Can there be a solution to this? It keeps happening

[Corinthiana]

More dead, attempting to cross the Channel. 50 were in a rubber inflatable. This comes after deaths last week. Why can't there be a solution to this problem?

So more and more tragedies.

The Irish struggled to deal with migrant arrivals from the UK, didn't they? That got very unpleasant.

The thing I don't understand is why a migrant with children, having made it to a safe country like France or Italy, would risk putting their children in a grossly overladen RIB, There are bodies recovered from the sea every week. The dangers are evident.

Yes, @Meadowfinch that's what I'm wondering. I saw a recent film of migrants getting onto a rubber inflatable, on very choppy seas, cold and rainy conditions. I remember one man putting a small boy in - no more than a toddler. He reminded me of my little boy (many years ago). I thought - how could a father do that? Why?

English is the most widely spoken language in the world, thanks to the former Empire. That's probably a major reason why people want to come here. I also agree with PP about lax employment checks in some areas - perfect for people trafficking and modern slavery too.

@lavenderlou although migrants at the centre in our town don't speak English, and volunteers work to teach them. They are mostly from Afghanistan and Iran.

Why are they not given asylum in France or other safe countries they have travelled through. Surely if they were offered asylum there then they would not need to make the dangerous crossing.
Britain does take in a share (no idea if a fair share) of asylum seekers using the correct process.

How would that work though? If they are already in a 'safe' country, then surely that is the logical country to whom they should be applying for asylum.

If they want to leave that safe country and go to another, would they still be asylum-seekers, or would they then have become economic migrants?

If they have already left their unsafe country of origin and are now in a safe country, why do they not breathe a sigh of relief and stay there? Why do they travel across several safe countries, arrive at the coast and have such a desperate urge to leave France that they undertake a really dangerous crossing over one of the world's busiest waterways in dodgy little boats?

Mind you, one does rather get the impression that the French would much prefer for them to leave rather than to stay in France...

Many asylum seekers do stay in France. France receives more than double the number of asylum seekers than the UK (approx 96,000 in 2021 compared to 44,000 in the UK). Data compiled by Eurostat and published on UNHCR website.

Doesn't Germany return the most, though?

I havent checked those figures but it's possible. Maybe they have more efficient processing systems.

Could be. Thanks for those figures, @lavenderlou .

But they're the figures for asylum applications. There is also the issue of economic migrants who wouldn't pass the criteria for asylum. They will still be candidates for the small boats.

Where do the boats come from?

France

So its a France problem then?

How do you know they are economic migrants and not asylum seekers?

I’m not totally convinced by these stats. Are they counting the number of applications? Or the number of applications they’ve granted? I’m not suggesting that we take more asylum applications than any other country because I know we don’t. Far from it. But I’d be interested to know how many of those applications were shut down because the applicant moved on.

If you’re en route to the UK and you get picked up by police or immigration in an EU country, do you say ‘I have no passport, no visa and no leave to enter your country’ and run the risk that they return you to your home country? Or do you claim asylum, get your paperwork, get released and then continue on your journey to the UK? It doesn’t make sense to me that none of the people making their way to the UK across Europe would have been stopped by the authorities at any point, and asked who they are and what they’re doing there.