Stopping the boats.

[Scenicgirl]

Honest question.
When Rishi Sunak announced the promise to tackle Channel migrant crossings as one of his five key pledges at the beginning of 2023, and subsequently failed and Keir Starmer appearing not to be concerned about the numbers arriving daily, when other EU countries have taken a much sterner stance sending a clear message, why can't we stop/pause the boats?

Also, we actually need these immigrants to do all sorts of jobs we Brits are unwilling to do. We need young people, as we're not breeding enough.

This statement is bad.

In all kinds of ways

It's super-racist and super-lazy.

And it doesn't work.

You just keep bringing people in in a pyramid scheme. Whilst having a cohort that is benefit fat.

C'mon.

Honestly, Brexit wasn't racist.

That's lazy thinking.

We need to separate out genuine asylum seekers and economic migrants.
The boats are full of single, young men looking for a better life. Very few women and children are on the boats. I would like to see an asylum system where men, women and children in genuine need do not have to risk their lives paying people smugglers to come here. I'm not sure what that would be, but it's seems wrong that we have to house everyone that comes on the boats - we don't know who they are, if they are criminals, in genuine need or are economic migrants. If there was a 'safe' asylum route where we could pre-screen applicants before their arrival, the need to risk your life coming over the channel is removed. For me the answer is in setting up 'safe' routes but I don't know how that would work in reality!

@HelenHen to everyone who would like to do this?

Have you given any thought to how many that would be?

Also, we actually need these immigrants to do all sorts of jobs we Brits are unwilling to do

You mean jobs that don’t pay? So we can keep salaries low? And increase poverty or reliance on state welfare?

I work in housing and deal with lots of asylum seekers. They tell me they come here for the benefits and housing and once they get those they bring over their families. Sometimes, I doubt whether the family members are related but they don't have ID like we do.

The numbers arriving in boats is nothing compared to the numbers of people that the Tory government allowed in via official immigration routes...about 750k net migration a year. Imo I think they focused on the boats so the general public would ignore the huge amounts of legal migration that they allowed

Also, we actually need these immigrants to do all sorts of jobs we Brits are unwilling to do.

This ensures that everyone doing these jobs remains on an artificially low wage with no chance of being fairly compensated for hard and vital work. Anyone who thinks about this ponzi scheme in terms of a few decades realises that it is unsustainable, at least if we want a vaguely good quality of life (above that of a battery chicken) for the poorest in our society.

We need young people, as we're not breeding enough.

Awful statement (shockingly similar to shit spouted by far right nutjobs and extremist islamists alike).

And perhaps that is a good thing. It can't be a coincidence that as a country becomes more 'civilised' (women's rights, education for all and lgb acceptance) that the birth rate goes down naturally. Why do you think that is?

With the AI revolution fast approaching, we will need less and less people. We could have been approaching a utopia.

Now it will most likely be a hell hole. We are going to be looking at the battery chickens with envy.

Do you think people won’t care about the boats if legal migration falls?

I think a lot of the people who have been affected by migration have been so because of legal migration.

The sheer numbers are what is causing the infrastructure and social problems.

The 'boats' are a pittance compared to that, but a an easily visible symbol of the 'laxity' many percieve the UK's border control to be.

Borders are important. They are the reason that there are safe countries for people to even flee to.

I don’t think this issue will go away if legal migration falls and the numbers crossing the Channel or fatalities trying keep rising

Some may care more about legal migration numbers as pp might but that’s not consistent for everyone

I think if the government had stopped trying to whip the public up into a frenzy over the issue, people would have cared less....the debate became really bizarre imo with the narrative hinting that our huge immigration numbers were down solely to people arriving on boats. It was utter nonsense.

I wonder how you actually physically stop them, any ideas?

It might come as a surprise to you but a fair percentage of the world is at war and in a lot of cases as a result of western foreign policy.

The countries closest to the conflicts take the brunt, Europe does their share, they have to.

Let's hear your suggestions, which do do include Rwanda (which was always a bloody stupid suggestion as is Albania).

PS and as others have said it's people who come legally (as a result of colonial history,) which is where the problems lie.

It doesn’t matter imo you only need 800 in one day and fatalities, both of which are happening, for people to not want it

The only way you’d get everyone not caring would be to suppress figures and headlines plus images

You can’t do that and you’ll find many other countries shifting on this without the same gov - look at the EU

I think you misunderstand me... obviously it's understandable that people wouldn't want it...but in terms of the immigration debate overall, it's really not particularly significant in terms of numbers. 2023...legal net migration was nearly 700k....numbers arriving in boats was just short of 30k. It was a great thing for the government to focus on to detract from their own policies.

Let's just remember the number of people we are talking about here.
In the year to June 2024, approximately 31,000 people arrived in the Uk in a small boat.
Immigration from small boats is not an issue that needs this level of debate, it is a political soundbite to win votes.
Of course it is a dreadful situation and needs to be stopped for the sake of the poor people risking everything to come here, but we'd do well to realise that stopping them getting here won't immediately make life wonderful for the 'natives' (as a PP mentioned)

I have a feeling people noticed the 750k it likely helped them leave gov

Now they are out that Channel method of arrival is still an issue for many

You don't want them housed them in London but place them in a poor town to make the area even less desirable for the people already living there trying to improve the area.
You do realise that a lot of young people can only afford to buy a house in poorer locations so I don't understand why that should be a solution?

The boats will stop overnight if we set up an asylum processing centre in France so that the people don’t have to get on a boat to reach UK land. But no one will do that as it would increase immigration figures if the deterrent of a boat was removed.

How do you set it up in another country ?

What's going to happen when they need medical treatment then? You can't have people dying in the streets? And unmedicated people sharing rooms is a recipe for disaster.

£37 a week and a room somewhere (yes sometimes shared) is not much more generous than what you are describing.

People don't come to the UK to exploit the NHS in particular. It is not the envy of the world. Other countries have health systems. But depriving any part of the population of medical care is dangerous.

French are happy to collaborate on this - they've offered.

You’d be overwhelmed and if you cannot meet demand there’s no reason traffickers wouldn’t offer the same crossing

Because "stop the boats" type campaigns are designed to appeal to the masses, basically for votes. They never have any real substance on how to do that.
What we should have done is stay in the EU and work together to implement a fair quota system for each EU country and processing system for getting people safely across Europe.
The people crossing the channel in boats are not illegal and make up a tiny proportion of migrants to the UK.
They are also fleeing from war and are desperate, and if any of us were in that position we would do anything we could to get our children out of that too.
Call me a leftie liberal all you want, whatever, but I think we have a moral obligation to help people who weren't luckily born in a rich stable country like the UK (and yes we are rich!)

We stopped them coming to Australia by becoming shamefully cruel. Offshore detention for years & settling them in developing countries, 'no one who arrives by boat will be settled in Australia'.

Distasteful, but what happens is traffickers charge tens of thousands to put people - including children - into leaky, dangerous, overcrowded boats to skip the queue. There's other roads to asylum. This just used to be an easy way in to the country. Hopefully those waiting patiently will get those spots!

We lost the EU protection and return scheme with Brexit. The current situation is a result of the UK being responsible for its' borders and a lack of cohesive immigration and asylum policy.

There is nothing wrong with controlled, legal migration, but currently the UK is failing on all counts in this regard.