Boats this month…

AGAA4

twaddle I also don't believe Trump could stop the boats. It's amazing anyone thinks so highly of him. He can't even please his own people.

Thanks! I'm glad I'm not the only one who thinks that way.

I don’t necessarily think highly of him generally - like I said he certainly has had some crazy ideas, but I am thinking about how he has stopped, or at least drastically reduced, the number of Mexican migrants and drug smugglers from pouring over the border into the US.
He said he would do it and he did.

Twaddle - "The UK actually benefits from most of the immigrants allowed into the country. Why should we stop them?"

I thought this thread was about those arriving illegally on the boats. Currently :-
The UK government estimates that the asylum system, which often overlaps with illegal entry (such as small boat crossings), costs approximately £3 billion per year. This includes nearly £6 million per day spent on hotel accommodation for those awaiting processing

I would think that is a very good reason to try to stop them

It’s misleading to put up numbers for when no people arrive because if one looks at the stats over time, there are always periods like that when conditions are probably too poor to cross, sandwiched between periods when large numbers of people arrive. 2025 was exactly the same as the gov.uk graphic shows

But what we do know is that compared to 2025 numbers are down and more asylum applications are being processed faster with the number of returns and deportations up.

It’s very naive to think that a Trump-like character, by which I assume you mean Farage, could do anything about this without breaking international law and where would that lead?

(Also crossing land borders and water jurisdictions are very different - not subject to international maritime law for one thing ).

You can’t just dump people back in France. It would constitute an act of war, And while military conflict is unlikely to ensue, France could make life very difficulty for the UK simply by blockading all air, rail and sea ports.

France acts as a massive transit hub for British and European supply chains. Trigger a blockade and and just watch the imports (and exports) the UK relies on grind to a halt. Panic buying would occur, supermarket shelves would empty and businesses which rely on export markets would fail. That could be the reality of breaking international law.

And now they are leaving from Belgium as well so Rachel will have to dip into our taxes again to pay the same amount as they’ve paid to France I expect
Will be interesting to see how many actually arrived today..

You know exactly who she means twaddle, people who arrive on the boats!

MT62

You know exactly who she means twaddle, people who arrive on the boats!

Answer to Nanna8s post

394 arrived yesterday as expected due to much improved weather.

More expected for today when figures are released.

Primrose53

394 arrived yesterday as expected due to much improved weather.

More expected for today when figures are released.

I’m expecting by the end of this bank holiday it’s to be in the many hundreds. But This is the United Kingdom, come one come all, we’ve plenty of everything to go round……. 🙄

Graphite

It’s misleading to put up numbers for when no people arrive because if one looks at the stats over time, there are always periods like that when conditions are probably too poor to cross, sandwiched between periods when large numbers of people arrive. 2025 was exactly the same as the gov.uk graphic shows

But what we do know is that compared to 2025 numbers are down and more asylum applications are being processed faster with the number of returns and deportations up.

It’s very naive to think that a Trump-like character, by which I assume you mean Farage, could do anything about this without breaking international law and where would that lead?

(Also crossing land borders and water jurisdictions are very different - not subject to international maritime law for one thing ).

You can’t just dump people back in France. It would constitute an act of war, And while military conflict is unlikely to ensue, France could make life very difficulty for the UK simply by blockading all air, rail and sea ports.

France acts as a massive transit hub for British and European supply chains. Trigger a blockade and and just watch the imports (and exports) the UK relies on grind to a halt. Panic buying would occur, supermarket shelves would empty and businesses which rely on export markets would fail. That could be the reality of breaking international law.

Where will breaking international law actually lead?

It would be prudent to wait until the end of the month to compare the number of arrivals with the same month last year, before dissing improvements to the system, or the reduction in the year to date.

Where will breaking international law actually lead?

Potentially other countries could do what I have already explained and you have just quoted so I don’t understand what you are asking.

France receives between 130,000 and 160,000 asylum applications every year. Recent annual intake figures average roughly 130,000 first-time applicants, with thousands more arriving through specific United Nations (UNHCR) resettlement programmes. France is one of the top destinations for asylum seekers in Europe, typically processing the second or third highest number of applications each year, trailing only Germany and on a par with Spain.

What do you think the rest of Europe would do if the UK refused to take its fair share of asylum seekers?

