People blocking Lifeboat Stations.

So if the lifeboats are prevented from leaving port, would that mean that no boatloads of refugees will set off across the Channel? Is that the twisted thinking behind those attempts by people with empty heads to block them in? They are wrong - the rickety boats will continue to leave the French coast and people will try to get here via trains, undercarriages of planes, boots of private cars, behind consignments in lorries, any way they can get out of their own countries.
Just stop and think for a moment. You might be fed up with things in this country, but how much would it take for you to dress your children in all the clothes you could, empty your larder into a suitcase to eat on the road, and leave your home? If you want to know WHY people forsake their homes, watch the news without turning off the nasty bits.

And how will the over-stretched NHS cope with thousands of extra citizens?

Maybe by employing them to fill the open posts?

Honestly, its getting Kafkaesque on here...

Have a look at the link I gave previously www.bognorregisbeach.co.uk/live-shipping-map-english-channel Click on the minus - sign to zoom out and see more of the Channel and the waters around the UK,. It is like Piccadilly Circus for shipping of all sizes and nationalities. Imagine the loss of life that could happen if the RNLI didn't turn out without asking who it is in danger

Alegrias1

^And how will the over-stretched NHS cope with thousands of extra citizens?^

Maybe by employing them to fill the open posts?

Honestly, its getting Kafkaesque on here...

I understand that the NHS has some 98,000 unfilled posts. It would take a lot of refugees to fill them. More than we get at present...

Yes, I know this is rhetoric rather than a practical suggestion, but there are many highly qualified people coming in on those flimsy boats.

(To complicate this narrative of evil people smugglers/traffickers, I have read that some refugee families club together to buy their boats. No evil gangs involved...)

Frence maritime law is broken by the french every time one of these migrants over crowded un sea worthy boats is launched but no one blames the french for breaking their own laws or not stopping the boats before they reach british waters which they should be doing then maybe we would have less coming here

Maybe it's me, I am not usually given to being negative and depressed. I am anxious about the new covid variant, but I feel as if every item on todays list here is depressing and negative.

bear1

Frence maritime law is broken by the french every time one of these migrants over crowded un sea worthy boats is launched but no one blames the french for breaking their own laws or not stopping the boats before they reach british waters which they should be doing then maybe we would have less coming here

That's not true.

You don't get to say a law is being broken just because you don't like what other people are doing. That's not how it works. Sheesh.

The RNLI deserve the same legislation as any other emergency service, namely it is an offence to obstruct or impede emergency service in the execution of duty.

Trouble is most are economic migrants and until they land here cannot not be processed as genuine refugees.In the meantime they stay, are paid, fed and found accomadation and we the tax payer pay for the lawyers to fight for their right to stay in this country and very few are ever deported.
We as a country are being taken for mugs.Try and do the same in any other country and see where it gets you.In Autralia they turned the boats round and the refugees threw their children in the water thinking the immigration authorities would fish them out instead they watched the parents fished them out eventually and turned round a few months of that they stopped coming they got the message.
Sorry l dont agree with all of you but everyone is entitled to their opinion.

Trouble is most are economic migrants Not true.

until they land here cannot not be processed as genuine refugees Same for everybody regardless of their status.

we the tax payer pay Somebody earlier this week worked out it was 9p per tax payer per day. Less than we pay for the Windsors.

Try and do the same in any other country and see where it gets you. It would get you treated as a human being.

In Autralia...etc etc. All wrong. They didn't stop coming and Australia interred them on an island where many of them went insane.

everyone is entitled to their opinion. But the odd fact wouldn't go amiss.

Elvis. “Most are economic migrants”. That’s a fact is it ???

H1954

The RNLI deserve the same legislation as any other emergency service, namely it is an offence to obstruct or impede emergency service in the execution of duty.

It is an offence.

www.legislation.gov.uk/ukpga/2006/39

Nothing but respect for the RNLI. Can see though how some may be anti them at the moment. During conversation with about 10 females on Monday, subject of the progress of new housing currently being built. Two youngish ones uttered how disappointed they were as tgey thought they would be passed by as refugees were being given housing once complete. Area has just accepted refugees two months ago, currently in a Travel Lodge nearby. Two young women felt they could be given new housing and refugees could move into whatever they are vacating. No one could come up with a defence for the refugees/new housing scenario. Must add no one said they didn't want refugees.

bear1

Frence maritime law is broken by the french every time one of these migrants over crowded un sea worthy boats is launched but no one blames the french for breaking their own laws or not stopping the boats before they reach british waters which they should be doing then maybe we would have less coming here

I'm not French and it's none of my business what the French do.

By any chance, do you have a reference for the relevant section of French maritime law which is being broken?

Some of the responses on here!
How many of you have actually met or spoken to some of these people?

Our local village (central France) has two Syrian families- grandparents, parents, children. They lived in Aleppo- fled to Damascus where they lived in a tent in a park before making it to France. Why did they flee? The grandfather told us how he was fought by Isis fighters and tied to a lamp post, had petrol poured over him- he escaped when they left to chase another man and his neighbour managed to u tie him before they returned. Others not so lucky were burned alive. Rasha told me how her brother’s girlfriend was captured, raped by multiple men then beaten to death. Their home was reduced to a pile of rubble. There’s more, but you get the picture.

