Alf Dubs came to the UK on the Kindertransport, aged six, as a refugee from Nazi-occupied Czechoslovakia; he later served as an Labour MP, minister and peer. On Thursday night another former refugee – Sagal Abdi-Wali, who fled the Somali civil war aged seven – was elected the Labour MP for Holborn. Other refugees Rita Ora (Kosovo) and M.I.A. (Sri Lanka) went on to top the charts; Ncuti Gatwa (Rwanda) played Doctor Who.

I begin with this not to make the point that refugees can go on to do great things. That’s true, but professional achievement should not be the entry price for dignity. Rather, I do so because attaching familiar names and faces to the abstract concept like “asylum” is the easiest way to emphasise that people who come to this country under horrific circumstances are, first and foremost, people. Those desperate enough to risk their lives by getting in small boats across the Channel – in large part because of reductions in safe, legal asylum routes – are frequently dehumanised using dog whistles such as “horde”, “invasion” or “fighting-aged men”. But they are human beings, with hopes and fears and ambitions. In other universes, they could be you and I.

Consider what it........

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