One man and the 'immigrants go home' advertisement.

[NicholasTeakozy]

Pukkah Punjabi asks the Home Office to pay for his taxi from Harrow to Willesden. What an enterprising chap! :o

[Solopower1]

What is normal procedure for deporting illegal immigrants? AFAIK it involves spying on the community to find out who is and isn't illegal, then knocking on their door at 4.00 in the morning and bundling them on a plane before they have had time to say goodbye to their family and friends here, or notify anyone they are coming, or even pack. Oh, and meanwhile, they send sinister vans round to terrorise them.

Whereas what they could do is decide what the law is and apply it, without fear or favour, at the border.

[Solopower1]

Btw, does that remind anyone of anything? The only difference between what we are doing and what the Fascists and Nazis (OK and communists) did in the 1930s and 40s is that we don't shoot the people we have decided are 'undesirables' or 'enemies of the state' ourselves. But you want a police state? You've got one, at least in some parts of the country.

I want the govt to stop trying to appease right wing racists and vindictively blaming the immigrants for the government's or Border Agency's own failings. I am ashamed of this govt.

[WetGrass]

Home is very unfortunate phrasing.

The very nature of being an immigrant in many cases is that you no longer have a home you can go to.

[Episode]

OK!

Re-read your own posts and you will find a pile of contradictions, some of which I have highlighted.

Racism is rooted in society, its not just a BNP issue, but this is a separate issue and I think this conversation might be a bit much for you! Saying your not a racist has no standing on whether you are or hold racist views.

FWIW it is pretty racist to tell somebody they should not be offended about an issue you have no experience of or that they are offended because they want to be.

The OP was about the campaign and its flaws! This is what I have tried to address, but anyway I?m out..... You can take a horse to water and all of that!

[Wannabestepfordwife]

Tbh I would prefer the government to use the money to set up an apprenticeship scheme in the border agencies

[anewdispensation]

Interesting how it wasn't illegal all those years ago when people left the west to take people from their homes as slaves. They didn't need visas then to go to Africa did they?
Truth is the feeling on not being welcome can never be understood by someone who has never experienced it. As long as conditions are better in the west, people will do whatever it takes to come here and stay here. And to the previous poster who said some rubbish about not paying in, you would be shocked to know that whether illegal or not, as long as you have an NI number, HMRC will collect any tax due which they do. So while I don't condone staying here illegally, I will say to people on MN don't be so quick to adopt a righteous stance on 'our country' without getting your facts right.

[LittleSporksBigSpork]

An undocumented migrant is a migrant without current proper documentation.

Just as a driver without current proper insurance is an uninsured driver.

Migrating without documentation and driving without insurance are both currently illegal. The concept of people breaking the law in either way is unpalatable though we know it happens for a wide range of reasons and both are being dealt with by authorities who make and enforce the law. I have never heard of someone driving without insurance, or even someone with insurance but speeding, referred to and reduced to being an "illegal driver", why should migrants - some of whom do so in desperate attempt to save their lives and only need nudging down the asylum route or have been trafficked here - be dehumanized and reduced in such a fashion that we do not do to uninsured drivers who, just the same, lack proper documentation. Yes, some come and take the piss - but a lot of those are holiday-cash-in-hands from the States, Canada, and so on but they tend to be labeled as "overstayers" by the media, hence why some think that undocumented migrants can't be White. Which is a laugh - the main undocumented in the Australia are White Brits who overstay, few complaints about them in our media. And the reason it's mostly them is because they're less likely to have their documentation checked as closely as people from other groups and countries.

All that separates the people you support and the people you have contempt for is documentation and leaving that out negates the ability to properly discuss the massive issues around documentations. Because the whole system around documentation is a real money maker for the government and with all the ideological babble about letting good migrants in, it's far more about keeping immigration profitable for them (hence why the price to do so goes up well above inflation every year and people need more than ever to get to Permanent Resident).

