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.

Isn’t the issue there that our quality of life isn’t high enough and that we should demand more of politicians on healthcare and cost of living - so we pull everyone up not drag everyone down?

also, I don’t think they get free gym membership - what’s the source of that?

The EU have their own migration issues across the Med.

There’s no reason they’ll help us out, or would have done, in fact the latest proposal seems to be we’ll help relieve the EU burden instead

I don't know whether to laugh or cry.

Last week I spent hours trying to get emergency dental treatment for an asylum seeker. He was in agony from a broken and apparently infected tooth. I could find nowhere that would see him. I researched every dentist that he had any chance of getting to, and no-one could see him.

As for the free gym....words fail me. You really do need to be more discriminating about your news sources.

I am bothered by the phrase ‘small boats’ and how it is being used as a right-wing dog whistle. I am bothered that we are turning inwards as a country and failing to keep up our international responsibilities, a position that has brought us many benefits over the years. We are already very sidelined in international arenas following Brexit. Most of all I’m bothered by the lack of humanity shown and the lack of understanding of the issue. Safe and legal routes, you say? Show them to me, there aren’t any. If there were, people wouldn’t risk their lives on a journey like this. Staying in the first safe country? So, there will be huge refugee camps on borders, absolutely burdening and crippling those countries? Not going to work, not realistic. The world is a complex place, protectionism never bore any great fruit, and we are one people with many more difficult problems to sort out than this. If we fail at shit like this, there’s literally no chance we can solve climate change.

Some are highly qualified eg doctors, dentists, social workers, engineers

We have work visas, why do they choose the harder process?

The occupants of the small boats are not families fleeing war zones. They have crossed several safe European countries to get to the Channel. They are ecomonic migrants,predominantly male.
The boats,and their occupants,should be sent back to France ( after due health checks a d any emergency assistance required) and energy expended on finding and stopping the traffickers.

So that’s 0.068% of the UK population per annum, then?

The majority of them do stay in France.

And what would your opinion be about these people if you were French? If the UK was where the logjam of migrants was stuck, would you be happy with a neighbouring country refusing to help take some of them?

It bothers me. Main reasons are a security risk, we don’t know who these people are, the costs associated with it and the lack of infrastructure to support the local communities. I live near a migrant hotel and understand some of the issues first hand this situation is causing.

Im not against immigration but I want controlled, planned for migration where we can import the skills we need and give chances to genuine asylum claimants which I’m not sure a lot of the people coming across are. Also an investment in infrastructure so housing, schools etc

I’m worried about it in the context of climate change as when it gets worse, the flood of desperate people seeking temperate countries will impact both on resources/survival and our wildlife and few remaining wild spaces.

I want to help those who need it but it needs to be managed and done properly by a global joint effort, not through illegal/dangerous channels.

Sorry, quote fail 🤦‍♀️

0.068% of the UK population arriving on small boats per year. No I’m not bothered about whether we can absorb a tiny tiny percentage increase of out population. Yes I am utterly horrified that people are drowning in the Channel, and would vote for anyone who provides them a safe legal route for having their asylum claim processed instead.

I’m happy to welcome as many people as needed into the country, I just wish there was a safer more humane route provided for them.

The boats would stop instantly if people could apply for asylum from abroad.

We already accept 500,000 immigrants each year who apply to live here. It's not as though we don't accept immigration. We shouldn't accept applications from people who put children's lives at risk by putting them on these perilous channel crossings which profit people smugglers. Any parent who is in France has no need to risk their child's life. France is a safe country so I think all people who enter our country this way should be sent straight back on a boat. Once they understood they would just be sent straight back they would stop the risking crossings and just apply normally.

I'm bothered that in the 21st century people have such bad lives elsewhere they feel the need to risk their lives in these tiny boats.

That's what the real problem is, why are they doing this, solve that you solve the people smuggling!

Ok it's not simplistic but proper work permit systems in place for those who wish to come to the U.K. to work in sectors we need staff in would be a starting point - set up an office in Calais with work offered, permits within a short time and employer sorts onward safe travel

14% of the British population was born abroad and a fraction of those are asylum seekers and another fraction of those arrive in boats. It is £35 per week for asylum seekers and a bed in a hostel. Definitely not luxury. We get far fewer asylum-seekers than the rest of Europe - we have 225,000 which is much less than France or Germany. The money spent on asylum seekers makes up 0.5% of our GNI. Entering the UK to claim asylum is not illegal and they don't have to claim asylum in the first country they get to. The reason why they come to the UK is most often because they have familial ties or because they already speak English. There is no safe and legal route to claim asylum in the UK from abroad - you have to be in the country first. https://worldpopulationreview.com/country-rankings/refugees-by-country

And I am sorry, our island is not overcrowded or overpopulated - rural areas make up 90% of England, while they make up 98% of Scotland.

