1,027 irregular migrants arrive here on rubber boats in the last 24 hours.

On a positive note I attended a presentation of diplomates on Friday. Resident doctors who have passed their final exams in their specialist area. They were truly representative of our diverse multicultural country and a most welcome reminder of what immigration has brought to this country, the NHS couldn't function without them.
Of course we need to improve our immigration systems, we need to be able to discriminate between genuine refugees and economic migrants and we need to deal with the huge backlog which frankly is a legacy of the last government. There are no quick fixes to complex, complicated problems and constantly focusing on the numbers arriving on small boats doesn't actually change anything . Sadly it does whip up racist and xenophobic reactions from people who only read headlines.
I don't think we should leave the ECHR, seems like throwing the baby out with the bath water but we could look at the various acts regarding Refugees to see if they still are fit for purpose in the world we live in now.

Teazel2

Frogoet

As to going back to Hitler-it’s tge perfect example of scapegoating which is going on in this thread. ‘They will turn against us’. Have you met any? Spoken to them.
With leave to stay they are exploited by low paid industry,

I feel its not acceptable to keep quoting Hitler just to try to induce some sort of guilt.

Hitler is brought out on forums when a poster has run out of things to say.
It has zilch to do with anything about people arriving illegally on boats from France.

Message withdrawn at poster's request.

Isn’t there talk of not leaving the ECHR but either suspension for a while - a moratorium of sorts while we get on top of the situation - or just not complying with Article 8?

Shabana Mahmood will be assessing all options.

And talking about Reform, it would be interesting, but no, I am not suggesting we do this as it would probs be against the rules,
It would be interesting to find out how many folk agreeing with the post are actually Reform voters.

Please don't stop FGT, it's an ongoing situation. I'll contribute from France where this issue is in the news constantly.
I am over here again now after a hell of a choppy crossing on a big ferry a few days ago🤢. It seems nothing will deter those coming on small boats.

I'll try to read up from this end what the latest plans include, but at the moment the news is geared towards reporting on an upcoming huge strike here on Wednesday, and I'm keeping a close eye on that. It sounds like the country is about to shut down and that protests will be disruptive across the whole country. This is not a happy place either.

Oh Sparklefizz that’s not only depressing it’s scary! Suppression of the facts so as not to inflame tensions? Beggars belief but highlights the awful situation we are now in. And meanwhile we are definitely not being told the truth.

Thank you escaped it’s always good to hear how things on this topic are being reported upon in the French media.

There is a reason why the cheerleaders for Brexit are also the the most virulent anti immigrant voices.
Brexit removed our ability to return refugees to their first country of arrival in Europe, one of the main drivers of the huge numbers now arriving here, both legally and illegally.

When I taught in infant classes (okay, 60 years ago!) and I asked who had, for example, made a loud noise, all the children instantly pointed at each other.
I think of that every time I hear Mr Farage ranting about mass deportations or small boats.

I’m not saying there isn’t a problem, but usually the perpetrators are trying to deflect blame from themselves rather than seriously providing the solution.

The quote you provided, sparklefizz which starts with "I'm currently in my final year of GP training,"

sounds just like other fabricated stories that have been circulating online. It is not from a reliable or official source. There is no evidence from credible news outlets, government reports, or professional medical bodies that I can find.

I've just run it through Gemini and this is what it says:

​The story has been widely debunked as a hoax or a piece of creative writing designed to spread on social media and forums. The use of specific, unusual, and inflammatory language is a common characteristic of such hoaxes. While the person posting may be a genuine forum user, the story itself is not based on facts.

Just thought I'd share this too.

Sparkefizz. Source please. That sounds like fiction aka fake news.

I wasn’t aware that Farage was an ‘irregular’immigrant perpetrator trying to get on a boat. Shocking news.

I’d be relieved to learn that the post by Sparklefizz is a hoax (even though she’ll have ‘passed it on’ in good faith).

If you know of any handy UK-owned islands in the middle of an ocean somewhere, please let the Home Office know

I know full well we haven’t got anything like that, which is why the Rwanda deal was being worked on, and subsequently thrown out.

Until any government of the day does work something out and take drastic action, this situation will just carry on and continue to fester and cause huge problems.

Australia and similar places must be gobsmacked at how weak we are.

It'a a wee bit shocking/depressing how many GNs were quick to believe that dreadful hoax scenario suggested in Sparkle's post.

I am going to report my post myself and get it removed. I posted it in good faith. This is why I usually avoid the political threads.

