To think people who want "safe routes to migration" into the UK are hopelessly naive

[ForestGoblin]

We could spend every penny of public money on bringing refugees to the UK in comfy and safe boats and planes. We could make it mandatory for every home to provide accommodation and food. We could ban healthcare for anyone except refugees.

And there would still be thousands and thousands of boat crossings every year and millions more people languishing in bad situations and trying to figure out how to get here or elsewhere in northern Europe.

It's a crap situation. Life is bad. I feel dreadful for them.

But "safe routes" is a load of glib nonsense that can't work.

About Albanian arrivals

https://migrationobservatory.ox.ac.uk/resources/commentaries/albanian-asylum-seekers-in-the-uk-and-eu-a-look-at-recent-data/

• Key pointsIn 2022, around 16,000 Albanian citizens applied for asylum in the UK, making up 16% of all asylum applicants.
• Albanian small boat arrivals fell dramatically in the last quarter of 2022 and the first quarter of 2023 after a peak in the summer of 2022.
• In 2021 and 2022, almost half of UK initial decisions on Albanian asylum applications were positive.
• The UK’s initial decision grant rate for Albanian asylum applicants in 2022 was higher than most EU countries but comparable to the rates in Ireland and Germany.
• The UK’s asylum grant rate for Albanian asylum applicants is driven by women.
• In 2022, 12% of Albanian citizens arriving via small boat were referred to the UK’s modern slavery system.

It is good of you to also post facts, but is there room for both of us doing it?

They could be 100% refugees but if we've already got thousands of kids in b&bs on christmas how can we actually help?

Claims that there are a million empty homes don't help when lots of those might be derelict, in areas with no transport, healthcare, education, or supportive agencies to help refugees. Some empty homes might be in unsafe tower blocks with dangerous cladding.

If they were useable homes we'd be housing people in them now and now paying billions for poor quality b&b and the like for homeless families.

Since the government will have taken the number of empty homes from council tax returns, those that are in Class G would not be counted.

The rest is politics podcast has a solution to the boats - all migrants are returned to France and stopped from crossing. The U.K. agrees to take asylum seekers in official camps who are applying to move to France.
France is a safe country. There’s no need for them to cross the channel. We take an equal number to those attempting to cross in boats.
The Austrian head of the ?EHRC or some org in Europe’s idea.

So safe and legal routes and a mutual arrangement with France?

Jgw1

Which means in all likelihood it is investment properties, second homes etc.

If they aren't willing to state confiscate them to house the homeless we already have do you think they'll do it for refugees?

Part of what makes us an attractive place for refugees is that we respect the law, and property rights etc and do not confiscate privately owned goods (whether or not we should allow ownership of housing you aren't living in is another matter...).

The point is there are not available homes for the people we have here already. Which is why we are resorting to housing people on a fucking barge in portland.

Why do these people deserve to be housed here any more than children born here?

Perhaps we should discuss the system that means there are all these empty properties that could be used, rather than demonising people fleeing persecution?

Yes - no one including labour have come up with this . Or we’d have heard about it. France is being shameful - there are drones nowadays -they could stop it.

What would you use those drones for?

To locate groups of people gathering, buses/ lorries delivering people to harbour /someone launching a huge inflatable etc etc

That's why the definition requires the fear to be well-founded.

@Kweeky do they go into the detail of how it would work?

So if 200k apply and we only take 45k how do people get selected?

I take it the equal to crossing in boats is a number we have now otherwise loads will just attempt to cross in boats driving up how many we accept

Agree. They are nearly all men coming off these boats. If anyone needs to flee Afghanistan it the women. By accepting hoards of men from cultures with different attitudes to women we are putting women’s place in society in future jeopardy. I’m sad about refugees and would love to help the genuine families fleeing war. That’s why Ukraine was different because we took the women and children. The men stayed to fight their war.

The trouble with saying that we don't have the resources and infrastructure to support these people coming in is that we so clearly do, given that we took around 1.2 million long term legal immigrants last year.

And why does taking them necessarily entail paying higher taxes? We have massive shortages of staff in several essential areas of industry, so having people come in to fill those vacancies and start paying tax is surely a win-win situation.

So you have located a group of people getting off a bus and walking towards the sea, what are you going to do now?

The migrants who don't come by boat are the right kind of migrant, whereas those that come by boat are the wrong kind because...

I take it you’d like to make the process easier but how would you deal with high numbers applying?

Do you have an upper limit in mind?

So naive, you do realise we have a housing crisis ??

Ah now that's a whole other issue! We could look at why we have a housing crisis. Or we could just blame migrants.

I assume you are trying to imply racism? Why be too weedy to say it if that’s what you mean? Plenty of others have made the claim directly.

It is another issue - but everyone needs a place to live. Increasing numbers of people means we need an increased number of places to live, more roads, buses, trains, hospitals schools etc

@Zonder not to blame for the housing crisis but thousands more people coming in needing to be housed doesn't help matters. 🙄

You've literally called for the UK to withdraw from the "UN CHR" so that the UK can become "tough" on asylum seekers.

The trouble with saying that we don't have the resources and infrastructure to support these people coming in is that we so clearly do, given that we took around 1.2 million long term legal immigrants last year.

But every other thread on here is about how the country's going downhill fast.