AIBU to think a lot of people don't realise the extent to which the small boats crisis is a direct consequence of Brexit...

[Greeygoooose]

...and that it's just one of the many ways in which right-wingers voting for Brexit was indistinguishable from turkeys voting for Christmas?

@WilfredsPies with respect we are all randoms in MN why would anyone have a pretty good idea more than anyone else or what's happening

That would be my poor grammar. I meant our Home Secretary would have a pretty good idea of what’s happening.

So can we all agree that voting for Brexit to reduce immigration was a massive error?

Because statistically it seems like it was..

Oh something something about us all having our rights removed to make that happen properly… or something.

Who’ld have thunk that pissing our immediate neighbours off could possibly have a negative effect on their attitude to us receiving (quite often genuine) asylum seekers 🤔

Neither do you

You haven't managed to link anything to back up your claim that Brexit has had no impact at all

It’s being reported that as of December 2025, 40% of people claiming asylum came here on a visa.

That seems bonkers to me. Why don’t they renew their visa?

Fuck my old boots, are you actually reading what I’m saying to you? Or just the bits you want to argue with? I’ve said very clearly in several posts that neither of us have anything more than opinions (and in my case, Dublin stats and common sense) to back up our claims. I don’t know how else to say it.

I feel like this has reached the point where it’s an utterly pointless conversation. I’ve tried to explain it to you. I have clearly failed. I am giving up. I have a cup of tea and a chocolate digestive waiting for me, which is infinitely more appealing than going round in circles with you all night, so I’ll wish you good evening.

I don’t get how people can’t understand that the laws and regulations changing has no impact on these types of migrants. They don’t care about laws and regulations. They don’t abide by laws and regulations. They wouldn’t qualify.. It’s irrelevant to them. Just obstacles to overcome.
Migrants arrive by whatever means they can and lodge their claim then they get to stay for as long as the process takes. If it doesn’t work out for them they disappear or try another country.
Staying in Europe wouldn’t have given us any effective powers to return people. We didn’t have effective third country removal powers when we were in Europe and no, the Dublin agreement wasn’t an easy way to bounce people back to a third country. It was reciprocal and appealable and resulted in slightly more people coming in this direction.

My Brexit-voting MIL, BIL and SIL not only didn't realise, they didn't believe me when I explained, and then only after I showed them the text of the Dublin III regulation on my phone and stats showing the increase in numbers of people arriving on small boats post-Brexit.

Cue much whinging and "I didn't know that". It took all my willpower not to say that they should have fucking well educated themselves a bit before they voted.

True.

I share some of the Bennite concerns about the EU, but I also knew that the EU gave us some important protections, especially in areas like product safety, environmental matters, workers' rights etc and felt that they were more important.

But what difference would it make when many European countries within the EU are having the same problem as we are having?

As many of us have said, we can blame Brexit for a lot of things. This is not one of them.

be interesting to see if @Greeygoooose comes back and answers the question about other EU countries. Disappointing result on the poll. Where do people get their information? Do they not know that other EU countries are having this problem?

@PinkiOcelot who "told" you what and where ?

Anyone telling us anything will always have an agenda.

The Benn quote ,whose got the power ,how.. How can we take it away is a good place to start (bad paraphrasing ).
Never ever rely on anyone telling you anything ever on matters of huge importance.

With Brexit many people didn't need telling anything they were living it day to day.

@EmeraldRoulette people are naval gazing when it comes to the UK , we are the only ones having money issues ,boat people issues and so on.

@WilfredsPies thank you I thought you meant clavino
Yes hs would

I like Tony Benn Asa person however I think his views were more valid in a less globally connected world and if we were ‘all’ in the same position within Europe - the problem is that at the moment we have simply given much of our best business to our neighbours across the channel on a plate ! Why would you invest here in UK ansa multinational or a company needing import/export to any degree , unless you are simply dealing with a uk market like a kids nursery or a builders yard etc - You wouldn’t . Many think well it can be like the US, it can’t - the USA is its own EU , large enough to attract enough industry/investment on its doorstep without borders, especially if you factor in Canada and Latin America( although clearly at moment it’s not working quite how it should)

Not to mention the fact that the British people voted to leave and that pesky thing called democracy!

@Winter2020 but would they vote that way now knowing what they do - I doubt it - maybe we should test democracy again ? Things can change, that’s why we have general elections.

If people are not removed it makes not a lot of difference if their claim is granted or declined.

Just 4% of people arriving by small boat were removed between 2018 and Sept 2025.
https://www.gov.uk/government/statistics/immigration-system-statistics-year-ending-september-2025/how-many-people-are-returned-from-the-uk

But would we be better off if still in the EU? We'd still have illegals and no, we were never able to send them back. Plus the EU would force us to take a quota of the millions spilling into their union.

Cooperation - yes. Be part of a trading bloc like back in the old days - yes. Be part of a political bloc - no. We tried it, didnt like it. Why would it be a roaring success now?

Despite what people say, there is not a huge appetite for British people living in the UK to rejoin the political union.

Sure it is. In the EU there is the first point of entry rule. The asylum seeker must seek asylum where they enter. If they go elsewhere they can just be send back to that first point of entry country. Then of course, if successful, might be redistributed but it would, for a country like the UK, get rid of a whole load of asylum seekers and it would make the small boats less attractive and they would know they would be sent back to their first point of entry. As far as I am aware most of the people arriving by boat seek asylum, they do not attempt to just disappear and live undocumented.

And according to google:

Small boat arrivals in the UK have risen substantially since Brexit, growing from 299 in 2018 to over 41,000 in 2025, with around 194,000 arrivals between 2018 and 2025. The increase is largely attributed to the loss of EU returns agreements and intelligence sharing (e.g., Eurodac) post-Brexit, which made it harder to send back asylum seekers

So if remain had won you'd be wanting further referendums just to check if the British people had changed their mind? Or do you only want repeat votes when the side you support loses?

Edit to add if a political party wants to run for election on the premise of rejoining the EU they are welcome to do so.

People have already pointed out that had UK took more people than they returned under the agreement do that's complete rubbish.

But a lot less people came in the boats in the first place, that's the point. They weren't incentivised in the same way because if they came they could be sent back under the first point of entry rule.

Why was 2002 pretty much the peak for asylum claims?

That was pre Brexit.

And why don’t other EU countries ‘send them all back’ under the first point of entry rule?

... We will be going back in... were just not poor enough yet. Give it 20 years and another 15 years after that for negotiation.