This article makes me sad, angry, despairing. It follows a pattern of a lot of reporting from a sympathetic perspective on migrants in Calais that I want to talk about.

First, some of it is excellent. The testimony is so moving & makes the horror clear https://www.mirror.co.uk/news/uk-news/migrants-desperate-plea-boris-johnson-22518075

But even I, when I read this, am asking myself - but why don't they apply for asylum in France?
The family, so sympathetically portrayed, fleeing religious persecution in Iran, say they have been sleeping rough in Calais for 9 months, after 2 years on the road through Europe...

There is no discussion of whether they have sought the assistance of the French authorities. It is at least clear why they may be fearful of them - the description of regular violence from French police to 'move them on' is a clue, but it doesn't explain fully.

In fact, as asylum seekers who have been registered in Serbia - where conditions were so poor that the new mother attempted suicide - the French authorities would likely automatically seek to send them back to that "safety", which is why they cannot apply in France...

But another thing is not explained: that "the safety of England" that this family is longing for is just as illusory.

The UK authorities, exactly like the French, would run their biometrics through European asylum databases and establish that they can send them back to Serbia...

Neither France nor the UK will take responsibility for this desperate young Iranian family of Christian converts.

They had absolutely no legal option to apply from Iran, or nearby, to go to either country safely & in a regular manner to seek protection from persecution in Iran.

The "first safe country" concept is used to make it as close as we can to impossible for families like this to establish themselves anywhere in rich, stable Western Europe.

Much as the UK is unlikely to be the "first" country for refugees, the French make just the same argument.

Reading this article you could completely be forgiven for thinking they are deliberately refusing to seek protection in France and are trying to "sneek in" to the UK where everything will be easy for them.

Neither of these is true and that is the crux of it.

If Matthew Young or anyone else at @MirrorPolitics team would like to discuss these questions of reporting on migration through Europe, we at @JCWI_UK are very willing to help. It's clear the intention of this piece was positive, but context is essential.

This kind of article contributes to an environment where MigrationWash can get a splash in @thetimes

(Hi again, two days in a row with your bullshit, honestly?)

Saying migrants have nothing to lose and implying the UK is a soft touch. Pure, unadulterated, DELIBERATE garbage.