Shocking report GB News 9-11 pm tonight

I'm not shocked by the program. I already knew quite a bit about the migrants in France.
Whoever is in government needs to address the entire picture of immigration to the UK

NotSpaghetti

^more have been resettled than left behind.^

But, GrannyGravy13 we shouldn't have left them behind.
We knew we were getting out and made a pigs ear of it.

I am not making excuses however, the USA were in charge of operations in Afghanistan.

POTUS Trump decided when and how the pull out was handled. It was all agreed before POTUS Biden came to power.

The UK only had responsibility for certain FOB’s these were closed down over a matter of months.

We did help all who applied in time, it is extremely important to understand that communications were not free flowing once our troops and networks withdrew

Our son was one of those responsible for closing down communications and one of the last out.

The authorities are still working trying to reach Afghan nationals who helped the UK. If those arriving by small boats are part of that cohort I assume they have proof and would have shown it to the relevant French Authorities.

There would be no need for them to destroy their papers unless it is persuasion or extortion by the criminal people smuggling gangs.

FranP

I did some work with an asylum reception centre. On speaking to a group of Somalis, I discovered that they all speak French. When I asked them why they had not claimed asylum in France when they had come through there, the answer was that the UK would give them money and homes where the less hospitable French would expect them to do menial work to earn their right to stay.
We are paying the French govt to deal with these folks and their asylum applications, returning the economic migrants to their original homes, but instead they are leaving them in these camps, occasionally clearing the camps and moving them on without their meagre possessions.
All the while, the Italian government is begging folks to go live in homes in the South of Italy to regenerate abandoned villages. Perhaps we should be giving Italy the money instead.
Population density in France is 47.24 per square mile, England has 1,120. My Scottish friend tells me that they have only 70, but while much of that is mountains and remote islands it is far more than France. Even Germany at 2/3rd of ours has taken a lot - time for France to take responsibility

We are paying France to police the shores, there are no facilities in France to process asylum applications for the UK.

AI Overview

"Yes, France generally receives more migrants, particularly asylum seekers, than the UK. In 2023, for example, France processed 167,230 asylum applications compared to 93,296 in the UK. This difference is significant, suggesting that more people choose to seek asylum in France than in the UK

We tend to forget that France has the same issues with people arriving at a coastline as we do, ie the coastline of the south of France.

correction, "on the very long French coastline" not the "cry coastline"

Aveline

Why can't the gendarmes just destroy the rubber boats? Who makes them? Who supplied them? Can't they be targeted?

The boats do not arrive with the migrants. The smugglers source them separately from over Europe. Interpol are onto finding the sources and closing down but its whack a mole.

what then happens is that, on the cry long French coastline, the boats are inflated and launched in a place where there are no place at that point. They move to the collection point but they do not go to land.

Police can and do puncture boats that land on the beach but now they stay out at sea meaning the migrants have to wade to the boats.

Boats with passengers cannot be destroyed at sea under international maritime law.

Police are not allowed to enter the water to stop a boat that hasn't asked for help and, well, it's not illegal for migrants to run into the water.

Basically, there are loopholes that smugglers have learned to exploit, and which hinder and frustrate the police.

This is the kind of detail that when Reform say. "we'll stop the boats" you have to ask, "how?"

Then Reform say, "we'll take them straight back to France". but we cant do that - it would constitute an invasion.
Imagine UK public objections if France just dumped people on our shores......

more have been resettled than left behind.

But, GrannyGravy13 we shouldn't have left them behind.
We knew we were getting out and made a pigs ear of it.

Did you read the link Cossy?

I did some work with an asylum reception centre. On speaking to a group of Somalis, I discovered that they all speak French. When I asked them why they had not claimed asylum in France when they had come through there, the answer was that the UK would give them money and homes where the less hospitable French would expect them to do menial work to earn their right to stay.
We are paying the French govt to deal with these folks and their asylum applications, returning the economic migrants to their original homes, but instead they are leaving them in these camps, occasionally clearing the camps and moving them on without their meagre possessions.
All the while, the Italian government is begging folks to go live in homes in the South of Italy to regenerate abandoned villages. Perhaps we should be giving Italy the money instead.
Population density in France is 47.24 per square mile, England has 1,120. My Scottish friend tells me that they have only 70, but while much of that is mountains and remote islands it is far more than France. Even Germany at 2/3rd of ours has taken a lot - time for France to take responsibility

Cossy, please get real!! There are pensioners in this country who worked in professions which didn’t organise Pensions for their staff. Consequently 1,000s of us struggle. We are NOT a rich country if you have to survive on State Pension with Pension credit added. Its enough certainly but no little extras for us, unless they are are little.

