Gransnet forums

News & politics

Claim that 550m refugees entered the UK since 2015...

(40 Posts)
CvD66 Tue 11-Jul-23 20:59:46

…where the population is a mere 68.9m! Statement in HOC today by Anna Firth (Tory MP Southend): May have a Durham degree and be a Barrister - but can’t get her figures right. Or is it part of the government’s effort to stir up hatred against refugees!?!

GrannyGravy13 Tue 11-Jul-23 21:14:56

Source please

Oreo Tue 11-Jul-23 21:15:14

Thousand not million😄
Mind you lots of MP’s get their numbers mixed up and from all political parties.I remember a Labour front bench MP who just about never got her numbers right bless her.😁

GrannyGravy13 Tue 11-Jul-23 21:27:45

That makes sense, Anna is following in David Ames footsteps and is very much involved in local matters, and appears to be present at lots of H of P debates.

Freya5 Tue 11-Jul-23 22:06:47

The latest available published statistics show that between 2015 and December 2022, just under half a million (481,804) people were were offered safe and legal routes into the UK via the following: 49,667 people have been resettled or relocated, of which 21,387 were through ACRS and ARAP as of the end of December 2022.23 Feb 2023
www.gov.uk › statistics › ho...
How many people do we grant protection to? - GOV.UK
Just under, still these people manage to get here legally, good on them. My town is 160,000 or thereabouts, so nearly three new towns of this size and more if these numbers keep arriving.

MerylStreep Tue 11-Jul-23 22:08:14

I think the companies who manage the sewage plants might dispute that.
They are the people who have the closest estimate of the population.

Primrose53 Tue 11-Jul-23 22:49:16

GrannyGravy13

That makes sense, Anna is following in David Ames footsteps and is very much involved in local matters, and appears to be present at lots of H of P debates.

What a lovely man David Ames was. he had the most kind face and voice. I hope he is resting in peace.

Freya5 Wed 12-Jul-23 06:28:38

MerylStreep

I think the companies who manage the sewage plants might dispute that.
They are the people who have the closest estimate of the population.

Pardon, are you accusing me of lying.

Grantanow Wed 12-Jul-23 09:46:33

We need more immigrants to staff the NHS and other services, public and private.

Blossoming Wed 12-Jul-23 10:24:52

Anna did say 550 million but it was a slip of the tongue. We have all made those occasionally.

Freya5 Wed 12-Jul-23 13:33:13

Grantanow

We need more immigrants to staff the NHS and other services, public and private.

No we need to improve salaries, go back to free training, dont forget these students work on their placements, they dont just follow, with a proviso of 3 years working in NHS post qualifying, to gain further experience, improve working g conditions and encourage more home grown people to enter this career.

pinkquartz Wed 12-Jul-23 13:45:35

we do need more workers for the NHS and other services but why not train peoplewho are already here?
It is not good to "steal" trained staff from oher countries who also need more workers?

Primrose53 Wed 12-Jul-23 16:00:49

Grantanow

We need more immigrants to staff the NHS and other services, public and private.

No we don’t and we shouldn’t be poaching them from their own countries.

We need to really invest in training more nurses and doctors in this country. There are some great young people out there who would love to train but there are not enough places.

My friend’s daughter wanted to train as a midwife. She is really bright, very kind and sensible and had 3 children herself. She applied and there were well over 100 people applying for just 5 places. She got right down to the final few and just missed out. she was heartbroken.

foxie48 Wed 12-Jul-23 16:08:54

Primrose53

Grantanow

We need more immigrants to staff the NHS and other services, public and private.

No we don’t and we shouldn’t be poaching them from their own countries.

We need to really invest in training more nurses and doctors in this country. There are some great young people out there who would love to train but there are not enough places.

My friend’s daughter wanted to train as a midwife. She is really bright, very kind and sensible and had 3 children herself. She applied and there were well over 100 people applying for just 5 places. She got right down to the final few and just missed out. she was heartbroken.

