All Lives Matter?

“All lives matter!” has been the rallying cry of those opposed to the BLM protests. And yet, now, it seems all lives do not matter. Certainly not the life of young Abdulfatah Hamdallah who drowned last week.

The depths to which his sorrow must have sunk, to have forced him to take a chance on a blow up dinghy, with a shovel for an oar is inconceivable. The huge risk he took, shows clearly that the boy was escaping horrors I will never know or understand. Anyone who has taken a ferry across the chanel knows it’s an incredibly long journey, and the waters are wild and unpredictable. Death was something Abdulfatah would have been keenly aware of. Yet still, he tried to get across. 

His courage, determination and hope should be celebrated, and his loss of life in this last leg of his journey is a tragedy. Imagine if this industrious youth had made it ashore. He could have become one of the many thousands of immigrants making important positive contributions to the UK. The facts about immigration are often shouted down by ignorant people, with horror stories of fraud, theft and laziness. These fanciful stories are simply not backed up by the actual data that shows the massively positive impact of immigrants on the UK.

The comments sections of the national newspapers have been awash with the misinformation, promoted by the likes of Priti Patel saying that his actions were illegal, (they weren’t) and Nigel Farage claiming that there is a mass invasion (there isn’t). When the population is more angry about a handful of people legally seeking asylum than they are about the billions stolen from the public purse this year alone, and syphoned into offshore accounts, there is something broken in the system. 

I have seen hundreds and hundreds of laugh reacts on these articles. The public feel emboldened by the press, and the government’s hostility to speak out and expose their bigotry, often opening their statements with “I don’t understand why…” as a way of discrediting the young man. Not understanding something, does not mean that the thing does not exist, it simply means you need to learn more about it. Have we really reached the stage where ignorance is assumed as superiority? Are we that used to being gas lit, that now we wantonly apply it to others?

This Saturday, in front of the Subrooms, Stroud Against Racism held a candle lit vigil for Abdulfatah, and mourned his death. We stood in solidarity with all those displaced from their homes and lives by war and other horrors, and we stood in defiance of those whose lack of information and empathy caused them to laugh at the tragic death of a heroically brave young man whose last posted words were, “On the palm of fate we walk, and don’t know what’s written”.