The movement of people from the Middle East, Africa and Asia is a global issue not one that only the UK has to address. It requires international collaboration which is why Reform’s isolationist approach will never work.

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^Where will breaking international law actually lead?^

Potentially other countries could do what I have already explained and you have just quoted so I don’t understand what you are asking.

France receives between 130,000 and 160,000 asylum applications every year. Recent annual intake figures average roughly 130,000 first-time applicants, with thousands more arriving through specific United Nations (UNHCR) resettlement programmes. France is one of the top destinations for asylum seekers in Europe, typically processing the second or third highest number of applications each year, trailing only Germany and on a par with Spain.

What do you think the rest of Europe would do if the UK refused to take its fair share of asylum seekers?

The movement of people from the Middle East, Africa and Asia is a global issue not one that only the UK has to address. It requires international collaboration which is why Reform’s isolationist approach will never work.

Hungary refused to take asylum seekers though and built a wall. Nothing happened to that country.

Strength has to be shown to end the small boat situation and even though I am not a Trump apologist, he has shown strength in dealing with the influx in the US.

Nothing happened to that country.

Didn't it?

On June 13, 2024, the European Court of Justice fined Hungary a lump sum of €200 million alongside a daily penalty of €1 million for violating asylum and migration laws. That’s now standing at around €900 million.

Because Budapest has refused to comply, the European Commission is actively collecting these penalties by deducting them directly from EU funds allocated to Hungary.

If Magyar wants a better relationship with the EU after Orban he is going to have to find some resolution.

Chestnut

Nothing is good about any of this. We have an assortment of mainly young men arriving illegally on small boats, including a sprinkling of criminals. We have no idea who these people are or what they are capable of. Hundreds of thousands are already here.

Meanwhile, we are taking hard working individuals from various countries on the assumption that we need them more than they do, nurses and doctors being amongst them. You could ask whether that is morally right.

While all this is going on we are losing many of our brightest and best young people who are going abroad to work. A steady stream leaving our shores.

We should be training and employing our own people and not using the excuse that we need immigrants to fill essential roles. Goodness knows, with 70 million people already here we should have enough workers, unless they are all off sick with anxiety and can't work.

Brilliant post.

What concerns me and many other people is that many of the men coming here illegally on small boats are from Afghanistan. They’re in the top five nationalities coming here.

They are culturally very different and think what they do as quite usual and I believe this is why we are getting so many reports of them being charged with rape, sexual assaults etc.

I have seen reports this week of fathers in Afghanistan selling their 7 and 8 year old daughters to be married off to old men who could be their grandfathers. I’ve also seen young lads who are dressed up and made up to look like young girls and made to dance for crowds of men. “Dancing Boys” who are often sexually abused.

They think it’s OK to beat women.

It is just dreadful and we just should not allow Afghans into this country. I know all countries have their share of sick people but Afghanistan is very, very backward.

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^Nothing happened to that country. ^

Didn't it?

On June 13, 2024, the European Court of Justice fined Hungary a lump sum of €200 million alongside a daily penalty of €1 million for violating asylum and migration laws. That’s now standing at around €900 million.

Because Budapest has refused to comply, the European Commission is actively collecting these penalties by deducting them directly from EU funds allocated to Hungary.

If Magyar wants a better relationship with the EU after Orban he is going to have to find some resolution.

We have left the EU or so I was led to believe. Therefore we are not beholden to the European Court of Justice and not obliged to pay any fines.

I have no idea what these 'international laws' are that we are so scared of breaking, but if they allow hundreds of thousands of people to just enter a country with no money, passport or permissions then they need scrapping.

There seems to be an impression that Trump has "dealt" with migration.

But it hasn't. they are trying to build, at great expense to the public purse, massive internment centres round the country. and of course paying for keeping people there.

Costs:

The Department of Homeland Security estimates it will spend \(\$38.3\text{ billion}\) to acquire and retrofit warehouses across the US into massive regional immigration processing and detention centers, which would hold tens of thousands of detainees.

Key cost breakdowns and facility information include:National Warehouse Retrofitting: ICE plans to buy and convert 16 buildings into regional processing sites, with individual facilities (such as a proposed site in Merrimack, New Hampshire) projected to cost \(\$158\text{ million}\) to retrofit and \(\$146\text{ million}\) to operate in the first three years alone.