*Labour have not ceased the care visas Pinkhousegirl,

Yes its very complicated but there is some more information over on this thread.
www.gransnet.com/forums/news_and_politics/1347975-Sir-Keir-Starmer-s-speech-this-morning-12-05-25

Basically care employing firms have to show they are actively recruiting locals as well as just seeking visa permission

are the new guidelines so we can continue to recruit care workers from overseas. It's an effort to get more UK workers into jobs.

Whitewavemark2 interesting how AC was one of the things I hated about the Blair lot.

Ironically, I think we need him now.
🙄

I seriously wonder how some people live with themselves.

Nobody is saying things are being handled well, many of us are fearful, angry, struggling. It doesn't excuse some of this stuff.

I do not wish to underestimate the seriousness of this issue. However, the NHS is predominantly used by people 60+, and migrants tend to be young. We are very short on housing stock and schools, this is not because of migration but because of massive under investment of previous govt. And, like all western nations, we are an aging population, in 30 years 27% pop will be 65+. I am utterly baffled by the cessation of visas for care workers, there is a shortage of 100k+. We are not an island of strangers, what IS strange is Labour parroting Reform.

*boat trip

Why can't the gendarmes just destroy the rubber boats? Who makes them? Who supplied them? Can't they be targeted?

Freya5 - don't you think terrorists would come in officially (or live here already)?

Why risk a bot trip if you want to do harm?

Yes, ONE GUY out of the very few who have even bothered to try and learn enough English, just to get b
All translation services where needed are provided by the taxpayer - 'cos there is no need to learn, as they will disappear into their own cultural getto.

I haven't read the whole thread, but it is true that the boat migrants are many times outnumbered by legal migrants.
Tony Blair posted out that after Brexit, we swapped migrants from Europe for migrants from Asian and African countries.

Mollygo

Whitewavemark2

If we had remained, we wouldn’t be having this conversation.

So the moral of the story?

“Be careful what you wish for”

And are gullible enough to believe,

I’m not gullible enough to believe still being in the EU would solve the problem.
Would it make the gendarmes more willing to jump in the water?
Would it stop people wanting to come to the UK by those boats?
Even before Brexit, there were small boat crossings, although according to reports I read, the numbers were not significant enough to bed recorded. Certainly they have risen since 2018, but there is no evidence that this would not have happened anyway. Other countries are suffering from the influx too, though they don’t have a water border.

They used to arrive on lorries until that was stamped down on, then they used boats boats and more boats.

Whitewavemark2

I have recently been watching a debate between Jonathan Miller and Enoch Powell.

Jonathan describes Powells rhetoric as “performative utterance” and that is exactly what we see from the likes of Farage now, and how it is repeated on SM. We see myriad examples of it on GN.

And now Keir Starmer is being likened in speech to Enoch Powell.
Not all that Powell said was wrong and what Starmer said isn’t wrong either in my book.

Cossy

What Starmer needs to do is get a great, and active, media and communications person, to post every day what actions this govt is taking in all areas, then perhaps people would shush for a day or two

I quite agree, there has been so much anti-Starmer stuff yet with the dire financial situation they inherited they have to be cautious

Cossy

Whitewavemark2

Afghans - oh those that had done so much to assist us and we so badly let down and left behind.

Do you mean those Afghans?

Absolutely, I’ll never ever forget those heartbreaking photos of people trying to board the last plane leaving and being unable to do so.

We simply left them to their awful fate with the Taliban, especially poor females!

Don’t blame the UK government for that mess, it was Trump who promised that the US would pull out then as the taliban spread quickly, capturing towns and whole areas all the US personnel decided to get out pdq so we had to do the same, as well as the French, Italians and anyone else.You all saw the scenes at the airport there it was chaos but our soldiers did the best they could.
You also need to remember that not all Afghans helped us, and if they arrive here on a small boat it will be hard to prove they did or didn’t.

I have recently been watching a debate between Jonathan Miller and Enoch Powell.

Jonathan describes Powells rhetoric as “performative utterance” and that is exactly what we see from the likes of Farage now, and how it is repeated on SM. We see myriad examples of it on GN.

Cossy I agree. There is a lack of knowledge of international migration law. Most European countries have taken many many many more migrants than the UK. Two things always surprise me. One is how folk do not realise how low many UK family incomes are. Two is how much lower standard of living much of the world endures. Hard circles to square. Climate change will drive more migration and desperate attempts to get to safer places

Let them stay in stinking tents unless they are legal immigrants.