anne Frank is in many ways the story of the Holocaust. Not for nothing were strenuous and unsuccessful efforts made to discredit her story. In his fascinating book, Justice not Vengeance, Simon Wiesenthal talks about the importance of the Anne Frank story and how crucial it was to make sure that efforts of Nazi sympathisers or fellow travellers to discredit that story all failed.
^ TOPA human face
The importance is that suffering is only ever understood when it is given human face. I found visiting Anne Frank's house more moving than visiting Auschwitz, because at Auschwitz it was simply impossible to comprehend the scale of slaughter. It is much easier to understand if you focus on individual instances and then see that individual instance as symptomatic of numberless others.
^ TOPSwift process
The asylum process needs to operate effectively fairly and swiftly, so that those entitled to asylum know where they stand as quickly as possible rather than being left in limbo, and so that those not entitled are removed swiftly. Anything else is likely to lead to adverse consequences for those genuinely fleeing persecution.
^ TOPPolitical capital
Undoubtedly much of this is down to political decision-making rather than the law. Unfortunately when the law is seen to be deficient, it is the law and lawyers who frequent get the blame rather than the politicians. When that happens in too many areas, it ultimately undermines respect for the system of law itself. Ironically when it does happen, politicians who themselves may be those primarily responsible for that waning respect, are better placed to seek to persuade the public that in various instances normal legal principles or safeguards can be dispensed with.