Yvette Cooper / Migrant Watch / Stopping The Boats

Mollygo

PS Growstuff, you obviously didn’t read my post @ 12.56

Yes, I did.

Chestnut A huge number of immigrants are HE students. They bring at least £18 billion into the economy, which is almost as much as the whole car industry is worth to the UK.

If you want to cut down on immigrants, that's where you start. However, there's always a price to pay. The economy would lose their income, which is currently subsidising UK students and research. It's also a very valuable form of soft diplomacy and keeping some small towns in business. OK, so stop it! But don't be naive enough to think there wouldn't be repercussions because there would.

Casdon

Chestnut

Of course we have and I agree that we should have a faster and more robust way of granting or refusing asylum to those who come through legal channels.
How fast and robust would it need to be? We've had 1,000 arrive on boats since Labour took over and they would need assessing along with the legal arrivals. Don't forget many throw out their passports and ID.

What you describe is status quo for an average summer week of arrivals Chestnut. The situation hasn’t changed at all since Labour came into power. It will inevitably take time for things to change.

Sorry, I wasn't implying that was Labour's fault, just illustrating the speed and number of arrivals are unsustainable. We have 1,000 people arriving in 10 days. How can we process and find accommodation for so many people on an ongoing basis? Where are they being housed? Maybe growstuff and others can tell us where this 1,000 can go, plus the next 1,000 and the 1,000 after that.

This is very worrying.

I just checked a website which I remembered from some time ago called Migration Watch. The website has been faded out and none of the tabs can be accessed. Is this censorship? I'd like to find out what is going on here. Can anyone see this website or it it faded for you?
www.migrationwatchuk.org/

Here is the Wikipedia entry:
en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Migration_Watch_UK

Your Migration Watch link worked absolutely fine for me, Chestnut.

I just had to refuse to subscribe to its newsletter before entering the main site.

Same here.

I've just tried on my mobile phone and it works okay so that's weird. On my computer it is literally blocked out. I don't have any protective filters and it's never happened before with any other website.

www.gov.uk/government/publications/migrants-detected-crossing-the-english-channel-in-small-boats/migrants-detected-crossing-the-english-channel-in-small-boats-last-7-days

Figures are available on the government website.

Just read this on the government website:
In the year ending March 2024, 31,079 people arrived by small boats, 31% fewer than in the year ending March 2023 (45,019) (and 32% fewer than the peak of 45,774 in 2022).

So that's 121,872 arriving by boat over the last three years. These are not insignificant numbers. In another three years it will be 243,744 and 10 years from now nearly half a million.

Chestnut

Casdon

Chestnut

Of course we have and I agree that we should have a faster and more robust way of granting or refusing asylum to those who come through legal channels.
How fast and robust would it need to be? We've had 1,000 arrive on boats since Labour took over and they would need assessing along with the legal arrivals. Don't forget many throw out their passports and ID.

What you describe is status quo for an average summer week of arrivals Chestnut. The situation hasn’t changed at all since Labour came into power. It will inevitably take time for things to change.

Sorry, I wasn't implying that was Labour's fault, just illustrating the speed and number of arrivals are unsustainable. We have 1,000 people arriving in 10 days. How can we process and find accommodation for so many people on an ongoing basis? Where are they being housed? Maybe growstuff and others can tell us where this 1,000 can go, plus the next 1,000 and the 1,000 after that.

One per cent of the country's housing stock has currently been empty for more than six months.

Which will include houses belonging to people who have died, houses which are languishing on the market, houses being renovated, those awaiting redevelopment and those whose owners have gone into care which will eventually be sold.

Wyllow3

Isn't part of the problem the paucity of safe and legal routes?
If there were, it would be easier to sort out and assess.

Lots of people aren't interested in this. Sadly.

Germanshepherdsmum

Which will include houses belonging to people who have died, houses which are languishing on the market, houses being renovated, those awaiting redevelopment and those whose owners have gone into care which will eventually be sold.

Also people working abroad, people who have moved in with new partners and people in prison.

Yes, lots of reasons why a property is empty. And a lot more will be empty whilst awaiting sale following Labour’s announcement that they will stop s21 evictions.

And aren't you forgetting we already have a housing crisis with record numbers of homeless. Don't you think we should be providing homes for those already here (including ex-servicemen) before we give all our housing stock away to the rest of the world? Honestly, the logic is astounding.

