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....

Reform wanted people left to drown when they were proposing their mad plan of a floating wall / barrier in the Channel.

They said it would to be built without anything those in the water could hold on to and staff were to be told they must not rescue anybody.

Imagine the sort of staff who would apply for a job of smugly watching people drown.

People voting for them need to reflect on their choice of leader.

I’m a legal immigrant. Refugees and asylum seekers are also legal.

i didn’t say you did? I asked you a question based on your response?

Are you declining to answer?

Why does Farage’s stupid comment from 4 years ago keep getting dredged up to feed the X accounts of total bone heads?

These days the majority of small boats are picked up by border force very shortly after arriving in British waters. The migrants are told to call them as soon as they make it into Uk waters.

Of course the RNLI should (and do) rescue anyone in trouble on the water.

I hope the publicity really does result in more donations.

I watched from the beach as they rescued some kayakers recently.

Wouldn’t it have been tragic if they had not been able to launch because stupid ‘taxi’ comments meant they didn’t have the money.

Are you declining to answer me??? Utter hypocrisy.

No, I don't think anyone should be left to drown, but I am able to comprehend that there's a limit to how many people the RNLI can rescue, and the whole situation is starting to overwhelm them.

No one puts their child on a dinghy unless the water is safer than the land they are leaving.

Not if they enter the country illegally... they are criminals. No countries allows people to enter their country illegally, it is why they have laws around it and why those breaking those laws are criminals. Honestly this is why the country is in a mess, we are allowing people in who then justify those entering illegally... absolutely zero respect for the rule of law.
It's too late to maintain standards in this country, it is a free for all.

You're saying that France is unsafe?

I am pro legal migration, but my view is that the boat situation cannot continue. I would much rather support the most vulnerable who don't have tens of thousands to pay people smugglers/aren't physically able.

However, it is not the RNLI's role to pick and choose who to rescue.

I agree which is why I don't think the OP is being unreasonable. The RNLI is mopping up after decades of government negligence and political reluctance to actually solve the problem. There aren't enough resources to go round and on some days difficult choices will have to be made about who is rescued by officials. It can't go on.

I don't think it would be an acceptable situation if an ambulance couldn't get to a serious, life-threatening situation and called in kind passers-by without proper training or equipment to volunteer to help instead.

This gets so tiresome to read doesn’t it. Any local Facebook page discussing anything from new houses, to signs of work at an abandoned business, a new hotel or development etc. you just get brainless idiots commenting “it’s for the boat people!”

France. They are leaving FRANCE. I mean the French can be annoying, but in all the time I've spent there, they've never made me feel particularly unsafe.

Go to your local Tesco and take a few bottles wine without paying, then report back how the law wasn’t enforced.

It's a really hard situation.

I totally see where the RNLI are coming from, they are a charity which rescues people at sea and this is exactly what they are doing. Saving lives.

However the real issue here is the organised criminals who are running the "taxi" boats for migrants and charging them huge sums of money for their trip. Being able to use the RNLI in their sales pitch - don't worry if anything goes wrong they'll pick you up - just means they will keep sending off boats which are dangerously overloaded and people will die if the RNLI don't get there quickly enough.

There needs to be a better way of stopping the boats leaving France. And not the shitty 50 people sent back a week which is deterring nobody. What that better way is though - not sure.

These rescues make up 1% of their callouts... just over 100 vs the 11,000 annual volume.

Small boat crossings are a big problem, leaving the people to die is not the answer. The RNLI are an amazing charity.

That’s not quite what is happening though is it?

I live by the sea. It’s common for other vessels to respond to less emergent incidents while the lifeboats are taking care of life threatening situations. It’s the same as there being a mass casualty event, and the paramedics assisting life threatening injuries while those trained in first aid help the walking wounded.

Where do you think the 700,000+ new arrivals (legal and illegal) every year live? I am curious as a Labour supporter I was talking to the other night told me that immigrants do not take up housing. I am curious why those welcoming of such numnbers think they all actually live?

We don't have 'open borders'.

We do, however, have a problem with a lack of compassion and basic human decency in some quarters in this country.

Acknowledging that there is a problem is one thing. Leaving people to drown is another thing entirely. That is what this thread is about.

Ok, so you’ve answered the original OP at least.

You agree the RNLI are 100% right to save drowning people, no matter their colour, political status, age etc?

Because you honestly sounded like you think they should stop, based on them being “in small boats”.

Me, I would assume that they save everyone they can, without judgement or political decision.

If it becomes overwhelming, they may go on a recruitment drive, which I believe they do regularly.

There was a story in my local paper last week about a £15m mansion being put up for sale, the most expensive home in our region. Within hours the comments section was full of people saying it would be converted to accommodation for 'boat people'.

It's an obsession for these people.

I have lots of respect for independent organisations like RNLI and Médecins Sans Frontières.

Once again for the hard of thinking at the back: It is not illegal to come to the UK in a small boat.

Yes but people aren't crossing in small boats from Norway in November are they? In some areas in the south coast especially Kent is where the crossings are all concentrated and they often happen all at once on "red" good weather days especially in summer (the gov tracks them as such). So the pressure is on certain services and may be tiny overall but makes up a huge proportion of the workload on certain days in certain areas pushing the service beyond it's limits and endangering everyone.