Legal routes to asylum: what are they?

[Watchagotch72]

I’ve read the threads about the barge, and about the issue of illegal migrants arriving in the UK. One thing that gets mentioned often is that ‘the uk government has closed off all the Legal routes of asylum’.

what are these routes?
are the UK government obliged to offer these routes? How do they work?

can people wishing to apply for asylum choose to do so in the country of their choice? I can totally understand why people would choose the UK over France (English speaking, no ID cards, NHS free at the point of care, able to work cash in hand, established immigrant communities etc) but am not sure how the ‘legal routes’ would be available given the geographical routes by which people arrive.

Here is what they say when you Google it:

To be fair I think so many want to come here because we colonised them, told them how amazing Britain was, taught them English, and now we seem genuinely surprised they want to come here. Maybe we could calm down illegal immigration by sending qualified French and Spanish teachers to Africa on a scheme like MSF, to big up France and Spain, respectively.

There are no legal routes other than for Ukrainians, HKers, a few fortunate Afghans and a very long winded scheme that you have to accepted by the UN for. If you're feeling civil unrest or being persecuted anywhere there is no legal route to the UK to seek asylum. You have to enter illegally, then claim asylum.

The Gov could of course solve the migrant boat issue by allowing asylum seekers to claim asylum from outside the UK. But they won't, I'll leave others to work out why for themselves.

So how did that process used to work? Could asylum seekers previously apply from their own countries, from outside the UK?

Why are the females not wanting to home here?

Are there any international agreements as to how many asylum seekers a country is expected / required to accept?

To claim asylum you go to a country and claim asylum when you're in it. You can't claim it in advance.

So you go on a boat or a lorry or whatever and claim asylum when you get off the boat or lorry or whatever.

There aren't any rules around which country you get off your boat. You just get off a boat and claim.

Can't really do it any other way as by that point you're stateless and one country is the same as any other.

Which country you claim in is the last little bit of self determination you have available to you. I mean you can choose that. So pick wisely : do you speak the language, do you have any contacts, do you have qualifications that are recognised, is the transport going that way? It's a pretty fucking desperate way to decide where to pitch your life.

I don’t think it’s any different to, if we pitch up in an unknown city on a self-organised holiday where we are travelling without a car, I’ll find a park or a cafe and sit tight with the kids and the luggage while DH heads off to find our AirBnB on his own then comes back to find us once he’s sorted. Same thing.

Because they are more likely to be raped and/or beaten and/or kidnapped and/or sold into slavery/prostitution than men.

If as a family you could afford to pay criminals to smuggle your child into a another country, in the back of a van via refugee camps and in a dinghy across the open ocean, would you send your 20 your old son or your 21 year old daughter?

My understanding is that for children, they may apply to join a relative already in a country/the UK. Ive worked with this before at this end but I dont know the mechanisms involved in terms of who the child approaches and how.

However I think thats if the child is already in a country where there are suitable mechanisms, its not from their home country as it were, so in the cases I am thinking of it was that the children were in Greece and made application from there to join relatives here.

Asylum is not the same as economic migration- asylum could be from a wide range of countries and is because of persecution, typically these people will either have seeked help from a British consulate abroad or come directly to the U.K. (by air most likely obviously). The people arriving by small boats are mostly people who want to live in the U.K. because their home country lacks economic stability - the biggest group was at least Albanian. The only legal route for economic migrants is to obtain a visa prior to travel to the U.K.

No.

But in most situations neighbouring countries will pick up the slack. So for Syrian refugees for eg, most of them end up in Turkey. And they'll stay there, even after the earthquakes etc because they can't get any further. Money's run out.

Fucksakes old rishi would lose his goddamn mind if he had to process the number of refugees that Turkey has to. man can't cope with just a fraction coming to the UK on boats.

asylum could be from a wide range of countries and is because of persecution, typically these people will either have seeked help from a British consulate abroad or come directly to the U.K. (by air most likely obviously).

What are you in about - no they don't. Asylum seekers don't seek help from British consulates - how can they? Do you really think all a Somalian has to do is rock up to the British Embassy in Khartoum and they'll give them a visa and directions to the airport?

You are so wrong. (And Albanians are no longer coming.)

typically these people will either have seeked help from a British consulate abroad

No they won't.

Consulate services are for British nationals, not just anyone who wanders in off the street. They're for Brits abroad that find themselves in a really quite narrow set of situations that allows for consular intervention.

You can't just as a foreign national register your interest in coming to the UK because your country is in turmoil and fill in a form etc. Jesus Christ.

Do you really think all a Somalian has to do is rock up to the British Embassy in Khartoum and they'll give them a visa and directions to the airport?

LOL I do wonder sometimes in these days of our politicians talking about safe routes to asylum, that people think this is what happens - that there is some guy called tufton-burton at every consulate rubber stamping safe passage to the UK (possibly on titanic) and all the legit asylum seekers do that while the doubtful plebs perish in small boats trying to get here because they just didn't have the right paperwork sucks to be them etc

There aren't any qualified spanish and french teachers- massive shortage for now in UK
Schools need all the MFL teachers they can get

Like I said I can totally understand why the Uk is a place many people from dangerous situations / countries would opt for.

at which point does ‘economic instability’ tip over into being a valid reason for people to flee their country and try their luck elsewhere?

Those arriving in small boats are no longer asylum seekers, but treated as illegal entrants. As you say it’s pretty impossible to claim asylum now. Those coming from Ukraine weren’t asylum seekers but on a special visa. They are pretty much phasing out asylum. Those coming on small boats aren’t seeking asylum anyway as if so they’d seek it in the first country they come to. That’s always been the process but trying to return someone to the 3rd country they should have claimed asylum in is impossible. Huge changes to asylum, but should a labour government come in, could all change again

‘Try their luck’ sounds very flippant, I didn’t mean that. I meant more seek a better life / survival for themselves and their children

I dunno. It's an individual choice. At which point do you decide yourself to be stateless? Civil war? Environmental catastrophe? Something else?

Hmm. I can’t seem to find the names of the British colonies in Albania?

If you give this question an iota of thought, you might come up with any of the following:

Men are less vulnerable to sexual violence en route.
Men are more likely to be at risk of overt state persecution in many asylum-producing countries.
Men are often prioritised in families which can only afford to send one person.
Men generally have fewer caring responsibilities.
Many families hope that in sending the man, the wife and kids can apply for family reunion later, once he is granted.
Men in many asylum-producing countries are more likely than women to have the education level, skills, and contacts to leave and to believe they will manage abroad.
Women in many asylum-producing countries lack autonomy including access to their own funds.
Women can be more reluctant to leave their children / elderly parents.
Women's asylum claims are often from fear of non state actors and they may not always realise that they would be entitled to seek asylum.

These are generalisations but they do have an impact. Women do want to come but circumstances can prevent them doing so due to patriarchy, prioritising, and pragmatism.

Perhaps the Somalis in Khartoum should apply to the Dutch Embassy for entry to the UK?

Yeah you're right it's flippant.

Most times, most people "try their luck" elsewhere when their luck has run out in their home country due to civil war/instability/whatever has caused them to lose their grip on their life. They don't do it for a laugh or a punt. Especially given that they'll be stateless and lose all state based claims on wealth at the point they claim. I mean they can and do walk into a new country with nothing.