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Original poster

The boats ..can we chat about it

271 replies

Grumpybird4 · 02/07/2025 06:46

4 more years of a labour government,so nothing is going to change,it's only going to get worse ..help me make sense of it please.
Where are they all going to live , where is the money coming from to house them and feed them and pay their bills..do they bring their families over when they have gained asylum here ,do we have enough Doctors appointments, hospital appointments and housing .
My husband supports open boarders ,he says there is enough money in the UK to house all whom want to come here ..but his argument for that is the royal family need to go ,and free up their money..
But that's not going to happen so there isn't actually enough housing or money.if there was we wouldn't have families in temporary accommodation for years ,and the government wouldn't be trying to cut pip if there was enough money.
My husband says when the UK goes round invading other countries it creates displaced people with no homes ,those are the people on the boats and we should help them all we can.
Government is now saying we should take the people in ,who live in the Garza strip , Palestine..yeah they definitely need help.
But all I hear is budget needs cutting..yet more people arrive .
Selfishly I have two disabled DC who will never live alone .they are going to need a council flat and help ,or assisted living..I'm worried sick for their future.
Worried reform will get in and strip all disability benefits
Worried about the amount of people coming in and the lack of homes for them and how that will effect my children.i know that's selfish..but we all want to put our families first .
I have great sympathy for the people coming over on the boats ,but I don't understand where the women and children are ,I just see men in the photos
So if it's safe to leave women and children behind,it's safe for men to stay and try to make a life in their own country
My husband says that whole family's club together to find the money to send a young man here for a better life ...but I don't get that ..how are they going to pay the bills once granted alyslum..two people on good income can't keep heads above water with cost of living.
I lie awake at night worried and feeling like a bad person for having these thoughts ..no one wants to discuss it ..I'm trying to understand the governments thinking,but I can't make sense of it ..what is the governments plan long term for these people,regarding housing,is there going to be enough for everyone

OP posts:
Thread gallery
5
labtest57 · 02/07/2025 08:09

This reply has been deleted

Message deleted by MNHQ. Here's a link to our Talk Guidelines.

Do you feel really clever now?

mummyto9angels · 02/07/2025 08:09

Wateringinaheatwave · 02/07/2025 07:24

Boat numbers are tiny
Real boat problem is that people put themselves in such appalling danger to come.
yes probably too much migration, but not definitely and DEFINITELY the boats are a total distraction

Yes, this 👏 👏

TookTheBook · 02/07/2025 08:14

Middlechild3 · 02/07/2025 08:07

I'm more concerned about legal routes. Neighbour, foreign nurse here by way of NHS job/nurse visa. Now working very very few hours on bank. Husband working full time as taxi driver. Her mother moved over several months ago and there is now a 2 year old too. So 1 person gets a skilled worker visa to come here, but does absolute minimum hours in the role, the husband works as a taxi driver and a total of 4 people are using the infrastructure, the NHS etc that they have paid very little into. How does the UK benefit from this? There is no effort to integrate, money isn't spent in the economy, the kid isn't being taught English. I just don't get it, surely we have enough taxi drivers.

Edited

Yeah, you're racist. Loads of British-born families live on benefits, generation after generation, but instead you focus on two immigrants who are actually working, one for the NHS. Redirect your ire.

Roselilly36 · 02/07/2025 08:14

The boat numbers are not tiny, full of young men, no idea of their background. Everyone should be concerned about this. I am very concerned.

Uol2022 · 02/07/2025 08:16

Quirkswork · 02/07/2025 08:09

No ..I meant I don't think the things you listed is the main issue. It's population rise in the next decade and which is projected to cost net billions that we won't have.

Show quote history

Oh I see. That’s odd, that people (not immigrants, our own people) apparently cost more than they produce in the uk. Obviously can’t be that way everywhere, and must be possible to change by improving our trade balance. So I still think that investment in sustainable uk food and energy production plus targeted education makes a lot of sense, to make sure we’re in a stronger position, good industry, able to export well and less reliant on imports. Then a bigger population becomes more a blessing than a burden (obvs with the recognition that we’re a physically quite small country. Can’t very well change that)

SeriaMau · 02/07/2025 08:17

Pricelessadvice · 02/07/2025 07:28

I regularly watch Border Control and think we need to adopt the Australian way of thinking. Anyone who cannot support themselves from the word go does not get granted access.

The UK is barely managing to look after its own people (NHS, disability funding, dentists, education), why on earth would adding more reliant people to that be a good idea?

