What is the answer here?

Emily Maitlis would be a good replacement for Andrew Marr but I don't think she is Tory enough or Brexity enough for the
Brexit Broadcasting Corporation.

On Newsnight they've just said that the overall number of asylum seekers had stayed much the same, it's just that fewer are coming by "traditional" routes which have been limited by the pandemic. It's just that the people coming now are more visible.

Emily Maitlis just told a government spokesman that they are running out of other people to blame. ?

You will never read this in the Torygraph or the Daily Wail or the Sun or the Express, but here are the facts about brexit and emigration.

Since the fraudulent referendum of 2016, many EU citizens have left the UK, but also many highly skilled British citizens have left to work in the EU. That is the Brexit Brain Drain.

Interesting article from the BBC News site

"The UK migrant dilemma - it's all about Brexit"

...given that the latest official figures suggest the UK currently has negative net migration - more people leaving than arriving - it is unlikely to be about numbers, especially for a country with more than a million job vacancies for the first time in its history.

www.bbc.co.uk/news/uk-59369179

Hmmm

Aspen

Even if they did arrive with all their documents we couldn't send many of them back to a countries Britain and American have bombed to hell.

Include Germany, France etc please.

We went into Irag, big mistake, but the man that sent us in been knighted, because we saw innocent people being hung from cranes, tortured and treated like animals, this is hard for us to witness. Unfortunately, we can’t change these countries, we can’t change the world, but the answer isn’t to bring all the people out of them, there are too many, if a country isn’t safe for those that get out, what is it like for those left behind do you think.. Years ago we wouldn’t know what was going on now it’s instant.

We are not bombing countries into hell Aspen, their own people are doing that. We support people who are being driven out and bombed and intimidated by their own people. Please get your facts straight.
Because we want people to stay with their own families and in their own culture doesn’t mean we have to have all those that can’t come here, their own country is where they should live and thrive, not here.

Even if they did arrive with all their documents we couldn't send many of them back to a countries Britain and American have bombed to hell.

I think this might be pertinent here:

www.theguardian.com/uk-news/2021/nov/20/home-office-covering-up-its-own-study-of-why-refugees-come-to-the-uk?CMP=Share_iOSApp_Other

Home Office minister Chris Philp has claimed that accepting asylum seekers who have travelled through Europe “creates a pull factor where migrants are incentivised to undertake dangerous and illegal journeys”.

Yet when the Home Office was asked for evidence to support its claims, it refused. A freedom of information response dated 28 October says the material could not be disclosed because it was “likely to inhibit the free and frank provision of advice and the free and frank exchange of views for the purposes of deliberation”.

Previous Home Office research into asylum seekers’ decision-making appears to undermine the pull factor argument for harsher policies. It says: “They [asylum seekers] are guided more by agents, the presence or absence of family and friends, language, and perceived cultural affinities than by scrutiny of asylum policies or rational evaluation of the welfare benefits on offer.”

It follows a report last week that highlighted misleading statements on asylum seekers by the home secretary, Priti Patel.

Analysis, partly based on Home Office data, shows that nearly two-thirds of people who cross the Channel in small boats are judged to be genuine refugees and allowed to remain – contradicting claims by Patel that 70% of small boats arrivals “are not genuine asylum seekers”.

He's not the chief of immigration for the Border Force,

He's a Chief Immigration Officer, which is a rank, I believe.

Unless he's been promoted in his retirement since he appeared on GB News earlier this year having a cosy chat with one Mr Farage. When he was referred to by the Daily Mail as a retired Border Force agent.

I'm sure he's very experienced at processing migrants; developing a fair UK migration strategy and commenting on international relations from an unbiased position; not so much.

He is hardly 'middle ranking' and is not blaming anyone. He is just explaining why so many people want to come here, because we are seen as a soft touch. He speaks with the voice of experience. There will be an endless stream of boat crossings and lives risked until an answer can be found.

Or alternatively "Middle ranking retired civil servant blames everyone else for his department being bad at their job"

Sarnia you are right. How can this go on. People must be absolutely desperate to try to get here. The answer is to help them in their own countries. We need to be sending assistance to countries/people in need. Of course we can't do it all but neither can we accept thousands of people, some of whom may be a threat to us. Where are they to go? How can we possibly house them all? I have heard that the smugglers tell them that Britain is like paradise and will welcome them.

