Letter to Cherilyn Mackrory, MP in response to her actions regarding the Dubs Amendment.

I am writing in response to your recent vote to prevent the Dubs Amendment from carrying over post Brexit. I think this is completely shameful, and an unbelievable act to be committed by a parent. It is really heartbreaking if you sacrificed empathy to tow the party line, and I worry about the next 5 years if that is the case.

I am not sure how aware you are of the refugee crisis, but there are currently over 65 million people displaced around the world. Since Brexit has dominated the conversation of our country, this very real issue has been completely silenced, and it is vital that we remember this. 

However, the crisis continues, and is only set to worsen as conflicts are sustained and the the environmental crisis grows, forcing more and more people out of their homes.

It doesn’t take much to imagine the situation that drives people to leave their home countries, the quote from poet Warsan Shire illustrates this perfectly:

“No one leaves home unless, home is the mouth of a shark”.

To drag your children from the sound of gun fire and cities of ruins, by foot for thousands of miles, across dangerous seas to countries where they know they will face hostility, is not a decision made lightly. And distancing yourself from the people who make those decisions is an act of inhumanity. Now imagine being separated from your children, having found asylum, and not being able to be reunited with them. It’s sickening.

If the humanity argument is not strong enough, then it should be our historic obligation. It doesn’t matter where these refugees are coming from, there is always the influence of England. Whether it’s our decades-long involvement in Middle Eastern conflict, colonialism still destabilising Africa, or our disproportionate environmental impact, we have a huge price to pay for our influence on these people. 

Finally, you should be thinking about the will of your constituents with every vote you make (and expect to hear from me more about that). You were parachuted into our constituency right before the election so I can’t expect you to have any knowledge about the communities you are representing, but just as you were settling into your candidate role, we greeted a Syrian family to Falmouth. It was a project that was over a year in planning and thousands of people helped raise thousands of pounds to welcome a family to our community. And this must be where we differ, Cherilyn, because Falmouth welcomes refugees. Falmouth stands in solidarity with our brothers and sisters suffering around the world, and honours this country’s great history of taking in those fleeing persecution. It makes me sick to think our Syrian family are under the jurisdiction of someone who would prefer them to be separated. 

From this email I am looking for a real, genuine explanation as to why you voted this way. Please tell me how you can justify keeping children separated from their families, or release a public statement explaining this.