Irony of killing manufacturing sector only to export farm labour to the UK

When former Britain Prime Minister Boris Johnson worked with vegetable pickers as they harvested courgettes during a visit to Southern England Farms Ltd in Hayle in south-west England on June 13, 2022. [AFP]

The Royal Museums Greenwich estimates that 12 million Africans were enslaved between 1640 and 1807, primarily to provide cheap labour in Western countries. British ships are believed to have transported about 3.4 million Africans across the Atlantic to work on American farms.

Without casting any judgment on the 350 people who left the country earlier this week to work on farms in the United Kingdom, one cannot help but notice the ironic twist of fate. Unlike the horrific forced labour of the 16th century, we now see leaders of a sovereign state willingly sending young people to work on foreign farms.