So here we have quotes from Kevin Saunders, former chief immigration officer for the UK Border Force:
* the UK is very attractive to migrants because people know they're not going to be removed once they arrive.
*It's a real worry because we don't know who people are, because they destroy all their documents, they don't give us their right names, where they come from, or anything along those lines.
* 'The biggest draw is these people know everything in the United Kingdom is free, they are going to get education, medical treatment, money, accommodation, it's all a big, big draw.
* 'How many was it that we removed this year, was it five? Some 30,000 arrived and we removed five - not very good really, is it? They know that once they're in the UK they've won the jackpot.
* The most effective way would be to take all the people who have arrived in the UK to an offshore processing centre and deal with it offshore.

maddyone: 'Surely the system is too slow?' - exactly - the system here is broken and needs fixing asap. I don't like the victim blaming. It's often assumed that refugees have 'no right' to come here, when actually, they do:

'people who enter the UK by illegal means can legitimately make a claim for asylum, even after passing through other “safe” countries, provided they do so directly after arriving'

fullfact.org/immigration/can-refugees-enter-uk-illegally/

Apparently on Samos, the asylum seekers are given an 8pm curfew to return or face punishment for breaching the rules. Migrants can leave the camp but only if they use their fingerprints to pass through steel turnstile checkpoints so the camp authorities know who is on site at all times.

Surely this is a good system? Fair to all.

Under international law, asylum seekers cannot be detained and must be free to leave but our Home Office officials believe they could impose conditions to prevent them from absconding. Migrants would be incentivised to comply because breaches could be taken into account as part of their asylum application.

And using a digital app like the Greek system, so that migrants can check their status during application surely must be less stressful for them too? No one likes hanging around wondering what’s going on. It causes frustration and resentment. Communication is key and this system facilitates that.

Pritti Patel over in Greece.
She has been impressed by the way in which Greece has digitised its asylum application process from start to finish to track cases, speed up decisions and save millions on unnecessary paperwork.

We have the technology. It high time we harnessed it. Greece has set up camps on Samos, proving food, shelter and medical provision.. At last. A plan perhaps.

Nobody should be sleeping on the pavement whether they are UK born, immigrants or refugees.

One of the few things that our awful government did well in the last two years was to get people off the streets when covid struck.

Some of the poor folk who were moved from the street to a hostel or hotel said they thought they'd died and gone to heaven.

It proved that if there is political will it can be done.

I do totally agree with you Allsorts even down to the expensive cancer treatment, add to that one hip replacement + another in the pipeline and probably more to come on the cancer front. All this in the last ten years and yes I do have much loved grandchildren, one of whom has just moved into a tiny flat costing her and her young man a small fortune. I do worry for all three of them.

We need to prioritise enabling refugees to settle here and work ASAP.

Surely the system is too slow. Asylum seekers spend years waiting for a decision. I think I’m right in saying that they are unable to work during this process. Asylum should be granted or not much more quickly, then people would be able to work, or return to their country of origin if asylum is not applicable. The process is too slow. We need workers and they’re not allowed to work. Crazy.

The increase in the population of the UK went up by 284,000 last year. People emigrate.

The strain on the NHS is huge. Maybe we could run it better and use the skills of the people who come here to help us do that?

Your ideas have no basis whatsoever in fact. And I don't have any grandchildren.

I agree with every word of your post Dickens.

With over 700 thousand resettling in uk in one year, 280 thousand homeless already and 250thousand empty homes you can see how the figures add up. Walk round any town youngsters, could be your grandchildren sleeping on pavements, it breaks your heart. They need hostels and help, there are not enough. NHS treat that many different illnesses now some exceptionally costly, ivf, one round over £5000 . The strain on the nhs is too great, not what us was designed for all those years ago. My husband had cancer treatment unheard of 20 years ago. What we are doing us unsustainable, when it’s gone its truly gone. Look after whom we have that’s breaking.

Too many spelling errors to correct this morning...but you know what I mean