Immigrants who are moving here to work and use their own money to set up a life for themselves is fine. They will become tax payers and part of the system.
Im afraid Boat people are not those.

Most of the people on boats are desperate to get a job and support their families. We don’t make it easy for them.

Jellycatspyjamas · 02/07/2025 08:17

So 1 person gets a skilled worker visa to come here, but does absolute minimum hours in the role, the husband works as a taxi driver and a total of 4 people are using the infrastructure, the NHS etc that they have paid very little into.

So they’ll need to show they have enough of an income to support the MIL, current sponsorship income needs to be around £30k. None of them will have recourse to public funds, so no access to benefits and they’ll have paid 4 x the NHS surcharge, which is just over £1k per person per year.

Viviennemary · 02/07/2025 08:17

We can. But it will be a waste of time.

Quirkswork · 02/07/2025 08:19

Uol2022 · 02/07/2025 08:16

Oh I see. That’s odd, that people (not immigrants, our own people) apparently cost more than they produce in the uk. Obviously can’t be that way everywhere, and must be possible to change by improving our trade balance. So I still think that investment in sustainable uk food and energy production plus targeted education makes a lot of sense, to make sure we’re in a stronger position, good industry, able to export well and less reliant on imports. Then a bigger population becomes more a blessing than a burden (obvs with the recognition that we’re a physically quite small country. Can’t very well change that)

Show quote history

Most of the.population rise is projected to be down to immigration though the majority will not be illegal.

SeriaMau · 02/07/2025 08:19

Roselilly36 · 02/07/2025 08:14

The boat numbers are not tiny, full of young men, no idea of their background. Everyone should be concerned about this. I am very concerned.

750,000 legal migrants. 20,000 boat people. But yeah, young men…

Quirkswork · 02/07/2025 08:20

SeriaMau · 02/07/2025 08:19

750,000 legal migrants. 20,000 boat people. But yeah, young men…

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Tbf the young men that have come in via the boats now outnumber the British army.

Nopensioner · 02/07/2025 08:20

I agree that the current situation isn't sustainable and something needs to change.

However I work with asylum seekers and in answer to your question and the women and children it just isn't safe to send them. The amount of men I've worked with who are beaten/tortured on the way here is shocking and many of the woman who leave don't make it here as they are trafficked elsewhere. The safest way for them to get here is to send a young male and join them using the family reunification programme.

Promo981 · 02/07/2025 08:20
  1. For people saying vote Reform, stop and think where all these boats were before Brexit? Oh yeah, not fucking coming. It is Nigel and his Brexit buddies who have caused this. There were agreements in place with France before Brexit to curb movement of people but that stopped after Brexit, which has also been so successful not!
  2. To the op worrying about doctor appointments. Young male migrants rarely need medical care and if they did probably wouldn't go and get it because men are rubbish at going to the doctor.
  3. The racistr ight and the super wealthy are ensuring the migrant boats are people's mn concern when in fact it isn't the biggest problem we have by far. Yes it needs fixing but there are bigger issues.
Steelworks · 02/07/2025 08:22

Don’t blame the people coming g over - they’re just people like you and me all wanting a better life, and probably we’re cheated out of lots of money to get here.

Blame the politicians in their home country fur not providing for them, and the gangs who transport them.

Also don’t believe everything you read.

Middlechild3 · 02/07/2025 08:25

TookTheBook · 02/07/2025 08:14

Yeah, you're racist. Loads of British-born families live on benefits, generation after generation, but instead you focus on two immigrants who are actually working, one for the NHS. Redirect your ire.

Show quote history

It's not racism but feel free to throw it out as a lazy insult. If someone comes on a skilled worker visa they should be doing that work. That's the exchange. You can come here because the country needs your skills, it's a trade off. Skills in exchange for the right to live and work here. The framework is too lax if it can be flouted like this. One bank shift a month shouldn't be enough to meet the requirements of a skilled worker visa.

EasternStandard · 02/07/2025 08:29

Promo981 · 02/07/2025 08:20

  1. For people saying vote Reform, stop and think where all these boats were before Brexit? Oh yeah, not fucking coming. It is Nigel and his Brexit buddies who have caused this. There were agreements in place with France before Brexit to curb movement of people but that stopped after Brexit, which has also been so successful not!
  2. To the op worrying about doctor appointments. Young male migrants rarely need medical care and if they did probably wouldn't go and get it because men are rubbish at going to the doctor.
  3. The racistr ight and the super wealthy are ensuring the migrant boats are people's mn concern when in fact it isn't the biggest problem we have by far. Yes it needs fixing but there are bigger issues.

