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.

Why is their class relevant? They would be just as worthy of respect and support if they were WC/rural poor

I believe there was a tsunami in the North Sea in prehistoric times affecting Scotland, caused by a massive landslip. Unlikely, but who knows.

More to the point, my sister lives through the Fukushima disaster in Japan and left the country for a couple of months with her DD. The Government lied and lied about how bad it was and contaminated produce was entering the food chain and nobody was allowed to question it.

Potentially a nuclear meltdown or a rogue missile could render areas of the UK uninhabitable.

My mum was a refugee for a few months in WW2, she comes from Western Europe. It can happen to anyone.

I totally agree, OP. It scares me to think one day my kids might be on the receiving end of some of the nasty shit people spout in this country towards refugees.

I remember watching Years and Years wondering how my very right wing, refugee hating mother could have watched it, been moved but not have made the connection between that and how actual humans suffer now

People should show sympathy to genuine asylum seekers but the people arriving from France and Africa on boats are just mostly men in decent health who want to exploit UK and are illegal economic migrants. Hence, most public has zero sympathy for them.

Well given we were heading for drought last year - who know??

you do realise that we are an island - we import practically everything and we are not self sustainable

so we can be impacted by lots of different things that can happen on and off our shores

to think otherwise is daft

not to mention we are a key target of Russia at the moment!

but also even if we the UK are somehow immune from crap - does that really invalidate the argument that we shouldn’t be compassionate and humane

It upsets me to hear people talking in a derogatory way about "male economic migrants" as if they are somehow a lesser breed of migrant and less deserving.

Many British people have been economics migrants: to the US, Canada, Australia etc. There is nothing basically wrong with desiring a better standard of living.

And the fact that most migrants are male is very simply explained - if you only have enough money to send one person in your family to seek a better life elsewhere, you pick the one with the greatest earning power who can send money home and hopefully acquire refugee status and bring the rest of the family over later.

These people know the dangers of the small boats route - they are not stupid. The fact that they take this risk is a measure of their desperation, either to escape persecution and war, or to find a way out of poverty.

The OP is making a point about migrants as fellow human being with the same fears, desires and humanity as us - she is not wanting to engage in a discussion about the likelihood of a volcanic eruption in the UK!

Well I'll make sure my pedalo is seaworthy 🙄

No because in the event of a calamity, the waves of refugees fleeing will invariably be disproportionately women, mothers with children, the old and disabled. Not young 95% young men. The people arriving on the boats are not 'asylum seekers' Do you know what 'asylum' means?

In the Great War, Belgian families came to the UK. Jews fled to the UK in the 1930s. Children were evacuated from our cities in 1939. Kosovan refugees came in the 90s. Ukrainians came in 2022. Did any of those waves of asylum seekers in any way resemble the demographic make-up of those crossing the Channel today? Of course they didn't.

Absolutely this

The Princess Victoria Ferry Disaster happened during that storm.
Should never have put to sea in that tempest

Over 104 women and children drowned, dashed to pieces as the lifeboat splintered as it was driven onto the sinking ferry
Between Scotland and Ireland.

So little known about.

Yes of course

but it’s a good example of asylum seekers being educated, intelligent and not scrounging

mmm, so are you offering to house the multiple, often young men on our streets who are homeless? the British families living in 1 room hotel accommodation? or is it only the young men(those that are economic migrants not refugees) crossing the channel that deserve a roof over their heads and 3 meals a day provided by the state? most people have no problem with helping refugees but when our own government fails to provide enough housing, health care and education to people already here (both british born and those that have come here to make a life) thats when the problems happen.

@Namechangedforthis25 "not to mention we are a key target of Russia at the moment!"

If Putin completely loses the plot and decides to nuke the West then all else pales into insignificance.

It could be, but it isn’t family’s arriving every day is it largely?

It’s boats and boats of single men.

We aren’t immune to any of those things but we are low down on the risk of places where they would happen. Our geography and politics suggest a lot of the world would be impacted far more severely and far more quickly than the UK. Coastal flooding is the only risk we might have to worry about as much as or more than other countries.

We shouldn’t be “othering” people or groups. This leads to a lack of empathy. IME a lot of MN posters do nothing but “other” showing little or no empathy to anyone who isn’t like them.

Don't forget you need a red light to port (L) and a green light to Starboard (R).

Could you improvise with a torch and some coloured cellophane?

there can be more focused evils - cyber attacks, targeted nucleur, attacks to mains and infrastructure

I’d have far more empathy for Afghan women
Life in Afghanistan for women under the Taliban is pretty grim.

We are lucky, a lot of countries would aid us , the US and Australia to name just two.

What part of me mentioning that the UK is spread across 2 landmasses makes you think I don't know about Islands? And yes if there was drought the UK would look to import more food. Then like I said some people could move to Ireland or countries where they can legally reside already if they have an EU/other country passport, then there are people who would be able to apply for visas to other countries. I don't think it is daft at all to say that the likelihood of Uk residents becoming asylum seekers anytime soon is slim to none. Even Ukrainians didn't have to become asylum seekers due to their relationship with Europe.

I also didn't say that people shouldn't be compassionate and humane it was just a really rubbish way to say that when most people know that that just isn't the case.

While majority of British people are scraping by due to cost of living crisis, mortgage rate hike, expensive housing and childcare, despite working full time most of their life, but you and some other woke people are of the opinion that lets full this country with more illegal economic migrants, feed them and house them for free while British tax payers are striking and scraping by 👏

Aussies can't stand the whinging pommes so you're out on that one!😀

Nobody needs to risk their lives or even worse children's lives by coming across the channel by small boat. We need to end this as the only people who benefit are the traffickers. France is a safe country.

Yes, I too thought “ Australia?!”
🤣
They wouldn’t want us!

predominently young and male economic migrants.
^^ That is the problem. I haven't seen or heard anything bad about Ukrainians being housed or accepted here, which is more similar scenario to what would happen according to your OP. I can't see all our fit young men flooding another country demanding to be looked after though, it just wouldn't happen.