OMFG Children being kidnapped from Home Office Hotel

[MorelloKisses]

Children kidnapped from Home Office hotel

"A whistleblower, who works for Home Office, describes children being abducted off the street outside the hotel and bundled into cars".

How is this not top news story?? Those poor children.

Oh come on. No one can seriously think that the UK has uncontrolled immigration, when we have the tightest controls on immigration we have ever had

They mean irregular arrivals. You can’t ask people to loosen tight immigration controls as long as the boat crossing farce continues. It’s not tenable

Net migration is up anyway. Mostly people are for skilled workers through visas.

People tend to split migration into different groups which makes sense as it’s varied and needs different approaches

Since there aren't safe and regular routes for asylum seekers to arrive in the UK it is rather daft semantics to call those who arrive in boats accross the Channel in what is a humanitarian disaster irregular arrivals.

The only way to stop boat crossing is to permit safe routes for asylum seekers to come to the UK.

If most migrants are skilled workers with visas, does that not demonstrate that migration is controlled?

@jgw1 'The only way to stop boat crossing is to permit safe routes for asylum seekers to come to the UK.'

That's nonsense.

People who enter UK illegally do so because they want to be anonymous to exploit the system. Or they have fallen for the rhetoric of the traffickers who promise them jobs/money whatever then make them 'work their passage' in illegal occupations once they arrive.

If we did provide safe routes then the traffickers, seeing a drop in income, would find other ways to smuggle these people in to be workers in their drugs/pornography/prostitution operations.

And it would not stop these 'children' going missing once in UK.

I agree organised crime and trafficking needs to be looked at separately and won’t be stopped by safe routes

It is traced back to the country with a heightened organised crime issue which is impacting us here

And I am telling you that the public won’t support that unless you stop the boats first.

Otherwise you are just adding official routes to the unofficial ones.

What is certainly nonsense is saying that an asylum seeker can enter a country illegally.

Otherwise you are just adding official routes to the unofficial ones

Can’t argue too much with this, but only as long as you do fuck all else to fix the asylum system.

Earlier in the year, a large proportion of the boat crossings were Afghan asylum seekers, because the schemes set up to rescue Afghan people who’d worked alongside the British army and British companies in Afghanistan failed. Out of the thousands promised rescue, they’d resettled single digits worth of people. Had that scheme been functioning, the numbers of Afghan people crossing by boat would have been hugely reduced. With the bonus that they would have been vetted and identified before even entering the UK and more women and children could have been helped. The government’s failure here increased the boat crossings.

Not one person has been accepted and evacuated from Afghanistan under the Home Office’s Afghan citizens’ resettlement scheme (ACRS), launched in January (2022)

www.theguardian.com/world/2022/dec/03/revealed-uk-has-failed-to-resettle-afghans-facing-torture-and-death-despite-promise?CMP=Share_iOSApp_Other

Now the numbers of Albanians are higher because (as I’ve said multiple times on this thread now) the government’s failure to tackle modern slavery and trafficking means it’s much easier for Albanian criminal gangs to work in the UK than similar European countries.

So, agreed - just setting up safe routes alone might not stop all boat crossings. But setting up safe routes in countries we receive the most asylum seekers and making sure those schemes function would help stop boat crossings. Tackling the trafficking gangs that lead to increased boat crossings would reduce the boat crossings.

Illegal crossings would still happen because desperate people are desperate, but if you cut the numbers of Afghans and Albanians from the boat crossing the numbers would be infinitely more manageable.

A good point that’s been raised on this thread as well is that local authorities don’t have enough money to house young asylum seekers. Hotels are obviously unsafe, but as local authorities are underfunded, childrens accommodation isn’t available.

But can anyone explain why the Home Office seems to have endless supplies of money to spend on hotels*, but absolutely none to give to local authorities for children’s care, whether British or otherwise?

