So what can in practical terms fully halt illegal immigration?

No they are not. Anyone where has been found to be here illegally has no access to benefits, housing, work etc.
You are thinking of asylum seekers, who are not here illegally.

If they are illegal, firms shouldn’t be employing them anyway!

I can't blame them for wanting to come here if they have family here or if they speak english but to put their lives at risk when they are already in a safe country is crazy. I certainly do blame them for putting their childrens' lives at risk in boats though

We voted to be excluded from the database that would allow us to know this....

We had a means to return migrants when we were in the EU, we voted to leave that treaty too.

Cross Channel migration is ALL on us, left the EU, weak employment laws, little enforcement of those we've got.

Migrants should have always been housed in remote disused Army barracks, with very quick turn around of claims.... had the Tories done this in 2020 instead of Hotels, we wouldn't be in this situation.

They made it look like illegal immigration was out of control and the electorate fell for it; same thing happened in the US with Trump. “Small boats”: 6,416 people. Legal immigration: 893,000. Net migration: 200,000 in a country of 60 million. It’s preposterous and hilarious, but with an electorate that fell for the “Brexit will give the NHS £350 million a week” bus, I wasn’t expecting much more. Labour fell under the same felony-stupid idea as the US Democrats: that if they just explain enough how horrible the other side are, people won’t vote for them. People aren’t stupid, but they are desperate and that can lead to poor decision-making (occurs when feeling under pressure to make any decision). Many KNOW Trump is a psychopath and Farage is a narcissist, but they don’t care because they can’t afford gas and groceries and they’ll vote for any change at all. Psychology and politics are chockablock with “he’s a monster, but he’s our monster” throughout human history. I don’t blame anyone for that. I know how privileged I am to not be cold and hungry.

I also can’t put up any support for Labour when they act like they were just thrown in the deep end by the last GE - you had 14 fucking years in opposition to plan better than this!!!!

How many already have family here? If they do, why aren’t they living with them rather than in hotels? Lots of HMO resulting if they do.
If there is family here, why add to it with more and more relations?
Many don’t speak English
They are likely to be unskilled low wage workers and likely to be a drain on the U.K. - We already have enough of our own! If they are doctors ,engineers etc they can apply legally.

Objectively, the only solution is to go back into the EU and fully utilise the provision that allows return to the 1st safe (EU) country.

The reason for the small boats is Brexit. Traffickers know that people can't be easily sent back because we are outside the EU.

The irony is excruciating that one of the key architects of the Brexit disaster, Farage, is the one benefitting from the one of the problems it caused while Starmer, who has done more than anyone else to stop the boats, is the one being punished.

Farage won't be able to stop them either. Not without doing something illegal like trying to turn the boats back mid-channel and that will be challenged in the courts. But it won't matter, he will be provided with every get out and excuse under the sun by his supporters, both voters and billionaire press owners.

The problem for Labour is that it is understood to not be racist towards Muslims, unlike Reform, so people believe that they want illegal immigration because the boat people will vote Labour. Even if Farage can't stop the boats, the British MAGA will be content in the knowledge that he shares their racism and hatred of immigrants (apart from rich ones obviously).

Whatever the solution it will cost money & lots of it. People are anti illegal immigration but many are happy to benefit from the fact those immigrants work for cheap.

This is true. Immigration overall is declining... Also we need to get real, Illegal immigration isn’t unique to the UK, it’s a consequence of being a rich, stable country. All wealthy developed countries have it.

The USA has about 10-11 million undocumented migrants. Even tightly controlled systems like Dubai rely on huge numbers of foreign workers, but still have overstaying and people with irregular status. Poorer countries like Chad or Niger do not have illegal immigration because people do not want to go there.

So, yes keep trying to manage it, try different approaches, improve enforcement, check with employers and landlords, maybe bring in id cards ( except we seem to hate that idea and can't have it both ways). Control illegal immigration as best you can, but don’t see it as the single issue. It is not. Look at everything, distribution of wealth, environment, productivity, inflation, wages, economic growth, an ageing population, social care.

Do not fall for a self serving party led by a charlatan who has displayed hard wired racist and antisemitic behaviour since childhood, who has previously used false immigration fear mongering as an emotive trigger issue to manipulate a national referendum. If a politician wants you to focus on one issue above all others, it’s likely you are being manipulated.

Farage and Reform display so many red flags it is overwhelming. These include financial mismanagement, anti environment policies, express lies and manipulation, even occasionally revealing a true agenda to dismantle the NHS, replacing it with private healthcare. These red flags are accompanied by an underlying constant of breaking rules in order to feather their own nest.

