London: British Home Secretary Sylla Braverman came under fire on Tuesday for calling the influx of asylum seekers an attack, with lawmakers in the political arena warning of the danger of using inflammatory language.
His comments came a day after a man used a firebomb to attack an immigration processing center in the port city of Dover.
Braverman, who is fighting to keep her job after admitting to breaching security rules, told parliament on Monday that she was “on our south coast” in reference to the arrival of migrants in small boats across the English Channel. is working to stop the attack.
Robert Jenrick, the immigration minister in Braverman’s Home Office, said the record number of nearly 40,000 refugees arriving in Britain by small boats so far this year showed the scale of their boss’s language challenge.
But he added: “I think you have to choose your terms wisely in your role and we don’t want to see a repeat of what happened in Dover.”
Braverman was reappointed home minister by new Prime Minister Rishi Shankar last week, six days after he resigned from the same role for violating ministerial rules by sending a sensitive government document through his personal email.
She has also been accused of failing to listen to legal advice about prolonged immigration detention at another processing center, and of failing to obtain adequate housing, both claims she has denied.
Roger Gale, a lawmaker from Braverman’s governing Conservative Party, whose constituency includes the centre, said his predecessors had explored alternative accommodation such as hotels but had stopped when he took office.
“I don’t take or trust the home secretary’s word for it,” he told Times Radio. “She is only interested in playing right wing.”
Conditions at Manston in Kent were last week described as “pretty bad” by the Independent Chief Inspector of Borders and Immigration, David Neill. A report found that people were sleeping on the floor, some were not allowed access to telephones and were not allowed to close toilet doors completely.
Intended to house about 1,500 migrants for less than 24 hours at a time, that number has more than doubled, with one Afghan family saying they had been there for 32 days.
“Let’s stop pretending they’re all refugees, the whole country knows that’s not true,” Braverman told parliament.
Yvette Cooper, home affairs spokeswoman for the opposition Labor Party, said the government’s performance had deteriorated the rhetoric.
“No Home Secretary who was serious about public safety or national security would have used such outrageous language the day after the horrific petrol bomb attack on the primary processing center in Dover,” he said.