Indeed. Many of our homeless will have paid into the system, even been members of our armed forces. Why on earth are we providing anything more than tents in a secure compound for people who come here with neither invitation nor permission? That’s what they’re used to in Calais. Perhaps it would be a deterrent, rather than giving them a nice warm bed, food and money and letting them wander around at will when we don’t have a clue who they are.

Yes, GSM you are right especially when you say we don't have a clue who they are. That alone is totally ridiculous and, in most cases, how on earth can we find out who they are. This is certainly a popular thread with strong views. Most of us, including me, don't want the country we've always known and loved to change beyond recognition because this is what is happening before our eyes.

There are now more people dying every day in this country than being born. We therefore should not need new houses but we do because of uncontrolled immigration.

As GSM rightly says they should be provided with tents and leave them to it. Even better don’t let them in at all.

What country in the world could you arrive in and expect to have a brand new house given to you?

I agree. And the change will continue exponentially. The authorities should know who is legally entitled to live here, who they are and whether they have a history of criminality or dangerous mental health episodes requiring treatment or even sectioning. It’s impossible to know any of these things about people who come here illegally with no identification. We just have to wait for some terrible crime to be committed, as has happened in the past. By then it’s too late for the victim. And before anyone accuses me of saying that all illegal immigrants are criminals, I am not - but statistically some of them will definitely be.

And the government has said it won’t bring in a requirement for people to carry ID …

Germanshepherdsmum

I agree. And the change will continue exponentially. The authorities should know who is legally entitled to live here, who they are and whether they have a history of criminality or dangerous mental health episodes requiring treatment or even sectioning. It’s impossible to know any of these things about people who come here illegally with no identification. We just have to wait for some terrible crime to be committed, as has happened in the past. By then it’s too late for the victim. And before anyone accuses me of saying that all illegal immigrants are criminals, I am not - but statistically some of them will definitely be.

And the government has said it won’t bring in a requirement for people to carry ID …

I don't disagree with that, but as far as numbers and strain on resources are concerned it's the legal immigrants (whom the country needs) who cause the population growth.

I just wish people would differentiate between the two and stop lumping all immigrants together. (sigh)

A guy was interviewed on the News last week. He had come over from Turkey via the boats. He had not yet been assessed. He complained that his youngest child hardly knew him. He said his wife and 3 children were in Turkey. Presumably if he is accepted, then he will want them all to come over .... so not one immigrant but 5 people coming to use our services.

Now I understand that some people are going on a hunger strike on the Bibby Stockholm complaining about what is provided.

Primrose53

There are now more people dying every day in this country than being born. We therefore should not need new houses but we do because of uncontrolled immigration.

As GSM rightly says they should be provided with tents and leave them to it. Even better don’t let them in at all.

What country in the world could you arrive in and expect to have a brand new house given to you?

How exactly would you stop immigrants entering the country?

Would you have a continuous line of border guards round the whole coast? Good luck with that!

Sparklefizz

A guy was interviewed on the News last week. He had come over from Turkey via the boats. He had not yet been assessed. He complained that his youngest child hardly knew him. He said his wife and 3 children were in Turkey. Presumably if he is accepted, then he will want them all to come over .... so not one immigrant but 5 people coming to use our services.

Now I understand that some people are going on a hunger strike on the Bibby Stockholm complaining about what is provided.

What was his reason for seeking asylum?

I have always distinguished between legal and illegal immigrants growstuff - controlled and uncontrolled immigration. We need immigrants to fill numerous jobs and they can be obtained via controlled immigration, though that is on occasion abused by sponsors as was in the news only yesterday. I have no objection whatsoever to those who come on student visas, study their intended course and either depart or are granted leave to stay when it ends; however we all know that the student visa scheme has been abused by those with no intention to study.

What we do not need is uncontrolled immigration - thousands arriving on boats, in the backs of lorries and the like. What do they have to offer? For every doctor or other professional person among them (who cannot practise in the UK without retraining), how many young men with no skills to offer and little or no English are there?

growstuff What was his reason for seeking asylum?

No idea, his reasons weren't mentioned, but he implied that Turkey was a stopgap so he had presumably come from the Middle East.