Albanian migrants question

[Notthetoothfairy]

Everyone knows the U.K. is really short of staff since Brexit and that is pushing up prices for food etc. If we now (like it or not) have a huge influx of Albanian young men who actually want to work, wouldn’t we be better off letting them legally get jobs here and treating them like the Europeans who left?

Maybe I’m being too simplistic here but I’m not sure how keeping them unhappily detained for long periods in processing centres then spending something like £7m a day putting them in hotels without letting them work is helping anyone. Obviously it’s different if someone has just come over to claim benefits and has no intention of working but I get the impression that’s not the case for a lot of these young men.

If you think I’m wrong, you can explain why and still be nice about it 😁

People need to get more up to speed with what’s going on. The old they are doctors line isn’t going to work when Albanian mafia are getting a stronghold of the situation to our detriment.

Albania is not in the EU. So, how are they allowed to enter the Schengen Zone, with access to the whole of Europe, without proper security checks at the border leaving Albania?

I voted YABU OP, not because we don’t need migrants to come and work in the UK but because this is not the way to do it.

I’ve lived overseas in the past - Australia on a short term visa, New Zealand with permanent residency and France when Britain was still part of the EU (and then applying for a carte de séjour after Brexit happened). In each case I had to fulfill certain criteria, in each case the country I was going to knew in advance what they were getting - a student, a young person, a graduate with a job offer, a citizen of the EU, whatever. They knew my qualifications, my work history, and in some cases whether I had a criminal record. They certainly knew my identity, what I was doing for work / income and where I was living. Even coming to France pre-Brexit required all this : had to apply and provide loads of paperwork to be accepted by the French National health services (unlike the NHS who just treat anyone). Ditto for getting kids into school and receiving any benefits.

just accepting the people who are tough, lucky or well-connected enough to make it onto dry land is not a good way to organise immigration. It turns it into survival of the fittest and means the host country has no control over whether the individuals coming are what they need, or even safe to have in the country.

Blossomtoes - Unemployment may be at its lowest but it there's still over a million people out of work. I'm quite sure many of those would be able to fill unskilled jobs in the care, hospitality and farming sectors etc.

Accepting people that come across in boats is not the answer.

Why aren’t they then?

A woman I met a few years ago paid to travel in the back of a refrigerated lorry from Albania to London, she talked about it very casually and made it sound easy so I’m guessing that’s a common occurrence.

This

Little London in Albania

Because Albania is a thoroughly corrupt narco-state with a lot of drug money to bribe officials all over the world.

Do Google 'Albanian mafia', it's terrifying and illuminating

@Chocchops72 absolutely agree that safe routes for asylum are essential. Caringcarer pointed out how well the Syrian scheme worked, but it’s closed now. There are two schemes for Afghanistan but one is so slow that Afghan people who supported the British army are still left behind, and some are resorting to coming here by boat as they get no response from the Home Office despite being in danger. Then aside from the Ukraine scheme and HK visas, that’s it. For the rest of the world, the only way to claim asylum is on British soil, which as we’ve seen is cruel and unsustainable.

Well the truth is that there will be lots of rhetoric and no action as has been going on for years

The people on boats are not doctors, nurses and dentists. Some people are so daft and gullible

Indeed - we only had 149 Albanian nationals working in the NHS as of March 2021 - plenty of scope to apply through the usual channels.

You know the UK always had a veto? Could always have said No to Romania and Bulgaria, for example. If still a member of the EU, the UK could always say No to Albania, Moldova and Turkey

Will EU members say No to Ukraine in 10 -15 years' time (assuming Ukraine wins the war against Russia)?

Ukraine (population 43 million) was the poorest country in Europe even before the war - even poorer than Albania (population 2.8 million).

even poorer than Albania - per capita.

I agree to some extent but then the migrants need somewhere to live themselves

Then lots of homes become multiple occupancy and reduces the n.o. of family homes etc

I'm sure the young adults already living here would like larger families but they can't afford the housing and they are being done a disservice as far as I am concerned

Well said

It's become ridiculous

It's basically a vicious circle/pyramid scheme. More migrants needed to build houses and work in farming/NHS/care equals more people. More people equals more migrants needed and on it goes...

Absolutely. I've thought that for years

And they are not like Peter Pan

BewareTheLibrarians
aside from the Ukraine scheme and HK visas, that’s it
For the rest of the world, the only way to claim asylum is on British soil, which as we’ve seen is cruel and unsustainable

Family reunion scheme here?

help.unhcr.org/uk/family-reunion/

absolutely agree that safe routes for asylum are essential

Which EU countries have safe routes?

@Clavinova oh good catch, there is indeed. I think the numbers are quite low (but no doubt “low” will mean different things for different people!) If googling, remember that family reunification for legal immigrants and for asylum seekers are different schemes. Sometimes the numbers get conflated.

No idea re EU countries. But if they don’t, is that good enough reason for us to also not? (Just pretend that grammar makes sense…)

If they're to be treated as migrants, surely they'd be treated like all other migrants, not just like the EU ones who left.

Non-EU migration has involved background checks and ID cards and more for many years. Whether that's enough has been debated, but I'm struggling to understand why they should be treated any different to any other migration group.

And yeah, the government is not doing enough, just like they weren't doing enough pre-Brexit or making any plans to deal with it during the Remain campaign. There are benefits to them saying how terrible is and that they'll deal with it and then doing fuck all.

so if foreign workers can't get a DBS, how are so many of the care workers in this country not born here?

Foreign-born workers can get a DBS. However, where ever you are born, if you've lived more than 6 months in another country as an adult as many migrants have, they can require additional paperwork that gives a similar level of assurances from that country. Not all do, but for some places that's the standard.

The only thing I often find is everyone seems ok if it is women and children coming here. The fact is that would cost more for the tax payer in the long run as opposed to a single male. Children taking more resources such as needing school places doctors etc and women who are mothers less likely to work due to caring responsibilities. Women with kids can be economic migrants as well they are just looked more favourably upon.

BewareTheLibrarians
No idea re EU countries. But if they don’t, is that good enough reason for us to also not? (Just pretend that grammar makes sense…)

I think that depends entirely on numbers - are we talking 20,000 per year or 200,000 per year? Labour Party MPs have so far refused to say.

Yabu. Many aren't here to take paid employment, unless you include drug and prostitution gangs in that. They need to be deported.

I will never welcome huge amounts of men purely because they are men. Two hotels in my town have been turned in to centres for asylum seekers. So far after just three weeks there have been three allegations of sexual assault and they have been hanging around the local secondary school. The police are now patrolling near the school because of the level of harassment, I live just around the corner from this school. 500 men.

One of the hotels had been used for Afghan families for quite a while, they were evacuated becuse they had worked for the British military. No problems whatsoever over those many months but lots of single young males have replaced them and it’s awful.

@Theunamedcat its dire isn’t it, I dare not walk my usual routes which are quite near the hotels because I don’t fancy being heckled or approached.

Maybe we would have the infrastructure and services if we allowed those people to work. People awaiting processing include doctors, dentists and nurses - we have a desperate shortage of those.

Ah yes all those Albanian doctors dentists and nurses! Wake up ffs.