More immigrants crossing the Channel

Nothing much to do with the present situation but some of you might find this a thought provoking story.

It begins...

Short thread on events of 7 March 1991, when the 90,000 people of Brindisi woke up to find 25,000 Albanians roaming the streets of their town. For perspective, that's roughly equivalent to 25k people suddenly landing in Hastings...

threadreaderapp.com/thread/1292491110821109762.html

I would suspect that most of us are children of migrants way way back .
Thank goodness for the caring attitude of some posters. I despair about the callous posts of others,probably prompted by the right wing press.Please read the writing ""first of all they came for ..." by Martin Niermoller and you may see how dangerous your attitudes are.
I do agree with biba 70 .,geekesse, Maisie Dand craftyone and ask some of the others to stop, sit down and think what would you do ?

craftyone asks - "How many of you are children or grandchildren of migrants? Quite a few I should think."

It is also true that many of our own children and grandchildren have migrated to other countries. In fact I would say that this is true of more than half of my friends.

The difference is that our family members have been fortunate enough to migrate legally, They were not fleeing war or persecution and were not exploited by people traffickers.

geekesse

*Urmstongran’*, you refer to human beings as ‘illegals’. Really? Really?? Sociologists who study genocide have shown that the first step towards genocide is to get the population to dehumanise people by using this kind of terminology. First, use terms that diminish their humanity. Then show that we humans have priority over these sub-humans. That means it’s ok to abuse, terrorise and kill them.

I despair.

Absolutely, but I despair of the utter lack of humanity of so many posters on this forum.

world migration can never be stopped, there are numerous reasons to want to change country, escape persecution, economic, wanting an education, health care, escape from heat and starvation etc etc. Migration has always gone on and always will. Immigration needs to be better managed in this country and that includes not being allowed to form ghettos from which they will never integrate,

How many of you are children or grandchildren of migrants? Quite a few I should think.

Hear, hear, geekesse?

Urmstongran’, you refer to human beings as ‘illegals’. Really? Really?? Sociologists who study genocide have shown that the first step towards genocide is to get the population to dehumanise people by using this kind of terminology. First, use terms that diminish their humanity. Then show that we humans have priority over these sub-humans. That means it’s ok to abuse, terrorise and kill them.

I despair.

A few hundred people will have no effect at all on British Economy, etc. BUT.....the effect of staying her for those people will be life changing

MerylStreep

An MP talking on the radio this morning put forward the idea of taking France to court under ^enabeling people to commit a criminal act^

I don't think that what they are doing is illegal. Anyone can get in a boat and take it wherever they want to. Whether they are allowed to land in another country when they get there is a rather different matter.

Asylum seekers are 'allowed', and no, they are not legally obliged to seek asylum in the first 'safe' country they land in.

Geographical size of country isn’t the point, Sweden takes more in than the U.K. btw. if size of country was the important factor why not just send them to Australia or a Brazil. Also most don’t get benefits- it’s the lack of regulation in employment we need to tackle, and cooperating with other countries to stop people trafficking plus helping poor countries develop to stop the migration in the first place.

Your map btw, is 50% right - they leave because of war ...

Reading through the posts on this thread, I get the impression that most of us are not in sympathy with the migrants and want the government to do something to put a stop to them. So why do so many people condemn President Trump for wanting to build a wall across the border with Mexico?

We all claim, I think- that we tried to be the best parents we could. And the question is, if I lived in a country which is being bombed, where people are herded into concentration camps or similar, where my children are hungry, starving even and have no chance of an education, healthcare or a future - what would I do? I know the answer.

What would you do Firecracker?

Others have done before when persecuted, Huguenots, Jews, Kenyan asians in the mid 70s - at first they were all treated like dirt by a section of the population- many have contributed massively to our Nation in 1000s of ways.

An MP talking on the radio this morning put forward the idea of taking France to court under enabeling people to commit a criminal act

Many a true word spoken in jest!

Over 6,000 homeless veterans, who have given their service to our country will be sleeping rough on our streets tonight

Nealry 48,000 illegal migrants, who haven't given anything to our country will be sleeping in 3/4/5 Star Hotels tonight.

The UK in 2020 ?‍♀️?

Firecracker123

No need to wonder why they come here

Not if they're here illegally, in which case they can't claim benefits. Benefits for legal immigrants are actually more generous in countries such as Germany and France.

Any other reasons?

Thank you NotSpaghetti it does indeed. This is such a conundrum. I think we need to go back to the drawing board, get some brains on the case to thrash something out.

Cruise ships anchored in our waters are being looked at as are converting 5 prisons enabling these migrants to stay in one place and be processed properly and fairly.

No need to wonder why they come here

No, Urmstongran the issue of the waters in the channel is that it's SO narrow that UK waters actually MEET the French. This is a particularly difficult thing for the sort of policing you would like to see.

Basically, if an unsafe boat is discovered in the French water they have an obligation to prevent loss of life. The numbers of vessels they return to France has gone up year on year.
Likewise, we have responsibility if they are found in our waters. These are the ones we "escort" to prevent loss of life.

This, on the surface of it is clear and straightforward, BUT, because there is NO international water in the middle we can't push anyone anywhere as we would then be in French jurisdiction.

Hope this clears up some misunderstandings.

So Australia isn’t as nasty as some like to say? That’s good to hear. It must just be the boats of illegal immigrants they turn around. Our Border Force could learn a thing or two. Maybe come January we will. Or cut down on some of the carrots that entice illegals to risk a crossing.

Why do they all want to come here, so many just disappear into almost slave labour. Sort that out and it won’t be a problem. It suits France to pass the problem on.

In 2019, only 0.5% of the world’s refugees were resettled anywhere

Canada, US and Australia all settle many more refugees as a proportion of population than the UK.
www.weforum.org/agenda/2019/06/canada-now-leads-the-world-in-refugee-resettlement-surpassing-the-u-s/

vegansrock Just pointing out that we are a much smaller country than all of those you mention above.