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?

So many people are currently coming from Albania why? How do we provide safe and legal routes to countries who don't need them abs shouldn't be sneaking in anyway

I asked my sil in Southern Spain what happens with the immigrants from Africa which is a stones throw from Spain, and she looked blank - mysteriously they don't come across in their thousands, I can only guess armed police or customs.

This shows how casual it is and how French police won’t do much

https://www.itv.com/news/2025-05-13/how-french-police-are-outpaced-by-cunning-migrant-smugglers

And we pay the French handsomely for this privilege…..

Your SIL is mistaken.
They go to Ceuta.
46,000 last year.
They swim around security and sometimes drown.

There’s a clip of about one hundred men swimming ashore which is quite something. They were arrested and sent back but I’m not sure how given they’re not processed for asylum in any way

If they’re Albanian they’re illegal. Well we need to stop taking in refugees it’s as simple as that. It’s been 80 years since the UN and it wasn’t designed to have the third world arriving on our doorstep for an all inclusive stay. Seriously this has to end. These are single men on the whole coming over not families although you try being a refugee in Pakistan doubt you’d get your meals, hotels etc. We don’t give our own that. The council gives 18 year olds British girls tents and sleeping bags if there’s no spaces in homeless hostel and these folk get hotels as they’re housed by the Home Office nice hotels. It’s beyond a joke now.

You're not specifically talking about economic migrants, you're talking about all people arriving on boats, the vast majority of which are given refugees status.

Your language is very dehumanising. It's possible to help those seeking refuge as well as the homeless. Unfortunately the Tories made a lot of cuts to services including the homeless.

Just like the 350m promised to the NHS, a hard right party won't divert money to the homeless.

How is it dehumanising? Albanians are the 2nd most likely to come on a boat last year, now it’s Turkish men. As well as Indians and Pakistanis. Yea there’s Syrians and from Iraq but a lot are at it. Also those universities need to stop giving visas.

No we cannot afford to pay for the third world who have shady governments to arrive here without it costing the country and absolute fortune and have it cause social problems for its native residents. We can’t afford it and I don’t want to pay! An Australian style immigration system is now the only way forward, but people like yourself will scream “racist” and “dehumanising”.

Do you ever mention Labour’s cuts?

Because you're talking about illegals and "the third world" instead of human beings. You want to deprive vulnerable people of food and shelter as though they're worthless.

According to the latest Home Office figures, external, Afghans were the top nationality arriving by small boat in 2024.
Syrians made up the second largest group, followed by people from Iran, Vietnam and Eritrea.

These five nationalities accounted for 61% of all small-boat arrivals.

An Australian style immigration system is to put people indefinitely in off shore detention centres. You obviously don't care about treating people humanely, hence the dehumanising language and attitude, but we're still subject to human rights laws and doing that isn't possible.

France must be a really awful place for all these people to not want to live there… what are we doing wrong to make it so attractive for these people to want to come to the UK from France?

Nobody travelling from France can be considered a refugee.

But it's ok to leave homeless brits on the streets without food and shelter? I can still have compassion for genuine asylum seekers, whilst simultaneously acknowledging that the system is overloaded and it's impossible to save the world - the UK must look after its own first. But that hasn't happened for decades; the difference being we are now collectively waking up to the gas lighting.

If you read my earlier post, I pointed out that it's possible to care for both the homeless and those seeking refuge.

I also pointed out that the porkies told by Farage et al haven't happened ie money from Brexit was not put into public services or other areas as promised.

It's somewhat hyperbolic that we're trying to save the world.

But if that were the case, it would have happened by now. There would be no homeless, people would have access to housing... But it hasn't, so we can only conclude there isn't enough ' money in the pot'to help all. And this being the case, the public rightly so imo, have said enough, time to stop spending on asylum seekers and turn to tending our own garden first.

I agree though, that brexit was an absolute shambles and I'm no fan of farage, we can all see his self serving motivations.

It's not that simple. Asylum seekers under the law have certain rights, one of which is housing.

The Tories created a backlog and we have tens of thousands of cases to process. As discussed earlier, it's not government policy to build more detention centres.

In order to save money on housing, the backlog needs to be cleared so that people can work and get out of HO housing. Other countries allow asylum seekers to work but we don't in case it attracts more people.

Do you know Labour are in power?

Numbers are up each week.

Don't homeless people have any rights then? Many of them are vulnerable, particularly the women and girls. So many are mentally ill.

What's next? Turfing British people out of their council or rented houses so that we can house people from other countries? Demanding that each of us shuffle up and take in migrants into our own homes? Unknown men. Perhaps schools could be closed and converted into asylum hotels. Nursing homes? Turf the economically inactive residents out, they've had the easy life for so long anyway. How far do they expect to take this in their bid to help people from other countries?

So you think every single penny the UK has is being spent on asylum seekers and nothing else whatsoever has any investment? That that's the choice, pay for asylum seekers or starve?

So asylum seekers can work in France then? Surely they would want to stay there if they have the opportunity to support themselves rather than risk their lives in small boats. Wonder what the attraction is for hundreds to make the trip daily.

They may have family in the UK, speak English or think living in the UK would provide better opportunities.

You could have sent them back to France under Brexit. Now you can't. People think leaving ECHR will allow then to do that, it won't. There are international laws that won't allow it either. This is just a Farage smoke screen to get rid of your rights

Still incorrect even now. It was a few hundred and we took more than returned. It was a way in to the UK not out.

Do people think that leaving the ECHR means asylum seekers can be sent back to France?

Yes I've seen it countless times. Ridiculous