The immigrant barge - what’s actually wrong with using it?

[NC523]

Educate me!

I looked at pics from the inside, it all looks very much like standard student accommodation to me, including common rooms/relaxation areas/health support on board. Residents can go on & off the boat, it’s passed fire etc safety and been used to house people in lots of other situations. I don’t understand why people think it’s not ok. Can anyone explain please?

I think that a big proportion of people commenting here are not only interested in solutions to reducing the numbers waiting for their claims to be processed but reducing the overall numbers coming to claim asylum in the first place. Processing the claims faster doesn’t not resolve the issue. And this is where the public support for conservatives might start growing. We can only wait and see.

My preference would be for the majority to be kept in secure facilities and processed from there similar to an Australian style model. I think there is a risk and the bottom line is that we don’t know who many of these people are or where they have come from.

I think it is wholly wrong they are being put in communities already struggling with a lack of facilities and being pitted against working class communities - it is a gaslighting move by the government designed to inflame the debate around migration.

Processing the claims faster doesn’t not resolve the issue.

Yes it does, because the backlog is growing way faster than asylum applications.

The governmetn estimates there are 700,000 empty homes in the UK, their methodlogy misses some so the true number may well be over a million.

Of course it matters whose fault it is. It matters because the problem of the lack of affordable housing won’t ever get solved if people misdirect their anger and resentment at asylum
seekers. It matters, because if we directed our anger at the government instead then all of the time, money, resources & political will the Government are currently wasting on posturing & performative cruelty about asylum seekers could be spent on actually attempting to solve the problems the country is facing.

Polling data for the last year. I can't see that Rishi's relentless focus on stopping the boats via stupid schemes has made him an election-winner.

Then give the reported vacant housing to the poor working class people as a priority not the newcomers

I understand the rich don't like this as an idea, much like they don't like paying the same proportion of their income in taxes as poorer people have to.

Almost all of these homes are privately owned, you just cannot take them from their rightful owners.

Govt could build 100s of '000s of council houses right now, if they wanted too.... they don't, until they do, we will never have enough homes in the UK for the less well off.

Janrick’s comments from May’23 (BBC) :
He also suggested that reducing the backlog quickly could create a "pull factor" attracting people to arrive in the UK illegally to claim asylum.
"That is not a reason to maintain an inefficient process, but we need a process where deterrence is suffused through every element," he added.

I think a lot of people subscribe to this view and this is where they might not necessarily see the reduction in the asylum backlog as a priority.
I’m definitely noticing a shift in mood/ comments around me and based on what I’m hearing I worry there might be some shift in poll results soon.

So imprisoned in camps, on moorland etc, they'd have to be, because you don't want them mixing around existing communities & you did say "secure"

How about thinking about what you'd need? recreational, health & educational facilities, even work duties... plus of course lots of guards.

then what? they ve failed to make the case to stay here as "genuine" asylum seekers....but there is no returns agreements in place, they'd be here for decades, locked up without hope of release.

He also suggested that reducing the backlog quickly could create a "pull factor"

What an absolute bellend trying to make excuses for the government’s incompetence. The massive backlog is a very recent thing. And the government is prepared to throw money at a department that it deliberately wants to do its job badly, and the millions that it is paying to house and feed asylum seekers waiting a prolonged amount of time for their claims to be processed?

I would like to see the evidence that this go-slow actually represents value for money (I suspect not) and actually acts as a deterrent (I suspect not).

@Alexandra2001 how interesting that you jumped to that conclusion rather than suggest they should all be spread out evenly including to places like Chipping Norton and other more affluent areas

Quite a leap from 'cramped barge' to '5 star hotels' - are your ankles ok?

Love this post. Really good analogy.

No, i was answering the posters idea that secure facilities, away from locals, need to be set up, so we are looking at more remote areas, Dartmoor, the Southdowns, Salisbury plain but not the Cotswolds (btw i don't live there) its similar not a remote area.

But wherever you put secure facilities, you need enough for 100k plus people, probably nearer 150k, which means you re looking at an estate the size of the current prison population.

What the pp is really after is a series of prison camps that will be able to house failed asylum seekers for decades.

The cost will be enormous and then i wonder how long before the right wing demand we reduce this cost.....

wonder where that might lead?

The governmetn estimates there are 700,000 empty homes in the UK, their methodlogy misses some so the true number may well be over a million.

jgw1 You've posted this several times on both threads about the barge accommodation.
What do you think should happen? Should the empty properties be seized?

@Mrtumblefan For pitys sake, if you stop wringing your hands long enough, you may actually type something that makes sense.

First and foremost, they are mostly not refugees. They are economic migrants. I would bet that most actual refugees would be happy to stop in the first safe country they arrive in.

Are you actively campaigning to raise income tax by 3p in the pound to pay for all the additional asylum processing? Oh, and all the extra health services, schools, energy infrastructure, water infrastructure, housing and, yes, benefits, because, lets be honest here. Very very few of those coming in boats are doctors, engineers and other in-demand, high-earning people. Most have, at best, a rudimentary grasp of English and will be a drain on society going forwards.

Another issue I would bet my pension on is that 99% of boat arrivals view women as second class citizens. Chattal. It’s no coincidence that Sweden is now the rape capital of Europe after mass immigration of these people, whereas before, it was very safe for women to walk the streets at night. I don’t want that kind of society for my daughter. You may be happy to live like that.

Another issue is that these people are never of the mindset, new country new start. No. They bring with them and continue their petty squabbles and feuds. I don’t give a damn about their culture, traditions and heritage.

I bet, had you been on a lifeboat from the Titanic, you would have been pulling people out of the water and not stopped until your own lifeboat sank and you all died.

Life isn’t fair and I know I am in the top 10% on this planet but your logic and comprehension of the situation is on a par with your hero.

@Alexandra2001 of course no one wants that and don’t jump to conclusions but there must be a way to protect people in this
country and effectively deal with the crisis. I’d be for setting up processing centres in France amongst other measures. But the reality is there also needs to be a deterrent. I’m currently in the process of moving overseas for a “better life” - I’ve had to save hard to fund the visa costs and to prove I am who I say I am by providing police checks, documentation. I can’t just rock up in the country I want to live in and expect to be fed, housed and looked after ahead of the local population just because I want a better life. The world just doesn’t work like that.

Agreed @LauraNorda

I'm presuming you're not fleeing persecution, torture or starvation @Steben2 ?

@LauraNorda I agree too, and don't forget when their families come they will need benefits too, it's never ending

Someone upthread was saying there were loads of vacant homes but understand if they are privately owned but then it still doesn't solve the problems of people who are here already needing housing let alone the asylum seekers/economic migrants

First and foremost, they are mostly not refugees. They are economic migrants

The data really doesn’t back you up here.

Nope @JanglyBeads but neither are a large percentage of people from places like India, Albania and Pakistan who make up a large number of economic migrants.