Better weather = many more immigrants 822 yesterday

rosie1959

I wish Labour good luck in tackling the people smugglers. A bit like a game of wackamole get one lot and more replace them.
People only risk the sea crossing from France because if they are lucky it works. If every time they were picked up by our rescue boats they were returned promptly to the beaches in France the journey may prove to be futile. This depends on whether the government's of France and the UK genuinely want to save lives or as I suspect the French are glad to wave them goodbye

Yes probably a pretty permanent task.

"If every time they were picked up by our rescue boats they were returned promptly to the beaches in France the journey may prove to be futile."

This is Reform policy, but no one has said whom or how.
As regards the Royal Navy
www.navylookout.com/why-its-not-the-royal-navys-job-to-stop-migrant-boats/

explains why RN cant and won't.

Dickens

Coronation

@maybee70 I thought your comments about GSM germanshephersdmum were personal and unnecessary. There is a separate post on this site about posters being wary of posting and your message may prevent others from posting

I agree.

GSM has given advice here to posters on GN many times, and more than once to the same poster. And she's done pro bono work.

Her politics aren't mine, but that's no reason to be rude. She's as entitled to her view as anyone else, and the way she expresses it - and some who oppose her politically don't hesitate to filter their opinions either.

I agree too, it’s a shame that posters result to personal insults when the only reason is they disagree with another’s politics or opinions.It’s out of order.

Thanks Dickens. Many of us are at opposite ends of the political spectrum but outside politics we have much in common.

Would those who appear to be so anti-immigrant be prepared to accept those who are not economic migrants but genuinely seeking asylum.

I don’t mean to get into a debate about the potential difficulty of identifying genuine asylum seekers, but reading some comments, I am doubting very much whether very sadly some people are willing to accept anyone.

Whitewavemark2

Would those who appear to be so anti-immigrant be prepared to accept those who are not economic migrants but genuinely seeking asylum.

I don’t mean to get into a debate about the potential difficulty of identifying genuine asylum seekers, but reading some comments, I am doubting very much whether very sadly some people are willing to accept anyone.

I think only those without a heart would turn away genuine refugees fleeing from war, I am not one of them.

Obviously I don’t have a heart. These people have travelled through several safe European countries. They stopped fleeing from war when they reached the first safe country.

Wyllow3

glammagran

Only some of the migrants coming in on boats are genuine refugees. The rest are economic migrants. Why are so many Vietnamese coming here? It’s not at war or a particularly poor country. Have you seen the expensive coats and phones many single men have when they get here? Where do they get the funds to travel here if they are destitute? They are here to milk us dry. So many abscond almost immediately they arrive. We will be taken over by Islam within a few years. You will be taxed on your savings to pay for all these “unfortunates”. WAKE UP!!!

But this post is racist.

And not best informed. Vietnamese people are mainly Buddhists.

The north of Vietnam is a very poor country and
they are definitely a group that people smugglers have targeted big time for some time, back of lorries being the original way.

I am well aware. I’ve been to Vietnam.

Those coming from Vietnam are economic migrants and should be sent straight back.

I’ve been to Vietnam too. I enjoyed my visit. Those coming here must be economic migrants.

I've always wondered if our government has tried to approach the Vietnamese Government about people smugglers being so active.

Reports on people smuggling in Vietnam reveal a pattern of one young person is often sent after a whole extended family has collected to pay for them so they can get a good job and send money back - goodness knows what promises of streets paved in gold and well paid jobs and so on.

Did a bit of research on dissidents in Vietnam, its a bit of an eye-opener for me

www.hrw.org/world-report/2023/country-chapters/vietnam

It would appear that although nearly the majority come for economic reasons some come to escape the regime.

Freya5

growstuff

maddyone

I know overseas students add to the economy growstuff, but they don’t when they bring their dependents who need school places, health care, and dental care. And they certainly don’t when some of them disappear at the end of their courses and become illegal. Unfortunately this does happen in some cases. Plus they take up housing which we haven’t really got, thereby adding to the problem of too few houses.

Not at the university where my partner is employed. I asked him and none of his students have dependants with them. I assume you know that students and their dependants have to pay an NHS surcharge of £776 each. As most of them are young and fit, they never even have to access the NHS during their stay. Given the amount they pay, it wouldn't be difficult to build new housing (which some unis do). Overall, the UK benefits hugely from overseas students.

PS. It's a Russell Group uni - one I believe you know well.

Don't they see a GP then,even my fit and healthy GC have to see a GP. GP may refer to hospital, one set of tests and that money is gone. What about education, are their children allowed to join a local school, or do the University have schools attached.

I didn't see a GP during my student years and for some years after.

Most students do not bring children or any other dependants with them. They pay nearly £30,000 a year for their courses and spend into local economies. University courses do not cost that much to run. Overall, the UK makes a profit out of them.

There are approximately 600,000 international students in the UK, paying £30,000 a year each. They bring in about £18 billion plus their NHS surcharges and the money they bring for their own maintenance. I think the country could afford a couple of GP visits with that kind of income.

Whitewavemark2

Migration has remained at 3% for at least 100 years.

