What's your thoughts on asylum seekers?

[Lynds778]

I'm all for offering asylum to those genuinely in need but I've seen a lot of negative media recently around 'fake' asylum seekers; people pretending to be from war-torn countries etc to gain entry to the country. Also videos of men giving advice for future asylum seekers on where to say you're from so that you can get in.

Also seen a lot of uproar from local communities about asylum seekers behaving anti-socially, most recently hanging around outside a primary school in Deanshanger and it's got me worried.
I'm also wondering why the large majority of asylum seekers are men and there are less women and children?

So, what's your opinion?

Also, this isn't a racist post. I would have the exact same concerns if these were white asylum seekers from Germany for example. The worry is the system is being abused by some and that we are a bit too lax when it comes to documentation and monitoring of asylum seekers.

www.dailymail.co.uk/news/article-14058597/Fake-asylum-seekers-conning-way-Britain-telling-Home-Office-war-torn-Eritrea-bragging-thousands-followers-TikTok.html

www.dailymail.co.uk/news/article-14185169/amp/Four-asylum-seekers-costing-taxpayer-estimated-160-000-year-living-575-000-luxury-home-accused-faking-Afghan-nationalities-UK.html

That is from 2019. The last para of the article says:

“The big question is what happens next to the EU-Turkey statement,” the Greek civil protection minister, Michalis Chrysochoidis, said referring to the expiration of the EU deal at the end of the year.

“Right now nobody knows what will happen.”

So what did happen? Was the deal renewed?

cardibach
I’m not sure something that happened so long ago is really relevant

I'm not sure why you copied my whole post to tell me that.

As said earlier most people coming by any means want to contribute to our system and work. They see the possibility of a better life here for their families. Same reason the U.S. southern border is overwhelmed. The trick is to have policies that strike the right balance of successfully drawing on these economic contributors or being overwhelmed by their numbers on the infrastructure and the bureaucracy around processing them.

The majority of immigration to the UK is legal. The Government could shut it down, but the social care, hospitality and university sectors would be screaming. We could solve the small boats problem by a processing centre in Calais (the Fench will help as they are also fed up of the situation). Overseas criminals can be deported.

What we don't have in this country is a sane debate about migration. I would rather see a refugee processed quickly, so they can work legally and pay tax than disappear into the underground economy. If we decide we don't want people here on visa's, we need to accept the trade-off. Our population would decline, certain sectors would fall over and the dependency ratio (number of working people per pensioner) dwindle.

And we would still have people trafficking.

For me, the problem is I don't feel I have a reliable source of information to tell me exactly how asylum is being managed, the exact numbers, the demographics of each group and so much more. We just don't have all the facts and the DM is gutter press so I don't trust any of that.

I think how terrifying it must be living in certain countries. I hate thinking people are trapped in horrific places.
I think about the resources we have and think it's unmanageable if the numbers I read about entering are true. How many of these will pull resources and to what extent.
How many help prop up our services such as the NHS.
How many are stopping in other countries before UK and why not stay there.

There are so many unanswered questions for me to have a strong position.

DearDarcy

how have asylum seeks affected your life directly in the last 3 years?

Because it’s the quickest way (and becoming a convention on here)?
Not sure why you bothered with a whole post to tell me you don’t like my posting style is it because you know your point was a bit silly?

They hadn't had long enough to get a proper base of candidates and a proper policy platform, Farage had only been there 5 minutes when the election was called. They were more targeting specific seats like Farage/Rupert Lowe/Tice and Lee Anderson's ones which they won.

They won 15% of the vote which combined with the Tory vote was just under half the electorate.

Also, I think Southport was a seminal moment, and with the riots that followed, and that was just after the election. Then Trump wins in America. Plus people gave Labour the benefit of the doubt and they're polling abysmally now. The Overton window has shifted massively since July.

So just over half the electorate dont want the right wing, particularly the further right segments? Great.

Edit: you’re exaggerating. I’ve added it up it’s a combined 38%, so nowhere near half.

Please tell, what are Reform's policies regarding asylum seekers?

Opposition politician still criticising the EU-Turkey deal in 2024;

https://www.infomigrants.net/fr/post/57955/turkish-opposition-leader-blasts-deal-with-eu

As I added at the end, I think the Overton window has shifted significantly since June for various reasons. Not least just how bad Labour have been. People just wanted the Tories out last June.

@Tittat50 one of the problems is that the government isn't interested in publishing that data. The bits that come out are usually from motivated journalists and think tank type people who file FOIs and then write articles supporting their position (applies to both sides of the debate).

So just over half the electorate dont want the right wing, particularly the further right segments? Great.

In June. I think most can see a shift since then.

I think the problem may be that there are many many more people from war torn countries that could use asylum than we can find enough money / housing / health care / etc etc for. It’s nice to be nice, but it isn’t very practical to think that importing everybody who has a shit life is a good solution to global problems. Every time I hear any thing about Afghanistan I want to offer all the women in that country asylum but there are 14.2 million of them and it is much more utilitarian to support various cultural boycotts of Afghanistan until they walk back the misogyny. Some people like their own countries, you know; you get to love the countryside and scenery and customs you grow up with. And brain draining the developing world isn’t very fair, either.

The official line is dump them in France. The unofficial line is take pot shots at them from Dover.

I don’t the you know what the Overton window is based on this comment.
Yes, people wanted Tories out enough to tactically vote for MPs they didn’t even want really. That’s not a big positive for the Tories.

In June it was 38%. Not ‘nearly half’. I checked.
And it’s irrelevant now until next election. If a week is a long time in politics, 4 and a half years is an eternity.

With a 'throw heart' gesture?

If a week is a long time in politics, 4 and a half years is an eternity.

Absolutely. And an eternity is enough to shift opinion further, even more so as other countries tighten borders and we become the outlier.

Well if it has shifted so much in less than 8 months, there is plenty of time (4 years) for it to shift back again.

I believe so. "Lot's of love." As they reload.

Thankyou! I didn't understand why this was so difficult to find out. I only see quite alarmist stories on certain news channels.

So transparency on some level would help ( if they can measure effectively). Or if they actually want to.

Or shift it back as things look up. Outlier in what way? I’m not aware of any proposals to loosen borders

It was BBC! Which are predominately ‘left’

Surprised they didn’t fiddle the numbers but the numbers don’t lie. It was also on GB news.

Not sure if this link will work but it’s the clip of it being announced on the Sunday Morning Show