The Guardian View on the Rwanda Deal: Tory Asylum Policy Sinks to a New Low

THE GUARDIAN – EDITORIAL: This malign deportation scheme is a distraction from years of broken pledges

Suella Braverman wasn’t sacked from her post as home secretary three weeks ago because of her zeal in promoting the deportation of asylum seekers to Rwanda – a policy she once described as her “dream”. It was an intemperate attack she made on the police in the Times that led to her dismissal by the prime minister she had defied in making it. But anyone who thought – or hoped – that her replacement by James Cleverly would bring an end to this vicious, wrong-headed policy was mistaken. Rishi Sunak’s government remains wedded to its project of sending asylum seekers from all over the world to central Africa. » | Editorial | Tuesday, December 5, 2023

The Tories have turned into a party in no small part made up of immigrants hell-bent on denying new immigrants the right to settle here. I wonder where these people would have been today had the UK denied their families entry into this country, the very country that gave these people opportunity, the very country to which they are so determined to deny the same opportunities to others? This anti-immigrant fervour is quite unprecedented among immigrants, I feel sure. – © Mark Alexander

Swedish Asylum Policy Fuels Support for Far-right Nationalist Party

THE GUARDIAN: The Sweden Democrats’ anti-migrant stance is proving popular among those who oppose the entry of 190,000 refugees into the country this year

Growing frustration in Sweden with an asylum policy that will allow up to 190,000 refugees into the country this year is driving Europe’s self-declared “humanitarian superpower” into the arms of radical nationalism.

The Sweden Democrats (SD), a nationalist party that emerged from the neo-Nazi movement and has been shunned by Sweden’s mainstream parties because of its far-right immigration policies, is now the country’s third-largest party with 49 representatives in parliament.

An opinion poll conducted after the Paris attacks by polling firm Sifo found the SD would receive 17.6% of the public vote, marking a 4.6 point rise in support since the 2014 elections. This is one of the more conservative estimates of SD popularity, with several pollsters putting it as the largest single party in Sweden.

Anti-fascist groups have warned that, against a backdrop of Islamic State terror attacks and a refugee crisis, the far-right is rapidly gaining political legitimacy across Europe through the success of parties including the SD, Austria’s Freedom party , the Finns party in Finland, France’s Front National and the UK Independence party.

“They are a force to be reckoned with. As far as I see it, radical nationalism is not just one of the strongest growing political forces but ideologies in Europe,” Daniel Poohl, editor-in-chief of Expo, a pressure group that charts fascist activity in Sweden, told the Guardian.

“I think we have to be aware that the far-right didn’t disappear from Europe, it just had an enormous backlash after 1945. At that time democracy was the ID that destroyed society; today it’s multiculturalism that destroys the nation.” (+ video) » | Phoebe Greenwood in Trollhättan | Tuesday, November 24, 2015

Germany's Asylum Policy Fuels 'Rise' in Far Right – Newsnight (BBC)

A senior German intelligence official has told Newsnight that Germany's decision to take in asylum seekers is fuelling a rise in the far right. Hundreds of thousands of migrants have arrived into the country in recent months. Gabriel Gatehouse reports from Saxony in eastern Germany.