So much for controlling immigration!

Surely if anyone comes into the country without express permission they are an illegal immigrant and NOT a migrant? Of course they should go back. I now, from bitter experience, that coffers are running dry for social car and the NHS. We are not a bottomless pit. Help should go to those who paid into the system. We are seen by too many as an easy touch.

The man in the t-shirt photobombed Farage.
T-shirt read 'Welcome immigrants. Deport racists"

If someone here says that their vote for Brexit was not due to them being racist, no one has the right to say otherwise Gill.

I voted for Brexit and I am not a racist and don't bother asking me why I voted the way I did because anything I say will be derided.

Been there, seen the film and got the bloody 'T' shirt.

JE, tell us about these hundreds of thousands please? Where are they all?

And still some insist that their Brexit vote was not because they are racist but we on GN know better because we read the ill informed hard hearted rants on a regular basis. Did anyone else see the man coming out of the tent where the Brexit party rally was being held? Andrew Neill was interviewing Farage and a man emerged, smirking, with a t shirt emblazoned with "immigration" , couldn't read the smaller text. Official looking woman in background huddled him away from the cameras.

It has been due to the EU immigrants who work as doctors, nurses, care workers, factory workers, agricultural workers, plumbers and scientists that our infrastructure has not broken down.

However you like to dress it up the fact remains that we simply can’t continue to take hundreds of thousands of migrants per year without our infrastructure breaking down.

It is NOT racist to state that fact.

They will continue to flood in here though, as long as we conveniently provide a water taxi service....

..have you ever bothered to speak to an immigrant JE?

Weren't we supposed to be over run by Bulgarians flooding in or was is Romanians.......any how, I see no evidence of the flood.

some African woman who turned up here

Weren't we talking about immigration?

What has some African woman got to do with it?

Did anyone say that emergency treatment should be denied Elegran?

Canucka We are!

I grew up in a wonderful country and now live in an equally wonderful one. I have two children. When they were young and dependant on me for their health and welfare, if I had been unfortunate enough to have lost the roll of the dice in life, and lived in a war-torn poverty-stricken sh*thole, I would have done ANYTHING to give them a better life. Some places I can't even travel to anymore as the poverty is so awful it haunts me for months afterwards (so much for my "dream trip" to Peru - what a nightmare). Add war, powercuts, fetid water and no hope to the mix. Those of us that live here are so so lucky.

These are the ONS figures from 2017. Apart from Poland, Ireland, Romania and Italy, EU countries don't even make it into the table of top 10 nationalities of immigrants.

The UK can't stop immigrants from Ireland. The UK could and still could stop immigration from India, Pakistan and Bangladesh and any other non-EU country. Leaving the EU won't make any difference, nor will it make any difference to so-called health tourists and illegal immigration from non-EU countries.

It's likely that more people will be classified as illegal immigrants. Some of these will be people who have lived here legally for decades, but can't find/don't have the paperwork to be granted settled status.

One of the biggest reasons people who aren't eligible access NHS care is because they are ex-pats, who return to the UK for health treatment, giving the address of a friend/relative or a property they still own but rent out.

Eligibility for NHS care depends on residency not nationality.

In any case, how does leaving the EU stop these kind of cases?

The Nigerian woman went into labour on a flight from Chicago to Heathrow. She had flown to America to have her quads, expected to be born 3 months later, but she was refused entry. One of the quads was stillborn, another died soon after birth. This was unplanned emergency treatment, which is not denied to those who need it. Do you feel it should be? That she should have been put onto another plane and sent to Nigeria, in labour, to lose all four babies in midair?

There is a very different side to maternity health care for asylum seekers (who are not "health tourists") Women have been known to be so afraid of being jailed that they don't register for maternity care under the NHS, although that is exempt from charges. They have been admitted to hospital already in labour, having had no prenatal care at all. pregnant asylum seekers afraid to seek medical care

PS second case was in January 2017

That sounded familiar to me JenniferEccles so I googled it and found that in August 2015 a London hospital announced it was no longer pursuing a Nigerian woman who gave birth to quads and never paid her bill of £250K.

There was another of a Nigerian woman who having given birth to quads in a London hospital, at the cost of £500k! left the country and has not been traced.

Just 2 cases admittedly but the cost to the NHS for these was huge.

MawB

No, it is no skin off our nose, but if hundreds of pregnant women from overseas followed suit, the paucity of maternity facilities and midwives might make a difference to women here giving birth.

2:35:34
Does anyone remember that case of some African woman who turned up here pregnant with quads. They were born here which cost the NHS many thousands. She has now gone back having not paid a penny and the authorities have no idea where she is

Actually, Jennifer Eccles I don’t.
But I am glad we were able to help another women give birth safely.
It’s no skin off your or my nose is it?

Maw

There are reasonable estimates, but there is a huge variation, which is why I stated that it's not possible to give a figure. However, people living here illegally have no recourse to the public purse. They are, quite literally, living undercover, parallel lives.

Seems to be the right place for this....

It could be millions for all I know, but if it were, I think we'd see them spilling over on to our streets or seeking healthcare or education. They have to eat, so where do they get their food from. Or their money to buy clothes, etc? It just isn't possible to hide millions of people.

Growstuff how on earth can you say the numbers of illegal immigrants here is tiny yet admit it is not known how many are here.

That makes no sense does it?

For all we know it could be millions