Sunak, Braverman, Patel: The 'proud British' going after illegal immigration

UK Prime Minister Rishi Sunak created a stir even amongst the most devout Conservative Party supporters by redesigning the country's immigration policy. The 'Stop the Boats Law' or Illegal Migration Law, which lays out a roadmap to end illegal entry to the United Kingdom as route to asylum, has brought Sunak's ancestral history of immigration into spotlight, and that of UK Home Secretary Suella Braverman as well as her predecessor Priti Patel.

While announcing the policy, Sunak wrote: "If you come to the UK illegally, you will be stopped from making late claims and attempts to frustrate your removal. You will be removed in weeks, either to your own country if it is safe to do so, or to a safe third country like Rwanda."

Home Secretary Suella Braverman, in her statement, said: "The British people rightly expect us to solve this crisis and that’s what myself and the Prime Minister fully intend to do. We must stop the boats. You will not be allowed to stay."

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Previously, in Prime Minister Boris Johnson's cabinet, the then home secretary Priti Patel implemented a "pushback policy", which planned to force people in small boats back to France.

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Like Braverman, Patel was also considered an immigration hardliner.

Sunak, Patel, and Braverman — all three are considered strong Brexiteers, who staunchly supported Britain’s exit from the European Union.

While Sunak's ancestors left undivided India when the British Raj was still the colonial powerhouse of the Indian subcontinent, they reached Britain much later in 1960. Sunaks were among the people who came to be known as "twice migrants", as they first left India for Africa , and finally reached the United Kingdom later.

Incidentally, like Rishi Sunak, the UK home secretary Suella Braverman and former home secretary Priti Patel are also the children of twice migrants.

Braverman’s father was from Goa, and he came to Britain via Kenya; just like the India-Kenya-UK route taken by the Sunaks.

Braverman's mother, also of Indian ancestry, came to Britain from another African country, Mauritius. Both of them migrated to the UK in the 1960s.

Priti Patel’s Indian-origin parents also came from Uganda in the 1960s.

Why Sunak, Braverman, Patel cannot be clubbed into the South Asian diaspora?

The three of them are placed in the broad South Asian diaspora category in the United Kingdom. However, sociologically, the three of them are clubbed as East African Asians in the UK, distinct and different from other South Asian immigrants ('new migrants') in many ways, according to a paper titled 'Indian Diversity in the UK: An Overview of a Complex and Varied Population' by Leonard Williams.

India-Africa-UK migration route of twentieth century

When the British were the colonising force in the Indian subcontinent, Indians from present-day Punjab provinces of India and Pakistan as well as from Gujarat and Maharashtra began moving to East African countries.

The first batch of migrants in the late nineteenth century were the railroad workers.

Later on, as the British moved the national capital from Calcutta (now Kolkata) to Delhi in 1911, the second wave of migration to East Africa began, which continued up until the beginning of the second world war, according to data maintained in the Imperial Indian Gazetteer. This time, professionals such as lawyers, accountants, doctors, clerks, and small traders went to these countries and settled mostly in cities and towns.

The Sunaks, Bravermans as well as the Patels left British India for East Africa during this time.

As the British Empire lost its colonised nations in East Africa starting late 1940s, the newly formed governments tried to fill-in the spots of power by native Africans.

New land ownership Acts promulgated to create space for native Africans in the corridors of power forced many Indians to leave to look for better opportunities.

Under this backdrop, the families of Rishi Sunak, Priti Patel and Suella Braverman came to the United Kingdom.

The process of compelling Indians to leave East African nations was gradual and implicit in countries such as Kenya and Tanzania. However, in 1972, it took a brutal turn in Uganda when General Idi Amin Dada set a deadline for all Indians to leave the country or face the consequences.

Currentanti-immigration uproar in Britain

Prime Minister Rishi Sunak, as recently as on Friday, stated that the UK is "spending £5.5 million a day plus on hotels,"referring to the purported lodging costs of the asylum seekers.

In recent times, numerous protests have erupted near the sites of such lodgings, prompting a widespread anti-immigration outcry in Britain.

The UK Prime Minister is also considering withdrawing from the European Convention on Human Rights (ECHR) in order to crack down on illegal immigration.

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In another step forward to crack down on illegal immigration, Britain and France on Friday agreed on a new deal to prevent illegal cross-English Channel migration.

London will step up funding to France over the next three years to total 541 million euros ($575 million), allowing the deployment of "hundreds" of extra French law enforcement officers along the Channel coast to stop the illegal migration.

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