The Refugee Ship

I think it's a bit rich to expect any plan for all Europe when we have just voted ourselves out of any European policies.
There have always been waves of immigration in the UK. There have always been awful warnings about the threat they posed to us.
And guess what? It seldom happened. In fact immigration has brought us huge diversity in all areas, food, culture, business and every day life. Our lives are richer for it.

Actually we are 7 million a day poorer housing and paying for them 😮

Nicenanny3

Actually we are 7 million a day poorer housing and paying for them 😮

Tell us your solution for the current situation Nicenanny3, I’d be interested to know what, in the absence of the Rwanda plan implementation, you think should happen now?

Glorianny

I think it's a bit rich to expect any plan for all Europe when we have just voted ourselves out of any European policies.
There have always been waves of immigration in the UK. There have always been awful warnings about the threat they posed to us.
And guess what? It seldom happened. In fact immigration has brought us huge diversity in all areas, food, culture, business and every day life. Our lives are richer for it.

I think it's a bit rich to expect any plan for all Europe when we have just voted ourselves out of any European policies.

Well, quite. But with or without us, the EU will still have to deal with the matter of immigration. We can either 'sign-up' - or not - with whatever policies are put in place, if we are invited.

Some of us still consider ourselves as being part of Europe.

Yes there have always been waves of immigration Glorianny, but not in the vast numbers we are experiencing now. And previous waves of immigrants haven’t been wholly supported by the state, other than unaccompanied children of course such as arrived on the kinder transport.

09:25Casdon

Nicenanny3

Actually we are 7 million a day poorer housing and paying for them 😮

Tell us your solution for the current situation Nicenanny3, I’d be interested to know what, in the absence of the Rwanda plan implementation, you think should happen now?

If only I had a say unfortunately all I have is my one vote in a General Election. I'd turn back the boats stop them from entering our waters for a start but unfortunately that's not going to happen our government is weak and if Starmer wins the next election it will become weaker.

So which party is going to stop this influx Nicenanny? I don’t see any signs of any but the Conservatives being willing to take tough, unpopular measures.

We are still part of Northern Europe Glorianny. We are still part of what’s an international problem. I may not share GSM’s views on this issue but I agree with her that positive action is needed

Nicenanny3

09:25Casdon

Nicenanny3

Actually we are 7 million a day poorer housing and paying for them 😮

Tell us your solution for the current situation Nicenanny3, I’d be interested to know what, in the absence of the Rwanda plan implementation, you think should happen now?

*If only I had a say unfortunately all I have is my one vote in a General Election. I'd turn back the boats stop them from entering our waters for a start but unfortunately that's not going to happen our government is weak and if Starmer wins the next election it will become weaker.*

I'd turn back the boats stop them from entering our waters for a start

Can you not see that, physically and practically, that would be damned near impossible? How do you think we would do this? Have armies of people wading out to turn the boats around and possibly engaging in an act that would see those in the craft drown? Or fight to come ashore - in which case we'd have to - what - shoot them?

There has to be a policy and a strategy, and it would be better if it was co-ordinated Europe-wide.

It's all very well saying Sunak and Starmer are 'weak', but they are or will be faced with a difficult situation. And, as we are prominent on the world stage - we cannot simply physically "turn back the boats" and create a situation which might result in the death - of either the immigrants or one of those co-opted to push them back out to sea again.

That's the problem isn't none of the main stream parties, the Reform Party would sort immigration out but unfortunately I don't think they would win a General Election. Labour voted against the Illegal Migration Bill and Rwanda so I think if they get in the floodgates will open even more. I'm in a Conservative safe seat Tatton and I hope it stays that way.

Iam64

We are still part of Northern Europe Glorianny. We are still part of what’s an international problem. I may not share GSM’s views on this issue but I agree with her that positive action is needed

... exactly.

DickensCan you not see that, physically and practically, that would be damned near impossible? How do you think we would do this? Have armies of people wading out to turn the boats around and possibly engaging in an act that would see those in the craft drown? Or fight to come ashore - in which case we'd have to - what - shoot them?

Seems to me RNLI and Border Force have no trouble finding them and ferrying them to Dover

Seems to me RNLI and Border Force have no trouble finding them and ferrying them to Dover

Like a taxi service?

I would like to see the navy patrolling the channel en masse and turning boats back. They have the ability to fire warning shots which would hurt nobody but show that we mean business.

Could they not also have boats providing accomodation for homeless people ? Or is that too hard ?

Nicenanny3

*Dickens*Can you not see that, physically and practically, that would be damned near impossible? How do you think we would do this? Have armies of people wading out to turn the boats around and possibly engaging in an act that would see those in the craft drown? Or fight to come ashore - in which case we'd have to - what - shoot them?

*Seems to me RNLI and Border Force have no trouble finding them and ferrying them to Dover*

I don't know about the Border Force - haven't investigated much how they operate, but no-one who signs-up to volunteer in the RNLI is going to agree to a situation where they decide whether or not to let people drown. It is not the RNLI's job to police our waters - that is up to the Border Force - entirely.

