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AIBU?

Share your dilemmas and get honest opinions from other Mumsnetters.

Original poster

To want to know why the numbers crossing in small boats has increased?

63 replies

Neededanewuserhandle · 27/03/2023 09:51

I have seen it argued that it's Brexit since we left the Dublin agreement that allowed us to return people to the EU. But we hardly ever used that - in fact the figures suggest we ended up with more people returned to us than we sent "back" to EU countries.

Of course it's hard to know the truth, but I find it hard to imagine that the people in the boats and the smuggling gangs have researched the provisions of the Dublin agreement.

The majority of boat arrivals are apparently from Albania - we have a formal agreement for returning them but it doesn't seem to be deterring people from coming.

AIBU to wish there was a way for ordinary people to get hold of the truth rather than partisan opinions from all sides dressed up as pretend facts?

OP posts:
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cakeorwine · 21/01/2024 11:11

"Channel migrants have been quietly given the right to work in sectors including care, construction and agriculture and can still retain access to state-subsidised bed and board under a Home Office scheme."

You do know that :

  1. They were given this access a long time ago.
  2. It is for people who have been waiting for over 12 months.
  3. It is for shortage sectors

So maybe they should clear the backlog and then either grant or refuse asylum. And if it's refused, people should be sent back.

Home Office earmarks £1.1bn to manage arrival of Channel migrants

Official documents reveal Government anticipates that small boats will continue to arrive up to 2034

https://www.telegraph.co.uk/news/2023/12/11/home-office-1bn-manage-arrival-channel-migrants/

jgw1 · 21/01/2024 11:14

EasternStandard · 21/01/2024 08:35

Op it’s increasing generally. Look at trends across Med and Mexico to US

Policies will impact numbers but overall world events are increasing people movement and will continue with climate on top

@EasternStandard are there any policies that the UK could adopt and encourage other countries to adopt that might reduce the number of people forced to migrate?

jgw1 · 21/01/2024 11:16

PTSDBarbiegirl · 21/01/2024 09:54

Disagree that it's not a problem. People dying on these trips in overcrowded tiny boats is a problem. I'm concerned about conditions here in UK. Housing lists, benefits clamp down, poverty, crime, drug abuse, homelessness, mental health crisis and drug crime is at epidemic levels in UK cities. I wonder why anyone thinks this country can accommodate any migrant who cannot fund their own migration without relying on the state. A pp mentioned annual migration filling Old Trafford, as if that's managable!!!! Where do these people go? Who funds their housing, health care, food bills, schooling? It's just not practical. When you see the poverty already here it doesn't inspire encouraging more. Let's get an international operation to monitor who buys, sells these boats, who arranges initial transport from countries like Albania.

Show quote history

Don't be too concerned about housing lists. There are over a million empty homes in the UK, that if the government wanted to could house a lot of people.

jgw1 · 21/01/2024 11:19

EasternStandard · 21/01/2024 10:49

If you want numbers to fall deterrent is pretty much it - if people can think of another then fine

If not numbers will keep going up. Also fine if people want that

Not saying either way has to be wanted, but the basic issue is easier - higher numbers, harder / deterrent - fewer

Show quote history

@EasternStandard couldn't one consider what was causing people to migrate and look at policies that reduced the need for them to?

jgw1 · 21/01/2024 11:22

cakeorwine · 21/01/2024 11:11

"Channel migrants have been quietly given the right to work in sectors including care, construction and agriculture and can still retain access to state-subsidised bed and board under a Home Office scheme."

You do know that :

  1. They were given this access a long time ago.
  2. It is for people who have been waiting for over 12 months.
  3. It is for shortage sectors

So maybe they should clear the backlog and then either grant or refuse asylum. And if it's refused, people should be sent back.

Surely asylum seekers working is some kind of strange deadcat story, since Sunak has announced that he has cleared the backlog and so there aren't any who have been waiting for a decision for 12 months and so elligible to work?

cakeorwine · 21/01/2024 11:25

jgw1 · 21/01/2024 11:22

Surely asylum seekers working is some kind of strange deadcat story, since Sunak has announced that he has cleared the backlog and so there aren't any who have been waiting for a decision for 12 months and so elligible to work?

Show quote history

It's always interesting to see what's left out of a story and the facts that are left out to generate a reaction.

I don't think many people know the true scale of refugees around the world.

lollipoprainbow · 21/01/2024 11:43

Don't be too concerned about housing lists. There are over a million empty homes in the UK, that if the government wanted to could house a lot of people.

Not this crap again.

EasternStandard · 21/01/2024 11:45

I think people are missing what’s going on elsewhere, it’s not just here

Look at news today from Germany and protests

I thought this would surface about a year or so ago and it will continue to increase

jgw1 · 21/01/2024 11:50

lollipoprainbow · 21/01/2024 11:43

Don't be too concerned about housing lists. There are over a million empty homes in the UK, that if the government wanted to could house a lot of people.

Not this crap again.

You have something against facts?

jgw1 · 21/01/2024 11:52

EasternStandard · 21/01/2024 11:45

I think people are missing what’s going on elsewhere, it’s not just here

Look at news today from Germany and protests

I thought this would surface about a year or so ago and it will continue to increase

@EasternStandard the question is what the UK government and others could do to ensure that people did not become migrants, do you have any thoughts on that?

HardcoreLadyType · 21/01/2024 12:39

cakeorwine · 21/01/2024 08:20

"Claiming asylum in a foreign safe country was never a 'game plan' yet as conflict encroaches and persecution persists, people find themselves with very few options."

If people have seen The Handmaid's Tale, at what point do you flee and how do you claim asylum?

I think we have been so so lucky not to have been invaded and to have lived under democracy. I don't think many people can really imagine the lives many people live in countries with civil war, repression etc.

I wonder if an ITV drama dramatising the lives of refugees fleeing countries today would have an effect. Or would it be dismissed as "woke" .

It is "them" and "us"

See also Prophet Song, this year’s Booker Prize winner.

jasflowers · 21/01/2024 13:13

People who have left war zones, travelled through ME or Africa, risked death crossing the Mediterranean, come up through Europe and then crossed the channel are not going to be deterred by the 1 or 2% chance that they will be sent to Rwanda (if they ever will be)

Where the UK houses migrants and the length of time they are held waiting for a decision is pretty dire, yet that doesn't seem to deter.

Plus Rwanda has some pretty serious issues of its own with refugees fleeing from CAR, over 130k in camps.

TheMotherSide · 21/01/2024 14:07

"It's always interesting to see what's left out of a story..." Absolutely, Cake.

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