WTAF? Asylum seekers to be detained across the UK in shock Rwanda operation

[Tenmus]

https://www.theguardian.com/uk-news/2024/apr/28/home-office-to-detain-asylum-seekers-across-uk-in-shock-rwanda-operation

"The Home Office will launch a surprise operation to detain asylum seekers across the UK on Monday in preparation for deportation to Rwanda, weeks earlier than expected, the Guardian understands.
Officials plan to hold refugees who turn up for routine meetings at immigration service offices and will also pick people up nationwide in a two-week exercise.

They will be immediately transferred to detention centres, which have already been prepared for the operation, and held to be put on later flights to Rwanda. Others identified for these flights are already being held."

I am actually shocked by this. A cruel, inhumane action with terrible optics and a colossal waste of money.

Even if you agree it’s a good policy then surely the astronomical cost (I’ve seen it said £1.8 million per asylum seeker) must make you think twice?

Think what good could be done with that sort of cash instead.

I had some sympathy until recent scenes where more immigrants jumped onto that already overcrowded boat last week and five people drowned including a seven year old girl. They also threw ? fireworks at the french police and have been attacking them. They are mostly young single men who seem to stop at nothing to get to the Uk. I don't really agree sending them to Rwanda is the right thing to do but there has to be some deterrent surely ?

With falling birth rates and an ageing population, the UK will increasingly need immigrants to be part of the economically active population.
This is simply some desperate attempt to appeal to a certain section of society who seem to believe all the problems of our country are caused by immigration (or lazy, workshy benefit claimants of course, another popular scapegoat) and win some votes. Or someone somewhere is going to make money out of this going ahead.
This a ridiculous scheme which costs a lot of money and does nothing to solve any of the issues sometimes people might think it does.
Allow people legal routes to seek asylum. Deal with claimants promptly rather than cutting funding and leaving people in limbo for years. Be efficient and humane. Immigrants are just people who had the misfortune to be born in a country where life is worse than it is here. If war broke out here, wouldn't you want another country to help you? Just because we're an island doesn't mean we should refuse to take a fair share of refugees by ensuring there are no legal ways to seek asylum here.

What, like, I dunnno, setting up legal and safe routes that are dealt with quickly and efficiently? Yeah, you’d think.

About 75 per cent claiming asylum are single men. Bit less, think 73. Mostly economic migrants, but ‘mostly’ doesn’t cut it when you’re talking about death threats to the remainder.

Can we afford to support the number of people in Leeds arriving every year? Or collude with human trafficking of the most repulsive variety by rescuing boats at Dover?

If I was choosing a destination, I’d try France.

Oh dear, Rwanda news is just awful. I wish there were a better solution.

That was a specific situation where two different groups claimed to have paid for the boat. It's not indicative of a general attitude. All those people had paid an extortionate amount to cross the channel, which they saw being for nothing. It's not surprising that tempers were lost and risks taken.

Again, if our government accepted France's offer to have asylum applications examined from there, a safe and legal asylum route would be possible. But for some reason that I really don't understand, they won't. And then they complain that the refugees don't take a (non-existent) legal route.

The issue you’d find with this is how many would apply

Five people died including a child and then most of the rest just carried on with the journey. Despicable.
And it was not an isolated situation - I watched a report where french police said it was often too unsafe for them to intervene to try to stop the boats leaving as they were attacked and had to put their own safety first.

Terrifyingly inhumane.

@Bumblebeeinatree

But why are they all so desperate to live in the UK rather than Europe? I really don't understand why the UK is the holy grail. What's so bad about France, Germany, etc that people are willing to risk their lives to get out?

That's an incredibly ignorant statement. Both Germany and France have massively higher number of asylum applications - for France, almost 130K in 2022 and almost 200K for Germany (that's excluding Ukrainians.) The UK in contrast has application numbers in the lower 5 digits, so maybe a third of the French and a quarter to a fifth of the German numbers.

Secondly, the decisive factors for choice of destination are usually language (France gets more asylum seekers from francophone countries) and existing family ties. Thus, migrants from, say, Bangladesh will probably choose to emigrate to Italy (which has actively hired Bagkadesh labour over several decades) and the UK, rather than France or Slovenia.

How can it be a surprise when it's in the news?

You swap places and go then

No doubt lots of people would apply. But if we had efficient systems in place then the claims would be processed efficiently. Imagine how efficient the system would be if we put the Rwanda money into that instead!?!

I don’t think France will just accept people back. Even within the EU countries are saying no, as France did to Italy

So when you say efficient do you mean yes to all applications or limiting in some way?

If you do limit do you think people might still pay a trafficker if they get a no?

The people smuggling business earns millions from these boat crossings. They aren’t charities. It’s not possible to get this far without being young, healthy and having the financial means.

In the meantime, those unable to pay large sums of money and travel through multiple countries, disabled, sick, elderly, die in far away lands.

Survival of the fittest.

100% this!

The reason thousand of people are languishing in shitty hotels with no education/integration and minimal support is because the process is so slow - due to underfunding - I have young people waiting 5 years for a bloody decision - they reach 18 and can't do anything - work, university, apprenticeships - because they still don't have a decision - it's awful

Process quickly, send back those with no legitimate claim and support those who do to become tax payers!

If you allow them to work, it will lower the wages for the locals. They don’t have the same living costs so wages would decrease if more people were prepared to do a job for less.

Many arrive with no documentation, so it’s not possible ‘send them back to their home country’.

Im not saying I have all the answers but these are two issues I can think about now.

We can’t afford to house them! Can’t even house people who where born here what is wrong with you lot

Thanks for explaining, @Iamtheoneinten .

But we can afford to - at huge cost - send them to Rwanda. The UK taxpayer is paying huge amounts for this inhumane scheme.

Migration has been part of the human story from the beginning. The need and want for people to move in search of safety and / or a chance at some kind of life worth living will only intensify. The further poverty and instability that will accompany climate change will only make things worse.
As usual the focus is on the symptoms and not the cause.
The asylum system in this country is so inefficient and inhumane. Whatever the answer is I cannot imagine which idiot thought up the idea of shifting a few thousand people ( at most) by plane to Rwanda.
And why would it be a deterrent if Rwanda is such a nice country? Is it a deterrent or an opportunity for a shiny new life ?
Or just more tory backed bollocks ?
I am ashamed to be British. This is a disgusting country at the moment, run by idiots, governed by liars.

"According to an investigation by the National Audit Office (NAO), the development funding comprises a fixed cost of £370 million, plus an additional £120 million once 300 people are relocated to Rwanda."

@flowertoday

Yes, migration has always existed. But so has the right of the host states to decide who gets to live within their borders.

The approval rate of asylum claims in the UK is higher than in most European countries.

By efficient I mean, look at the claim, investigate thoroughly, if the claim is found to be invalid, then repatriate.
People traffickers will always have business, sadly.