What does that mean exactly? If we have a population of 67 million then doesn't 3% take it up to 69.1 million? Is that supposed to be good? You'll have to explain.

It seems to me that the 3% is a larger figure each year. Not unlike compound interest.

Interestingly I have been reading about human migration, which is ingrained in the human condition and seems to have made us what we are and which distinguishes us from other species, because we are curious and most importantly adaptable -something most species are not.

Societies that have made the biggest progress, with a high level of innovation and advancement tend to be characterised by having a relatively high level of immigration.

Immigrants are over represented in the entrepreneurial groups, and creative groups and are largely of working age. Which has proven beneficial for every receiving society over the millennium.

Europe’s demography is aging rapidly and is characterised by low fertility, which is becoming a real problem for all sorts of obvious reasons, and the only way to solve this problem will be immigration.

So of course one of the implications of this conundrum is that economic migrants should be as welcome as other immigrants.

I think the only sensible way forward for the U.K. is to accept that immigrants are necessary to our economic and social health, but it needs to be properly controlled and accepted by the population at large.

Greenfinch

It is not a mutually exclusive situation. I volunteer for a local charity that supports anyone in need in our county. We get referrals from both immigrants and members of the local community and all are treated equally as they should be.

Well said Greenfinch.

It does indeed need to be properly controlled wwm. In the past we have seen immigrants such as the Huguenots with their skills, and Jews who have been entrepreneurial and transformed the rag trade - and where would showbiz be without them? People from India and Pakistan are invaluable in the NHS and as shopkeepers, as well as having been a vital source of labour in the northern mills years ago. Poles are renowned as hard workers. The Irish built our railways, canals and roads. But nowadays we have thousands of single young men arriving from many countries with who knows what, if any skills and willingness to work - with unknown histories and from cultures which are very different from our own, where women are repressed, used and abused. They are not the immigrants of yesteryear.

biglouis

I agree 100% with GSM.

My feelings towards these incomers are well known.

Been watching on Sky how the Greeks and the Mexican immigration people deal with them. We could learn some lessons there. We are too soft.

so you support tipping boats over? Drowning people? I appreciate that mass migration, legal and illegal, is challenging, but sometimes the language used on GN disgusts me. The ignorance about what asylum seekers are entitled to is mind blowing.

Let’s try not to be personal on here please, GSM and I often disagree, but both of us are decent people, we are just at opposite ends of the political spectrum, but I’ll wager we have other things in common. I know we both care animals, dogs especially.

Let’s not let politics or religion get in the way of decent debate and civil comments.

We all feel strongly about certain issues. We all have the right to express ourselves without fear or resorting to snide remarks.

I totally understand how easy it is to get upset.

Enjoy your weekend folks

I doubt any of us is ignorant, but some of us want to see an end to uncontrolled immigration and those who have come here illegally returned or sent to Rwanda.

glammagran

Only some of the migrants coming in on boats are genuine refugees. The rest are economic migrants. Why are so many Vietnamese coming here? It’s not at war or a particularly poor country. Have you seen the expensive coats and phones many single men have when they get here? Where do they get the funds to travel here if they are destitute? They are here to milk us dry. So many abscond almost immediately they arrive. We will be taken over by Islam within a few years. You will be taxed on your savings to pay for all these “unfortunates”. WAKE UP!!!

I began to cruise through this comment and then spotted the rather rude, shouty, demand to "WAKE UP" which - along with would-be debate-closing "end of", and the insistence that anyone who doesn't agree with you is among the "sheeple" - tends to make me scroll-on.

Can I ask why you do this? I think we're all wide awake anyway and are quite aware that immigrants landing in boats operated by criminal thugs is not a good thing, but are attempting to debate how - both at a national and international level we can deal with the unprecedented numbers of both asylum seekers and economic migrants.

Shouting at people contributes nothing. At all.

👏👏👏

growstuff

maddyone

Rowantree

I hear received bigotry and Farageism. Similar to 1930's Germany.
This appalling government have a great deal to answer for, but up go the smokescreens and it works - blame the immigrants.

It’s nothing like Germany in the 30s, nothing at all. Jewish people were desperately trying to get out of Germany in the 30s, whereas here we have 3/4 of a million arriving legally and hundreds a day arriving illegally and then claiming asylum when their first foot is on British soil.
It’s actually the complete opposite of Germany in the 30s.

No, it's not the opposite of the 1930s. Jews (and others) were trying to leave Germany, which would be today's equivalent of Afghanistan or Iran. Other countries, including the UK, didn't want them. It wasn't just Germany where anti-semitism was rife.

The Daily Mail, under Beaverbrook, was seriously anti semitic, warning of 'floods of Jews'. Many people choose to forget that in their rosy tinted backward view of this country. I wonder if the Jews fleeing Naziism were helped to seek sanctuary here through the work of leftie lawyers and other such do-gooders?

GrannyGravy13

Witzend

All matters of morals/ethics aside, the fact remains that we do not have nearly enough reasonable, affordable housing for the numbers we already have - whether native or immigrants.

Cannot disagree with you on this.

completely agree. Where we differ is on whether the migrants or the inept Tory administration are to blame for this situation