To think that UK bound lorry drivers should boycott Calais?

[Libitina]

www.bbc.co.uk/news/world-europe-33240475

The local police would soon do something to protect them then. If it was my husband (he's not a lorry driver) I would be so worried about his personal saftey. How long before someone is hurt or killed?

Isn't that the case for quite a few others as well ? Eg Bulgaria, Poland, the Baltic states ? I was just wondering what the attraction of Hungary is compared to those.

Hungary is presumably much nearer to their countries of origin.

No, Italy and Greece are also close to Africa and Asia and also have problems. The Baltic States and Poland are just about the most difficult places to reach via the migrant routes.

It is desperately sad and there is no easy solution.

But I can't help wondering that if migrants used their obvious resilience and ingenuity to trying to solve problems in their home countries the world could be a better place.

I imagine that resilience and ingenuity would get you a long way faced with armed extremists in Afghanistan, Iraq and Syria.

And the situation in their countries was not of their making. We fucked up and we are paying the price.

I was thinking more in terms of the African nations, but no doubt you think that is all our fault as well.

No, I think the situation regarding African migrants is much more nuanced actually, although it depends what country you are talking about (Nigeria for all its problems is nothing like as bad as Eritrea).

The big increase in the last couple of years has been from Syria, for reasons which should be obvious to anyone who hasn't had their head in the sand for the last couple of heads.

Heads? Years! (Ipad has a mind of its own)

if migrants used their obvious resilience and ingenuity to trying to solve problems in their home countries the world could be a better place.
Precisely - and these are people who have has £££ to pay traffickers - they are not the poor oppressed masses who are stuck there.

I think it is forgotten that the UK has had its own turmoils, civil war in the 17 century, only 2 generations back people were very poor and some still are. it has taken centuries

perhaps they do need to sort it out. the despot leaders that we give aid to also have alot to answer for.

Precisely - and these are people who have has £££ to pay traffickers - they are not the poor oppressed masses who are stuck there.

Where are they getting these 'savings' from - to be able to pay thousands to the traffickers?
Surely if they're that badly off, they wouldn't even have enough money to pay the traffickers in the first place.

I don't have savings and I have a job!

Where is the money coming from to pay the traffickers? If it's from their earnings, from doing a job, then a lot are mainly economic the grass looks greener migrants.

It makes you wonder.

I could make a guess but would get flamed on here so I'm keeping my gob shut.

This is why it's unhelpful to talk of illegal immigrants as if they're a monolithic group. With those who come from war-torn countries, many were professionals with good jobs and middle-class lifestyles and the ability to save until conflict destroyed the economy and infrastructure. In countries with harsh political regimes, where speaking against the government can get you a jail sentence or the death penalty, there are plenty of educated, skilled, middle-class people. In other cases, migrants are from poor families, but the whole extended family sells everything they have of any value to pay the traffickers to bring one, usually young male, member of the family to the UK, where the idea is he will work and send money home.

The latter may be economic migrants, but they are generally escaping extreme poverty in a country where a working day in the mines or factories is 18 hours long, earns you a pittance and means risking your life - to dismiss people who leave their homes and their loved ones and everything they know to travel half way across the world on the back of a truck in the hope of something better in a country they've only seen on the TV as "grass looks greener migrants" is breathtakingly heartless.

I keep seeing the young faces. So many of them are young men, very young.

Surely they didn't have the time to get educated or qualified, they must have been on the road for a few months.
I keep thinking it's their families who sent them to try and send some money back home.

What do they expect here though? Work and money? How?

All the Guardian-reading hand-wringing pearl clutching bores: what is your solution, exactly? Aside from policing people's language on the internet and falling over yourselves to sound sufficiently PC/empathetic, do you have an actual solution?

Surely one of you morally superior folks can just give us the answer? What should the govts DO to fix this problem?

Or are we just in for round 4 of these are people, you know.

There aren't any easy solutions. Do you have one apple?

These people aren't going to stop arriving. You can't build a wall around Europe. The rational answer is for european states to work together to settle genuine refugees appropriately (without leaving frontline states like Italy to shoulder all the burden) and repatriate the rest promptly. But that solution has been definitively kicked into the long grass by ministers at the current EU summit.

The long term answer is to stop fucking up other people's countries on the basis of dubious geopolitical imperatives.

Some disgusting attitudes and opinions on this thread.

These people want to be in a country where they can speak a language they know. Most speak English which means they could work rather than claim benefits. They could get benefits and housing far quicker by staying in France but they don't want this...they want to work.

Obviously by coming to the country illegally they are ripe for exploitation by people who will pay them far less than the living wage and will work them into the ground. They will have a roof over their heads probably shared with a dozen others.

The would be illegal immigrants need to be stopped for exploitation reasons alone.

These are human beings.

There but for the grace of God go I (and you too )

ApplePaltrow - you say Guardian reading as if it's an insult. Perhaps if you read The Guardian you might have a better understanding of this situation. Here's a solution for you, as requested. You're welcome.
www.theguardian.com/world/2015/apr/22/uns-francois-crepeau-on-the-refugee-crisis-instead-of-resisting-migration-lets-organise-it

Just - What an interesting article. I thought the idea of a 4 months for 5 years 'look for work visa' was a great idea.

Yes, they can come here to 'work'.
But where are all these extra jobs going to come from?
Some people are living in Cloud Cuckoo Land.

the hand-wringing pearl clutching bores: what is your solution, exactly? Aside from policing people's language on the internet and falling over yourselves to sound sufficiently PC/empathetic, do you have an actual solution?

Exactly.
Rather than just talking about how we should let them all come in - why not put your money where your mouth is and do something about it?
Open up your homes to these migrants, so that they have somewhere to stay?
Until they get on their feet?

That would be a nice thing to do, don't you think?

I'm not convinced about the French housing them either. think they may stay if that was the case.

Some disgusting attitudes and opinions on this thread

Not really.

I'm sure lots of people are very caring.
I for one, am involved with two charities that take up 3 days a week. I also contribute to 3 others.
I also volunteer at my local hospital.
In fact, I am so soft hearted (some would say gullible) to have offered lifts to strangers before, when they have seemed unwell - especially if they're elderly.

However,
I still don't want to see hoardes of migrants (who we know nothing of their backgrounds by the way)- they could be peadophiles, murders, theves for all we know) flooding into our country.

I think it's a cheap shot to label people heartless and 'bad' just because they show concern about this matter.

If that makes me a bad person, so be it.

Well said @Meyes
The guilt trip thing is pointless and unhelpful to the situation.
(And the endless dissing for the DM and ignorinf people's genuine concerns is what lost the LP the last two elections ('That bigoted woman' ) and will keep them out of office until they wake up)

Meyesmyeyes - stop being ridiculous and read the article I linked to in my post at 7.28am.

well said Meyes I think alot of people in real life are of the same opinion.