I agree we need more training places for midwives, there is a huge shortage, people train and then leave due to "burnout" even before Covid there was a shortage of 2K and that has increased. I also agree we should poach trained people from other countries but if they are refugees there are reasons why they don't want to work in their own country. Surely it's better to use their skills than not?

foxie48 Wed 12-Jul-23 16:09:24

"shouldn't" poach!

Anniel Wed 12-Jul-23 16:58:21

We certainly need more workers in the UK, but how many of the immigrants crossing the channel have the qualifications and experience to be doctors and nurses or would be suitable for an ancillary role in the NHS. The matter of immigration is very important. We need workers but I would prefer training for people already in UK. I know the accepted status of refugees, but this island nation has overpopulated cities and our country is very small. It is not in France’s interest to stop the immigrants at the coast from leaving. I cannot think of any method that would control this desperate situation. You may not agree with any controls, but there is a very big problem and there seems to be no solution. And please do not start calling me a “racist” because that is simplistic and truly a lie.

pen50 Thu 13-Jul-23 11:40:22

The original post was about refugees, not all immigrants. Based on the figures, refugees seem to constitute 5-10% of total net immigration. Any population growth, wheresoever it comes from, will place strain on infrastructure.

NotSpaghetti Thu 13-Jul-23 11:45:45

Is the clue in the word offered safe and legal routes.
Hong Kong for example could count for many many thousands of these "offers".

jane1956 Thu 13-Jul-23 11:46:22

tax payers have to fund these small boats arrivals needs stopping

Cossy Thu 13-Jul-23 11:49:38

Please remember that there’s a huge difference between asylum seekers, economic migrants and the Roma gypsies/travellers whom all make their way to this country. Yes we lost a lot of EU workers due to Brexit, many of whom worked in the NHS or carers and yes we need a strategy/policy to contain/control immigration of all types, whilst ensuring we maintain a balanced workforce and filling our thousands of nursing, doctor and teaching vacancies. Our current govt have had over 12 years to resolve these issues

Cossy Thu 13-Jul-23 11:51:19

Freya5

Grantanow
We need more immigrants to staff the NHS and other services, public and private.
No we need to improve salaries, go back to free training, dont forget these students work on their placements, they dont just follow, with a proviso of 3 years working in NHS post qualifying, to gain further experience, improve working g conditions and encourage more home grown people to enter this career.

Could not agree more Freya5

orly Thu 13-Jul-23 13:09:26

Anniel

We certainly need more workers in the UK, but how many of the immigrants crossing the channel have the qualifications and experience to be doctors and nurses or would be suitable for an ancillary role in the NHS. The matter of immigration is very important. We need workers but I would prefer training for people already in UK. I know the accepted status of refugees, but this island nation has overpopulated cities and our country is very small. It is not in France’s interest to stop the immigrants at the coast from leaving. I cannot think of any method that would control this desperate situation. You may not agree with any controls, but there is a very big problem and there seems to be no solution. And please do not start calling me a “racist” because that is simplistic and truly a lie.

I agree with you entirely, Anniel, even down to the worry of being called a "racist".

I agree with all the other posters too about the poaching of foreign trained medical staff like the Ghanaian nurses who train in Ghana then move here to earn more than at home this depriving their own health service of quality staff

Trurider1 Thu 13-Jul-23 14:38:30

Proof Required. Statements mean nothing without proof.

maddyone Thu 13-Jul-23 23:52:34

Perhaps we could make a start by paying the doctors more and then they might stop leaving to go to work in countries where they are valued properly. Ditto the midwives and nurses. Then we could also fund enough training places so that we have sufficient staff and therefore don’t need to poach from other countries. I’m sorry, but I simply don’t believe that a high proportion of the migrants arriving on boats are qualified doctors and dentists, midwives and nurses. There are legitimate routes for them to arrive. The people on the boats are economic migrants.

maddyone Thu 13-Jul-23 23:57:01

Trueider when I was in hospital with Covid in 2021, one of the nurses who helped to treat me was from Ghana and she had only arrived at the beginning of Covid. I thought her mother must be out of her mind with worry about her daughter working on a Covid ward in Britain at the height of the pandemic.
Not only was she a wonderful nurse, she was absolutely beautiful. We poached her from Ghana.