The very clear pledge to stop the small boats should unite the nation. Sone of the methods to stop them can also do so. Disagreement comes between those who want to stop the illegals from gaining entry in due course, and those who think many of them are asylum seekers who should be flagged through and treated well. Ā This too is more a disagreement about who the illegal travellers are than about what should happen to them. Most agree if someone is fleeing violence they deserve to find a safe haven. Most agree if a rich young economic migrant buys a place on a boat with a view to getting rights to live and work in the UK when the law does not allow they should be denied access.
I have never thought there is a single measure government can take the stop the boats. There are various actions that need to be intensified.
1. There needs to be more action against the businesses that provide the boats and run the boat services. These are all illegal unlicensed boat services breaking French/Dutch/Belgian/German and EU law over safety at sea. They doubtless fail to pay taxes, fail to file accounts and may be money laundering.They are endangering peopleās lives. You would have thought the continental authorities would see the need to enforce these laws. If they will not the UK has to do so. The UK needs to get better supervision of French beaches launching these services from its French Agreement and for the money it sends the French government to do this. It must be obvious to anyone policing a beach in France that these overloaded boats about to depart are not licensed local trips.
2. There needs to be more success in prompt processing of applications for asylum. The aim should not be to allow or encourage a high rate of approval of asylum grants just to settle cases easily but an honest assessment. The UK judges far more illegal arrivals from normally safe countries to be genuine asylum cases than other European countries do. This acts as a pull factor for more to come.
3. Those who are genuine asylum seekers should apply under one of the many routes of legal entry . Their cases should be determined in reasonable time so people can settle and get a job as quickly as possible.
4. The Ā government needs to review what it offers illegal arrivals in the UK, comparing it with how they are treated in comparable countries like France. If we are more generous then we will attract more.
5. The government does need to sort out where it can send illegals to when their cases have been determined. This may well need strengthening the law in the way I have set out.
August 14, 2023
Addendum
From the same article I linked to :
And what of our own people who ARE DESTITUTE. What support are the Home Office giving them ?
This is an insult and a national disgrace. Get a grip, or get out !!!
August 14, 2023
Pledges donāt count unless the public believe there is an intention to deliver them.
The government has a credibility issue on this issue ( and others). Measures announced seem like so much window dressing. One after another they have failed to have an impact.
August 14, 2023
There isn’t a snowball in halls chance of stopping the boats. After all most of the charities helping are government funded in part.
It started 5 years ago and until Farage started filming them your government was happy with it.
I bet we made some agreement to take X umber in the Withdrawal Agreement.
No one believes z word.
August 14, 2023
That’s the conclusion I reached some time ago. There’s a quiet agreement that “we’d take our fair share.”
August 14, 2023
There can be no other reason apart from appeasement to the EU …under the table appeasement
August 14, 2023
I agree Ian, there is some big money behind this operation, the Afghan average wage is around Ā£8k pa we are told these 85% or more men are paying between Ā£2 and Ā£3k to be transported here. There is a high level of logistics co-ordination to get through so many Countries without legal documents and visas to do so.
Thousands of boats are they recycled when they arrive here, what happens to them.
August 14, 2023
Try are sold on an auction site so the āsmuggling gangsā can use them again. A bike puncture repair kit is supplied with each boat sold.
August 14, 2023
They are being stored for the day when 50,000 Brits organise a reverse invasion on France.
August 14, 2023
š
August 14, 2023
This was being covered long before Farage jumped on the bandwagon, much like he did after cancelled by a bank. Bank cancelling was going on long before it happened to him.
We never get told the truth, the whole truth and nothing but the truth, do we Sir John š
August 14, 2023
Correct. But he has a platform and used it – eventually!
August 14, 2023
Agreed Peter. The fact Sir J needs to set out these basic actions on illegal migration controls evidences the current lack of political desire to resolve the problem.
Satellite tracking could spot every small boat before it launches and allow them all to be stopped. Reality is that EU countries want to turn a blind eye to migrants leaving their countries. Moves the problem elsewhere.
August 14, 2023
A quote from Peter Sutherland “father of globalism” from 2006 from a speech he made at an international bankers conference held at the EU in 2006.
“We must use migration to turn the English people into a minority in England. This will allow us to undermine the identity of the native English and import a new majority that will end the very idea of England. This is critical for globalism to take hold of England.”
August 14, 2023
And this is what we now see happening all over England especially in our cities where the English are in the minority. They wonāt stop until they erase Englandās identity altogether, something started by Blair and continued with this pathetic fake anti English Tory Government who despite owing its very existence to English votes shows nothing but utter contempt for England.
August 14, 2023
Merkle started the hordes with the single welcome speech instead of discussing and finding full agreement to what she was unleasing with the EU countries.
August 14, 2023
+1 on this issue and nearly all the others. Heading for perhaps 80 MPs, so even worse that John (ERM still no apology) Major. This despite that fact Labour will be even worse.
August 14, 2023
Javid was proud to announce at Tory conference he closed detention centres for these people!! Clearly your party and govt prefers four star hotels and all free life trappings.. what could go possibly wrong! Stop it JR. This was your party and govt policy, not accident, not someone Eliseās fault. Your party. Stop the boats coming by stopping the people by not allowing an application to be vetted if they come from a safe country.
