Applying for asylum in the UK - we'll send you to Ascension Island whilst we process your application

[chomalungma]

www.bbc.co.uk/news/uk-politics-54349796

Ascension Island is a small island 5000 miles away in the South Atlantic. Used as a staging post during the Falkland conflict.

To be fair - it' definitely a place where people would be safe from persecution due to their race, religion, nationality, political opinion, gender identity or sexual orientation.

And it's not like other countries do something similar....

I also suspect that it would appeal to many people - a way to discourage people trying to enter this country by sending them 1000s of miles away to a small Atlantic island.

@Shepherdspyreads
The article says they considered it and decided not to proceed. Are you angry that they even considered it? Fair enough. But your post makes out like it hasn't already been shelved

Exactly what I was going to say!
OP, did you read the article you posted? As it says they considered but aren't proceeding, decided not to.
So pretty much non news and a post which will just get people frothing if they don't read it properly imo!

I don't believe it is a coincidence that we now have Tony Abbott as an unpaid government advisor. (Tories lining up their unpaid advisors quite nicely now).

So pretty much non news and a post which will just get people frothing if they don't read it properly imo

Frothing about this Tory Government.
What an unintended consequence.....

Rather them than me. Mind you, the prospect of a flight there might make migrants decide that France (or Germany) is actually ok to live in, after all.

Yes. I think the island idea is idiocy but I live in Kent and we bear the brunt of the cost of genuine asylum seekers (including those ahem 30 year old 15 year olds) and the petty crimes committed by those who pass through, they don't want asylum but just want black market work as economic migrants in London and other cities.

The new Folkestone barracks - warm, organised, safe - is being lambasted by critics who live in cosy villages miles away both culturally and logistically, and will never see the groups of young men roaming the towns and taking over parks at night. Patel is nuts to consider the islands but at least she's finally trying to address the people smuggling and the problems it brings (to the migrants too).

Just because that location has been shelved, doesn't mean they have stopped considering the idea. "The idea of "offshoring" people is being looked at but finding a suitable location would be key, a source said."
www.bbc.co.uk/news/uk-politics-54349796

Am I right in thinking that Ascension Island doesn't actually have its own source of fresh water and it has to be shipped in?

They seem to have been doing a lot of blue sky thinking

www.theguardian.com/uk-news/2020/sep/30/revealed-no-10-explores-sending-asylum-seekers-to-moldova-morocco-and-papua-new-guinea

Did they just put these on a white board in an anything goes session?

If we're blue-sky thinking, here's my outside the box thought shower. Let all the asylum seekers live and work freely so they can contribute and integrate into our society.

Great Ida in theory, but would be hugely expensive, and extra taxation is not appealing considering we have yet to pay our debt for Covid.

I expect they did have a whiteboard session, or a few: it's their job to look for solutions. In fact it is reassuring that they are, tories or no, because outside the middle class 'nice' bubbles, there are a number of problems which are not being fully reported. Large groups of young males are a major problem all by themselves. Groups from many different cultures that have no intention of 'integrating' nicely and adopting our customs, such as a broad general tolerance or the equality and bodily autonomy of women, are another.

Not the first time a government has had this idea Apparently the nazis has an idea that they could ‘relocate’ all the Jews to the island of Madagascar

Personally Id prefer them integrating refugees/ asylum seekers into our society giving them work and paying into our system
You know like the civilised country we’re meant to be
What do I know

You can’t simply open the doors. There isn’t enough work and not enough houses. Not enough schools. You have to draw a line somewhere - the whole world can’t come here obviously

Am I right in thinking that Ascension Island doesn't actually have its own source of fresh water and it has to be shipped in?

I'm not sure how much is shipped in - I visited the place a few times many years back and remember being shown at some point some sort of ancient water catchment basin up near the top of the central mountain but looking at wiki it seems that has been augmented or completely replaced by desalination plants.

@killerofmen

If we're blue-sky thinking, here's my outside the box thought shower. Let all the asylum seekers live and work freely so they can contribute and integrate into our society.

Ah yes, because it’s that simple

Integration is a two-way street; you can't integrate into a society that resents you and will not accept you for who you are, continually putting barriers in your way.

I would rather they did not spend all our tax money flying them off to a tropical island on a jolly! They should process them quickly, give them the right to live here permanently and get them out to employment and paying taxes like the rest of us asap

Integration is a two-way street. To what extent though? Physically yes, the racism based on skin colour is appalling and the bias against petty issues like hair is, well, petty. However it is not the host's responsibility in any way to amend their culture. Presumably people are coming here because they want to be part of it. At the moment it seems as if too many are trying to dictate their own upon us. Women's rights are a major battleground.

I would rather they did not spend all our tax money flying them off to a tropical island on a jolly!

There are tropical Islands as seen in the holiday brochures and then OTOH there's Ascension...

But I agree, the whole idea is daft.

I just read this on Twitter and thought of this thread
Western countries are obsessed with the notion that other people might cross their borders and take their resources because on some level they are aware they've spent the past 500 years doing exactly that to everyone else.
Jason Hickel