Where are the sensible solutions to the refugee crisis?

Letters to the editor: our readers share their views. Please send your letters to letters@independent.co.uk

The current policy of criminalising and treating these people as some sort of subhuman species is clearly wrong (PA)

I am no lover of Priti Patel or Suella Braverman and their attempts to criminalise the hapless people who desperately tackle the journey from their broken countries to a less broken UK. I am, however, genuinely confused about what is both a viable and compassionate solution which is acceptable to the majority of people in this country.

The current policy of criminalising and treating these people as some sort of subhuman species who should be deported to another equally unpleasant regime is clearly wrong and certainly not working if the intention is to deter others to attempt such a journey.

It must be obvious that the cruelty and bigotry at the UK reception centres whilst vile and a terrible reflection on British decency is not in the main, life threatening and after the terrible trials they have already been through most migrants will “suck it up”, knowing it is the final episode. The parallel seems to be in the way successive governments fail to tackle the problem of drugs. Investing more and more money and effort into criminalising drug use but in the end only create drug barons, promote more crime and make not a ha’porth of difference.

It seems no coincidence that both these futile policies emanate from the same source, the home office. Governments and politicians are pretty good at putting the spin on policies – isn’t it about time that some effort is made to enlighten the population of the UK of the advantages of migration?

Many of these young people have clearly completed something akin to the highest level of a “life and death Duke of Edinburgh Award”; something that on a UK student’s CV would attract instant attention from a would-be employer.

I well remember the sympathy that there was in the UK for the Ugandan Asians forced out by Idi Amin. It was the correct policy and they have certainly been a significant benefit to our society as is obvious. Changing the climate about these current asylum seekers would be a start to enable their positive treatment and a step toward incorporating young productive people into our workforce.

Alastair Duncan

Winchester

‘Treasury orthodoxy’: sorry, what?

As the markets calm with Hunt’s return to treasury orthodoxy, let us not forget it’s that treasury orthodoxy that has left us a country that needs levelling up, a country where the wealthiest 2 per cent own half the wealth and a country where wealth inequality continually widens. But let’s not ruin the status quo. The poor must be kept in their place: demoralised and dehumanised.

So let no politicians be surprised if we see mass civil disobedience after the next round of austerity, as it’s the political system and policies that have caused this.

Richard Whiteside

Halifax

The Tories need to do their job

I am rather surprised by your story about the immigration minister distancing himself from the home secretary’s comments about the flood of migrants crossing the Channel.

It is high time the Tories stopped this stupid infighting, plotting and posturing, and got off their backsides and started DOING THE JOB THEY WERE ELECTED TO DO!

The voters are watching, and are VERY ANGRY at the constant schoolboy disruptive antics of our politicians, and will punish those responsible for this shambles at the earliest electoral opportunity.

Ian McNicholas

Ebbw Vale

We need full electoral reform

Our latest prime minister was appointed without any vote. His predecessor was chosen by a few members of her party. And the one before that acquired a huge parliamentary majority with a minority of the vote. All three have exhibited a lamentable tendency to ignore expert advice and sometimes the law; they try to wield power in a presidential manner, in ways that will benefit their own careers and their party, rather than the country. There is nothing in our unwritten constitution to counter these democratic outrages.

Much damage has been done to the well-being of the poorer members of our society. But a wider and possibly more long-lasting problem is that the world has been told very clearly that the UK cannot be trusted. We urgently need not only a general election but also reform of our voting system and constitution.

Susan Alexander

South Gloucestershire

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We need a grown up home secretary

The security of Britain is overseen by the home secretary. This minister is responsible for keeping everyone in the country safe. The controversial new home secretary, Suella Braverman, has been previously probed for leaks in Britain’s security services.

Tory party chair Nadhim Zahawi does not deny “multiple breaches” of ministerial code were made by Braverman. Yet she is now entrusted with overseeing the work of the security service. This is one of the most sensitive jobs in government, responsible for signing off surveillance warrants and other highly classified spy agency functions, as well as the national counter-terrorism strategy and implementation.

Can we feel secure with Leaky Sue in charge of our security? With Leaky Sue using her personal mobile as well as a government mobile for sending classified material, the government is wide open to infiltration. Rishi Sunak has said his “government will have integrity, professionalism and accountability at every level”. Yet Braverman seems intent on challenging this statement, firstly for integrity and accountability with her careless use of her own mobile, but especially for professionalism, with her record in the worsening conditions at the migrant processing in Manston in Kent.

In the overcrowded centre, there have been outbreaks of diphtheria, of scabies and of MRSA. Previous Tory home secretaries Priti Patel and Grant Shapps have declared unequivocally that they had acted to ensure such overcrowding conditions did not happen in a facility designed to be transitory, 48 hours at most. The question needs to be asked is Braverman incompetent, uncaring or just engaged in posture politics to appeal to hard-right extremists?

Can we afford to have such a self-seeking rabble rouser, still fighting for the Tory leadership, in such a sensitive position in government, especially when she is floundering on so many levels? Surely there is a grown-up right-wing Tory MP who can replace her? Or is competence and placing country and party above personal ambition so rare among Tory MPs?

Pete Milory

Trowbridge