(*including the millions wasted on the Rwanda scheme. No under 18s can be sent to Rwanda, so given at that point the Home Office knew it was struggling to find childrens accommodation, the fact they chose to prioritise Rwanda rather than funnel that money into communities and children’s care speaks volumes.)

I have a question about human slavery in the UK. What happens to slaves when the users have finished with them? Where do they end up? We hear about people entering slavery, but not escaping.

On hotels and other asylum seeker accommodation, this is from the end of last year:

The government awarded the accommodation contracts to three providers – Clearsprings Ready Homes, Mears Group and Serco – who each took on two or three UK regions. Migrant Help won the AIRE contract. Clearsprings was the only group to bid for the contract for the south of England.

The new contracts became fully operational from September 2019 and had a total estimated value of £4 billion over 10 years, from 2019 to 2029.

Clearsprings has two Home Office contracts. The value of these is £662 million for operations in the South and £334 million for Wales totalling £996 million for the 10 year period.

theisleofthanetnews.com/2022/11/08/the-rising-profits-made-by-clearsprings-ready-homes-through-asylum-contracts-and-the-issue-of-application-backlogs/

More info here too

bylinetimes.com/2021/12/09/meet-the-companies-for-which-asylum-policy-is-big-business/

Imagine that money funneled into communities instead of private company profits.

Out of the thousands promised rescue, they’d resettled single digits worth of people. Had that scheme been functioning, the numbers of Afghan people crossing by boat would have been hugely reduced

I don’t believe this at all. Those eligible would apply from UK embassies abroad, those ineligible would pay traffickers. I doubt many of the young arrivals you currently see worked with the UK at all.

With the bonus that they would have been vetted and identified before even entering the UK and more women and children could have been helped. The government’s failure here increased the boat crossings

Its not a bonus! It’s absolutely essential you identify and vet them before arrival, yet your attitude that it’s merely a ‘bonus’ is all that’s wrong with the current system.

Basically, you want us to believe that safe routes would dry up the illegal ones, but frankly you’d have to be incredibly gullible to believe it

I don’t believe this at all.

Why not read the link then, which explains the situation? The information is all there. I don’t know what you hope to achieve by denying a widely-known failure.

Those eligible would apply from UK embassies abroad

They did. They were ignored by the government. Again, the information is in the article.

all that’s wrong with the current system.

The government’s reliance on very few safe routes means that all asylum seekers arriving by boat are unvetted at the point of arrival. Not a success, is it?

Basically, you want us to believe that safe routes would dry up the illegal ones

Except that’s not what I said. If you’ve got no argument except misrepresenting my words, that speaks volumes.

What’s “gullible” is believing that zero tolerance, hostile policies reduce irregular entries. This last few years has shown that the opposite seems to be true.

I’m not an expert but I hope these link help.

This link covers what trafficking looks like and how you can get help if you are a victim/after you escape:

www.citizensadvice.org.uk/immigration/if-youve-been-trafficked/

This link covers why people can’t easily escape when trafficked:

www.stopthetraffik.org/cant-victims-trafficking-just-walk-away/

However, the UN has criticised the current government’s approach to trafficking victims, which criminalises them rather than treating them as trafficking survivors:

www.ohchr.org/en/press-releases/2022/12/uk-un-experts-condemn-attacks-credibility-slavery-and-trafficking-victims

Are pp suggesting Albania would have a safe route established

Outside visas etc

Don’t other countries deem it a safe country and have zero acceptance rates?

In figures earlier in thread U.K. and Canada were highest, most other countries at zero

I’m not sure this issue would be resolved as it’s mostly Albanian 16 / 17 year olds missing

Since [the Taliban’s withdrawal], the government has insisted that it has granted indefinite leave to remain to 6,300 people, yet those are individuals under the category of the first pathway who had already been settled in the UK.