When you volunteer to save lives at sea - it's a blanket operation and will therefore include rescuing those you'd rather they didn't.

I might be mistaken, but I don't think RNLI volunteers want to become 'police patrol' boats. And, if you don't approve, you are not compelled to donate.

nanna8

Could they not also have boats providing accomodation for homeless people ? Or is that too hard ?

'They' could. They could also provide accommodation for some from spare converted containers. In fact they could do quite a lot for homeless people.

The question is more - do they want to? Even without the immigration situation, I'm not convinced it's a pressing priority with government.

11:54Dickens

I wasn't suggesting RNLI could become Police Patrol Boats you said that, I was making the point that they have no trouble finding them and ferrying them ashore so if they can find them Patrol Boats could and turn them back and no I don't donate to RNLI and I believe their donations have fallen dramatically because of their actions (ie they have become the last part of the chain, starting with the criminal smuggling gangs and ending with them picking them up)

54Beetlejuice

Seems to me RNLI and Border Force have no trouble finding them and ferrying them to Dover

Like a taxi service?

That's exactly what they have become

The question is more - do they want to? Even without the immigration situation, I'm not convinced it's a pressing priority with government.

I'd agree with that Dickens. In a small market town, just a couple of miles away from me, the student halls accommodation has been commandeered for asylum seekers. The students were told to clear out all their belongings of personal stuff and bring it all back when the next semester starts. This has also been applied to those students from overseas, who hadn't intended to go home for the summer vacation and are now homeless. The asylum seekers arriving in such vast numbers is having hugely disruptive and distressing impact on ordinary people just trying to live their lives. Little wonder communities are rebelling and protesting at the disruption to their lives; sympathy is wearing thin.

Of course it’s true that the problem lies with the smugglers/traffickers and I can’t help wondering how much effort is spent in tracking them down and prosecuting them.
Obviously it can’t be easy and as it’s such a hugely profitable ‘business’ these criminals will of course go to great lengths to keep it going.

It shouldn’t be beyond the wit of the entire European continent to defeat them though, surely?

toscalily

If you are the proprietor of a hotel, B&B, holiday home, small business in a seaside town your customers, and therefore your income will be mainly during the summer you might be accepting of some immigration into your town but when you start getting cancellations as people decide it is not a safe/comfortable place to take a holiday, when you see your livelihood going down the drain you may start to feel less welcoming.

And, I can see that providing buses several times an hour isn't going to go down too well either when you may only get one a day if you are lucky in a rural area. The infrastructure is just not there to accommodate such large groups of men and I do not think it is scaremongering to be voicing these concerns.

That is already happening in Weymouth. No-one wants to be worrying about safety of teenage daughters or sons, who are wanting to spend the day on the beach

I won`t mention the superior healthcare destined for barge occupants

November 2022

Nurses living in two hotels are being forced to move out to make way for asylum seekers, a hospital has claimed.
York Hospital hires rooms at two city centre hotels for overseas nurses and said it would struggle to find alternative accommodation.

The Home Office, however, said it had not given notice to nurses to leave.

A spokesperson added it could not comment on "operational arrangements" for individual sites used for asylum accommodation.
York and Scarborough Teaching Hospitals Trust pays for accommodation for overseas nurses while they take the exams necessary to allow them to work in the UK.

There are currently 82 foreign nurses in one York hotel, with 17 more set to arrive in December, a hospital board meeting was told.
However, hospital bosses claimed the Home Office had now booked-out the hotels to house asylum seekers.

Director of workforce at the hospital, said the trust had initially been given four weeks to vacate two hotels because the Home Office wanted to use them for "the next couple of years".
She told a hospital board of directors meeting that the trust had objected to the plans and it was then given until December to vacate the rooms.

"York has a dearth of accommodation," added Ms McMeekin. "[This] leaves us with no other accommodation - we've explored the military, we've explored universities."

The move would leave the hospital in a "very vulnerable" position, she said.
There were around 130 nursing vacancies across the trust in September. Hospital leaders said they hope this will be reduced to about 50 by December.

A Home Office spokesperson said: "The claim that we have given notice to nurses to leave their accommodation is untrue.
"We are working with the local authority to source appropriate accommodation for asylum seekers and to mitigate the impact on the community, like the NHS trust.

"The use of hotels to house asylum seekers is unacceptable - there are currently more than 37,000 asylum seekers in hotels costing the UK taxpayer £5.6m a day."

Since then, it's gone up to 55,000 and still no grand plan as to how to end this chaos.

Well I suppose Rwanda is part of the plan if the Supreme court agrees it's a safe place. The Illegal Migration Bill has become law or will shortly. Surely if you were thinking of paying thousands of pounds to the criminal gangs to get here you would think twice if you saw on YouTube plane loads of illegals who arrived by dinghy being sent to Rwanda 🤞

Ahem, these people are not ‘illegals’.
Is that you Donald?