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?

We'd do anything we could to get all the young men out.

If the 'boats' were full of women and children I might feel differently.

The majority of the boats are full of men in their 20s.

I do not want these men here.

That, accommodation, free medical care, schools, work cash in hand, the possibility to bring their family later on.

Benefits once they have their immigration status sorted.

It's a draw when you have none of this in your home land and when you've been promised everything.

We can't stop the boats. We should deal with the arrivals in a more efficient manner.

How do we stop them flooding this country and sucking it dry

easy

stop making them welcome, stop housing/feeding and throwing open our doors to them

Tory Conference is that way OP, be quick, it'll be over soon due to low attendance and general lack of interest 👋

Read @Bgfe post on this the numbers were tiny under the Dublin agreement

The set up will change but it is not the reason now

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.

Yes, they do but they aren't as accepting as the NHS.

To those claiming the boats are full of young single men, why am I constantly seeing articles about women and children dying on these boats?

I'm not suggesting that we don't "do our share" but haven't we done just that already?
Are we really receiving the men who are fleeing war torn countries?
I guess a small percentage but as others have said these are the men who would naturally bring their wives and families with them.
I genuinely do not know what the answers are to stop them arriving illegally but perhaps make the process less appealing and make it clear that they will have to contribute to society if they want access to the NHS, which poses another dilemma as that is on its knees.
GB is an island and a tiny one at that so how much longer can we increase the population before it no longer works?
I'm fed up of people harping on about colonial history, it's in the past, we are not responsible for what our people did and whilst we can apologise on their behalf, we can't fix it and need to move on.
The reason so called middle class people are not having larger families is because they don't want to bring them up in a country that's no longer recognisable, that has a corrupt government and many are looking elsewhere to other countries for a better life.

Stop the unlicensed taxi and delivery trade. Crack down on unlicensed takeaways.

No more hotels. Asylum centres run by the army.

..,because they leave from another country (France), and we can’t storm their beaches, and start popping boats.

Exactly this. We are relying on France to stop the boats leaving, and the French have no incentive to do so.

Yes, and making their lives more bearable back home so they don’t have to move.

They're not arriving illegally. It's perfectly legal to turn up at a country and claim asylum. It's illegal to stay if their claim is rejected.
Most asylum seekers go to countries nearer to their home country. Of the minority who come to Europe only about 10% try to come to the UK.
Asylum seekers are not allowed to work but once they have asylum granted they can work and contribute to society. Immigrants are far less likely to be on benefits than the native British people.
You say British people are looking to other countries for a better life. So it's OK for Brits to move abroad for a better life, but not anyone else?
I live in a very diverse area. I don't feel my country is unrecognisable at all. It still feels very British to me. I personally feel diversity is a strength of my local community. People from all communities get on well and integrate. I love the fact my children know people from all over the world at their school. They friends who are Jewish, Christian, Muslim, Buddhist, atheist. They are growing up with a good understanding of other cultures. I genuinely wouldn't want to move to a less diverse area.

Essentially it's down to ego and money. If we leave the ECHR our economy will tank because it's a prerequisite of all of our EU trade deals and about 75% of our other European trade deals. So it's far cheaper to do what we can to restrict the crossings. Secondly no PM will stand up and say that we will leave all the protections of the ECHR. Turkey has many ECHR rulings against them but doesn't care. Because their PM has less of a place on the international stage. We can't force asylum seekers to leave we can only encourage them, which we do all the time. Many who come to the UK end up going onto other countries with 3-20k in their pocket.

Well they don’t earn it they are given it along with housing etc If you live somewhere that you are earning less than a dollar a day in challenging conditions then it’s comparatively better?

Im not sure people really understand the conditions that many migrants have been surviving. It’s not really surprising that people are willing to roll the dice for a chance of a better life. I do think that colonialism has a lot to answer for. By disrupting the way a society governed it just seems to leave a void after independence to be filled with corrupt politicians or military despots in the main.

