1 March 2000 – In the week that PressWise held a seminar for print and broadcast journalists about media coverage of children and violence, the Daily Mail was warning Middle England about the cost of catering for ‘a new flood of child asylum seekers’.
Under the headline ‘COUNCIL TAX UP TO PAY FOR ASYLUM SEEKERS’ (25 February) the Mail informed readers that some 40 unaccompanied children arrive in Kent each week, mostly from Albania, Afghanistan and Kosovo. Some are as young as 12.
The Leader of Hillingdon Council told the London Evening Standard that the number of such children entering through Heathrow has gone up by 250% (Londoners face £10m bill for asylum seekers, 27 February). Apparently the cost of accommodating them could lead to the closure of libraries and swimming pools causing ‘serious social unrest’ (sic).
Nowhere was there an explanation of why so many young children are driven to endure perilous journeys across continents with no knowledge of their eventual destination. The press prefer to concentrate on numbers, costs and conmen – the Mail has highlighted calls for additional discrimination against 15 to 18 year old asylum seekers after one 29 year old ‘illegal immigrant’ conned benefits for 6 months by masquerading as a 15-year-old.
But, as the PressWise seminar was told, the media tend to ignore stories about the mistreatment of these traumatised young children by the authorities.
The Medical Foundation for the Care of Victims of Torture explained that many of these children are in no fit state to tell their own stories having watched their parents and siblings murdered, or their homes destroyed, or have themselves been raped or tortured. They are literally fleeing for their lives, yet they face disbelief and hostility.
Most refugees and asylum-seekers come to the UK because they regard it as a safe haven. Rather than take pride in this, the media prefer to castigate asylum seekers for treating bureaucratic Britain as a soft touch. It is the fourth richest country in the world with a tiny intake of refugees compared to those taken in by the world’s poorest countries.
Yet our provincial press is already full of stories more likely to generate panic and resentment than understanding, (‘WAR ON HUMAN CARGO GANGS: Package tour smugglers in immigrant racket’, Western Daily Press, 21 February). We can expect more strident headlines as the government tries to disperse refugees and asylum-seekers away from the better know entry points to other parts of the UK – and increased tension and fear among already vulnerable people, especially the children.
Of course the media should be exposing those who exploit refugees for commercial or political gain, including the private companies that stand to gain by providing poor quality accommodation (‘Securicor offers to hold asylum seekers in ‘prison ships’ on Tyne’, Independent on Sunday, 27 February).
But it is about time journalists uncoupled their news sense from a chauvinistic belief that their readers are not interested in anything beyond their pockets, and tried to imagine what life must be like for these children. Instead of pandering to the most venal forms of xenophobia the media can help to explain why this ‘crisis’ has developed; and to discover what could still be done to prevent the conflicts give rise to such tragedies.
PressWise believes the media has a crucial role to play in helping people to understand, and to champion human rights. That is why during March we shall be attending a gathering organised by the 21st Century Trust to discuss new approaches to the coverage of conflict, and contributing to a series of meetings around the UK to encourage refugees and their organisations to get to grips with the media and find ways of obtaining more accurate, balanced, and considered coverage. We shall be attending a London conference on media coverage of children, and running radio workshops with street children in New Delhi to help the powerless and the outcast find a voice for themselves.
(Bulletin No. 9)