How bothered are you about Small Boats?

[Spinet]

I think the idea that people think Small Boats with illegal immigrants on them is a really pressing issue is made up by politicians to have something to campaign on. Am I right? Is this a pressing issue as far as you're concerned?

I'm not really talking about immigration/ asylum seekers in general, just the small boats everyone keeps mentioning. If you're worried about people dying in the channel I get that, but do you think people finding their way here illegally is a major issue for our country at the moment?

I think it's clear I don't but I will accept I'm wrong about this being a made up issue if the majority disagree with me.

If you want to vote YABU= this is one of my top ten concerns. YANBU = I don't think it's a top ten issue for the country.

Read your own article. It clearly states that migration has a downward pressure on the unskilled/semi skilled workforce. This has been further confirmed by the Bank of England. So migration does push down wages for the lowest paid i.e. those already suffering most from the cost of living crisis.

The vast majority of doctors working in the NHS that come from abroad are not asylum seekers and we need to be very clear about that. We need to distinguish between migrants that are here as a result of a points based system with shortage skills and those that come here seeking refuge. These two subsets of immigrants will have a very different economic profile and it is misleading to merge the two.

This is spot on.

It was not a "resonable concern" it was bigotry and MNHQ agrees.

Well we absorbed over a million asylum seekers from Afghanistan, Ukraine etc of course health services/housing/education are now under more pressure.

The very last thing we need as we try to resettle genuine refugees is unlimited economic migrants rocking up as well.
Where are we going to magic up the houses and services for this volume, it’s a practical question.

@TodayInahurry

They are 90% young males, many have already committed crimes like rape.

Offending at a greater rate than our resident men?

Send the man ahead on the dangerous journey and the family follow afterwards on a safer passage if they are granted asylum - i.e. the UK government (this, a decidedly unfriendly government in particular) agrees with them that that they need a safe place to stay because of the threat to their lives if they were to stay in their original country.

I think there is a language requirement to fulfil in order to get a work visa.

The decline of services is nothing to do with asylum seekers or immigrants. They aren't the ones repeatedly voting in Tory governments

Normally? How do they do that then?

So this ‘smash the gangs’ phrase being trotted out

I mean if it was that easy I’m sure Italy, Greece, Aus (when they had smugglers) and countless other countries would just catch the bad uns and stop this whole people smuggling hoo ha

I mean it’s easy right, you catch one and no one else gives it a go in their place

We can't decide if people are asylum seekers until their applications have been determined though, and that can only be done once they're in the UK and it takes far too long.

And we don't have a choice about whether to accept people who are seeking asylum. We have an obligation to do so under the UN Convention on Refugees. Not only is the UK a signatory to the Convention, it was heavily involved in drafting it and the government of the day, led by Churchill, fully supported the principles enshrined in it.

There are plenty of other countries, many smaller and poorer than the UK, that take in more refugees than we do.

Refugee stats

I think with the free gym membership thing, they're talking about the student accommodation that was cancelled for students at the last minute to be used to house asylum.seekers. It contained a gym, cinema rooms etc. I assume that is what the poster is talking about.

I have debunked this is a previous post. The amount of young, male refugees (18-25) is 39%.
No, they are not mostly from Albania. The highest amount are from Syria and Afghanistan.
No, it is not a crisis. We have 225,000 refugees in this country. It's not them who are causing the issues with access to services.
"Year on year the number is getting higher" - no it isn't. The amount coming are getting higher, the amount allowed to stay is getting lower.
The only reason why the Tories are dog-whistling like crazy about this is because they have made an absolute mess of the country and the only thing they can get support for is by inventing a "crisis" that doesn't exist.

I agree. If the UK Govt wished to work with the French Govt (& the EU in gen) then the % risking their lives making crossings in small boats would plummet.

But the UK Govt knows this issue is a. distracting (from other messes) and b. divisive so they have no wish to prevent it at all imo. Rather they waste time & taxpayers money on stupid schemes like Rwanda plans & infected prisonhulks.

@Lastchancechica

Well we absorbed over a million asylum seekers from Afghanistan, Ukraine etc of course health services/housing/education are now under more pressure.

The very last thing we need as we try to resettle genuine refugees is unlimited economic migrants rocking up as well.

Actually the thing we need above all else IS economic migrants. People who are fit & healthy and willing to work in the jobs that our resident population can't or won't - the minimum wage care workers, the cleaners, the fruit pickers, the factor workers. Skilled workers too, like doctors, nurses, vets and dentists. Brexit means we've become an incredibly unattractive proposition for all of those workers who previously would have come over from Europe.

😂😂😂 free gym membership you crack me up! None of the asylum seekers I have worked with have been given that - they don't even have enough money to get a public bus from their shoddy out of town accommodation to town and back again once a week. And the food provided for them is disgusting- not that they complain they are just happy to not being living with the threat of death. Honestly, don't believer everything the daily fail tells you.

I agree. If the UK Govt wished to work with the French Govt (& the EU in gen) then the % risking their lives making crossings in small boats would plummet

How would you do this?

What a surprise, the far-right Meloni government is showing its true colours.

I'm not particularly worried about the level of immigration, which is far less in the UK than in other countries. But what is unacceptable is that people lose their lives getting to the UK, Italy, Spain etc this way and also pay lots of money to people smugglers.

That makes sense @SkinnyMalinkyLankyLegs . Perhaps the other poster would have preferred the gym room to have been locked to prevent those nasty foreigners from occupying themselves and keeping themselves fit and healthy.

We did not absorb over a million asylum seekers. Just over 700,000 arrived by most of them were not allowed to stay as refugees. We currently have 225,000 refugees.
There are only 14% of the UK population born abroad and most of them are legal, working people. We have 67 million people in the UK. You cannot tell me that the only reason why we are struggling is because of 225,000 people, many of whom really struggle to access services. https://www.bma.org.uk/advice-and-support/ethics/refugees-overseas-visitors-and-vulnerable-migrants/refugee-and-asylum-seeker-patient-health-toolkit/overcoming-barriers-to-refugees-and-asylum-seekers-accessing-care

So because we already have rapists, we should welcome more?

The problem is, they’re all
unchecked so along with them being ‘doctors, dentists, rocket scientists’ that some are trying to convince us they are, there will also be those that WILL commit crime. That is worrying for a lot of people, especially the elderly & those with young families.

Same. I live very close to an area of beach that's the closest bit of the UK to France and has seen hundreds and hundreds of people landing in small boats.

I think the Tories just love using 'illegal' immigration as a diversion tactic from their own nefarious shenanigans. Whilst they're busy dreaming up mental schemes like sending people to fucking Rwanda, the NHS is collapsing from years and years of underinvestment and being sold off to private enterprise like never before and I can't get a sodding GP appointment whilst I go slowly crackers from the menopause - and that's fuck all to do with immigration.

The area where I live has a VERY high proportion of people all too willing to slag off immigrants and yet, mysteriously, you NEVER see anything other than white faces locally. I'd be utterly amazed if any of the racist xenophobes regularly piping up on the local area Facebook page have ever actually conversed with anyone who isn't of their own demographic.

@EasternStandard I didn't claim to have The Answer. I just gave my opinion as per the OP original Qu. Actually it was: is this in your Top 10 concerns for UK? I voted No as did 59% of other responders so far.

We currently have 225,000 refugees.

Many of whom work and contribute to society.

It is a big concern to me, but I live in East London, an area which, as far as I am concerned, has been negatively affected by recent large scale immigration. I think how bothered you are is linked to your own experiences, real or perceived, surely?