Ten years ago, The Independent, after much consideration, decided to put the disturbing photo of the body of Alan Kurdi, aged two, on its front page.
Kurdi was found on a Turkish beach after his family of Syrian Kurds had tried to cross to Greece in an overloaded inflatable boat. His mother and brother also died. We hoped that the striking image would jolt the conscience of the world, and bring home the human consequences of the migrant crisis on the shores of Europe.
Sadly, the crisis continues a decade later. Closer to home, 20 people have died trying to cross the Channel so far this year, making a total of 249 since 2018. Each one of those deaths is a tragedy. Each one is a life of hope and opportunity cut short.
We understand – of course we do – that immigration cannot be a free-for-all, that claims for refugee status must be judged impartially, and that not all claims will be accepted. But when Yvette Cooper, the home secretary, talks tough in the House of Commons, she must remember that these are people’s lives that we are talking about.
There must be a place in our parliament for a recognition of the desperation of people to escape war and persecution – a desperation that leads them to take appalling risks with their lives and those of their children.
Yes, we should praise Ms Cooper and Sir Keir Starmer for finally reopening a safe legal route to claiming asylum in the United Kingdom, through the pilot scheme agreed with Emmanuel Macron, the French president. But this small gain has been overshadowed by the rising tide of rhetoric that paints these desperate people as a threat.
Nigel Farage, the Reform UK leader, uses inflammatory language to suggest that asylum seekers want to come to Britain so that they can take advantage of an imaginary cornucopia of welfare benefits. In fact, they are more or less destitute, forbidden from working, and accommodated in shared rooms in hotels because there is nowhere else to put them after the previous government lost control of the system.
Worse, Mr Farage implies that asylum seekers are criminals, on the basis of isolated incidents, when the vast majority want to work, support their families and contribute to our society.
And some politicians who ought to know better, such as Robert Jenrick, restlessly seeking to reverse the result of last year’s Conservative Party leadership election, try to outdo him in this xenophobic prejudice.
It has come to something when even Steve Baker, the former minister and self-appointed “hard man of Brexit”, has to remind Mr Jenrick, as he did last week: “The tone in which we say things really matters. We’re talking about human beings.”
The Independent has not been in the habit of congratulating Mr Baker, but we agree with him when he said: “It’s really important that when we discuss people, we leave room for the innocent majority. We have to ask: how fragile is civilisation?”
Very fragile, is the answer, and all responsible leaders have a duty to use respectful language. Trying to match Mr Farage’s rhetoric is not the right way to appeal to the compassionate centre ground of British public opinion. Most British people want to see the small boats stopped – not least because of the certainty of more senseless deaths – but in a way that acknowledges the humanity of each and every soul that is driven to take such extreme risks.
The anniversary of Alan Kurdi’s death could be the moment that the British once again find their compassion. We must refuse to become hardened to the desperation and the suffering.