Not criticising you Sparkle. Leave it up, if you wish, as it shows how easily we can all be misled.

Re the information about GP surgeries and asylum seekers:
My understanding is that the GP contract requires them to treat people living in their area, there is a payment for each patient registered. If GP surgeries refuse to register asylum seekers they are in breech of their contract, when they register an asylum seeker they get paid for that individual. TBH I think "facts" in this case are being presented in a way to inflame people.
No doubt that immigration puts pressure on the NHS but it also supplies vast numbers of workers who arrive here already trained and who have work visas. Just to put a context in 2023, 264,822 non-British national NHS staff in England, accounting for 18.7% of the total workforce, fewer than 30K arrived by boat in that same year and they will have been distributed around the UK not just in England. TBH I think we would be a morally poorer country if we refused medical care to people who need it because they have arrived on a small boat.

FGT and I often disagree about politics but I don’t see this OP as toxic. It’s a fact that over 1000 people are known to have arrived in 24 hours. More will have arrived on private yachts and quietly wandered up the beaches.

I loathe the screaming mobs, find some responses on here offensive. Dismissing so may genuine, thriughtful posters as liberal lefties who have taken over gransnet ? That’s not engaging in a debate about something the majority of posters see as a problem one facing all European countries

Smash the gangs was always going to be a tough, long term aim. Suggesting Starmer’s background as a human rights lawyer means he will prioritise the needs of people arriving in small boats is just daft

It’s becoming impossible to discuss difficult issues on this forum. Sadly, it seems to mirror the polarised shouting we see outside hotels housing people seeking to stay here

vast numbers of workers who arrive here already trained and who have work visas

But do the rubber dinghy arrivals have work visas? I understood most of them have no passports, paperwork, anything?

No one is talking about genuine applicants, who have proof of who they are, where from, what their skills are.

The point that I am making is that when the small boats are constantly and consistently described as the greatest threat to our society, we can understand how and why the violence, division and hatred witnessed on our streets- in the form of riots, racism and hatred at its worse and the more benign flag fluttering - has not emerged from a vacuum.

There has been a sustained campaign by political parties like Reform feeding into and from SM. This has resulted in certain groups seeing it as their national and patriotic duty to “protect our borders”. Fringe groups of extremists seize every chance to cause chaos and destruction.

That is why I see it as necessary to dial down the constant moral panic we see on these threads and SM more generally.

Rwanda was never going to work.

Its govenment representative, Yolande Makolo was interviewed by BBC’s Laura Kuenssberg just days before Sunak called the election last year. She said her country had only agreed to take 200 people from the UK. She refused to be drawn on how many more people it would take. Sunak was claiming it was 40,000.

In the run up to the election, Sunak was interviewed by Nick Robinson and claimed that people to be deported had already been detained and the planes and runways booked.

Robinson called his bluff and asked why he had not called the election after he had shown that his plan was working.

If the sentiments I read on here are anything to go by, the Tories would have won by a landslide. So why did he call the election when he did? The full term wasn’t up until the end of the year. Was it because he knew the scheme was a dead duck?

Just a month ago, on 5 August 2025, Makolo said Rwanda would accept up to 250 deportees from the US in a deal agreed with Trump's administration. A condition is that that Rwanda would have "the ability to approve each individual proposed for resettlement”.

This seems to be further proof that Rwanda was never going to take tens of thousands of people deported from the UK.

A couple of people on here have mentioned Starmer wanting these immigrants because it means more votes for the LP. I believe this too. I also believe as soon as they’re in and settled they will turn on the LP. That’s when the trouble will really start!

I was discussing the small boats topic with my friend from Tanzania. I have said many times that she is so angry that she had to conform to the rules to come here legally after she met her British husband. I asked her what would happen if I went on holiday with her to Tanzania and liked it so much I decided to stay. She could not stop laughing! She said “you wouldn’t even be allowed IN without a return ticket!” She is 100% against the illegal immigrants coming here.

Kandinsky

growstuff

Why don’t you start your own thread about the wonders & joy of 1000’s of young males arriving here year on year seeking asylum.
Fill it full of fantastic facts about how they contribute positively towards our economy & society.

Thank you.

Why should I? I don't think it's wonderful and joyful.

This is a straw man argument.

Calendargirl

^vast numbers of workers who arrive here already trained and who have work visas^

But do the rubber dinghy arrivals have work visas? I understood most of them have no passports, paperwork, anything?

No one is talking about genuine applicants, who have proof of who they are, where from, what their skills are.

Asylum seekers don't need to prove their skills.