Where do the people from the dinghies go?

[FreyaFromTheFens]

When they jump off the boat where do they go? Have they been given prior instructions of the direction to head or do they just run anywhere and what then? Hide out for a while?

No one in authority is there to direct them to processing buildings are they?

I just can't imagine the numbers of them that are getting here each month all having somewhere to go straight away. If you live where this happens what's it like and do you feel safe?

Yeah exactly. We're not a bunch of savages.
PP thinks she was being inclusive and supportive but has actually ended up showing how ignorant she is.
V. insulting quite frankly.

Also wondering how OP knows that these people have, erm, 'incredible knowledge' and a 'detailed understanding of anatomy'. Did she quiz them? Is she even medically qualified herself to be able to tell? Or did they whip out a kit and start performing emergency surgery in front of her?

Baffling.

That sort of smug, patronising, sentimentalised waffle drives me up the wall.

DH's cousin married a Nigerian woman, studying medicine in the UK. My MIL virtually patted his new wife on the head, and kept telling her 'Aren't you a clever, little thing. Studying such a hard subject and everything.'

Also, if a ten year old child has this prodigious memory and is smart enough to master incredibly intricate surgery.........why can't they also learn to read and write?

So many questions.

She used this

There are many many places where the career path into surgery is still similar.

Where? Name one country in the world were you can legally work as a surgeon after such 'training' ?

You know, I was a dab hand at Operation back in the day. Could this be a dazzling new career path for me?

@zonic literally said ‘I think…..’ so clearly just an opinion, why would they need to back that up with reliable evidence on your say so? It’s not presented as a statement of fact, clearly an opinion so I’m not sure why you’re being so difficult

I don’t think she is going to come back to clarify unfortunately

But I need answers so I can start drafting the screen play!

Can I have a role, maybe female lead? Might not be able to keep a straight face but I'll try my best.
And I'm brown too (mostly!) , not from a refugee country, but I don't think it matters cuz Hollywood thinks we're all the same anyway

Notknowledgeable appears to be one of those who thinks that being kind is acting as some kind of a saviour of victims.
Wiser people can be perfectly understanding and respectful of those who make difficult journeys to try and improve their lot in life BUT at the same time recognise that the overwhelming majority are economic migrants making use of criminal trafficking gangs.
The fleeing to the airport thing is just baloney. Where did the passports and visas come from? You can’t board a plane without them and they’re very hard to forge these days.

I actually believe Notknowledgeable. In that I believe people told her these stories, I don't think she just made them up. The surprising bit is that she believed them.

But why didn't they stay in Greece, or Hungary? Or Austria? Or Germany? Or France?

I agree. I believe that she totally believed what she was told. But I find it astounding that anyone could be so credulous.

But of course. Only done a rough draft so far. But you'll be playing a gifted nurse who, against all odds, managed to qualify by watching numerous episodes of ER.

We can laugh about it on here, but it's a worry isn't it that people get taken in by these yarns. The naïve refusal to accept that illegal immigrants are capable of lying is quite dangerous to national security when you think about it.

I think @notknowledgeable was referring to a surgeon working in a war (or civil war) zone who roped in a 10yo to help and then (being short of staff) kept him on as an assistant.

She also said that the boy she referred to is now working as an HCP - not as a surgeon - in the NHS.

Doesn't seem impossible to me.

Well that’s why 70% of asylum claims are approved, isn’t it? Gullible people like her make the decisions.

I remember watching a TV programme about 'the jungle' in Calais (yes it was a few years ago).

They interviewed one man about why he wanted to get to the UK. He said when he got tot he UK he would have a house and a wife.

He also said when he phoned home he lied to his family about where he was living, telling them he had a house and a job.

So sad to believe the lies and of course his family now want to send other family.

On the subject of illiterate surgeons, my GP is German and both his father and grandfather were also Drs.

His grandfather would carry out operations in people's homes, his father, as a child would accompany him and was in charge of topping up the ether. No they were not illiterate but this is in living memory.

The first surgeons in Britain were barbers.

So I can understand people developing skills beyond their education in more remote areas.

I don't think they are learning in modern hospitals in somewhere like Lagos but in a village in the Central African Republic I can.

Thing is, that story, or a watered down version of it, isn't impossible. A kid, roped in to help in a hospital in a war zone. I would not be surprised if kids are helping in hospitals right now in Gaza. That does not make someone a gifted surgeon though. I don't believe there is any health authority on earth that accredited surgeon status could be gained in such a way.

I think shame, and pressure to support family financially is a big driver of immigration. People are sold a pack of lies about the counties they rock up at. I've always wondered where people get the thousands of pounds it costs to make these journeys. I think some of it is family members all clubbing together to send one child (almost always the son) to the west to make their fortune. The poor sod must be under so much pressure, its no wonder they keep the lie going for the next lot.

I've written about population pressures and collapsing birth rates before on here, but I have a theory about it. In much of the world people are having very few children (or none) often saying it costs too much/they can't afford them. Yet in many of the very poorest/war torn parts of the world people are still having lots of children (notably Africa). Now in low birth rate countries, money flows down the generations, so each child you have, costs a bloody fortune. There would be embarrassment if adult children were giving parents money to live on. In high birth rate countries this is reversed. There is a culture of children earning money as soon as they are able to give to the parents and a real sense of obligation from the children and pride from the parents if children send money. It's a sign they're doing well. This culture existed in working class communities in the UK until quite recently (and in lots of other countries) funnily enough, we used to have lots of children ourselves then, often born into real poverty. When the direction of money flow flipped, suddenly, we don't want many/any children anymore and this pattern is seen all over the world. My theory anyway.

So the pressure on these young men, rocking up on our shores to provide for their family and bring 'pride' to the parents must be immense. And besides, we are (as a country) richer than their's, they all have smart phones, they can see what (they think) we have, I don't blame them for showing up wanting to know how come we have so much and they have so little, and Where's their share of the worlds wealth.

I would like to think they go on to better lives with less fear and more hope.

I’d also like to think that as a humane country, we should be opening up formal routes for this, and not opening up opportunities for bastard people smugglers.

Good point, by escaping a country with little options for them in their opinion, they in turn make the options even worse for the next generation that remain.

Surprisingly deft touch with a retractor 😆

@sashh@PrincessFiorimonde It's not the situation that's so unbelievable. As I said in my earlier post, needs must.

The issue here is equating these people to a 'skilled surgeon' that should be valued as such. No matter how many erm operations a child has performed there's no difference between them and someone else their own age without the 'experience'. If they're illiterate they won't be able to qualify unless they get pass all the necessary exams

Unlike programming, interior design, mathematics, music or any number of other professions, medicine is not something we let people into on the basis of 'practical experience' without the requisite qualifications. We don't have people auditioning for med school places by showing off their surgical skills, to say it was done in the past is absurd! Same as things like accountancy and civil engineering, the stakes are high. Someone talented still needs go through the correct channels.

Medicine is as much about accountability and documentation as it is about cutting someone open and putting them back together again. Also, in an environment with such scarcity how do you know even know that ideal outcomes were achieved? For all you know the erm crack child surgeon could've killed half his patients and we'd all be none the wiser.