How constantly?

it’s happened once or twice out of thousands arrivals.

Top 5 countries they were from in 2024. Afghanistan. We directly created the mess with the US. Iran. We created a lot of the problem along with the US. Vietnam, US created the mess. Turkey, not really our problem but US ran many opperations to destabalize. Syria, yep we droned and bombed them with the US. How many of these countries have had massive US involvement? All of them. Perhaps we should have a good old think about who we sleep with. Also, in reality these asylum seekers aren't a strain on the NHS, the legal migrants are, which is categorically a budget issue, where the government's do not increase funding pro rata to the population.

How is it we've been having this same discussion for almost a decade now and people still don't know the difference between an asylum seeker and an illegal migrant, or that politicians of a certain persuasion don't want to stop the boats as it's a very useful political football?

Illegal migrants also tend not to make asylum claims as it puts them in the line of sight of the authorities, they also don't tend to arrive by boat, with the majority of illegal migrants being visa over stayers anyway.

As others have said, if we'd just set up safe routes and process claims quickly and robustly you'd stop the boats pretty much overnight. But that wouldn't stop illegal migration or put a dent in overall migration figures either.

France already offered this solution but the UK government turned it down, if this was in place those on boats could legitimately be returned to France as that is where processing is done, this is a much more humane system than the one that exists atm where people have to actually set foot in the UK to claim asylum. There were safe routes in place before but the Tories got rid of them obviously a deliberate and cruel act using human beings as political pawns

Women and children are often in the boats, haven't you read the reports? But they're more likely to die on the crossings so usually men come first and then bring their families if they manage to get established. I was reading about this yesterday.
Also men in their 20s are exactly the sort of people we need to fill the gaps in our labour market. Young, healthy men of working age are far more use to us than elderly people for example. They will contribute to society and pay taxes. Immigrants are far less likely to claim benefits than British people. They want to work. They have to claim the small amount of benefits when being processed because they're not allowed to work. That's a government decision.

The only way to stop the boats would be a returns agreement in France. For that we would need to agree to take at least as many through a safe and legal method. But the politicians will never agree to a strategy which would work, but would be condemned as "giving in" by Farage et al. So desperate people will continue to die

So much wrong with this but that last paragraph takes the cake. The falling birth rate has absolutely nothing to do with migration or changing culture.

Anyone with the mindset of "I don't like what migration has (supposedly) done to my country so I'm going to become a migrant myself" needs to get in the bin.

I have no issue with turning away economic migrants.

However, I simply do not have the answers for asylum seekers. When you read firsthand accounts of what they have been through, it feels impossible to deny them a safe home. I think the thing people forget is that most asylum seekers would love to live happily and safely in their own countries. They like their home countries, the food, the music, the weather etc. They don’t want to leave all their familiar surroundings and extended family at home. However, many are desperate to save the lives of their children and take them away from danger. Would not all of us do the same?

I have worked with asylum seekers and when I have got home, I have felt so depressed about the injustice in the world and the cruelty that man inflicts on others.

And I believe we do treat asylum seekers better than many European countries, including France and Greece. Is that something to be ashamed of or proud of?

It is simply luck that we were born here. Any of us could have been born in Syria or Afghanistan and be leading an entirely different life.

i cannot imagine what those boat journeys are like. From what I have read, it’s pure hell.

As I said, I do not have any answers. But talking about asylum seekers like they are an alien species really makes me sick.

Ironically it is often those who don’t pay tax who get all exercised about asylum seekers claiming benefits and being housed…

Could someone claiming that the majority of asylum seekers are really economic migrants provide a reputable source for this claim? And I don’t mean the tabloid press

TIA

The stats on how many are male are there, it is the higher proportion

As for why the deaths are more likely to be women and children that’s another mark against this method they will be more vulnerable for obvious reasons

Look at what happens on passage from country of origin or at sea especially near Italy coast

Who sells the boats?