We can't stop the boats without leaving the ECHR, right?

[Notmycircusnotmyotter]

forgive my ignorance, but this is the case isn't it? And yet other countries ignore judgments and deport illegal immigrants (Poland for example).

I don't really know where I sit so this isn't supposed to be goady but the collective mind will know more. My question is, why isn't this part of the discussion? Government / media never shut up about small boat crossings but short of drastic action (towing them back? Deportations?) what can they actually do?

Leaving the EHCR would not "stop the boats" anymore than leaving the EU meant there were billions more for the NHS. Nigel Farage is I am sure a lovely man and very well spoken.and charasmatic but he lies. Leaving the EHCR would:

• jeopardise the Good Friday Agreement. I remember the Troubles. Cam we not go back there?
• Remove protections for you. That includes protections for people on the right as well as the left. And from authoritarian left wingers as well as authoritarian right wingers
• make it impossible to reform the EHCR (which does need to happen IMO but can only be done from the inside)
• Put the UK in an isolated position with our allies just as Americans going all isolationist and Russia/China are feeling expansionist.
• Put the UK in a very isolated position making it HARDER to cooperate with countries like France re Asylum seekers. I know it's tradition to hate on the French but cross border problems require cooperation. So it could well become harder to effectively police UK borders. Just as Brexit made it harder to do so. Because,.again,.Nigel Farage lies

The main attraction of leaving the EHCR is it's fun for some people to imagine themselves as a billy big balls.defending the beaches of England against invasion. Or some wet dream involving the British Navy sinking/turning round boats. It's not their fucking job. They are busy enough dealing with Russian threats and Houthi rebels. Most people don't join the Navy with dreams of sinking rubber dinghies and watching unarmed men (and women and children drown) all because people want something dramatic to be done they can see on their TV screens.

There are ways of stopping/reducing the boats. They just aren't as fun and edgy.

We are not full. That is a big lie. We need more people. The people coming on the boats bring skills and characteristics we need. Politicians are inflaming racist tensions to win votes.

That is a really good question; I think it came up in other threads about who flees and who stays behind, too.

These are just two examples of many:

https://www.theguardian.com/world/2023/jan/16/burkina-faso-suspected-jihadists-kidnap-women

https://www.theguardian.com/world/2024/mar/07/nigeria-students-abducted-by-gunmen-west-africa

It's a pattern of violence against women and girls as a "method" of war and fights within societies where women have often a lot fewer rights. And as you can see from the first link, these were women in remote areas looking for fruit to feed themselves and their family. They didn't have the option to stay at home - thought we don't know whether that would be a safer place.

That means if all their stronger family members and friends are away - because they are the ones who can make the journey - the ones left behind have even less of a chance.

Of course women can be strong but it is a different life in this situation and the legal systems are different, too. In some societies, women can have their own property or run companies, but in others, they can't.

These are partly structural problems. On an individual level, I can understand when people want to leave, but in the long run it would be more productive to try and create a fairer society and get help to deal with extremist groups and criminals that take advantage of weak states. I guess many political leaders and their friends do benefit from these situations, it's a game of power and influence to them, with not much care for individual citizens.

What we do need is access to the EU security files which we lost with Brexit. This would enable us to see fingerprint records of those already refused asylum elsewhere and more importantly any criminal records those arriving illegally may have.