Channel 4's Go Back to Where You Came From is shocking. I’m glad it was made | Gareth Benest
The backlash to the reality series misses a key point: if this was an educational documentary, would anyone watch it?
- Gareth Benest is advocacy director for the charity International Broadcasting Trust
Channel 4’s new reality series Go Back to Where You Came From may not please either side of the debate around refugees and irregular migration, but I’m very glad it was made. From its title onwards, the series doesn’t treat its subject matter with the sensitivity that many would hope for. The first episode opens with a participant saying, as he looks out over the white cliffs of Dover: “What I’d do is, I’d set landmines up, and then any boat that comes within 50m of this beach, they’d get blown up.”
Add to that the spectacle of Brits trundling through a war-torn city in armoured cars repeatedly describing it as a “shithole”, and you have enough toxic bigotry to send my blood pressure soaring. But the point of the programme isn’t to platform extreme views: it’s to force those spouting them to face the reality of irregular migration and to challenge their preconceptions.
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