to think that the Calais migrants are economic migrants and should not be given asylum?

[cabbagesouppirate]

All of the Calais migrants are young men. If they were true asylum seekers seeking safety from persecution they could have claimed asylum in a number of safe countries Western countries already, including France which is hardly a dangerous place. Instead they camp out in Calais, causing a nuisance, a mess, costing the UK and France a lot of money, making the lives of lorry drivers and tourists hell and the situation is becoming increasingly dangerous. I sincerely hope these people are not given asylum in the UK and any that have managed to reach the UK should be fast tracked out of the country and given economic assistance whilst they are here.

Interestingly Australia has no such problems with migrants trying to get in there. They deploy naval ships to patrol the waters and any migrant boats are towed back from whence they came. In eighteen months they have not had a single boatload break through this barrier.

I dearly wish this approach was used around the Greek islands, and southern Italy.
Word would soon get back that it was just not worth trying to reach Europe.

As someone else mentioned these are not 'poor immigrants' - most seem to have smart phones and designer sportswear.

They want to get to the UK because of our stupidly generous welfare state - plus of course , unfortunately,a lot of their relatives are here all ready.

BakingCookies, that was an immensely affecting read.

If anyone missed it, this is worth a read.

Just read the OP and a couple of comments, but I just wanted to mention that one of the refugees said yesterday that the reason he doesn't want to stay in France is that he doesn't speak French, he speaks English so is in a better position to work or study. That seems logical to me.

" Interestingly Australia has no such problems with migrants trying to get in there "

are you at all familiar with global geography?
FFS the rising quality of the stupidity of some of these posts is stunning!

They should go to neighbouring countries such as Turkey, Russia, Lebanon and Kenya etc.

Well then they better start learning French, most of them won't be able to speak decent English.

Just because this myth gets repeated without any real fact:

THERE IS NOTHING IN INTERNATIONAL LAW THAT STATES YOU MUST SEEK ASYLUM IN THE FIRST SAFE COUNTRY YOU ARRIVE IN.

are you at all familiar with global geography?

OK then.

Let's solve this

We let them all in.

Where will they live
Where will they work
Where will they be educated
Which doctors and dentists will they access
When do we say enough is enough or do we let everyone come over to the UK ad infinitum

Surely they could seek asylum in France or any one of the numerous countries they've travelled through to get to Calais? It does make me wonder why our "system" is so attractive compared to other Western European countries...

I would assume, terrible though it may be, that it compares favourably with living in a war torn country where, for instance, you would be in daily danger of being killed or raped and where clean water cannot be relied on etc.

So all these MEN, and they ARE mainly MEN, are leaving their friends, mothers, sisters, and children to this fate while they are fleeing to the UK?

Coffee - and the rudeness of some posters is stunning.

I didn't think it was necessary to point out that I was talking about Indonesian migrants trying to get to Australia.

If that wasn't obvious to you then maybe I should have.

" We let them all in. "

" When do we say enough is enough "

Look I hate to tell you this but there is no 'WE' here - you and I have no say in this whatsoever. Mass immigration has been on the cards since the early 90s and was a government policy. These things do not just happen in a vacuum.
It does amuse me though to hear people talking about 'we' when what they mean is the UK government.

I love your ability to edit a post and only read and respond to what you want coffee it's a skill worthy of many politicians

yes well talking about Indonesia and Australia is just a bit meaningless in this context isnt it?

Doe, what ive been saying on here last few days too.
I know its hard, its sad and should not be happening, but we have enough problems here already , a new govt intent on austerity, people not able to get their children into a decent school.. an nhs at breaking point already, the list is endless. Maybe the government want the people that are born here to emigrate and just leave the UK for the rest of the world to live in.? Who knows. As i said before, dc had done a great job selling how wonderful we are!

thanks DoeEye, that really is a compliment!
Tell those bastards to give me a job OK?

It wasn't meant as one

You seem very good at avoiding answering any questions or providing any solutions you're just intent on shouting people down and saying nothing worth reading.

" you're just intent on shouting people down and saying nothing worth reading. "

well you are the only person who thinks that....AFAIK.
Do you really think that what you are writing is more 'worth while' than what I am saying? Egotistical much?

No but yet again you've swerved the course of discussion.

You picked bits out of my post choosing to ignore the content and purpose of it which to me says you're just shit stirring

Sorry Coffee I agree with pp. You're long on anger and short on practical solutions.

tbh DoeEyed IME people who use 'we' to refer to the UK govt are not usually worth arguing with. so youre lucky that I am even using my finger energy to reply to your whining.

Well I apologise profusely for the use of the commonly understood shorthand for the UK.

The government represent us so yes 'we' is appropriate to use.

But back to my post.

Any solutions? No point them moving from shit Street to shit Street and staying homeless is there? Which, let's face it, is sadly the fate of many economic migrants.

It really irritates me when Peterborough is used as an example of how things fall apart when the migrants arrive, though I understand that it suited Farage's needs to portray it in such an unfavourable light. I live in Peterborough and have done so all my life so am well qualified to comment. I'm proud that I live in a city where people are, by and large, able to rub along together pretty well. The Polish are more than welcome - I have always found them to be hard working and honest and in fact have just employed a very professional Polish man to do a large decorating job for us. Incidentally he was the only one who responded to our request for a quote. There is no doubt that the 100+ languages that are spoken here adds pressure to the various systems in place, but actually the council, police and other agencies are working extremely well together. The fact that when the rest of the UK was worried about riots we had confidence in our services and communities speaks volumes. Pakistanis live alongside Polish, Lithuanians and British with very little incident. The only thing I really believe needs addressing in this city is human slavery - unscrupulous landlords and landowners who force these so called 'economic migrants' to work for a pittance and take most of what little they earn to pay for sub standard living accommodation (and I mean really appalling conditions) and give them erroneous information in order to keep them ignorant of the fact that it is not acceptable for anyone to live like this in Britain today. I pity the migrants in Calais if this is what awaits them - a far cry from the land of opportunity and benefits that they are supposedly coming here for.

Quote from today's Times....

"By the end of the year, Turkey will be hosting 1.9million (yes, million) Syrian refugees. Lebanon, with only 4 million inhabitants, currently has 1.5 million".

To the people saying that asylum seekers should stay in the first safe country they come to... I'd argue that most of them do - and there simply isn't enough room for any more.

I struggle to comprehend the twist we are getting our knickers in about 5,000, or 10,000 or even 100,000 migrants, we have nothing near the scale of the problem that the "first safe countries" have.

I generally try and stay out of the political threads because there is so much shite spouted on them. We have a Prime Minister who seems to think the main issue at hand is the "British holiday makers". Fuck me, where is that man's soul.

Nine people have died this month (that they know of) trying to cross through the tunnel. That is nine sons. Nine brothers. Potentially nine fathers. Have some compassion people.