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.

I never show a passport at Heathrow when flying back from Ireland. Always have to show a passport (well, go through the automatic gates) at Dublin or Cork, but flights from Ireland into Heathrow land on the domestic side so you go straight through to baggage retrieval, just as if you were landing from Edinburgh or Manchester.

Actually I just looked it up and this test is not necessary anyway for the highly skilled worker visa - there are plenty of other ways to prove English language ability. For example if you’ve passed an English language test accepted by your professional medical body.

so enough of this silliness. Work visas are available for doctors and dentists and they have no need to come to Britain on small boats.

Have you factored in climate change?

Other people have

Models show that for every degree of temperature rise, a billion people will be displaced.

I’m concerned about the safety aspect of it.

I'm also concerned about the ridiculous propaganda out there about all the freebies and luxury asylum seekers and refugees allegedly get handed to them. I work in this field and it’s nonsense!

Yes! Doesn't a daily ferry run?

Lol! I have. Maybe you’re just special

You need to show your passport to get on it though

So we seem to have doctors and dentists who would get a work visa if they could get access to SELT

And an issue with low language support

‘Two out of every three questioned said they weren’t confident that their current level of English makes them ready to work in the UK’

Stephen Hale, Chief Executive of Refugee Action, said:
“Imagine being forced to flee your home, leave behind your belongings and your entire life, and arriving in a country where you don’t know what anyone is saying. You can’t book a doctor’s appointment, read street signs or even fill out the forms you need to get your children into a school.

How many ready to work doctors and dentists are you talking about?

There’s more than one step.
A qualified doctor from Eritrea claimed asylum in uk. Eventually (18 months of limbo) she is now going through her licence to practise.

Well, they are not all going to head for the UK, are they? We will need to work with other countries to manage the issue.

They don’t need a Selt to get a visa - they just need to prove an acceptable level of English- there are many ways to do this.

DuncinToffee
Most of them won't be eligible to vote in a GE but crack on

Did you read Labour's 2019 manifesto?

The Labour Party has announced in its new manifesto that it would hugely extend suffrage by giving full voting rights to all UK residents –

https://labourlist.org/2019/11/labour-would-enfranchise-migrants-with-full-voting-rights-for-all-uk-residents/

Starmer?
https://www.theguardian.com/politics/2023/may/15/what-are-labours-plans-for-giving-foreign-nationals-the-right-to-vote

https://www.dailymail.co.uk/news/article-12096035/Labours-plot-rig-elections-10MILLION-teenagers-migrants-vote.html

@SueVineer the only thing stopping refugees travelling safely here is political will.

I’ll redirect this to @jgw1 I believe they brought up SELT

They were in a camp on the border with Jordan so maybe they went there. I don't work in that school anymore and he would have left for Uni, so I can't enquire further but his family came from Syria and he did loads of fundraising for Syrian people whilst at school.

Yes France is on the list.

How on earth would it ever be right to take a doctor from worn torn countries? You are deeply unethical to suggest it in the first place.

I like that, they would get my vote. But that doesn't mean all immigrants will vote Labour.

That DM link is funny, especially when Johnson put the son of a KGB agent in the HoL

That is not true. My student's Uncle did his medical degree over in UK then went back to Syria. He lived in the UK for 8 years and spoke perfect English as did his wife 2 X DD and nephew. He went back to Syria married and had his children there. He obviously didn't know they'd be invaded and bombed but once they were bombed he got his family out including his nephew. You just seem determined to argue no one can come to UK from Syria.

Which English language tests are accepted by the BMA and are they available to be taken in Afganistan or Syria?

I do find it interesting that a GCSE or A-level in English is not deemed to be good enough evidence of English ability for these visas.

So you do accept numbers will increase

In terms of where people will go not all here but generally northwards from increased heat and climate pressure

Neither have any of the people I have sailed with, strangely enough.

Please do describe these other acceptable ways and outline how they could be achieved in Afganistan or Syria.

So it will even more important to clear the asylum backlog, provide safe routes and sort out the Tory mess from the last 13 years.

32.6% of doctors in London are not UK trained. You may well ask why the government is not training and retaining enough UK doctors, but instead relies on going around the world taking them from other countries.