Tent and Temporary Camps: Temporary "soft-sided" migrant camps have seen billions in funding. For instance, contractors such as Deployed Resources have received billions in contracts from Customs and Border Protection to operate these temporary facilities.

Daily Detention Costs: On a daily basis, immigration detention costs taxpayers an average of \(\$152\text{ per person}\) per day. With tens of thousands of people in detention, daily operational spending can exceed \(\$10\text{ million}\).

and the irony is that of course MAGA people are amongst those objecting to building one near them. "Not in my back yard". 😬

And yes they are keeping more people crossing the Mexican border - but the manpower required to do this is absolutely gigantic. And costs.

"Breakdown of Enforcement Costs:

Physical Barriers: Contracted "smart wall" construction averages approximately \(\$20 \text{ million}\) per mile. Expanding the physical border wall to cover over 1,400 miles is estimated to cost taxpayers up to \(\$46 \text{ billion}\).

Federal Agency Budgets: The operational cost is staggering. U.S. Customs and Border Protection (CBP) and the Department of Homeland Security (DHS) manage base budgets in the tens of billions.

Military Missions: Supplemental deployments of military personnel and resources to the southern border have cost the Defense Department hundreds of millions of dollars per individual mission.

so you see, they have costs no more under control than the UK, and indeed per head its debatable whether its a plus at all

They do have more control than us by not being close as we are to Europe, but thats co-incidence rather than them being better.

Anyone in favour of Trumps plans as per comments above care to comment on why they have got it right

And children are kept with their parents of course in these internment camps. These are, remember, families who have been in the USA for some time but rounded up by ICE.

A worker reported

"In Dilley Detention Center, parents and kids are reporting dealing with dirty water, no real medical help, and trauma—paid for with our tax dollars".

No time tonight to look this up further,

but are people here seriously saying how great the USA Trump is for having "sorted" it?

Sorted in the same way as they have "sorted" Iran, huh?

Graphite

^Nothing happened to that country. ^

Didn't it?

On June 13, 2024, the European Court of Justice fined Hungary a lump sum of €200 million alongside a daily penalty of €1 million for violating asylum and migration laws. That’s now standing at around €900 million.

Because Budapest has refused to comply, the European Commission is actively collecting these penalties by deducting them directly from EU funds allocated to Hungary.

If Magyar wants a better relationship with the EU after Orban he is going to have to find some resolution.

The UK is not in the EU thank goodness.

Chestnut

Graphite

Nothing happened to that country.

Didn't it?

On June 13, 2024, the European Court of Justice fined Hungary a lump sum of €200 million alongside a daily penalty of €1 million for violating asylum and migration laws. That’s now standing at around €900 million.

Because Budapest has refused to comply, the European Commission is actively collecting these penalties by deducting them directly from EU funds allocated to Hungary.

If Magyar wants a better relationship with the EU after Orban he is going to have to find some resolution.

We have left the EU or so I was led to believe. Therefore we are not beholden to the European Court of Justice and not obliged to pay any fines.

I have no idea what these 'international laws' are that we are so scared of breaking, but if they allow hundreds of thousands of people to just enter a country with no money, passport or permissions then they need scrapping.

My thoughts exactly, international law must be challenged if its not fit for purpose.

We have a lawyer as PM who is a rule taker, not maker.

We have a PM who believes in rules based order not lawlessness and chaos. Trump believes the biggest bully in the room gets to make the rules. Does anyone want that in the UK?

So, 394 arrivals on Friday, 162 on Saturday, over 60 already this morning with at least another 2 boats spotted in the Channel. French authorities have rescued another 70+ in the Channel.

What we are looking for is steady progress rather than draconian measures which put people’s lives at risk. So here are the totals by month since 2018. Let’s compare the figures for May crossings at the end of the month for 2026, compared with previous years, instead of ‘sensationally’ posting the day to day numbers which mean nothing as stand alone headlines, unless you are sucked in to the tabloid mentality.

commonslibrary.parliament.uk/research-briefings/cbp-10590/

If ‘tabloid mentality’ refers to people who are angry and genuinely very scared at the huge numbers of undocumented males entering our country, many from cultures very different to our own here and in Europe, then I put my hand up to that, as would many others.