Under the second pathway, according to Home Office figures from four months ago, only four individuals in total have been settled in the country. As for pathway three, no one at all has been resettled in the UK.

www.middleeastmonitor.com/20230110-uk-government-resettled-no-afghan-refugees-under-scheme-one-year-after-launch/amp/

Worth reading the article to see the difference between the ACRS and ARAP schemes as no doubt people will conflate the two.

What’s “gullible” is believing that zero tolerance, hostile policies reduce irregular entries. This last few years has shown that the opposite seems to be true

Its laughable you think the Tories have a zero-tolerance policy towards irregular arrivals. They don’t really care — probably see them as cheap labour — they only pretend to because their voters DO care

There was a failure to resettle Afghanis who helped with the UK effort, but if it had been handled efficiently, do you really think that would have stopped further irregular arrivals from Afghanistan? I sure don’t

@MarshaBradyo In my opinion I don’t think Albania is a candidate for safe routes at all. I think our conversation the other day about the two types of trafficking is relevant here.

Safe routes would protect those who would otherwise have to travel to Europe and onwards to the UK (and by definition protect the UK by being checked beforehand.) Their traffickers are in Africa/Europe.

The situation is different with Albania, with the criminal gangs being located in Albania and the UK so safe routes won’t provide the same protection. What would work wrt Albania is

1. governmental cooperation with Albania to identify and locate the criminal gangs

2. increased support (from the Albanian govt) to protect children from blood feuds and trafficking and keep them safely in Albania. There are charities working on this (in Albania) but obviously underfunded.

3. Information sharing with EU countries to again identify and locate the criminal gangs.

4. strengthening the understanding of modern slavery in the UK so people and businesses know what to look out for

5. reinstating the independent anti slavery commissioner for oversight and expertise on trafficking matters

6. not treating trafficking as purely an immigration offence as this weakens protection for British citizens (including children) affected by trafficking, and punishes trafficking victims. Victims will not come forward if they think they will be deported or detained, which allows the criminal gangs to continue.

They don’t really care — probably see them as cheap labour

I’ll agree with that. I can rephrase to “perceived zero tolerance” as their rhetoric is very much “these people are illegal, we will stop the boats.” Despite doing the opposite of stopping the boats. I wonder how long Tory voters will be patient for?

do you really think that would have stopped further irregular arrivals from Afghanistan? I sure don’t

Depends on whether you think a large reduction in numbers is better than no reduction at all. Btw I didn’t ask, but how would you suggest getting the numbers of boat crossings to zero? That’s a genuine question not a snarky one as it’s always healthy to hear the other side of the argument.

I don’t really agree re the cheap labour argument. A party that got the public to think about Brexit when it wasn’t that pressing imo - that was a pretty good source of cheap labour which ended

Asylum seekers aren’t necessarily cheap labour anyway. Once approved they could I assume work in many roles.

And trafficked people by organised crimes end up in labour that is no good to us at all.

Plus asylum seekers can’t work while waiting so many of actions point away from being any labour

@MarshaBradyo Do the government understand that though? Given their recent comments I don’t have much confidence.

But very good point about asylum seekers not having the right to work.

Lastly if pp are asking why don’t they stop the boats I’m sure they’d love to and will try various routes but look to Australia to see the heavy tactics needed to get boats from thousands to near zero

I don’t think we have the appetite as yet for it

I don’t really agree re the cheap labour argument. A party that got the public to think about Brexit when it wasn’t that pressing imo - that was a pretty good source of cheap labour which ended

The Tories didn’t really want to leave. Cameron cynically proposed it to get the votes—he didn’t actually think it would go through 😆

Much like immigration, it’s something their base REALLY wanted—probably why they’ve handled both issues really poorly.

Asylum seekers aren’t necessarily cheap labour anyway. Once approved they could I assume work in many roles

Their credentials aren’t recognised abroad and they typically do just work menial jobs because of this (however they are typical happy to do so because the pay is considered decent by their standards).

I actually used to work in this field (not in the UK though) so have some knowledge of these particular difficulties.