Stand off drowning migrants and report – or face prosecution, sailors warned

MaizieD

The most recent one, Josieanne

Just checking, but you're having a laugh if you are referring to me. Before I come back with my answer is that "most recent one" meaning Kadinsky?

I think it's to do with jealousy and fear.

Hence all the mobile phones and "they might be terrorists" nonsense.

Patel has been disinvited to the talks about the problem because our PM has no idea how to behave in an international crisis.

Thank you Alegrias for the explanation. Your second line counts me out of being implicated as obsessed.

Kandinsky

GillT57
They do arrive with mobile phones.
They are put up in hotels at tax payers expense
And they don’t need to risk they’re lives coming here to feel safe. They’ve already travelled through 3 or 4 safe countries.
It’s completely unnecessary.
They want to come to the UK because it’s ‘better’ ( their words ) not safer.

The policy about migrants seeking asylum in the first safe country they reached was an EU one. The UK is no longer in the EU or hadn't you heard about Brexit?

I find the persistent comment that people seeking safe refuge should do so in the first safe country they reach infuriating. How smug to conclude that because we are an island, that people travelling from the war torn Middle East/Afghanistan, can only reach by travelling through other European countries - we don’t need to take anyone. Especially when we take fewer than other countries.

Josianne

MaizieD

The most recent one, Josieanne

Just checking, but you're having a laugh if you are referring to me. Before I come back with my answer is that "most recent one" meaning Kadinsky?

I wasn't going to name names; it often leads to accusations of bullying.

Apologies if you thought it meant you, Josieanne

Most of the responses to this disingenuous attempt ingratiate himself with his supporters have cheered me up a bit.

Not everyone is taken in.

mobile.twitter.com/BorisJohnson/status/1463973204456878080

No probs MaizieD I always look for that quote box to determine who is meant, but it was missing on this occasion.

GillT57

Well going by some of the threads I have been reading on FB tonight, I am ashamed to be British, I really did not realise that there were so many ghastly xenophobic people. All thr usual misinformation and ignorance that some of us have tried to correct on here..........."illegals/smart phones/living in luxury hotels at taxpayers expense/blah blah blah. Why let the truth get in the way of a good racist rant eh?

Yes, it can be a really depressing experience reading comments on Facebook. And not only comments about migrants; read any article that is examining the plight of our own native Brits who're impoverished by low-wages, unemployment, disability or whatever, and you will see the same sneering contempt, sometimes expressed with expletives and, too often, barely literate.

By comparison, Gransnet is quite civilised.

Why is there so much antagonism and hatred towards those who are less fortunate? Is it simply ignorance, lack of education? I don't think it's even down to that - there are those who've not had the benefit of a decent education and are naive but don't have a nasty bone in their body.

It seems like there's some inner rage within certain people, and God (or whoever) only knows where it comes from, or what motivates these individuals.

An accident of birth, good fortune - or the lack of it - is often what separates us. We like to think that our success in life is all down to our own individual effort and though that's true to some extent, external events over which we have little or no control, can change our lives at the drop of a hat.

The migrants in those boats are people, just like us, we could be them, but for the accident of birth.

... they are our problem, Europe's problem, the western world's problem, and the 'problem' is not going to go away. Yet, the largest burden of these displaced people is on those countries near and bordering their own - some of them still regarded as 'developing' countries. This is where 85% of migrants head to and live, in varying degrees of discomfort, in camps. They do not all want to come to the UK as the media would have you believe. Many live in hope that they will one day be able to return to their homeland.

Don't be ashamed to be British, be angry that we have had successive governments that have not been honest about the issue of asylum seekers / refugees / displaced people, but instead have used it as a political football, and keep coming up with knee-jerk solutions and short-term proposals that have, so far, done nothing to solve the crisis.

And now we have Johnson's letter, haven't read it yet. Apparently the French are furious, and have uninvited the Home Secretary to an important meeting. So much for Johnson 'doing his best'!

You can read it in the link I posted to it at 8:32.

Good post Dickens concentrating on the often neglected human aspect. We could indeed be them.

maddyone

I deleted my Facebook account. It’s a nasty place.

I’ve never had one maddyone.

