Racism and xenophobia will "skyrocket" if migrant crisis isn't addressed

8 August 2020, 13:58

Maajid fears xenophobia will worsen if migrant crisis isn't addressed

Maajid Nawaz warned racism will get worse if the refugee crisis isn't addressed as more and more migrants are being intercepted in the English Channel.

Maajid Nawaz was speaking as the Ministry of Defence has been asked to deploy in the English Channel to police migrants crossing from Calais. On the 6th of August, over 200 migrants were intercepted in the Channel by border police.

Maajid warned that the current system has led to countries facing the brunt of Europe's migrant crisis being radicalised. He noted that it isn't fair that "those countries have had to bear the brunt of looking after those human beings while those of us in the north have remained comfortably aloof from those problems."

"Italy succumbed to populism, Greece succumbed to populism...you can see the political consequences of us not having this conversation," he warned.

Maajid noted that there needs to be a rethink of how Europe deals with migrants if we are to avoid a rise in extreme ideologies. "I promise you racism and xenophobia will skyrocket if we don't fix this problem," he warned.

He suggested that Europe needs to begin by addressing the reasons people are being displaced from countries they're fleeing. "We need a solution in Libya," Maajid used as an example, "because a lot of the smuggling routes go through Libya."

Maajid put forward another solution, stating that a quota system may be the best method going forward for distributing and resettling migrants.

He made the case that if there was a lottery of resettling migrants who had no idea what country they would be going to, it would prevent a "race to get to Britain or other Scandinavian countries."

Maajid added that in post-Brexit Britain we can negotiate "a new treaty, a new understanding with Europe," which will make the migrant crisis less controversial and more efficient.