'Too little, too late': UK cultural figures call for greater refugee intake
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Version 0 of 1. More than 100 leading British cultural figures have signed a statement calling for the UK to take in more refugees and complaining that the British government’s response to the European refugee crisis has been “too little, too late”. Related: If this is the best Britain can do for refugees, it’s sickening | Simon Jenkins Sir Anish Kapoor, Jamie Oliver, Keira Knightley, Jude Law, Sir Michael Caine, Colin Firth and Benedict Cumberbatch are among a long list of illustrious British names to sign a message published in a full-page advert in Friday’s Guardian. The message says Britain has a moral responsibility to offer safe haven to people fleeing war and persecution: “A responsibility that should be shared with our European neighbours and not simply shouldered by the countries closest to the turbulence driving people from their homes. “Whilst we appreciate the UK government’s recent commitments on refugee resettlement, we worry that this is too little, too late,” the group says. They add: “We urge the UK government to wake up to the urgency of the current crisis and work with its European counterparts to offer immediate humanitarian help and agree long-term solutions to refugee resettlement. The advert was conceived and organised by Indian-born British sculptor Kapoor, director Joe Wright and his wife musician Anoushka Shankar, Canongate publisher Jamie Byng and Adam Broomberg, a South African artist based in London. It’s an expression of what they say is mounting embarrassment, frustration and impotence in Britain at the government’s response to a crisis that has seen 340,000 asylum seekers arrive in the EU so far this year, and thousands die in the attempt. Fewer than 5,000 Syrian asylum seekers have been allowed to stay in the UK since 2011. “I was motivated by a sense of outrage against our doctrinaire government, which had been so grossly unjust,” Kapoor told the Guardian. “We have taken the view that it is better to have an influence on policy than send direct aid – we hope to apply pressure to change the government’s position. Although sadly I doubt we will, we believe public opinion is with us.” David Cameron announced this week that the UK will take 20,000 Syrian refugees over the course of the next five years, prioritising women and children from refugee camps in Lebanon, Turkey and Jordan. It’s an offer Kapoor – and the leading figures in art, film, music and literature who have have signed the letter – believe is woefully inadequate. Cameron has refused to sign up to a quota system proposed by Germany and France that would require the UK to take 18,000 asylum seekers. Britain is among only four European states to reject the scheme, along with Hungary, Romania, the Czech Republic and Slovakia. France has said it will take 24,000 refugees over the next two years; around 18,000 arrived in Germany last weekend. “20,000 people over five years, that’s 4,000 people now, in this immediate crisis? When we’re looking at who knows how many thousands of people arriving in the next month? It’s pathetic,” Kapoor told the Guardian. Related: Juncker talks of welcoming refugees, while turning Europe into a fortress | Apostolis Fotiadis “Britain is identifying itself with the fascists, and we are not that. This is a new kind of fascism, a fascism that is polite. Cameron comes across as a nice guy, but he’s more rightwing than anything we’ve known.” Kapoor and Broomberg both pointed to their deep discomfort with language used by British government ministers to described the crisis as a major motivation to speak up. Cameron has referred to a “swarm of people coming across the Mediterranean, seeking a better life, wanting to come to Britain”. “It was the callous, inhumane language the government used that made me so angry. That galvanised me to do something,” explained Broomberg. “This is where I live, this is a government that’s meant to represent me, and it isn’t coming anywhere close. In fact, I find the language it’s using toxic. I find Cameron’s cynical use of targeted assassination insulting. “We’re trying to voice empathy on behalf of this country, and critique a government that’s not representing its people. Hopefully we’ll make a dent.” Kapoor and Broomberg have both also taken issue with the language used by some parts of the British media and politicians that has conflated refugees with economic migrants. Rather than sapping British resources, Kapoor believes it would be in Britain’s interests to welcome the talent and knowledge many refugees bring with them. “Germany has shown incredible nous. In welcoming refugees in huge numbers, they are welcoming the elite, the teachers, the engineers, the people who decide to pick up their families and get out of there – something that demands huge inventiveness. “Germany is welcoming a whole workforce of Syria’s intelligentsia. Why are we not? Why are we so morally impoverished that we can’t do it?” Related: Anish Kapoor's 'queen's vagina' vandals and the rise of cultural fascism in France For Kapoor, it has been impossible not to draw a parallel between the recent vandalism of his sculpture, Dirty Corner, at the Château de Versailles with antisemitic graffiti, and the effort to prevent refugees reaching Europe. He spoke to the Guardian on a train from Paris, where he had met François Hollande, the French president, to discuss the attack. French authorities issued him with a security detail in the wake of the attack on his sculpture. Kapoor said: “I’m on this train, who here has heard of me, but I’ve got two bodyguards. An artist with bodyguards! In some way it feels deeply personal. But it also feels part of a need to exorcise the other from Europe.” Kapoor believes his message chimes with a public mood that has seen spontaneous efforts by the public to welcome refugees into their homes and deliver aid to camps in Calais: “That’s why individuals are jumping in cars and going to Calais to demonstrate solidarity, or hiring boats to rescue refugees, because we understand that all this negativity is being done in our name.” |