Brexit isn’t relevant. We had high asylum claims before and other countries still in the EU are dealing with the same.

Uol2022 · 02/07/2025 08:32

TookTheBook · 02/07/2025 08:14

Yeah, you're racist. Loads of British-born families live on benefits, generation after generation, but instead you focus on two immigrants who are actually working, one for the NHS. Redirect your ire.

Show quote history

I don’t think it’s racist to be concerned about that scenario. I’m surprised by it, wonder if there’s more to the story like maybe this happened over many years? For example, mum comes as nurse, husband on dependent visa, so far so reasonable. Husband works. Ok. Baby on the way, mum reduces working hours to care for baby. I don’t see how grandmother can come too on the basis of a nurse visa. And on the nurse visa the wife would still have to meet a salary threshold. Maybe it’s been longer already and they already have leave to remain. Actually the thing that shocked me most looking up that visa is that dependant can include an unmarried partner, just need to prove a relationship of 2 years.

But yeah, if someone comes to the uk on a work visa I’d expect conditions attached to that, including a requirement to work in the stated job!

Re using social infrastructure they haven’t paid for, do you think there’s a way to make that fairer? Given that we do need at least some migration, at least for the moment (very very much in favour of training more nurses of our own, but at the moment if there’s a shortage then recruiting from abroad seems necessary)

MiloMinderbinder925 · 02/07/2025 08:32

There have been a lot of threads on this OP, which I suggest you do a search for.

Asylum seekers only make up 6% of immigration into the UK, the rest come here on work and study visas. It's a complicated situation which isn't going to be easy to resolve.

mumda · 02/07/2025 08:35

Hercisback1 · 02/07/2025 07:01

You're rude and not answering the OP.

OP I don't know the answer either. The boats are still pretty small numbers compared to other legal migration routes. However I understand the increasing concern as the numbers rise.

Show quote history

These legal routes are bad for the UK too.

Basically every job is on the list of skills.

TheWisePlumDuck · 02/07/2025 08:36

ISIS have been shown to be ferrying groups of men over on the boats.

Which wouldn't be quite so alarming, except for the number of people we currently have in the army will soon be overtaken by the number of single fighting aged men that have arrived in the country over the last couple of years.

And now guns are being smuggled over too.

I wonder what our October 7th will look like?

Jellycatspyjamas · 02/07/2025 08:36

Middlechild3 · 02/07/2025 08:25

It's not racism but feel free to throw it out as a lazy insult. If someone comes on a skilled worker visa they should be doing that work. That's the exchange. You can come here because the country needs your skills, it's a trade off. Skills in exchange for the right to live and work here. The framework is too lax if it can be flouted like this. One bank shift a month shouldn't be enough to meet the requirements of a skilled worker visa.

Edited
Show quote history

So she needed to evidence an income of £30k plus to bring her partner and his mum over, they also need to pay £4k plus a year in NHS supplement, and their own living costs - because they have no recourse to public funds. So however they’re doing it, they’re not using benefits to fund their lifestyle which is more than can be said for about 50% of the population.

shellyleppard · 02/07/2025 08:37

What gets me is we pay the French authorities loads of money to help stop the boats.... they just stand back and let the buggers through!!! Don't do anything!! Once they are in the water France just wash their hands off them. Our problem now. Boils my piss it really does

MiloMinderbinder925 · 02/07/2025 08:38

TheWisePlumDuck · 02/07/2025 08:36

ISIS have been shown to be ferrying groups of men over on the boats.

Which wouldn't be quite so alarming, except for the number of people we currently have in the army will soon be overtaken by the number of single fighting aged men that have arrived in the country over the last couple of years.

And now guns are being smuggled over too.

I wonder what our October 7th will look like?

I'm interested in the evidence for this and would appreciate a link.

NotoriousRhubarb · 02/07/2025 08:39

MiloMinderbinder925 · 02/07/2025 08:38

I'm interested in the evidence for this and would appreciate a link.

Show quote history

Yes, me too.

And by “link’, I mean to some credible source of information, not a Reform voter frothing in his bedroom on YouTube.

Middlechild3 · 02/07/2025 08:40

Quirkswork · 02/07/2025 07:58

Agree. I think we are beyond calling everyone concerned about numbers and who is coming in "racists". Perhaps people are now realising they need to start having a sense of self preservation and protecting their own interests and that of the country. Hopefully.

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This, we are a geographically small island with a large population. It's not racist to discuss the need to limit numbers and support local interests first. There should always be room for genuine asylum seekers though.