Sunday 07 February 2016
On Friday morning, I outlined to the local BBC why Guernsey was not, at this stage, in a position to support, specifically, the UK government's Vulnerable Person Resettlement Scheme for Syrian refugees. This is for a wide range of reasons relaying to existing legislation, policies and resources.
I also added during the course of the interview that I had received a number of comments from people in Guernsey that could be described at 'xenophobic' or 'Islamophobic' in relation to this issue.
The majority of people in Guernsey that I have had contact with on this issue have strongly supported the idea of trying to find a way of assisting with resettlement. My clearly and publicly stated view is that we should help, and that hopefully we will find a way to help in an active way.
Guernsey is clearly NOT a 'xenophobic' or 'Islamophobic' community, and the comment I made is now being taken out of context.
However it would be false to say there are not some people in our community who hold those views, and who have promulgated them on social media. Guernsey is like many other communities in that it has a small minority who hold 'xenophobic' views. We should not simply ignore that, but instead the majority in our community should seek to ensure that the minority's discriminatory views do not hold sway. If we ignore discrimination, we will never tackle it.
Guernsey is a community where many people come and are welcomed, and it has been that way for hundreds of years. It is also a community where many people actively work to help those of other nationalities and faiths who are in need of our support.
I certainly did not intend to accuse our community outright of 'xenophobia', and I apologise to those who have, rightly, been angered by the way those comments have been presented.
I hope that they will continue to work with me and others to ensure that no kind of discrimination - on the basis of faith, of nationality, of gender, of sexuality - has a foothold in Guernsey.
