Crossing the channel in boats

[MarshaBradyo]

Listening to radio re terrible situation on the water but also in camps in France

It all sounds very hard

What would you like to see happen?

Still in news so another go plus lack of capital C bugs me

I also just walked to school in cold and thought of how brutal it would be to get in boat in dark

Talks of camps, process in France, patrol on coast

It’s probably going to get worse though a solution seems hard

What I would like to see happen is for refugees to be treated properly. For human trafficking and the people who prosper from it to be cracked down on properly and for the authorities to arrest them. For a lot more kindness to be given. For more countries along the way to be more welcoming so that refugees didn’t have to try and make their way on possible life ending journies-that maybe they would stay in one of those countries because it was somewhere they wanted to live. That the UK wasn’t presented to them as some kind of nirvana-I’m 100% sure that many hate it when they get here as people treat them like shit and they have awful living conditions.
Just that really-but maybe that’s my nirvana?

France have had years to find solutions s and seemingly do very little.
What are they doing about the people smuggling?
They could put more patrols on the parts of the coast where boats can be launched.

The head of the ports was on Breakfast this morning crying out for some sort of hub where people who arrive in Calais would be helped and wouldn’t have to get here unsafely. Felt so bad for him! What a job!

The millions the UK give France could be used to build those hubs.
If France don't have the man power they could accept UK offers to send people over to assist.
The mass gatherings on the beaches at the moment could be targeted.

I would like to see the countries they originate from made safe so they don't have to leave their home. Far easier said than done I know.

I think I was listening to the same interview. Ideas that sprang to mind:

• Allow applications for refugee status in the UK to be made at any UK consulate or embassy and process them while out of country.

• Drone patrols with heat imaging along the north French and Belgian coasts.

• Centralised processing of asylum seeker applications in the EU, so it doesn't matter where you arrive. You could state which country you have language/family ties to.

I think unfortunately whilst the rumours persist that the streets of London are paved with gold, people will always try anything possible to get here. The reality is they would probably be better off staying in numerous other European countries that they reach first.

The only way we solve this is to make an agreement with France to return those who arrive this way- breaking the business model of the traffickers. To make it worth it for France we would need to take more people directly from them - say double the current number crossing in boats. We would be stepping up (a bit) in sharing the burden of supporting refugees and take away the incentive to cross by boat

31 people drowned. including a child. it has to be stopped. people are making money out of this tragedy.

What would I like to happen?

I’d like colonialism never to have happened.

And over exploitation of natural resources (by ‘the West’) in countries far from here, never to have happened.

And global warming - caused by Western countries - never to have happened.

And for people / institutions / governments to have paid attention when they knew forty years ago that unregulated mass migration to Europe was about to explode.

Too late now …

I wouldn't like to be the one making the decision.
A statistic of 80m displaced people was quoted on breakfast TV. That's an awful lot of people to look out for and have room for.

Many years ago I saw some people in 'the jungle' interviewed.

It was so sad, they had such high hopes that when they got to Britain their lives would magically transform. I wondered then whether they could be employed to go 'home' to tell people what it is really like, but people were selling their lives as good in phone calls home.

I think the best way to undercut the people traffickers would be to have some sort of working holiday visa for people fleeing persecution and possibly to economic migrants too. Different visas obviously.

If a family in China are spending £10 000 to get one relative to Europe to work, pay off the debt and send money home then wouldn't it be better to have a number of visas per year to allow 1 or 2 years work?

That way people could be here legally for a time doing limited work with a view to asylum or for economic migrants to return home with some money.

I'm not suggesting we open the doors to everyone but that we allow people to get to the UK safely and be monitored.

I think its frightening that one half of the world wants to move to the other half.
I dont think making asylum claims offshore would make a difference. I think a lot of the people in the boats would still come and just disappear into the underworld, they know they wont be sent back. I would have thought that word of the conditions here would have filtered back to people not here yet, but if they have it still must be better here than where they have come from. I suppose once they have paid or got into a dept situation they are desperate to repay the mo ney from somewhere. Its worrying that we could be getting tens of thousands coming across every year in future.

It must be a horrendous situation to be in, but then I think we're encouraging it by offering housing/benefits and the myth of the land of plenty.

We just don't have the housing/healthcare/education facilities to have thousands of migrants landing daily.