So- we have always had, and always will have, some irregular immigration because it is a direct consequence of wealth and success. It is flawed to attribute illegal immigration as a sole issue, it is not the root cause of anything and everything you don’t like. Yes keep trying a variety of practical steps but also see it for what it is, one issue that is an inevitable consequence of our world ranking.

Oh yeah - the weather is shite - agree with you there

Detention centres, fingerprints. Deportation.
Any attempting to come back will be deported again until they get the message

It’s not just illegal immigration, net immigration needs to come down to the 10s of thousands. The way to do it is remove the pull factors, no state benefits at all….at all. Including those already here. The only immigrants will the be those who can support themselves and will be net financial gain rather than a loss.

You are joking right?

Living a comfy life in a prison hotel with horrible food and no access to work until you have been granted asylum which could take several years. Then once you do have right to remain, you wait 5 years - no sorry 10 years - before you are eligible to claim any benefits at all.

It was difficult enough to get here using legal channels for my Indian friends who contribute massively to our NHS.

In Poland, the water canons are deployed on the border with Belarus (due to an alleged history of Belarus previously flying in immigrants from the Middle East and pushing through to Poland). However, illegal immigrants from Ukraine are not met with water cannons

The issue is that practical solution is very different from populist steps and some would require changes of British ways.

Forbidding asylum seekers to work while they are being processed and lowering funding and capacity to process their applications means creating artificial bunch of people not allowed to support themselves and therefore costing the public money. The solution is counterintuitive - increasing the processing capacity.

UK is popular because of the lack of identifications. In many EU countries the ID and national registers play much bigger role in everyday life, so it is harder to go unnoticed and impossible to slowly blend in.

Majority of those who see immigration as a key problem don't want to solve it, they just want it to disappear, or they just want to be able to rant about it. Some just want to see that there is some lower cast that the system treats worse then them.

I have heard that mentioned in the media. So it should be, but they’ve a long way to go and lots to do before patting themselves on the back.

Each person will have their own reasons for wanting to seek asylum in the UK rather than the first safe country they arrive in - some of which will be entirely understandable. Eg they already have family in the UK who can support them, they speak good English but no other European languages, there is a large community of people from their country on the UK already and they are offering support, they have a skill which is in demand in the UK or a qualification which is recognised in the UK but not in other European countries.

Sadly some people are very, very stupid. It’s time that voting was made compulsory after some much needed political education first. I know a lot of people who honestly thought it was a general election??!!

The more culturally similar, the more likely the asylum seekers are to feel that it's not really safe and the danger they fled could easily spread, so want to put several national borders between them before it actually feels possible to stop being afraid. And also concentrating large asylum populations in a small area immediately near to the area of danger is a known and obvious source of new risks and dangers because of the pressures that such a volatile situation creates. Refugee camps are not safe. Refugee ghettos set up hurriedly by a relatively poor neighbouring country to manage the influx is a temporary solution at best and not a good place to build a new life. Barely half of 1% of the global population are refugees. Spread out across the globe fairly, they are easily absorbed into each country. Concentrated only into neighbouring countries is a much worse problem, much more expensive to manage, and any international agreements to enforce such a (frankly inadvisable) policy would have to be heavily funded by the countries (such as the uk) who were foisting their fair share onto countries much less well-placed to cope.

Then they’d be roaming the streets, stealing etc. The boats need to be stopped at source. Starmer is quite happy to pay France to ignore the problem, so what’s the answer?

Weird. This is what I get from a quick search that indicates there are restrictions.
"Permitted Regions: Churches exist in many Muslim-majority nations, particularly in the Middle East and Southeast Asia, with major historical presence in places like Egypt (Copts), Syria, and Turkey.
Restrictions and Regulations: Even where allowed, churches often face, strict regulatory environments, limitations on visibility (no bell ringing or steeples), and prohibitions on building new churches in certain areas.
Prohibitions: Saudi Arabia is a notable exception, where public non-Muslim worship is forbidden and churches cannot be built.
Evangelism Bans: In many countries (e.g., Jordan, Pakistan), it is illegal for Christians to publicly proselytize or convert Muslims.
Varying Freedoms: The experience of Christians varies widely from open coexistence to extreme persecution, with some countries viewing Christians as protected dhimmis (historical term) or, in some areas, targeting them, as in parts of Nigeria, Pakistan, and Afghanistan. "

I think it would lovely if everyone could practice their own religion but when there are extremists putting bombs in concerts and stabbing people that did nothing to them, then some people will understandably push back.

= benefits.

But they are fed, clothed, accommodated, given pocket money etc, reduced tickets to attractions, services of interpreters, dental and medical treatment. A rose by any other name and all that…

I’m (mildly) curious as to why we’re an outlier here…