'Braverman's anti-immigrant rhetoric is whipped up by a fear of losing power'
A hurricane blew across Manchester this week.
A truth-twister whipped up by desperation and fear of losing power. “The wind of change that carried my own parents across the globe in the 20th century was a mere gust compared to the hurricane that is coming,” Home Secretary Suella Braverman told the Tory faithful.
“The future could bring millions more migrants to these shores… uncontrolled and unmanageable…”
While the Home Secretary was speaking in Manchester, Liverpool was preparing for Labour ’s conference this weekend. A city that knows the consequences of anti-immigrant rhetoric more than most.
Earlier this year, an attack on a hotel in Knowsley – where asylum seekers had been forced to stay by Ms Braverman’s Home Office – led to scenes described as a “war zone”. A police van on fire, lit fireworks hurled at officers, and vulnerable residents attacked. The campaign group HOPE not Hate has reported hundreds of hotels across the UK have been targeted by so-called ‘migrant hunter’ groups, meaning the urge to protect people seeking sanctuary is not a “luxury belief”.
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Luxury is mainstreaming far-right rhetoric from inside a secure conference, surrounded by security guards. This week, we are proud to be bringing our People Move exhibition to the wonderful Museum of Liverpool, timed so that conference-goers can see some of our portraits telling the real human stories behind the word ‘migrant’.
Eight out of the 100 people photographed by the Mirror’s award-winning snapper Philip Coburn have found sanctuary on Merseyside, a city-region built by immigration and emigration. Their quiet dignity is in stark contrast to the sound and fury of the past few days. Each has escaped their own whirlwind, something that blew their previous existence apart. The tempests of civil war, invasion, violent homophobia. The human hurricane that was the holocaust.
Dr John Goldsmith was born in Oberkassel, Düsseldorf, in 1924 (Philip Coburn)Dr John Goldsmith is 99, and has lived here for 86 years after escaping Adolf Hitler as a child, whose Jewish step-father “was dragged from his house, murdered by shooting”. After being interned in Britain on Merseyside, he went on to be a kidney specialist in the NHS, saving countless lives in the UK.
Mykhailyna Kukharchuk who left her home city of Kyiv after the Russian invasion with her husband (Philip Coburn /Daily Mirror)Mykhailyna Kukharchuk, 38, came just recently from Ukraine. “A missile just missed the roof of our house,” she says. “It felt like we were going to die.” Backisu Shehu Al Hassan, 27, from Nigeria, lived in a Liverpool hostel for months while pregnant and with a two-year-old child. Hasina Rastin, 32, fled Afghanistan after the Taliban invaded.
Nzuzi Musungu pictured outside her home in Liverpool (Philip Coburn /Daily Mirror)Nzuzi Musungu, 47, had to leave her baby son in Congo when she left – one way she channels her grief is by singing in the Merseyside Asylum Link Choir.
Khaleel Kurdish, 33, from Syria, arrived by a small boat rescued by the British Navy. He is now a welder, training as an engineer. Kirushan Sivagnanam, 32, an artist, faced imprisonment in Sri Lanka because his art was deemed political. His extraordinary work is now showing in the Williamson Gallery across the water in Birkenhead. It is called “Nightmares”.
Khaleel Kurdish pictured at the docks in Liverpool (Philip Coburn /Daily Mirror)Yew Fook ‘Sam’, 71, misses his home in Malaysia, but as a gay man – whatever Suella Braverman may say about gay people seeking asylum – faces imprisonment there. After being held in a detention centre for two years he now lives in Liverpool and loves visiting the Beatles Museum. On Sunday evening, Lord Alf Dubs – who fled the Nazis on the Kindertransport as a child – will lead our ‘People Move’ fringe inside the Conference. On Monday, People Move participants will gather at the museum to see their portraits, with music from Nzuzi’s choir.
Yew Fook Sam pictured at the docks in Liverpool (Philip Coburn /Daily Mirror)All of this matters more than ever in the light of the past few days at Conspiracy Party Conference. Braverman’s conference speech – signed off ‘line by line’ by Downing Street – followed a hard-right speech to a US thinktank last week that saw a former senior BNP man tweet approvingly that “Suella Braverman must be watching my videos”.
Hasina Rastin from Afghanistan pictured at a refugee centre in Birkenhead, Liverpool where she volunteers (Philip Coburn /Daily Mirror)A pound-shop Prospero who believes she commands the Tempest, perhaps Braverman thinks she can control the forces she is unleashing. But her riffs on ‘cultural dilution’, ‘high birth rates’, migration’s ‘existential challenge’ to ‘Western culture’ and other ideas embraced by the Far Right, threaten to disfigure the Conservative Party. She is not alone. London Mayoral candidate Susan Hall crossed a line when she claimed Jewish people were “frightened” of her rival Sadiq Khan.
All this at a conference where Nigel Farage was no longer the ghoul at the feast, but the light entertainment. When it comes to combating dangerous anti-immigrant narratives, human stories are a powerful force. Spending even a few moments with the 100 people from the People Move project shows us how communities like Liverpool, and our country, are enriched by those building a life here.
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On Sunday we will remember the beautiful soul who was Consuelo Rivera-Fuentes, a Chilean contributor to People Move who recently died from cancer. Imprisoned and tortured under Pinochet in her home country for her feminist activism, Consuelo built a good life here with her beloved wife, Lynda, and went on to teach and found a publishing company. She gave so much and asked only for equality. People move. Get over it.
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