People in small boats

[EndlessRain1]

With everything that is going on in the UK at the moment, can it really be true that one of the top 5 priorities in the country is to stop "people in small boats"?

I mean, I know a lot of people are against immigration in this form, but in the grand scheme of the shit show this country has been in the last couple of years that is in the top 5 priorities/ actions?

AIBU to think that's insane?

Absolutely.

@ShakespearesBlister thousands of people are still being smuggled into the country on lorries. That's easier to check, both in France and in the UK, and easier to prevent if lorry drivers and haulage companies take the appropriate preventative actions.

The smuggling gangs are real, people are often abandoned in their overloaded boats once over half way, or they don't even go that far and just recruit one of the immigrants to steer the boat.

The only way to stop it is to create more safe and legal routes, or to make ourselves completely inhumane and immoral. Sadly we seem to be trying the latter approach rather than the former, and we’ve got a way to go yet before that will make any difference, if it ever does. The main reason for the huge hotel expense is the massive backlog in processing asylum claims. It’s short-term thinking and populist politics.

Buts it's about vulnerable people being exploited. It's about people drowning. It's about serious organised crime. It's about criminals who people traffic and force women into sex work and men to become modern day slaves and very often also an involvement in drugs. Don't be so naive.

There is also more than one department of government and this is dealt with separate from other issues.

Virtue signalling dog whistle post 🙄

How is that “virtue signalling” ?

Do you know what that term means ?

The public has been subjected to a sustained and aggressive campaign by the media against immigrants for 20+ years. Usually to provide a distraction and to get people to vote tory. This isn't new.

Yes, save money by actually processing the Asylum claims.

Stop the illegal migration by giving the asylum seekers legal and safe options.

I would vote for that! Sadly I don't think Rishi is going to be looking to appeal to me. Despite me living in Kent.

Of course it should be a priority.

But in the top 5 things that REALLY need to happen in this country? Out of everything that's going wrong at the moment (the only other things he mentioned was NHS waiting times (not even general services) and fiscal policy)? And not even immgration in general, just people in boats?

@OhPeggySue £7million is pittance it’s a really small amount of money in the grand scheme of things.
Going after Tax evaders should be in the top 5, all that money could sort out most of the UKs money problems.

Seriously, people!
So stopping people in small boats is now coated with a nice golden polish of humanity instead of saying outright, it's to stop immigration and asylum seekers? Just how many of those who want to stop those boats are really, genuinely worried about the well-being of the people trying their luck in risking their lives for a better life. What would you do to improve their lives? Or is it just out of sight, out of mind?

I think it should be a priority because of the deaths which could be prevented with a bit of government effort.

I think that this Government doesn’t care about the deaths. I think they’d rather they all drowned given their track record on not caring about the elderly during Covid and now the strikes, not caring about disabled and slapping DNRs on them during covid as well as other excess deaths directly caused by DWP. Life is cheap to them and if more non-working people can be left to die, the better. Sorry but that’s my view point on the past 12yrs of this party’s rule.

I think the Government has it as a priority because it was a Brexit promise and right now the news is being repeatedly flooded with expose after expose on how all these Brexit promises were either lies or things have gotten much worse instead of better as was warned by the Remain campaign. The Government is desperate to get something that was promised to be better post-Brexit to become a reality.

To @allboysherebutme you are blaming these people for a lot of things! What would you do to stop them coming? Starve them? Send them back to, say, Afghanistan where the Taliban would shoot them? We already expect them to live on £40 a week, don’t allow them to work, take a couple of years to process their asylum claims and are trying to send them to Rwanda - how do you suggest we treat them worse to stop them coming?

One of the easiest ways to vastly cut down on the number of attempted crossings would be to allow people to apply for asylum from whichever country they are in at that time instead of only allowing applications from people already in the UK.

Agree with pp yabu

It’s a difficult issue but it should be one of the priorities

@allboysherebutme what diseases? Serious question.

And I think asylum seekers should be allowed to work, in legitimate jobs obviously.l, but it seems daft to not utilise their skills or to allow them the sense of self-esteem from being employed. That employment can then add weight to their asylum application as they can prove they're contributing to our society.

It’s massive organised crime. I’m glad they’re trying to prioritise it.

The people smuggling does need to be stopped be we all know they’ll do fuck all sensible (like open legal routes for asylum from abroad, reduce time taken to make asylum decisions, go after the smugglers etc).

Nope, they’ll just continue to waffle and blame ‘illegal immigrants’ for everything from the NHS crisis to the egg shortage.

Nope. I'm glad it's been listed as one of the 5, for many reasons: the whole thing is so bad on many different levels.

On seeing the title I thought this would be a thread about you being a riverside property owner and people in small boats hollering and waving at you from the waters.

It's a bit of a non-statement really. "People in small boats" could, in reality, be anyone taking their small boat out of Weymouth harbour (to give 1 example), and sailing it over to France and back again. is Sunak going to ban that? Why doesn't he just say what he means the slimy git?

Not from a migrant perspective because I do think that migration is overall beneficial for countries, but I agree with the priority because of the criminal element and sheer cost to human life.

These people are desperate and handing themselves to people smugglers who are often also people traffickers and many of those who survive entering the country in this way and not presenting themselves to the authorities at which point they become illegal migrants are often used by the criminals for drugs/prostitution to "pay off" their debt.

Migration needs to be simpler really - no access to government benefits including NHS unless gainfully employed and paying taxes for a qualifying period. If you have no intention to work then you don't get to stay on the taxpayers ££. Genuine asylum seekers and economic migrants are pleased to be offered the opportunity to start a fresh life and contribute to society.