1/5 Listening to the #r4today this morning about @UKHomeOffice proposals for offshore asylum processing brought back some horrific memories of an incident during the great storm of 1987

2/5 I had just joined the Senior Management Team @refugeecouncil leading on services for people seeking asylum. At that time we were campaigning against the use of ferries being used to detain them.

3/5 On the night of the storm the ferry moored at Harwich, The Earl William, lost its moorings and drifted out to sea. Its progress was stopped by sand dunes,

4/5 On the ferry were over 100 people, mostly I remember young Tamil men seeking asylum. We spent the weekend working to get them housed on land. They had been in cabins on the ferry throughout the storm, absolutely terrified. It was a shocking event that still haunts me

5/5 The @ukhomeoffice of the time were deeply worried about what had happened.

It was a time when all policies relating to people seeking asylum were harsh, and the key aim was to deter others from coming to the UK

I can’t believe how little has changed.