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....

I have given to this charity in the past but wouldn't now. They are facilitating illegal immigration.

According to Reform's position in the polls, you are in the minority.

Except that you are wrong.

The point being, as you well know, that France is a safe country. No one needs to make that crossing.

Yes there should be legal routes and we should take our share of asylum seekers, but just because our Government and the Governments of other countries haven't got a clue what to do about this situation, doesn't mean that we should shrug our shoulders, or maybe it doesn't bother you.

Please do show me the “polls”? I haven’t voted myself in those “polls”, who has and when and how?

I always thought it wasn't RNLI who decided who to rescue and that it is in fact the Coastguard who has deemed every single migrant boat is in peril whether or not they actually are. If this is the case then I don't understand the RNLI hate they seem to get. I might be wrong and RNLI might be full independant.

You also know that France being a safe country has nothing to do with their right to seek asylum in the UK, which they can only claim on UK soil.

Aside from your silly childish insults designed to stifle debate you are completely wrong:

https://fullfact.org/immigration/refugees-first-safe-country/

"... there is some UK domestic law which allows the government to refuse to consider an asylum application if it is judged that the person could have claimed asylum elsewhere. Refugees who arrive in the UK after passing through another EU country can, under certain circumstances, also be returned to the first EU country they entered, under an EU law known as the Dublin Regulation."

So yes most illegals can and should be returned to France.

No they're not. They're saving lives. Maybe one day they'll save your life or that of someone you love.

They're literally doing their job.

The twats who criticise them for it are showing themselves for what they are - people who would be happy to let others drown at sea because they are brown.

Fuck them, their racism and their skewed view of our country.

I actually have. If you sign up to YouGov or similar you can too.

I certainly haven't voted the way @Phobiaphobic seems to think 'the majority' have. Indeed current polling suggests that the Corbyn/Sultana party would be on course for a landslide if there were an election tomorrow.

The "legality" is what made it possible and so dangerous, being inaccurate about history is not helpful in this discussion. I think colonialism is morally reprehensible but comparing it in any way to small boat crossing now is absolutely absurd. It required organised financial and loaning institutions, religion, using legal mechanisms, all the rest of it. You are also wrong about the scale of migration.

And now you want some bizarre revenge fantasy to be acted out against ordinary British people who haven't colonised anywhere because they have inherited sin from over 100 years ago which most ordinary people had no part in deciding.

But that’s only by people who have cast a vote. They’re angry people who what to think they’re true majority, to say “told you so”.

The rest of us are just sitting back, waiting for a proper vote.

My view is very much that small boats and people smuggling is a huge problem. However it is not RNLIs problem and it is worth looking at some of the facts. I am a member of the RNLI so receive their publications that give the number of launches by station and there is a lot less activity in the eastern channel than certain areas of the media would like you to believe. There is also an increased investment in equipment for lifeboat crews to deal with expected mass casualty events in the water. And investment in counselling to support crews with what they witness (and those crews are volunteers). The crews have a very strong ethical commitment to going to sea to save lives, whoever that person is and however they got there. I am incredibly proud to support them and think they represent the best of us.

Interestingly, if you look at some of the RNLI archive material, the headlines were very similar during WW2 when they went to sea to rescue downed Luftwaffe pilots.

Will that prompt a donation, or still not worthy?

I wondered what the news was for the BBC to run the same comment from years ago, and why a volunteer was speaking this morning. It’s to promote a programme going to air.

The person spoke about their experience with emotive impact, they are committed to volunteering and it’s not really their remit to work out what to do with the chaotic and dangerous system we have. That’s for politicians to resolve based on voters’ mandate.

The idea that they should sit there and watch humans dying when they could save them is fucking outrageous. You think these volunteers should watch people drown? Then don’t give money to the RNLI. The rest of us will.

We are not in the EU anymore

I guess we could always rejoin...

What are you wanting to happen in return? How many people are you thinking

Totally agree with RNLI.

Saving lives is the priority, regardless
of the situation.

Leaving someone to die because “they’re an illegal immigrant” or because “they took the risk” is unthinkable IMHO.

Some people are inhumane sadly.

I don’t understand those who criticise them. Is their argument that they should just leave people to drown at sea?

The answer is to make coming here pointless.

I have every sympathy with the RNLI.

I'm not white, I'm an immigrant from a muslim majority country and I say pick them up, call French side to take them back to France!