At my language class there was a group of African young men, who had all been relocated from the camps at Calais. Some were fleeing the many wars, some hoping for a better life away from the grinding poverty of their country, one I think was escaping because he was gay (punished by death there). They were just ordinary people- the only difference between them and us is we are lucky to be born in a rich, peaceful and free country.
I asked them why the UK? They all spoke some English, a lot had friends or family living there, many had paid people smugglers who had convinced them the U.K. is paved with gold.

You might not like these refugees- you might think they should stay and fight, or that they are too different, being black, or Muslim, or not speaking your language but would you really see them drown? Watch as their lungs fill with water?

4allweknow

Nothing but respect for the RNLI. Can see though how some may be anti them at the moment. During conversation with about 10 females on Monday, subject of the progress of new housing currently being built. Two youngish ones uttered how disappointed they were as tgey thought they would be passed by as refugees were being given housing once complete. Area has just accepted refugees two months ago, currently in a Travel Lodge nearby. Two young women felt they could be given new housing and refugees could move into whatever they are vacating. No one could come up with a defence for the refugees/new housing scenario. Must add no one said they didn't want refugees.

Which countries do they think should take refugees?

We have to think about why people strive to reach this tiny island close to the North Pole, when they have travelled through so many other countries where they could claim asylum. I cannot begin to imagine how bad life has to be before you leave everything you know and likely pay everything you have to a trafficker to get you out of whatever hell hole your home country has become, but - why Britain above all others? Surely it cannot be so terrible to claim refugee status in Europe when the other option is a tiny unsafe craft and the freezing English Channel in winter?

To continue from my last post- while I have every sympathy for the young men in my language class, at least half were “economic migrants” - and no, I don’t think Europe can accept just every one who wants to move for a better life.

Once they arrive in France, asylum seekers are entitled to benefit-€14.20 per day (€99.40 per week). They are housed, the lads were all in a local hostel and they have to attend (and take tests which they have to pass ) French language classes.
None of them believed me when I told them how much an asylum seeker gets in the UK: £39.63 per week.

France last year took in 436,100
The U.K., 132,349 with 77,245 pending assessment.
Germany over a million.

There are so many people around the world in such terrible conditions, I do not know what the answer is. But we should at the very least treat them with compassion and kindness.

Of course they're reporting that it's the English! It's never them is it? It's not the French refusing to organise joint endeavours to prevent the traffic and set up a processing centre in France? It's never the other countries that treat these people so very badly that they think UK is their only option? It's not the childish action of uninviting Patel to the party? Until these halfwits on BOTH sides start thinking like sensibly intelligent adults and seek to seriously solve this issue the same old pathetic behaviour will continue! How bout: a processing centre on a massive international waters floating centre where if anyone is not qualifying they can then be returned to Europe, this is a European issue not just between UK and France! What IS Germany as the bankers of Europe doing to help its partners in Europe process asylum applications? Nothing apparently. Same issues in Italy/Greece/Poland and Europe is screamingly silent on the solutions front............quel suprise!

"The infrastructure is already sadly lacking! Where will they live? Which schools will their children attend? And how will the over-stretched NHS cope with thousands of extra citizens?"

Interesting comment Libra10.

Maybe if the Government had a plan - of any description it would help them consider how this settlement might be achieved without the current divisive and inhuman rhetoric.

Maybe if the Government spent more on public services - bet it health, education or even the crumbling electricity, water and rail infrastructures it might help.

Ps as long as the Europeans can shove everyone over the channel they're happy to do nothing , it's not their problem they're glad to put it all on us, so why would They stop the traffic if it's running in the opposite direction? God forbid they have to actually deal with a serious humanitarian crisis, after all they have a track k record from the Holocaust to protect....... We didn't hand over UK Jews we helped them bring their families over as well including my dad both sets of "olds"! And my 2 aunts! It can be done if one really wants to.

But they don't shove them all over the channel.

"France last year took in 436,100
The U.K., 132,349 with 77,245 pending assessment.
Germany over a million.
Once they arrive in France, asylum seekers are entitled to benefit-€14.20 per day (€99.40 per week). They are housed, the lads were all in a local hostel and they have to attend (and take tests which they have to pass ) French language classes.
None of them believed me when I told them how much an asylum seeker gets in the UK: £39.63 per week." Goldencity Thu 02-Dec-21 13:05:33

I don't think anyone WANTS these facts about what other countries do for refugees or give them or how the UK compares. They just want their own prejudices confirmed. Why do we bother trying to let some light into the murky depths?

Fighting a losing battle Elegran

Mummer

Of course they're reporting that it's the English! It's never them is it? It's not the French refusing to organise joint endeavours to prevent the traffic and set up a processing centre in France? It's never the other countries that treat these people so very badly that they think UK is their only option? It's not the childish action of uninviting Patel to the party? Until these halfwits on BOTH sides start thinking like sensibly intelligent adults and seek to seriously solve this issue the same old pathetic behaviour will continue! How bout: a processing centre on a massive international waters floating centre where if anyone is not qualifying they can then be returned to Europe, this is a European issue not just between UK and France! What IS Germany as the bankers of Europe doing to help its partners in Europe process asylum applications? Nothing apparently. Same issues in Italy/Greece/Poland and Europe is screamingly silent on the solutions front............quel suprise!

Correct me if I'm wrong but Europe is a collection of sovereign states - where/how on earth can Germany be described as the "bankers of Europe".

Maybe check the statistics about the other countries too - they continue to do far more than the UK.

It seems like the UK always only focusses on cash, has no desire to participate, or work in collaboration with others, but has decided that there must be someone else to blame, and someone else the UK can declare as the culprit.

That is so very, very sad.