How lovely. The Home Office has officially given Paddington Bear British citizenship.
Everyone’s favourite marmalade-munching RP-accented Peruvian has been given an official UK passport ahead of the upcoming release of his latest film.
We’d like to indulge in this warm and fuzzy moment, but as a charity that aims to help immigrants, asylum seekers, and those who want to also gain citizenship, it’s hard to celebrate the triumph of a fictional character when our real-life clients are treated with such disdain.
Luckily for Paddington, he was adopted by the Browns, and now the movie producers have praised the Home Office for having the ‘sense of humour’ to give him citizenship.
Sadly, our clients haven’t been so fortunate – and while it may seem harmless, a stunt like this is a kick in the teeth for the people we help, some of whom have been stuck in the asylum system for over 10 years.
The backlog is no secret. Nearly 120,000 people are currently waiting for an asylum decision in the UK.
And one thing has been consistent through their long wait – the politicians and media personalities who have barely taken a breath to stop scapegoating migrants.
There’s so much anger directed at migrants – maybe some of it should be directed at the Home Office.
Because to us and our clients, this department seems hell bent on avoiding doing their actual job – ‘to build a safe, fair, and prosperous UK’ – while people continue to wait in limbo across the country, in poor accommodation and with no Brown family to pick them up at Paddington station to welcome them into the British middle class.
In fairness, since his creation in 1958, it’s taken over 60 years for Paddington to get a British passport, so I guess the backlog impacts him, too.
He’s cute, he’s cuddly, he’s impeccably spoken – the embodiment of the ‘good migrant’, but even being a national treasure, it takes time to get immigration status.
Behind this joke lies a serious point – imagine how much harder it is for many of our clients who come here traumatised from the horrors they have encountered.
This trauma then magnified by years and years in limbo as a ‘temporary’ resident, without the basic rights of citizens of this country.
This is the harsh reality for many of our clients.
Marie, is 83 years old, she’s been in the UK for over 23 years; the Home Office have acknowledged that her medical needs – which require a nurse to administer medication daily – make her extremely vulnerable.
Despite this she is on the 10-year route to settlement, meaning she will wait till her 93rd birthday before she has status.
Marie is one of many in this situation. Michael, who came to the UK from Jamaica over 10 years ago, is being made to wait another decade before he has status because of current rules.
The Home Office acknowledged to us that Michael won’t receive the medication and care he requires in Jamaica but refused to give him settlement despite the UK being the only suitable safe place for him to live his life.
Paddington famously fled Peru after an earthquake in the jungle, boarding a boat as an unaccompanied minor, before finally reaching safety.
Well, we know from bitter experience that if he had made his journey over the last few years, many of our politicians would have vilified him as a contributor to the ‘small boats crisis’.
So, the faux compassion at the heart of this Home Office stunt stings even more at a time when we are seeing more tragedies of those who are putting their lives at risk taking the same journey Paddington took in a small boat.
Just last month, a baby was reported dead in the Channel by the French coastguard. Had this baby made it to the UK, they would not have been automatically granted citizenship.
Instead of giving a passport to a fictional bear, the Home Office should tackle the real problems, for real people, like those seeking safety in this country who are being made to wait tens of years for a decision.
It’s time for Yvette Cooper’s department to give up the gimmicks and make real changes – like abolishing the 10-year route to settlement and implementing new, simplified routes to status based on five years residence.
Instead of vilifying people who come to this country by sea, they should be providing safe routes so people don’t have to risk their lives and those of their children just for the luxury of being able to live ordinary, safe lives.
People don’t come to this country expecting the warmth and generosity granted to Paddington – this is fiction, of course.
But it’s not too much to expect the Home Office to do its job, process asylum claims in a timely manner and treat people with the basic dignity and respect which we all deserve.
When they’ve done that, they can honour all the fictional bears they want.
This article was originally published October 23, 2024
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