On a separate note, French ministers say the UK lack of ID cards is contributing to this situation. Aspirational migrants are more able to find work in the black market over here one lady there said yesterday.

Regarding financial payments, we give £39 a week. France gives the equivalent of £40 in euros. Plus €7.40 per day for accommodation. However after 21 days France pays them almost €600 a month in lieu of work.

Summed up on Twitter.
"If you tried to write a letter designed to irritate France, this would be it:
1 self-congratulate and take moral high ground
2 make letter public, to enhance 1
3 tell France and EU to do more to patrol a border that the UK left EU in order to regain control over."

Mamie

Summed up on Twitter.
"If you tried to write a letter designed to irritate France, this would be it:
1 self-congratulate and take moral high ground
2 make letter public, to enhance 1
3 tell France and EU to do more to patrol a border that the UK left EU in order to regain control over."

Monsieur Macron and Mr Johnson are both posturing, trying to be top dog whilst these unfortunate souls continue to cross one of the busiest shipping lanes in the world.

I truly hope that there are no more deaths, but in all honesty I fear that there will be.

Perhaps the British Embassy in France could step-up and issue some sort of travel waiver and maybe organise coaches.

Something must be done URGENTLY

Just a quick comment about Facebook.

This morning my Facebook page is filled with pictures of Maine Coon cats and information about from my local wool shop. And a post from a friend who has just had a nice life changing event.

If your Facebook is full of people ranting about foreigners, its because these are the sort of people you know. Or your Facebook friends associate with them. Or you have interacted with a posting that supported that kind of thing.

There are infinitely more radical and ranting people on GN than I have ever seen on Facebook, and here, you can't unfriend them.

Thank you Dickens a great post.

The policy about migrants seeking asylum in the first safe country they reached was an EU one. The UK is no longer in the EU or hadn't you heard about Brexit?

I certainly have heard of Brexit. - shame you haven’t heard of the term non sequitur.

Have never had a Facebook account.

Not sure what you mean Granny Gravy13? There are already coaches provided by the French to take them to refuge centres all over France. The thousands of migrants already settled in France have taken this route to apply for asylum. The problem is that the ones who are determined to reach the UK abscond and go back to Calais again and again. This has been a problem for years.

I suppose the UK government might organise ferries to take them safely to England to have their cases heard? That would stop the people traffickers.

Mamie

There is another (longer) article here from John Lichfield, a journalist who has been covering the Calais migrant crisis for 24 years.
unherd.com/2021/11/the-calais-crisis-cant-be-solved/

His conclusion on who is to blame? We all are.

An interesting read Mamie.

“But there can be better management of the crisis. The French can, perhaps, try harder to block the beaches”

You bet.
Puncture the rubber dinghies perhaps before they are put in the water?
Use drones instead of gendarmes?

Alegrias1

Just a quick comment about Facebook.

This morning my Facebook page is filled with pictures of Maine Coon cats and information about from my local wool shop. And a post from a friend who has just had a nice life changing event.

If your Facebook is full of people ranting about foreigners, its because these are the sort of people you know. Or your Facebook friends associate with them. Or you have interacted with a posting that supported that kind of thing.

There are infinitely more radical and ranting people on GN than I have ever seen on Facebook, and here, you can't unfriend them.

I agree . I never get that sort of ranting stuff in my Facebook which I only use to keep up with news of “long lost” friends etc.

Johnson has made a (nother!) great error of judgement in publishing the letter he wrote to Macron as he sent it. This, + the covers of the UK Tabloids, and comments on said tabloids and articles, and social media (although I don't think the French Government or La Presse have caught up with GN just yet)... mean that discussions have broken down. Such complex issues need trust, cooperation- but the PM and tabloids have stirred up so much resentment in France- the French Governement, and the French people are furious at being blamed.

This in the context of Brexit (YES- no denying this) and the Australian contracts, etc- is an absolute disaster.

Kandinsky

*The policy about migrants seeking asylum in the first safe country they reached was an EU one. The UK is no longer in the EU or hadn't you heard about Brexit?*

I certainly have heard of Brexit. - shame you haven’t heard of the term non sequitur.

Pretty sure it is a ‘sequitur” actually.