Your report (Four dead including two children after migrant boat sinks in Channel, 27 October) puts into stark relief what happens when a government refuses to provide safe and legal routes for asylum seekers. The idea that politicians like Boris Johnson and Priti Patel offer “thoughts and prayers” to grieving families while simultaneously limiting routes for asylum is hypocritical and sickening; they have built their political careers by exploiting people’s xenophobia and fear of others. You too would leave a desperate situation in a heartbeat if you had to, by any means at your disposal. No one is illegal. Our laws make them so. Please remember this the next time you vote.
Gascia Ouzounian
Oxford
