This migrant problem is going to let Reform in isn’t it?

[EvangelicalAboutButteredToast]

Honestly it’s such a bloody nightmare. Reform are making a total hash of local government from what I’ve read, putting teenagers in charge of whole departments with no relevant experience. What are they going to do if they are elected to run a country!!!! I’m honestly terrified. Labour need to be seen to be actively doing something to quell the far-right momentum that’s gaining traction from ordinary folk. I’m amazed at the average, usually pretty sensible people around me who are now telling me they are going to vote Reform.

there was an interview I saw yesterday where the minister said that thousands of people were being deported regularly. The interviewer asked why there were no videos of this and she said there could be. Well let’s see it! It would absolutely help.

@strawberrybubblegumtotally agree with you. My daughter worked in a care home throughout university and found it very satisfying and fulfilling. Only draw back was the terrible pay.

My son picked lettuces for 2 summers and was completely shocked at the conditions that the immigrant workers were living in. The whole system was set up to accommodate immigrant workers willing to tolerate appalling treatment.

lt looks like Labour made a mistake in junking the Rwanda scheme. The upfront costs were sunk; there were noises from Calais and Southern Ireland that it was beginning to work and creating knock on effects; why not follow through and see whether it worked.

It was odd to drop it so quickly after the money was spent, and the conservatives had taken the political hit for them.

Lab just dropped it as a two finger salute to the Tories

Plus you saw it on here. People thought Labour could actually smash the gangs and other nonsense.

The most effective way to get people to leave was to ROI and pretty much free to the taxpayer.

Rwanda was 500 per year, 5000 over 10 years.

BUT it never happened did it? just wasted 500m, enough to give Train drivers a 75% pay rise..... or met the Resident Doctors pay demands.

If "Australia" was easy and doable, it would have been done, we've right wing Govts in Austria and Italy, the EU has said it wouldn't break EU rules....

Other governments facing the far right would quickly set up schemes to wreck the popularity of the AfD and RN....

Starmer would instigate such a scheme and see his ratings soar..

Just as we don't want undocumented migrants, neither does anyone else.

@cattenberg

But that doesn’t mean we should do it this way. It’s obscene to pay people very little and rely on immigration in this way. Taxing people to pay for benefits paid to immigrants who then qualify for ILR and dump the care jobs and are entitled to benefits for them and any dependents is extremely inefficient - we could just pay people more and have less immigration, which is what many people actually want

it’s also extremely stupid not to move towards giving caring professions protections and better money, as it’s one of the few jobs that will survive AI. What are all the smug middle managers who think they could never be carers going to do otherwise?!

@Alexandra2001 The target for Rwanda in 2024 was initially set at 5,700.

New data reported by DT:
59% of all HC2 certificates issued over the last 5 years have been given to asylum seekers.

These certificates provide low-income individuals with access to healthcare benefits that are not available to the general public. These include free prescriptions, dental treatment, eye tests, wigs, and reduced costs for glasses, contact lenses, and travel to and from medical appointments.

“Asylum seekers are automatically given a HC2 certificate if they are eligible for “section 95 support” under the Immigration and Asylum Act 1999, which means they are entitled to claim financial and housing assistance”

Agree completely! Social care should not be subsidised in this round about way. We should face up to the real cost now and not foist it on our children to pay for through their taxes later when a raft of underpaid people come up to retirement with no savings or capital.

Exactly
the more I learn the more frustrating it is

people who already live here and pay taxes struggle to get NHS dental care or affordable housing

why are we giving it to people who have no business being here in the first place

Are you sure about that? accommodation was built for 300 across 2 sites.

Rwanda had 257 units built not all for UK migrants.

The 5700 figure was max number over 10 years.

We gave them £320m plus £120m once the 300 figure was reached, which it never was, we handed over £320m for nothing....

BTW Migrants don't get "Free Dental Care" they are given an entitlement to Free Dental, same as all of us, few dentists take on new NHS patients, so they get an emergency appointment at best, which is filling or extraction, nothing else.

Voluntary movement to ROI cost us nothing. Too bad people couldn’t see why that was helpful and posted so much about scrapping it.

If Labour have nothing else then they’ll struggle to stay in.

Care home wage is what graduate paralegals get in many places ie the minimum wage of £23,500 for a 35 hour week.

@Xenia don’t you think that’s a terrible salary for a graduate? My starting salary in 1989 was £21,500 in the city aged 23. @Alexandra2001the 5,700 figure is cited in a number of sources in the context of the initial number identified as targeted for deportation

These are two different things, the UK Govt at the time, targeted a lot of things, inc migrants for deportation BUT Rwanda could never have accepted them nor did they agree too or have accommodation for, PR, much like commissioning planes... which they knew would never fly migrants there.

Numbers who hoped over the to ROI were very small, a few 100.

The Australians have deported an average of under 400 people a year to offshore processing centres and it seems to have worked.

13 years ago they had 17,000 asylum seekers arrive by boat so one can only imagine how many they would have now if they hadn’t put that system in place.

About as attractive as the U.K. so hard to say. Maybe more than us. Now incredibly low numbers.

For some reason some posters work hard not to have the same when it’s the only system to have worked. Bizarre.

25000 arrived by boat in 2012/13, numbers actually went up, after mandatory deportations started, it was when Australia started turnback/take back that numbers plummeted.

Those who have studied the subject say it appears the Turnback policy was the more effective policy

Which is obvious, 25k arrive, 400 sent to Nauru, a very small %.

But thats besides the point, i've never disputed Australia hasn't stopped irregular migration.

My argument is that we haven't an off shore Island nor can we turnback either... so we need a country that can many 1000s of people, permanently.

Where would Aussie supporters send x channel migrants?

Nauru? PND ?

How would the UK turn back boats, to where? tow them back to Iran? Afghanistan?

Two simple questions which pp's cannot answer...

As long as we appear to do sfa the migrants will flock to the Uk -it might have been just 300 going to Rwanda but it would probably have stemmed the flow -word would have got out. They’d stay in France.

Labour aren't doing a particularly bad job when you consider the complexity of what they were given and the continued external turbulence.

Farage does not have any easy answers. I wish people would see this!!

Labour are doing a god awful job. They have no policies and no answers, and are largely just tinkering around the edges and out of their depth.

Labour are too timid eg took a year to ban Ninja swords..... too many "consultations" look at the 3 year one into social care?

Labour also face a very negative media, BBC kept highlighting yesterday a poor business confidence report by the Institute of Directors, which is Tory a lobby group... totally ignored the Lloyds one which had business confidence at a 10 year high!!

How about some balance?

But Reform still haven't got any answers, none at all, same as the Cons & despite v poor polling, no one wants Farage as PM.

Posters will go on about the media if Labour lose the next GE, that’s fine, when the media excuse comes up Labour are not doing well.

But Reform still haven't got any answers, none at all, same as the Cons & despite v poor polling, no one wants Farage as PM.

You're living in a bubble.

Reform are polling 34%.

https://www.telegraph.co.uk/news/2025/08/02/why-white-working-class-rage-is-surging-in-britain/

Labour have zero intention of stopping the boats, so the polls are only going in one direction.