It is horrendous. The thought of any child being put on a boat makes me feel awful. How they must get them to do it.

It’s very sad and desperate.

I also understand the sheer numbers could be an issue and not sure what you’d do

But mostly I want it to stop as priority due to how brutal it must be

@Canigooutyet

The millions the UK give France could be used to build those hubs. If France don't have the man power they could accept UK offers to send people over to assist. The mass gatherings on the beaches at the moment could be targeted.

Seen from this side of the water…

Down south (local to where I am) the French authorities are seeing another upturn in numbers entering illegally, arrests are up month vs. last year.

Meanwhile up north about the behavior of some, including some outside of France, who seem to be actively encouraging/perhaps even facilitating some of the crossings. Some politicians are making the argument that encouraging/talking up the prospect of “free passage” is potentially only going to make matters worse.

The bright idea of putting British boots “ on the ground, “ much trumpeted in some places this AM, very quickly runs foul of that much beloved thing “sovereignty” which I believe used to be all the rage in some quarters.

BTW with regard to the comment about drone imaging (IR and visible) - already in use on the French side.

@Canigooutyet

The millions the UK give France could be used to build those hubs. If France don't have the man power they could accept UK offers to send people over to assist. The mass gatherings on the beaches at the moment could be targeted.

Pretty much this. It shouldn't be just Frances issue as of course they're attempting to come here, but we have given millions upon millions and made the offer of staff to assist, which have not been utilised. We cannot force our staff over, so very much at the mercy of them. The ideal is that those making thousands out of people smuggling are targeted and caught, I mean realistically if people living hundreds of miles away can contact them, or come over to mainland Europe and contact them then it can't be impossible for the authorities.

Some politicians are making the argument that encouraging/talking up the prospect of “free passage” is potentially only going to make matters worse.

I missed this, who do you mean?

Also from a French perspective what are your thoughts on what you’d like to happen?

I'd like people in the U.K. to be properly educated on the historic role the U.K. has played in making these places unsafe that people are trying to escape from and it like people to understand that we really don't take that many when compared to other countries. Lebanon for example is buckling under the strain of all of their refugees. I'd like people to understand that as a direct result of colonial rule, the people who are coming to the U.K. are probably doing so because they were made to learn the language at school which is one of the reasons they'll be choosing to migrate to the U.K. I think increasing peoples understanding may hopefully lead them to have more compassion.

I wish people could see that in 1938-39 we took in (for a price) Jewish children but very few Jewish adults because the rhetoric was the same then as it is now - what if they steal our jobs, what if there's a bad egg amongst the adults coming across. Think how many more lives could've been saved had public opinion been different.

If I were responsible for this I'd impose very strict jail terms on the scum profiting of other's desperation. Life sentences for people traffickers with no parole. I'd also work to make life much easier and improve conditions for the migrants. I'd maybe look at the model for the hoards of British people migrating to Spain, that seems relatively painless for them so if see how they are processed and try and copy it.

What needs to be targeted is the grey cash in hand economy which they come here for and the access to state funding.

Not sure about videos of French police standing by whilst boats leave - just on radio

Is there another take on this?

I'm actually shocked at the amount of migrants that have crossed this year so far, assuming I am reading it properly, 25,000, thats the equivalent size of a small town. A town that will use the NHS, benefits, schools, housing etc.
I really wish France and other countries would jump in to help more, I mean the UK is half the size of these other countries.

As an aside the people who are making money off these poor people should be jailed for life, totally disgusting using them for their own financial advantage.

@Canigooutyet

The millions the UK give France could be used to build those hubs. If France don't have the man power they could accept UK offers to send people over to assist. The mass gatherings on the beaches at the moment could be targeted.

Reverse the situation: do you think English people would take kindly to French police patrolling the beaches of Kent and interrogating anyone setting sail, innocently or not? You're being ridiculous!

@Appledrop

I'm actually shocked at the amount of migrants that have crossed this year so far, assuming I am reading it properly, 25,000, thats the equivalent size of a small town. A town that will use the NHS, benefits, schools, housing etc. I really wish France and other countries would jump in to help more, I mean the UK is half the size of these other countries. As an aside the people who are making money off these poor people should be jailed for life, totally disgusting using them for their own financial advantage.

Most other large European countries (including France) take a higher number of refugees than we do! Ours are just more visible because of the dramatic way we make them enter the country.