Imperialism and colonisation have, throughout history, seen countries stopping at nothing to get what they want, and the United Kingdom is certainly no exception to this. Our desire for self-governance has been sparking bloodshed for centuries.
At the height of its power, Great Britain ruled over 400 million people, making it the largest empire in history. Spanning 25% of the world’s surface, it’s why the Union Jack is one of the most recognisable flags in the world, and English is the most spoken language in the world.
None of Britain’s ‘glory’, however, came without pain…
The British Empire began in the late 1500s under Queen Elizabeth I, with the first successful colony being set up in 1607 in Jamestown, which is now part of the state of Virginia in the USA.
Thirteen colonies in North America would go on to be established during the early years of the British Empire, however in 1776 after going to war against Britain, America declared its independence.
Not wanting to shrink their empire again, losing America meant that Britain decided to make their empire even bigger, and that they did…
The people colonised by the British had British laws and customs imposed upon them, lost their ability to govern themselves, and were, in many cases, violently oppressed.
The British East India Company, for example, made its money by exploiting local rulers and workers to such an extent that in the 1700s and 1800s when the country experienced severe droughts, they were forced to continue producing crops for Britain to sell. When poor weather affected the harvests, there were food shortages resulting in famines across India. During many of these famines, Britain did not organise a big enough relief effort, and millions of people died as a result.
Another example of Britain’s oppression can be seen in the ‘Scramble for Africa.’
Taking place in the 1880s and destroying several African kingdoms, the Scramble for Africa saw Britain exiling leaders, looting treasures, and burning cities. The result? A 30% control of the African population.
Add this to the fact that Britain was the world’s leading slave-trading country and it’s a very sombre situation indeed…
Despite Elizabeth I stating that capturing Africans against their will ‘would be detestable and call down the vengeance of Heaven upon the undertakers’, after seeing the huge profits available, she changed her mind.
As always, it’s profits over people…
Between 1640 and 1807, British ships transported about 3.4 million Africans across the Atlantic as part of the transatlantic slave trade.
Conditions on board the ships were appalling. Disease spread as huge numbers of people were crammed into very small spaces. It was such overcrowding, as well as poor diet, dehydration, and disease that led to high death rates (450,000 of the 3.4 million Africans transported in British ships died on the Atlantic crossing) …
For those who did make it, their forced labour produced commodities like tobacco, cotton, and sugar*, for which there was a huge European demand.
*(Nearly two-thirds of all enslaved people cut cane on sugar plantations. These were places of hard labour and cruel treatment with very high mortality rates).
Parliament finally passed an Act to abolish the slave trade in 1807. The Act stated that all slave trading by British subjects was ‘utterly abolished, prohibited and declared to be unlawful’.
The act did not, however, end the institution of slavery itself. This meant that almost 750,000 people remained enslaved in British colonies across the Caribbean.
In total, the British Empire existed for nearly 400 years, with remnants of it still being present today in the form of British Overseas Territories (that being countries that are all a part of the former British Empire). While such countries do have a degree of self-governance today, the UK still remains responsible for their defence, foreign relations, and internal security. These countries include the likes of Bermuda, Gibraltar, and Montserrat.
Given Britain’s history of being the leading slave-trading country in the world, I find it disappointing that British people can be so standoffish towards migrants.
When Britain took over other countries by force, extracting them of all their resources and leaving them poverty-stricken, we (‘we’ meaning Britain) have a massive part to play in the inequality that persists today.
Surely, then, it is our duty as Britons to want to do what we can to help those who, in our past, we exploited for our gain.
Unfortunately, however, for many Britons, they lack such empathy, as official statistics highlight…
As of April 2023, 37% of people thought that the arrival of asylum seekers should be made more difficult. How exactly it can be made more difficult than it already is, however, is questionable given that refugees and migrants already face considerable risks en route, not to mention when they eventually arrive (if they arrive) in Britain…
In 2019, 39 Vietnamese migrants died in the back of a lorry. The migrants died ‘excruciatingly painful’ deaths, having suffocated in the container, the judge said.
And so, the question is…
Why do people put their lives at risk to live in the UK?
To answer the above question, we must first distinguish between asylum seekers and migrants.
Of the 45,746 people to arrive in the UK in 2022 via small boat, most were asylum seekers from one of seven countries: Albania, Afghanistan, Iran, Iraq, Syria, Eritrea, and Sudan. These are all countries where human rights violations are mainstream, and war and oppression commonplace. People from these countries are at a greater risk if they stay put than they are if they get in a rubber dinghy and attempt to cross the channel in a small boat liable to capsize… Clearly they are desperate for a better life. They are desperate for safety and protection.
Alas, to reiterate the point again…
It is important to first distinguish between asylum seekers and migrants.
Unfortunately, however, the problem we have in the UK is that there is no distinction…
In the first six months of 2024, the largest number of recorded small boat arrivals came from Vietnam, though not in pursuit of safety, but in pursuit of money.
In Vietnam, monthly salaries for unskilled workers only reach around £300, even with overtime. That is not enough to rival the enticing stories of the money to be made in the UK, as told by people smugglers.
One man in his early twenties told the BBC that he paid about £16,000 to smugglers to make the journey to the UK via small boat. The smugglers told him that there were ‘lots of opportunities and the living conditions were good.’
This man made the crossing because he wanted to, not because he needed to, yet he is lumped into the same category as asylum seekers who genuinely do need to…
As of Monday the 10th of February, everyone, regardless of whether they are fleeing from war or simply wanting an easier life, will be denied the right to British citizenship under a new border security bill. Under this bill, the British government has the right to refuse citizenship to anyone who has ‘made a dangerous journey’ (i.e. crossed the border via a small boat or concealed in a vehicle), despite this being a breach of international law as per Article 31 of the UN refugee convention.
The contracting states shall not impose penalties, on account of their illegal entry or presence, on refugees.
Clearly, there is no distinguishing between migrants and asylum seekers, even in the eyes of the government which is worrying, for how can the UK government possibly promise to ‘restore order to the asylum system’ when they can’t even tell the difference between a migrant and an asylum seeker?
And, perhaps a more pertinent question to ask…
How can our government ministers sleep at night knowing that their ancestors’ greed, as discussed in the earlier paragraphs of this article, is the reason asylum seekers are fleeing in the first place?…
The fact is that the world wasn’t created with such blinding inequality that we have today. Greed is the cause of it, and only empathy can correct it. Alas, empathy is seemingly something that is few and far between when it comes to those in charge. It’s why the Labour Party, the proposed, ‘Party for the People’ is adjusting its policies to appeal to an increasingly right-wing world.
Rather than staying true to its values, the Labour Party is, instead, adopting Reform UK’s [racist] policies in order to stay in power, hence the new border security bill…
Instead of governments spending all their time and energy looking for a solution to stop all the small boats though, what they should actually be looking for is a reason behind all the small boats.
Just think about it. We are a tiny island with very average weather. People don’t travel here for a holiday; they travel here for a life.
People do not risk their lives for something if the gain is not worth more than the potential loss.
If the world was equal, as it was always supposed to be, and peace on earth wasn’t just a utopia, then people wouldn’t be so desperate to get to the UK.
If only we could all pick up a history book, then maybe we would understand.
Wars and conquests.
Power and influence.
Portfolio of Hope 