The housing crisis is not caused by asylum seekers. It is caused by the housing bubble keeping prices artificially high. The NHS crisis is not caused by asylum seekers. It is caused by a combination of an aging population causing more demand, privatisation and deliberate underfunding. The poverty crisis is not caused by asylum-seekers, it is caused by jobs not paying enough to live on.

If you're worried how much it costs us tax-payers to keep asylum-seekers here, can you imagine how much it costs to put them on a plane to Rwanda and pay their government to look after them?

The whole thing is dog-whistling by the government; knowing full-well than no-one is going to fact-check to see if it's actually true or not.

It worries me that most of them seem to be young men in their twenties from countries with a questionable view of women. At that age they are not likely to be future doctors etc. the criminal gangs running the boats are also likely to be involved in trades like drug smuggling as well as human trafficking and I want them broken up.

As a rich country, and one whose actions have directly affected some of the countries people are coming from, we have a duty to accept some asylum seekers. But we should be able to choose how many and where from. I'd like to see:

• legal routes for a set number of people each year, and to ensure that this is gender and age balanced as well
• asylum seekers allowed to work in shortage occupations while awaiting a decision
• anyone who arrives illegally refused asylum and banned from coming to Britain again
• specific countries like Afghanistan prioritised (and none of this nonsense of Albanians being able to claim asylum)

Eastern standard
We have work visas, why do they choose the harder process?

because they are fleeing danger. The government could allow processing from other countries but they don’t.

We CAN look after our own. The Government is making choices NOT to. Billions wasted on shitty contracts over Covid.

Also - asylum seekers are potential tax payers. They can have positive economic benefit. Again, the government is choosing to have them ‘drain resources’ by not allowing them to work and cutting the immigration system to the bone so that it takes ages to process claims.

If they were allowed to work, many would be off benefits very quickly. You don’t make a dangerous journey of thousands of miles, including risking your life in a small boat on the worlds busiest shipping channel, leaving everything and everyone you know, to be paid £47 a week and live in a shitty overcrowded hotel or on an old, overcrowded, legionnaire ridden boat.

I want the boats stopped, but not the people.

I want safe and efficient ways for individuals to claim asylum in the country.

Likely the best way for this would be to work with France (and other European countries) to put in systems to claim asylum from elsewhere, backed up by a fit for purpose claims system that worked quickly supporting those with genuine cases (the vast majority) and rejecting those with bogus claims. Closer working with EU countries would mean those individuals could be returned.

I want asylum seekers to be able to work, support themselves and contribute to society, as the vast majority of those I’ve had the pleasure to work with want to do.

I want the Tory party to stop manufacturing this ‘crisis’ as a means to distract people from the abject failure of the past 13 years so people realise the government is the reason why they cannot get dental treatment or a GP appointment, not the desperate family seeking compassion and opportunity. I want the UK to set up to its international obligations, show compassion and get out of the downward spiral the Tories have inflicted on us all.

Not sure which poll option that is, but that’s what I want!

Free gym membership? Hahahahaha. Give me three guesses what your favourite newspaper is!

Anyway, the only reason we're spending millions housing "these people" is that we're processing far fewer applications than we used to so the backlog's gone up, and until people's applications are processed we have to house them because they're not allowed to work.

I seem to recall that once asylum is granted and they are allowed to work, "these people" on average contribute more economically than the average person born in the UK, and are significantly more likely to be net contributors.

@EEasternStandard sorry I didn't explain myself very well- alot of the seekers I work with have already tried to claim in EU countries before coming to the UK. Home office need to speak to the EU countries to make sure all information is aligned. That's why we still need EU help

My concern is only for the high level of danger these people are exposed to. We should welcome them in and help them to find jobs - there is a massive labour shortage at the moment, so refugees/asylum seekers/migrants could really help.

I can tell you now as a friend is from Calais, no one wants them there and she’s told when she goes home from London to avoid the camp area as it’s unsafe.

Go further down to SW France where parents holiday home is and you have African migrants in eg Bordeaux and most people in the countryside near parents holiday home blame immigrants for burglaries automatically.

I feel sorry for the asylum seekers/economic migrants staying in the hotel near where I live (mostly young men but appears to be families too). Economic migrants not sure if it’s being handled the correct way but people smugglers are absolute scum.

They get to France first though? The smugglers set them up on the French coast

If you’re a ready to work Dr with a few thousand to pay a smuggler it’s about the same price as a work visa

The whole thing is a broken mess and it is a factor in why I’m emigrating.