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?

85 percent of the world’s refugees are hosted by developing countries (source - Amnesty International.) A small percentage want and are able to attempt travel to the UK - mainly due to family or language ties. They will continue to try unless we become even more brutal to them than we already are, or until there are other sources of hope for them. One idea would be processing centres in embassies abroad, where people could receive visas if they both pass assessment as fleeing persecution according to the refugee convention, and have ties to the UK due to language or family.

I see this “France is a safe country” argument a lot, but what people seem to not realise is that France is a safe country to go to on holiday, for French/British/Eu citizens with your passports or visas. But when you’ve been refused housing by the French govt, are living in a refugee camp which the authorities regularly trash and locals sometimes set fire too, with no job and no income to support your kids, is that safe? Would you be happy with that life for your kids?

Excellent points - also on my experience of having visited France a lot, they are a lot more accepting of what we'd regard as open racism. I was once openly told about all the faults of "Les Anglais" to my face - and not because I can pass for French. The Algerian French are known as "pieds noire". It's not universal but it's more open than what we tolerate here.

Yep @Kinnorafron its certainly not a welcoming environment for asylum seekers in a lot of places. Calais Appeal tweeted this back on December and it appears pretty common:

“The group drew attention to evictions being carried out every 24/48 hours, during which personal possession such as tents, blankets and sleeping bags are confiscated. They said that personal documents, including papers crucial for asylum claims, have also been seized.”

This is why all countries need to work together. If this is true then the French should not be allowed to get away with that but the solution should not be to let unprecedented numbers come here.

By not providing a safe route to apply the government are driving refuges and asylum seekers into the hands of the human traffickers and their small boats.

As with most things at the moment government policy is the problem.

@JoonT There are very good reasons why the majority of asylum seekers you see are male. Including that the mainstream media rarely show images of women and children who’ve arrived in the Uk. Wonder why?

The journey from Africa, for eg is incredibly physically hard, with dangers of violence, rape and kidnapping, especially in Libya where most people attempt crossing. Men and boys are often forced into slavery to pay for their journey.

“Women and children making the dangerous journey to Europe to flee poverty and conflicts in Africa are being beaten, raped and starved in “living hellholes” in Libya, the United Nations children’s agency, Unicef, has said.
Children are being sexually abused, coerced into prostitution and work, and held to ransom for months in squalid, overcrowded detention centres, as they flee war and poverty in Africa to undertake one of the most dangerous journeys in the world to Europe, the agency warned in a new report.”
amp.theguardian.com/world/2017/feb/28/refugee-women-and-children-beaten-raped-and-starved-in-libyan-hellholes

Despite this though, some women and children still do attempt the journey. TW as this is harrowing, from a rescue in the Mediterranean.

“Last night, #OceanViking evacuated 113 people from a black overcrowded rubber boat in pitch dark. Among the survivors
23 women, some are pregnant, around 30 unaccompanied minors and 3 babies with the youngest being only 3 weeks old.”
mobile.twitter.com/SOSMedIntl/status/1607647219091648512?s=20&t=CVQENFeVil3S28M8Ca707Q

It’s not as simple as saying “they’re all men therefore all economic migrants.” There are valid reasons why you see more men than women, which are also valid reasons why we need safe routes FOR women and children so they can seek the safety they need, as the only route available to them now is so dangerous and excludes them.

Albania may be separated as it is in some other countries, as a safe country

Looking at the figure acceptance looks low for other countries, sometimes zero

If this is true then the French should not be allowed to get away with that
Good luck telling them!

But that would involve them making effort instead of just lazy words to appease certain groups, and I really can’t see that happening 😁

Just a point on the unprecedented numbers, it’s not just a case of more people coming, but also that the govt have successfully* shut down people smuggling routes by lorry. So rather than people arriving being split between lorries and small boats, there’s now only small boats, which does make the problem look worse than it is.

*Of course this still leaves people in danger so not entirely successful.

Still, at least Brexit enabled us to take back control of our borders though, eh?

A few years ago it might only be 300 people coming over a year, but now it's tens of thousands.

What has France being "a safe country" got to do with anything?

For those who think adding legal routes overseas will solve this.

What do you plan to do about the people who are inevitably rejected?

Nice selective use of stats.
It was an issue in the late 90s but the source then was lorries crossing the channel. The numbers haven't reached late 90s levels yet - and we were in the EU then. It really doesn't have anything to do with being in or out of the EU.

Do you mean that those people will still try to enter the UK via channel crossings?

What happens to them now?

It's a good point.

I don't know how you solve this because the problem is where can you feasibly deport people to. It's not like France is clamouring to take them back. That's a hard problem, maybe for some specific countries like Albania you could do it but not in general.

But adding "safe legal routes" doesn't address that either and I find it frustrating that people think the issue is that we're just not being kind enough. I'm not opposed to allowing offshore applications but ultimately it's just additive unless we also address the deportation question.

@Kinnorafron That's says it's a graph of the total number of asylum applications, and it stops in 2019.

Mine is a comparison of the numbers of people coming over in small boats in 2018, 2019, 2020, 2021, and 2022.

@yubgummy

Before Brexit the U.K. had the right to transfer failed asylum seekers to the EU country in which they first arrived.

It was never used much because very few fail, but it was there.

@yubgummy

If there is a safe legal route to apply from other countries asylum seekers don't have to come here at all until their asylum claim has been approved.

Current policy for most places is that you can only apply from British soil.

Which is precisely what sends people into the clutches of the people traffickers and their small boats.

So Brexit doesn't make much difference.

@yubgummy the point of safe routes is that people are (or should be!) assessed before arriving in the UK, so deportation doesn’t become an issue.

There is the problem of people rejected making their own way to the UK, but the numbers would be smaller/people might not risk it when they know they’ve already been rejected with their biometrics (fingerprints) on file from their previous application.

At the moment, from the mouth of our very own Home Secretary, the only way to claim asylum for the vast majority of asylum seekers is to come and apply on British soil, thus fuelling the people traffickers.

But you went on to make a claim about Brexit - it isn't related to Brexit. We had a big problem with illegal channel crossings in the 90s - we were in the EU then.

Sorry, x posted with @verdantverdure ’s more coherent post 😅