French police slash small taxi-boat on beach

[DangerQuakeRhinoSnake]

https://www.bbc.co.uk/news/articles/c5ygjjxjlplo

I'm unsure why the BBC has put an upsetting scenes warning on the video. Nobody got hurt, they are just disappointed. I think this is far preferable than those people going across the sea and potentially dying in the water. The police wouldn't have done it if it wasn't shallow enough to safely stop the boat. I think they are very brave.

I wonder what the French will do with the people though, if they are now serious about stopping boats.

I suspect the vendor is absolutely delighted to have found a good market for their boats.

Apparently not - I think if anything they have gained more support as a result.

What a nasty little country we have become. People don't risk their lives for a Travelodge room. It's because of the usual things, war, persecution, poverty. Some of this is our fault. We are happy to sell arms to unscrupulous regimes and to bomb other countries. We have reaped what we have sown.

The BBC filmed it. Their reporter is right there in the water with them! Watch the video.

Footage isn’t usually the BBC is it? I wonder why they went on that day

I wonder. Hope that helps them sleep at night when the news breaks that another child has drowned in the channel.

Good. More need slashing. And then burnt it so it can’t be repaired and used again.

The French have a huge problem with migrants congregating in towns like Calais.

If people knew that they won’t get into the UK in a small boat, that the French will stop them, then it might also stop them congregating in Calais etc and therefore it is a benefit to the French.

Plus, as a PP has said, we pay France millions to help us stop them. If they want our money, they should be fulfilling their side of the deal - and a whole lot better then they are at the moment IMHO.

Why arent questions asked as to how people are allowed to travel through Europe to Calais? Knowing that people are being smuggled they must have an idea of how they are doing it yet it seems, my perception, that the rest of Europe including France are more than happy for them to be smuggled to get them in to Britain, otherwise surely this could be stopped even before they get to France.

Knowing the level of problems this is causing in towns, its hard to sympathise with mostly military age fit and healthy males being stopped from illegally entering a country. Women and children should be helped, but its almost always men. However, I do get the want to come here. If youre told, righty or wrongly, you can get everything for free including cash to send back home, most would leave their lives in countries that are a mess. However, this has to be stopped - to say its unsustainable for our country is an understatement.

@Izz81 Most asylum seekers do not travel through Europe to get to the UK. Germany, Spain and Italy have far higher rates of people claiming asylum. Because of its situation near the edge of Europe, the rates of people who reach the UK is below average for Europe.

Using the term Military aged men is just dehumanising. My DH is a military aged man - what on earth does that even mean?

I don’t think the channel crossings are safe or a great thing for various reasons but the amount of misinformation people have around this issue is breathtaking. And the demonisation of the people involved! . Men are more likely to travel because they are younger and fitter and more able for the extremely dangerous journey that it takes to get to Europe in the first place. Most people on the boats are from Iran - so likely to have genuine claims.

I think the answer probably lies in opening up more legal routes to get asylum and funding the countries with the largest numbers of asylum seekers like Turkey.

My DH is a military aged man - what on earth does that even mean?

It means if personnel were required in a conflict, he'd be one of the most desirable people to call upon, and therefore among the first. He'd be in the class of people who are fitter, stronger and more able to fight.

So, many people of a similar calibre coming into our society from a different culture are more likely to be a threat to it.

So they are just young men then?

Asylum seekers make up 0.6% of the population in the UK by the way. Is that a threat?

The last family who tragically lost their lives, the little girl, had been living in Europe for several years, in three different countries from memory. She was born in Sweden. They had had their asylum claims turned down in each country. So they then tried the UK as last resort.

Legal routes would have made no difference. The whole of Europe needs to have a joined up system. If you rejected in Europe, then you are rejected in all states including the UK.

In that case it would not have. But ultimately there isn’t one solution and opening up legal routes would be part of a wider multi faceted plan to save lives.

If you opened up more legal routes they would fill and you’d still have the self selected migrants on top. Tinkering with the legal routes doesn’t change anything. These people don’t do anything through a legal route until they want to avail themselves of support in a chosen destination.
If we didn’t have all these young men we might have some capacity to go out and offer protection to some Sudanese women maybe. But the capacity is filled already.

If we didn’t have all these young men we might have some capacity to go out and offer protection to some Sudanese women maybe. But the capacity is filled already

You have literally just made a good argument for opening up more legal routes. It’s the right thing to do. Of course it would not work alone. But calls of “stop the boats” are hollow. They ultimately won’t change anything.

These people don’t do anything through a legal route until they want to avail themselves of support in a chosen destination.

That’s not true either. Legal routes are currently oversubscribed, in many cases people wait years to move even after being given approval.

RNLI donations and income has risen over the years. It's on the charity comission financial history website.

I started donating.

I also believe that other countries don’t approve the % of applications we do So why wouldn’t they come and effectively get approval to stay (with no paperwork).

I have great concerns when largely young men with often different views of women in society arrive.

You say that like there is a comparatively high number of asylum seekers coming the UK / - but the numbers are below average for Europe. The Uk approves at similar rates to Ireland, Portugal and the Netherlands and is a bit above average comparing to all of Europe.

It varies a lot year on year as it really depends on what’s going on in the world and where people are coming from.

If they do not travel through Europe, how do they get to France and just because other European nations may have more illegal migrants does not mean its sustainable for us or for Europe.

Using term military age men is exactly that, I know people who work in border force and thats what those coming over are, military age men generally 18-40 years old and coincidently many of these men have done military service.

Its not dehumanising and you saying they have nothing is massively misinformed, they all have cash on them, all have phones, all have contacts that can get them money - the ones who have nothing very rarely can afford to even make the journey and pay the people who assist them. If you cant make the payments, there is no making the journey on a freebie.

I think you are massively misinformed, can I ask what your direct experience is of this situation.

If they do not travel through Europe, how do they get to France and just because other European nations may have more illegal migrants does not mean its sustainable for us or for Europe.
Using term military age men is exactly that, I know people who work in border force and thats what those coming over are, military age men generally 18-40 years old and coincidently many of these men have done military service.
Its not dehumanising and you saying they have nothing is massively misinformed, they all have cash on them, all have phones, all have contacts that can get them money - the ones who have nothing very rarely can afford to even make the journey and pay the people who assist them. If you cant make the payments, there is no making the journey on a freebie.
I think you are massively misinformed, can I ask what your direct experience is of this situation.

Because for months and months and years and years it has been against French law. Frenchpolice were not (and most still cannot) enter the water to stop a boat because if someone subsequntly drowns as a result of their action, then they can be sued. Just as British police can be sued for actions arising from, for example, them chasing a criminal in a car. The French police who now have legal backing to eneter the water have special training to minimise risk, but also to provide some degree of protection from legal action.

@Izz81 You are misunderstanding me. I meant that most asylum seekers who reach Europe do not come to the UK.

You are mixing up illegal immigrates and asylum seekers.

And I didn’t say anything about them not having money. Of course they will have had to pay for their journey?

The small boat arrives - which make up about 1/3 of asylum cases - are largely from Afghanistan, Syria and Iran. Countries with desperate situations.

I think using the term military aged men invokes this immediate image of them as a threat or even an organised force.