I am a documented migrant, have lived in the UK for ten years. I hope my children will defend me and other migrants in the future as the man in the article has done. Mainly as I, as a documented migrant, get intimidated and abused by people regularly. I've had people try to call false allegations on me because of stunts like this. It hurts people. Britain's going down the road of America, where any immigrant and even native borns that have "the look" will be pulled into the police stations to prove documentation and have their homes trashed on an almost weekly basis because of stunts like which get a lot of malicious fake calls. I have kin who have had this done to them in the States, and they're Native Americans, that's bitter, but that's what happen when this rhetoric becomes normal. The rhetoric needs to be challenged - the government is already dealing undocumented migrants well and treating them as sub-humans like this campaign does do anything to help, it harms people.

[LittleSporksBigSpork]

*doesn't do

[Forgetfulmog]

Very good post LittleSporks, I hadn't thought about it in the terms you put (about undocumented migrants).

Episode - I feel your pain

I'm not going to reiterate my earlier points as I think they're lost on the people at which they were aimed! Safe to say that I, for one, find this campaign offensive, unnecessary & a complete waste of resources. Interesting too that Nick Clegg claims to have known nothing about it....

[JulieMumsnet]

Evening.

Please try and ensure your comments are directed towards posts not posters!

MNHQ.

[Forgetfulmog]

Was that aimed at me Julie? If so, I didn't realise I was doing anything wrong .

[JulieMumsnet]

@Forgetfulmog

Was that aimed at me Julie? If so, I didn't realise I was doing anything wrong .

No, not unless you've been up to mischief!

[Chandras]

This teminds me of the worst bigot I know, she can splurt racism for hours and if you point out what she said is racist her answer is "it's not racist, is the truth" (rolls eyes).

[Chandras]

Appologies for the typos... Never goid at texting...

[TabithaStephens]

There's nothing racist about telling illegal immigrants that they are not welcome here.

[LittleSporksBigSpork]

It doesn't really matter if someone thinks it is racist or not - it matter if it causes harm to the wider population of people perceived to be migrants - which it will as it's designed to stir people up and cause anger - as well as harm to the agencies trying to get undocumented workers to leave or get current documentation as they will now be flooded with false and unreliable information. Happens every time something like this happens. These are never well organized with all the needed agencies, as in this case where few seem to know what is going on, and never act to protect others who could be harmed by this.

Seriously, people need to stop protecting themselves and their things from accusations of racism - we live in a world where little really happens to racists so why waste the energy - and try to see the actual harm that comes out of actions. Regardless of whether or not you see it as racist, it will cause harm to many people and harm your cause of moving on undocumented workers. That alone should earn it your contempt.

[TheFallenNinja]

Undocumented migrant. Love it.

[TheFallenNinja]

Goody. Here come the "your wrong" brigade.

I'm out of here before it gets "crashingly" boring.

[NicholasTeakozy]

Bye Ninj, you'll be missed. Your views won't though.

[Weegiemum]

One of my dd1's best friends arrived here as a illegal immigrant from the DRC, with her parents. Her father was an outspoken critic of the government there and had to leave for his own and his family's safety - they literally got on the next plane, leaving 3 older sons in hiding.

At that time the uk wasn't accepting refugees from their country. They stayed, and applied for refugee status, which then allowed their boys to join them.

They can never "go home" because the father would be killed within days.

I'm glad I live in a country where people like this feel safe!

[longfingernails]

This van is stupid.

Illegal immigrants SHOULD be deported - it sends a message of deterrence, and would free up housing, school places, etc. But the way to do it is not a poster saying "please go".

The way to do it includes things like:

• if you are in this country illegally, you are deported without any legal loopholes. Appeals should focus only on whether you are here illegally; once it is established that you are here illegally, there should be no right of further appeal. Might require withdrawal from the ECHR, but that is a good idea anyway.
  
• offer a payment by results to any company or individual depending on the number of illegals they deport.
  
• require validated proof of address to access any and all public services, including the NHS and schools; with frequent immigration checks on that data. Deny access to the NHS, housing, and so forth for illegals.
  

There's nothing wrong with populism, but it has to be backed up with effective policy.

[ttosca]

Yeah, who cares if they get sent back to their country and get tortured, raped and killed. The EHCR is for pussies....