Reform voters should realise

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Any one of us could be a refugee by this time next year.

In 6 months, or 5 years, or 40 years or 150 years the UK population could be refugees in someone else's country.

Treat others as you want to be treated

I would give asylum to every single girl and woman in Iran, plus anywhere subject to Islamist rules. However, I know that's not practical. Same with millions on the move in Africa, and ongoing conflicts.
I don't know what the answer is, but I do know that many European countries are moving to the right and having tighter migration rules.

We were quick enough to welcome Ukrainian refugees fleeing a war, but we can’t seem to arrange visas or safe routes for people fleeing wars in other parts of the world.

Not as quick as most European countries. But the logistics were relatively easy because the infrastructure tying the UK to the EU was (and is) largely still in place; the invasion was only two years after the end of the transition period. If you can get to Medyka or Beregsurány you can get to London. Not reasonable to compare the situation with other conflicts creating large waves of refugees.

That's what the Ukrainians thought....

Hardly. They were aware a large scale war was coming for years sadly.

Every person who voted for every party should, and will, have to realise and regret something somewhere down the line.

Like the labour voters who believe children should be taught that women can have penises.

After all, every Reform voter is a racist....

Exactly. I agree with you 100%

Do you think there should ever be a limit to the numbers we take in? I'd sincerely like to know. This is a small, overcrowded island. Personally, I think 65 million people is far too many as it is. Even 50 million is too many for a small country like ours. In the last ten years, my local woods have been hacked down to make way for two new estates, and a second massive housing estate has now been built at the other end of the village. We recently heard that 800 new homes are planned for the road that leads into town. That road is choked with traffic now, so what the hell is going to happen when 800 extra cars are added? I don't bother going to yoga anymore because I can't face the traffic after work. In fact, I don't bother going to the coast or to local beauty spots on sunny days for the same reason.

In 1960, the world's population was three billion. Today it is eight billion and heading for ten. The African birth rate is so high that the African population is going to double. How many extra people would you allow in over the next five years? A million? Ten million? Twenty million? Fifty million? What do you think that would do to our quality of life?

And what makes you think these people are all genuine? Where are the women, the children and the old people? Truth is the vast majority of these so-called refugees are rootless young men – in many cases, probably fleeing the police rather than 'war and persecution'.

I never suggested immigration was about asylum seekers.

The visa policy (which works) is far too lax. Like I said, anyone can come here. We need to cut it down, massively. There should be a points system. People should only be allowed here if they can actually benefit society. The vast majority are not here for that. They’re here to use what we have.

Which of the uk visas are you referring to?

To qualify for the Skilled Worker Visa, you must work for a Home Office-approved UK employer, have a ‘certificate of sponsorship’ from your employer with information about the job you’ve been offered. The job you’ve been offered must be on the list of eligible occupations, and be paid a minimum salary (this depends on the type of work you do). You must be able to show that you can support yourself in the UK, and in addition to the application fee you will have to pay the Immigration Health Surcharge.

We've got enemies everywhere and we're pretty much hates by most countries for being the "colonisers" even though it was a hundred years ago and nothing to do with us.

Those enemies are now uniting together against us, anyone who thinks no one is coming for us is naive. It's not if it's when. Atm the size of nato is probably holding them back but given what's going on in some European countries with changing government's who want out of NATO I'd say the clock is ticking for us.

Really unhappy because I see huge benefits to immigration.

DH works in a care home, their international staff work far harder and are easier to recruit than English staff. The care industry will struggle like mad without international workers. I work in a University, we have a number highly skilled international academics who are outstanding at their job and generate new knowledge and funding which feeds back into the English economy. Universities are also struggling massively because international students are being put off coming by the Tories suggested changes to immigration and the result is that thousands (across the country) of workers are being made redundant and Universities are at risk of going out of business.

Some of the refugees I have met have gone on to do amazing things for their communities and the country including set up charities, do volunteer work, raise money for good causes, gone on to work for the NHS.

I do understand that some people have had a poor experience of immigration, in that their opportunities or experience feels limited where they might see immigrants having access to things they don’t. I also recognise that some immigrants have behaved badly, but equally so have some people who are British citizens. The only thing that will happen when you go round generalizing about a whole group of people based on the behaviour of a minority is that you generate intolerance, anger and mistrust. Some people will shut down a broader perspective by using phrases like do-gooder, snowflake, lefty liberal etc and misquote things to make a point rather than consider that there may be another experience. Unfortunately all this does is build more division which just perpetuates feelings of being disenfranchised.

(As at November 2023) - In the NHS overall 18.7% of staff report a nationality other than British. For doctors this figure is 35.0%, and for nurses it is 27.2%. 18% of doctors and 16% of nurses report an Asian nationality.

We’d better hope immigration to the UK continues.

Or, think of ways to encourage people to work in healthcare? Is it the pay and conditions?

I didn’t vote for them and I understand the attempted sentiment in the op but how does it work in reality?

Is there a feeling there should be as many people as we can take claiming asylum, how much higher than now?

I agree re other countries

The fact you see it solely as a moral issue rather than one of overcrowding and limited resources shows you are unable to have this debate.

The boat crossings are largely down to the Brexit Farage championed.

In what way?

Crossings over the Med have increased massively and no Brexit

Plus the peak was earlier 2000s pre Brexit it was just by another entry method

Boat crossings have increased since Brexit. Previously, when the UK was part of the EU, under a mechanism known as Dublin the UK could ask other EU countries to take back people they could prove had passed through safe European countries before reaching the UK.

virgocatlover · Today 07:41

Many of the people on the boats are not refugees from war torn countries, but economic migrants.

(I did not vote Reform).

This. And this is ONE of the reasons why Reform got more votes than LibDems. But because of the voting system, they got much less seats/MPs in parliament.

I also did not vote for Reform!

This had passed me by.

I wish this was printed on the side of a bus

Why is this not resolving the issue in EU countries who are still part of this mechanism?

This isn’t the case otherwise most people would be returned to Italy

Tbh it’s not the case so a bus might be the only place for it

I’m amazed people think everyone can return anyone who passes through a safe country within the EU

The Dublin Regulation (also known as Dublin III) is EU law setting out which country is responsible for looking at an individual’s asylum application. This is usually the country where the asylum seeker first arrives in the EU. The Dublin Regulation applies to EU Member States and Iceland, Norway, Switzerland and Liechtenstein.

The UK opted out from 31 December 2020. Now asylum seekers can cross from France to the UK .