To think the RNLI are 100% in the right

[SanFranBear]

I've just seen this story on the BBC news homepage where the RNLI are being accused of acting as a taxi service for migrants trying to enter the UK on small boats from Europe.

www.bbc.co.uk/news/articles/c8dejyg4l37o

The organisation and volunteers quite rightly have responded to say they make no apologies for saving lives at sea and that their work has no political motivation.

Damn straight - one of the volunteers further down the article explains the profound impact he feels of encountering people struggling in our waters.

It makes me wonder what critics of the service expect them to do - just sail away, leaving the people to die? Pick them up and cross the channel to dump them back 'where they came from'?

What is wrong with them? Where is their compassion? Regardless of your thoughts on immigration, this is so cold and inhuman....

Good idea. Off to donate.

Trouble is some of the people arriving aren’t law abiding and it is a tinder box

That could be said for all parties though. In their manifesto Labour said they would "smash the gangs" and "Take back control of our borders". That hasn't happened. Small boat crossings are up by over 40% since Labour came to power.

We're paying the French even more millions, we've now got a Border Force Director or whatever his title is on a salary of over £100,000 a year, plus all the extra border staff that Starmer has employed and still Labour can't get a grip on the problem.

But apparently it's not Labour's fault it's the weather that's to blame!

Maybe they should have run on check the weather rather than smash the gangs.

A few weeks ago Labour hailed the 300m law change in France a ‘game changer’. It’s not. Crossings are still going up. The one in one out seems to have gone quiet but if we’re still on the weather as reasoning in three years then I’d say Labour will struggle.

Smashing the gangs is just words. You can smash one gang but another will immediately replace them.

Where did the OP say they want open borders?? Can you not understand nuance?!

I don’t support open borders and I believe immigration needs to be controlled more than it is and we should let thousands of undocumented migrants enter the country but I sure as hell don’t think they should be left to drown!! That’s inhumane!

Sorry for going quiet - real life has an annoying habit of getting in the way.

Some 'interesting' opinions here. I didn't realise the 'taxi' comment was from some years ago as only saw it yesterday but from people's comments about how fundraisers are routinely still being shouted at, its still relevant.

I agree with those pp's saying this country is in trouble but it's not from this unstoppable wave of undocumented criminals and hotel-wreckers - it's from a complete and utterly lack of compassion and care. Anyone who can start a sentence with 'I don't want them to drown but...' is really lacking something fundamental.

RNLI are not just a UK organisation

They do work internationally too

https://rnli.org/what-we-do/international

Not really anything to do with Labour, it's the measures introduced under the last administration that have affected the most recent figures.

Love it. Very Marie Antoinette.

When the UK's totally unsustainable fiscal situation comes to a head (greatly exacerbated but an unrelenting stream of liabilities and net receivers - up to 1000 per day arriving on our shores) we'll just tell the bond markets that we'll "pay you in compassion and care, OK hun?☺️".

As our society increasingly fragments and law and order continues to break down, just tell the more and more angry and disenfranchised electorate that we're still winning in "compassion and care".

Who wants a functioning society when you can have sanctimony, anyway?

Your evidence that we live in a cohesive society comes from the brains of TV executives. Smh.

A PP claimed that it was "🤯🙈"

https://rnli.org/support-us/give-money/donate

I don’t understand why there can’t be a law which states “if you arrive here illegally by boat, you automatically lose your right to apply for asylum”.

You can’t argue that you are fleeing for your life when you’ve crossed through many safe countries to get here. They come here because of the language, may have contacts here, and they get more benefits here than other countries. It’s a planned action, with money changing hands.

I think it’s really that simple. If you come here on an illegal boat, through the Chunnel or in a lorry, you lose your right to stay and you’ll be deported within 30 days.

Why are other countries not explaining themselves or tying themselves up in knots over this?

I’ve not read every post on this thread, but many of them seem to be completely irrelevant to the OPs question about the RNLI.

What do people actually expect the RNLI to do when they receive a callout from the Coastguard, other than what they currently do?

And beyond that, I don’t think I’ve seen any practical solutions for how to stop migrants getting into boats to try to cross the Channel. Afaik everyone in the U.K. would like to do that, whether simply because it’s unsafe or any combination of the other reasons.

That's apparently how the Government operates now too. Netflix dramas are treated as documentaries and drive policy. Maybe if we want action on the boats, we should be writing to their producers rather than MPs.

Wow.. I restrained from calling people racists and xenophobes given this thread was about the RNLI's approach to rescuing people in the sea as opposed to our immigration policy BUT hey, if the cap fits, hun...

Wow showing your true colours now aren’t you hun?

We give advice on UK beaches and generally people don't try to get from Wales to Ireland by dingy, or even from Southport to Blackpool by dingy. If people did then the sensible thing to do is stop them.

Boats should have appropriate risk assessments and survival equipment for handling emergencies.

Don't equate people going about lawful boat trips with those people being put on small boats by people smugglers.

If you want to save lives in the channel from people coming from France, stop the boats at the shore. That's the easy way.

Does France have the equivalent of RNLI to bring people back to their shores from their water? Is that criminal of the French if they don't?

Well yes obviously the best solution would be for those boats never to enter the water on the French side.

There’s precious little British politicians of any hue can do to make that happen. There might have been more we could have done had we still been in the EU but that boat too, regrettably, has sailed.

They are not entering illegally.

It’s interesting that I think one thing we are all in total agreement over is that the French should be doing more to prevent this, on safety/ humanitarian grounds if nothing else. But there is no real direct criticism of them for this. They aren’t accused of racism, failing in their duty of care, of not being ‘compassionate’. That they are letting thousands of people sail in this way is disgusting. But mumsnet don’t like to criticise the EU only the U.K.

The ‘problem’ with the RLNI isn’t that they are taxi’ing people or that they should let people drown (of course they shouldn’t). But they make the crossing ‘safer’ as people will know that they are likely to get rescued, meaning people are more likely to get on boats in the first place. This then creates more danger for people not less. So potentially the RNLI inadvertently cause people to take risks and put themselves in danger and more rescues. Economists call it ‘moral hazard’.

And this circus is stopping the U.K. being able to offer asylum to those who need it most.

I don't believe this. Remainers citing the EU as the bulwark against illegal immigration (which they largely condone) remind me of atheists citing the Bible when it's convenient.

All the southern European countries have this problem too, France has this problem, Ireland has this problem now. Look how well Vox is now doing in Spain. Look at recent events in Greece.

In fact, the only countries that seem to be able to effectively deal with it, are doing so in direct defiance of EU law.

Yes they are

Of course. I’m not sure how people are missing what is happening in the EU. How?