£15bn on hotels?

People seem to forget that the boat people are coming from France. Literally a country that millions of us go on holiday to every year. It is perfectly safe. The UK system must be very attractive for someone to risk their life to move from one perfectly safe place to another.' If we reduce the perks the number of people will fall.

Denmark solved their problem. We could solve ours

We could, @JoyintheMorning, but if we so much as tried some of Denmark's measures I guarantee the shrieks of "That's illegal/against such-and-such a treaty" would be deafening - and never mind that Denmark's part of the EU and is going ahead with it nonetheless (though I believe they're not a signatory to the common asylum policy)

The backlog of asylum decisions has conveniently been reduced because it moves the responsibility from the Home Office to local councils.

I believe the policy of not allowing asylum seekers to work was brought in to discourage arrivals.

As was deliberately slowing the processing time.

The Rwanda scheme was supposed to discourage as well although it was only ever going to take a small number and was going to cost £££££ (which the OP was emphasising as the important issue).

I suppose I'm a bit wokey-lefty but I don't actually WANT lots of asylum seekers. I'd be more upset by their arrival if it wasn't for the fact that the UK doesn't have proportionately more than other Western European countries.

Solutions to the phenomenon of irregular migration do seem trickier than "just send them back" (or we'd have done it) and does require international cooperation.

The last government were incompetent.

The next government, if it's Reform, will be incompetent.

This government is incompetent.

This government is probably the worst of the three because it has too big a majority and the backbench MPs have the power to block anything sensible that it wants to do. Fortunately, they are yet to come up with anything sensible, so that's not actually a problem

Where would you accommodate asylum seekers @PrimoPiatti?

They did the same to the NHS, schools, the prison service etc etc.. now we reap what they sowed, bloody brilliant 🙄

But in regards to the hotels the only answer is to provide ways to apply for asylum that get processed quickly. Invest the money in that instead of hotel bills.

Apparently he should have been given a document by some government agency to prove refugee status and I would have at least expected her to have asked him to come back with it. The way she just admitted defeat and gave up trying to make herself clear made me believe this wasn’t a particularly novel situation.

Look closely and find out who owns and profits from these inflated prices.

You might find all roads lead back to Tory donors/supporters.....

Who knows?

If you don’t think that scenarios like this playing out all over the place doesn’t feed into anti -asylum rhetoric and the certainty that Reforn will get in next time, then you have your head in the sand. It’s a scandal.

Well since this is the first time you've brought that up in our conversation I'm not sure how you've reached that conclusion, but I agree with you that it does feed into it.

Because he was using Google translate through his phone and certainly knew the word Syria and refugee. Everything else that was said was from the pharmacist and was met with ‘huh’ and a shrug until she lost patience and told her colleague to just ‘give him what he wanted’.

If you don’t think that scenarios like this playing out all over the place doesn’t feed into anti -asylum rhetoric and the certainty that Reforn will get in next time, then you have your head in the sand. It’s a scandal.

They’re happy to leave our own people on the street though

i wish they could strongly be discouraged from coming here in the first place

And? I don't have to show ID when I pick up my (free) prescription either. I confirm my address, that's it. I shared a house with six other people. I could have been any one of them.

How do you even know this person was a refugee?

And free dentistry?

Because he literally had no identification aside from that. No paperwork which was required. No money which might have been required. No ID to say he had legitimate refugee status and thus exception. Nothing to even confirm he was the person to whom the prescription was made out to and yet he accessed the NHS and walked away with free medication. Wonderful! Delighted my taxes just paid for that.

Well they need accomodation because they're not allowed to work and it's in everyone's interest not to have lots of people living on the street.

The accommodation in these hotels is not of the same standard as it would be if paying guests were there (i.e. it's not 'wonderful'). The asylum seekers don't just move straight in to an unchanged hotel room, the furnishings and fittings are stripped and replaced with basic furnishings, often with multiple beds to a room.

It is likely to be worse than the student accommodation you're referencing.

I made up absolutely nothing but it’s interesting to me that you think it might be made up because that’s easier isn’t it? Ah the system isn’t broken because that has to be a made up story. Nope. Sorry. You are going to have to suck up the nasty, smelly truth. Yes it stinks.

So he did have the right paperwork for the medication then? So why shouldn't the pharmacist just give him what he wants (or in other words, why don't they fill the prescription)?

There's also no sob story in my post. Just the facts of the matter.

So you mad up the rest of the scenario then?

Then they get trashed

why do they need wonderful accommodation in the first place. What do they get in other countries?

student accommodation is often really grotty and the students or their parents have to pay for it

Sure. I don’t mind if Labour think this will do it. It won’t help them at the next GE.

If it’s bad lines against rising Channel crossings they’ll struggle.

Because he had a prescription in his hand!

I honestly don’t care about the rest of your sob story. I am not responsible for all the men in Syria and Iran, nor the men of Sudanese and the Congo. I don’t care that they are desperate to work and pay their National insurance contributions and I don’t care that they might not think much of the food or the weather or the hospitality.

It's too good not to use.

I have shared reports on how Brexit is a factor in the increase of small boats, Tories have admitted to it.

But let's keep pretending it has nothing to do with Brexit.

I am starting to wonder if posters actually want the boat crossings stopped, demonising asylum seekers seems to be very popular.

I think you’re the only one using it tbf

Farage boats is still upsetting people

Thanks Ed