You and your family could be asylum seekers by this time next year.

[Nevermay]

Just want to point this out, as many posters seem to be of the opinion that asylum seekers are a different species, with different aspirations, different hopes and fears, different medical biology, and different housing and nutritional requirements than the rest of humanity

It could be you and your family next year.

There could be any number of natural disasters in the UK. Meteor strike? Tsunami? Volcanic eruption? All of these are likely in the UK at some point. There could be manmade disasters, war, famine, there could be something more personal that happens to you, you could be a witness being searched for by a hostile government.

You might be a highly qualified professional, ( many asylum seekers in the UK are) you could have worked hard all your life to pay off your mortgage ( many asylum seekers in the UK have) you could have kept yourself fit and healthy all your life and you may also have an assortment of serious or trivial medical needs. You might have french or spanish GCSE to help you, or you might not.

None of these things will mark you out as special, or different, if you are in a crowd of asylum seekers seeking refuge in another country. You will just have to sit and wait and hope with everybody else, maybe for years, your children with you.

I really wish people understood this, refugees and asylum seekers are no different to our own population, some are uneducated, some are criminal, most are decent people, many are highly qualified and come from affluent and successful back grounds.

When ever you think and speak about them, please just keep in mind, this could be you next year.

Honestly, if you're reduced to arguing 'send them all back, because insects', you've lost, haven't you?

Come on, admit it to yourself. Step away and make a cup of tea. British tea. White. You'll feel better.

If our country had a huge disaster I would stay and rebuild/fight the war/ support in other ways. That is genuinely what most people do, unless they have young children and we don’t many of those on the boats, nor the elderly. The most vulnerable never have the option to just abandon their home countries.

Excuse me?

Here's my volcano, you can see it erupting in the distance

https://www.adventuretrails.co.uk/cart/

You can see the glow from the lava in the distance.

Try telling that to the Jews during Nazi Germany

Try telling that to the Tutsi in Rwanda.

I understand the point you're making but sometimes the only safe thing is to flee.

Why? Have you farted?

I agree - I can’t even begin to articulate why it’s so important to preserve our green spaces and not just plonk ugly building over them to accommodate the burgeoning over population.I don’t even know where to begin.

Do you want safe routes, if so how many people from which countries?

I now realise no intelligent conversation can be had with you.

@thedancingbear can I ask where you’d stop at busking over green spaces? Why is cramming more humans than we can accommodate into this particular country more important than preserving a world that will barely survive if for example important insect populations die out.

And if you don’t know why insect populations are important to having a thriving world, go away and find out.

https://www.theguardian.com/environment/2021/jul/25/the-insect-apocalypse-our-world-will-grind-to-a-halt-without-them

It’s rare though. Most situations are temporary and even long standing wars require support, the nation pulling together. It’s not acceptable for young, healthy people just to flee to the nearest wealthy country to look after themselves!

*building not busking.

Im wholeheartedly against busking in green spaces or otherwise

I agree and if war does anything it rallies and unites people - times have moved once is ex WW2 but I’d like to think that young people would want to stay and fight for their country.

Uncontrolled immigration can have huge consequences on even a very welcoming host country, you only have to look to Germany and the number of rapes that the women there have had to endure. Is that okay? For their way of life and safety and security to be lost, and the anger that settles over those communities runs very deep.

You can’t wholesale move millions into any country without decades of planning and preparation if it’s going to work in any shape or form.

Insects was just one, easily quantifiable, way that humans are destroying the planet. But yes, let's just crack on...

@pleasehelpwi3

exactly well said

I don’t understand why anyone would leave beyond the smallest percentage. Gay and LGBT that face death possibly but everyone else should remain and rebuild a better future, the reason they don’t is pure self interest for economical reasons.

Maybe pp could read this while drinking that tea she kindly offered a pp earlier

https://amp.theguardian.com/environment/2019/feb/10/plummeting-insect-numbers-threaten-collapse-of-nature

Economic migrancy is not the same as refugee-ing war or persecution. Just because I want to live somewhere doesn't mean I can just rock up and get on with it.

I’ve been through this recently with my own family and the Ukraine war.
Our extended family I must say have dispersed to the nearest safe place they can exist in long term, not a specific location.
Many came here, just because of family visas and free housing. A few went to Italy, lots of work. One couple to Ireland, was the offer available with housing/ fights early on. Some went to Poland if they had connections there. Quite a few just moved to Western Ukraine with family. Some friends went back to Ukraine fairly quickly when their areas were safe enough.
None if them, as yet, are looking for long term settlement if that’s possible. None of them picked a destination beyond what was the most viable at the time. When the EU travel opened up it became a settling place.
It’s a complex issue. There can be a need, that drives economic decision making. There can be no immediate need to move. There is sometimes a desire to relocate.
If it happened to me here, and there was housing in Calais for example I wouldn’t be pushing for Canada (where is my dream home).
The analogy in the OP is just too simplistic

This sounds far fetched OP. More likely a few areas have floods. Many so called 'assylum seekers' don't have those issues either, they just want to move to a different country to earn more money and have a better standard of living.

The problem with taking asylum seekers in this country is not to do with the asylum seekers. It's to do with our current status, which is that we cannot manage with our current population level versus services/facilities and land area.

Standard in the UK are:

1. Can't get doc appointment with GP. If can, wait ages for specialist. Or, like many, get told to FO and then die. Or maybe call an ambulance, wait hours and die. And don't expect sufficient care if you are elderly and unsafely discharged from hospital.
2. School place scraps, to the point where people are renting properties/committing fraud - point is, we can't educate our whole population properly. Class sizes bulging at 30+.
3. Traffic jams, ludicrous and widespread every day.
4. Can't book anything. Try getting a driving lesson for example. No. Wait months. A driving test? Well, if you get up at 6am on a Monday, you might be able to get one for the end of January of next year, but you can wait in a queue of 7000+ people online.
5. Last time I took a train (July), it was ram jam full, people sitting and standing on floor. Rail strikes are commonplace.
6. Unemployment. We can't manage to get everyone a job who needs one.
7. We have a major problem with homelessness. We have people crammed into unsuitable accommodation, trapped with abusers, children dying due to mouldy properties.

I could go on. But France has double our land and the same population. Britain is not a good place to bring more people because we cannot manage. Doesn't really matter why, but we are not managing.

Actually @JamSandle is correct, if we keep destroying the planet and killing off all the insects we’ll all die. We really need to take this seriously. And I am not against uk taking asylum seekers at all, but we need to find ways to do so whilst caring for our planet.