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AIBU?

Share your dilemmas and get honest opinions from other Mumsnetters.

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Original poster

to suggest we take over border control in Calais!

114 replies

SuggestmeaUsername · 28/07/2015 20:18

obviously with the agreement of the French...

From watching the news it seems the French are not very effective and/or are apathetic at border control around Calais and are unable to prevent illegal immigrants from attempting to enter the UK.

So maybe it would make sense and save money in the long run for us to go over there and take charge of the situation both sides of the Channel.

OP posts:
woowoo22 · 28/07/2015 20:20

YABU

TwinkieTwinkle · 28/07/2015 20:21

You do realise it doesn't work like that?

woodhill · 28/07/2015 20:41

shame it doesn't. yes I suspect the French want them gone so lapsidaisical about border control

Tryharder · 28/07/2015 20:42

We DO run the border control at Calais. It's a juxtaposed control. The French police are still responsible for overall security however.

TalkinPeace · 28/07/2015 20:42

Duh

the UK border has been in Calais for years

have you never been to look?

MrsTerryPratchett · 28/07/2015 20:54

What I think you are actually talking about is the UK taking over domestic policing from the French on French land. Never going to happen. Can you imagine random German Police on the streets in the UK?

Mistigri · 28/07/2015 21:08

Maybe the French should move the border back to where it belongs, in Dover. Would save a fortune!

TalkinPeace · 28/07/2015 21:10

not for the UK it would not .....
the homeless camps would be all over East Kent while they awaited "processing"
and every train and ferry would take an effing age to clear customs
like they did pre 1988

Mistigri · 28/07/2015 21:14

It would save us French taxpayers some money ;)

I think it shows remarkable forebearance on the part of the French that they haven't just shrugged a Gallic shrug and let the migrants leave France if they want to - something that they would be able to do at any other border crossing.

HarrietVane99 · 28/07/2015 21:16

Well, we did own Calais once. Maybe the French would like to give it back to us.Smile

I think German police on the streets of the UK would evoke a very different reaction to British police in Calais. (And I'd be surprised if our police aren't already there, even if only to observe and gather intel on the trafficking gangs.)

Boardingblues · 28/07/2015 21:18

What news are you watching? I think that the French have been remarkably tolerant of a problem the they did not (solely) create bit for which they have to put up with everyday!

What do you think UK forces would/could do that the French aren't doing? Perhaps they could vigorously wave copies of the Daily Fail at those perky, desperate immigrants?

Sleepsoftly · 28/07/2015 21:20

Ooooooh

So maybe it would make sense and save money in the long run for us to go over there and take charge of the situation both sides of the Channel.

What I think you are actually talking about is the UK taking over domestic policing from the French on French land. Never going to happen.

Well we have, but hey, maybe third time lucky......! The year has a '15 in it! Grin

1215 - Agincourt (we pushed those borders back with just a 'few' archers)

1815 - Waterloo (not the Abba song, although it feels like 200 years ago to me).

You will realise this post is 'tongue in cheek' Smile as opposed to Last Tango in Paris which is more butter in ....

Justanotherlurker · 28/07/2015 21:21

We do actually pay the French significantly to police the Calais border Misti, so it would probably save us some cash to.

Mistigri · 28/07/2015 21:23

I could get behind the idea of letting you Brits pay for this. It irks me that my taxes pay to keep refugees out of the UK, when you patently don't take your share your asylum seekers when compared with other major EU nations :)

mugglingalong · 28/07/2015 21:24

As TalkinPeace says the border control is in Calais, so in theory they are stopping anyone from entering the UK who does not have appropriate documentation. I am not sure why the French don't finger print and start the asylum process with migrants as they do in Italy (to an extent). I think that what is really needed is a European wide approach to processing and allocating people - maybe on a points basis so that you get more chance of being based in UK if a family member lives here etc. I am not a great fan of European bureaucracy but here I think it would be useful.

Sleepsoftly · 28/07/2015 21:26

I think that the French have been remarkably tolerant of a problem the they did not (solely) create bit for which they have to put up with everyday!

Bollocks. Big swinging bollocks of the highest Legion of Honour with shiny bits on!! FFS!

France exploited North Africa for its own purposes for centuries. The UK did the same in India and Pakistan. France, however, not economically efficient by any means, is quite happy to pass a substantial and growing burden onto the UK.

Boardingblues · 28/07/2015 21:27

Oh no! Now the thread is going to be subverted by reasonableness! But what are we going to do about these selfish, desperate people delaying our great holiday getaway in the meantime?

TalkinPeace · 28/07/2015 21:28

It irks me that my taxes pay to keep refugees out of the UK, when you patently don't take your share your asylum seekers when compared with other major EU nations
And France, by not processing the ones it has, actively encourages them to move on

in total breach of EU law Hmm

Boardingblues · 28/07/2015 21:30

The people willing to risk life and limb to get to the UK are not interested in staying in France… They are in transit in France. That is what I am referring to.

Mistigri · 28/07/2015 21:33

Talkinpeace - France processed twice as many asylum applications as the UK in 2014...

penisland · 28/07/2015 21:40

This reply has been deleted

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

Sleepsoftly · 28/07/2015 21:40

Well they are not saving life and limb. Its not rocket science.

If I was rescued from a desert island by a passing cruise ship and got a stomach bug from the food I was given, the last thing I would consider doing is suing the cruise line that got me to a better place. Yet people migrate across many European countries. That's economic migration, and undisputable.

The only way that people will stop trying to enter other countries for economic purposes is if there is a major transfer of technology, intellectual property, copyright and know how from the West and China and Singapore and South Korea (etc) to third world nations. Their people will come here and get it if we do not share it. Its history repeating itself.

Its not about closing borders to people who want to come here, its more about opening up a conduit so that wealth can cascade to others. It happens in different ways in different countries and cultures, but always oh so slowly.

woodhill · 28/07/2015 21:41

it's a much larger country.

Sleepsoftly · 28/07/2015 21:42

Penisland that's what Hitler did and look where that got him. He was deleted too.

SirBoobAlot · 28/07/2015 21:45

Yes, YABU.