Australia managed it.
How about the 1.2 million of low skilled welfare claimants you imported last year against 14 years of promises to do the opposite? Who do you wish to blame for that? Your ministers claim they want more!!
Your party and govt now giving amnesty to clear the back log to all those who arrive illegally rather than deport. How many deported?
Shut the door on the way out we are fed up with lies and half hearted token spin.
August 14, 2023
Well said Hope. You speak for many of enough. Weāve had enough and the not a Conservative Party are not listening.
August 14, 2023
Should read many of us.
August 14, 2023
I have frequently made the point that there are FOUR impediments to Britain being able to properly manage migration:
(i) the HRA;
(ii) the ECHR;
(iii) the Modern Slavery Act; and
(iv) the Refugee Convention.
The solution is very simple: a one paragraph Act that says that none of these apply to migrants of any kind (including, obviously, asylum seekers) who have not been given permission to stay in the UK, and that such persons would have no recourse to UK courts. This would mean that we could impose any rules or requirements that we want, and that there would be no right of appeal.
We could then impose whatever rules and criteria WE see fit. This is OUR country and we should be able to make OUR rules. It is also the democratic solution – giving the British people control over Britain. ‘Take Back Control’, one might even say!
My own preference, as I’ve made clear before, is to have ZERO asylum seekers, since I believe that, having travelled through or past a safe country, they are ALL BOGUS. Besides. we are grossly overpopulated. We are one of the most densely populated countries in the world. We just can’t cope with any more third-world migrants.
August 14, 2023
@British Patriot
If our own Parliament, its MPās stepped up, instead of refusing their elected and paid Duties as the UKās Legislators the UK would not have to suffer at the hands of the unelected unaccountable in Foreign Lands.
August 14, 2023
Correct …its very easy, therefore we must ask why isn’t the government acting on our behalf
August 14, 2023
There is no credibility issue in fact.
Simply put, nobody believes anything this lot say. Few believe “the other lot” but enough for there to be a massive victory for Starmer.
I doubt we will notice much difference…high taxes, stagflation, falling living standards etc…
August 14, 2023
Because they don’t listen to countries like Poland who erect BARRIERS with ‘KEEP OUT’ notices and Australia who prevents them from landing on Australian soil.
August 14, 2023
No credibility on any issue with QE tax borrow and piss down the drain, Moderna Sunak!
August 14, 2023
The 5 Pledges were a transparent attempt to curry favour with disaffected Tory voters.
Sunak is very good at coup-management, not so good at governing. Two different skills.
August 14, 2023
The 5 pledges won’t be delivered by a Conservative government, especially not this Conservative government. Time has run out for this government and the Party. A few good MPs like our host don’t make up for the WEF visionaries or vision-less graspers that inhabit parliament. The country is meanwhile being run by the blob.
As Dominic Cummings suggests, the Party needs annihilation at the coming election, Labour will mess up (in effect the blob will continue on its course, as it has done under so-cslled conservatives ) and a radical alternative which represents ordinary people will appear.
August 14, 2023
Agree Wanderer. Although our first past the post electoral system is biased towards historic parties the scale of incompetence of Tory, Labour, SNP, etc will be hard to overlook.
August 14, 2023
The simple beauty of FPTP is the tipping point: one vote is the difference between winning and losing.
The biggest problem for a new party to overcome is the large number of people who take no interest in politics and keep voting for the same Establishment party they’ve always voted for, regardless of performance. Expecting them to switch to a new, insurgent party is futile. What we should be encouraging is apathy: stop them voting. That will affect turn-out and give a new party of the politically-engaged a chance to grow.
August 14, 2023
Who can forget 2015 when UKIP under Farage got more votes than the Lib Dums, SNP, Greens and Plaid Cymru put together and returned just one MP and not one word of outrage from the not a Conservative Party and Labour who have FPTP stitched up between them. And we call ourselves a democracy.
August 14, 2023
Lib Dumbs were decimated after Clegg lied about tuition fees. I hope all will remember lie Dumbs refusal to accept Brexit vote and pledge to reverse it. I hope All will remember Starmer, Cooper, Benn etc all refusing to accept Brexit vote. Finally, I hope All will remember the betrayal of the Tory party for failing to deliver Brexit when they were given an 85 seat majority to do just that!!
5 pledges are meaningless. No one voted for them. Sunak promised to deliver 2019 manifesto and serve with integrity. Based on performance and record to date he lied. We know this from several facts, one was to reduce immigration. 1.2 million low skilled immigrants entered the country, less than 3,000 have golden visas, not an accident allowed and authorised! Illegal immigration also at historic levels, along with historic debt, historic interest on debt and historic highest taxes!
Who caused historic high inflation-Sunak. Who caused billions to be given away or wasted- Sunak. His party called it school boy errors! Trained in banking it is hard to believe he could be so incompetent. Therefore why is he deliberately destroying our economy, giving away N.Ireland, putting a border down Irish Sea, yet cannot out a border down English Channel to stop criminals entering our country? Why has he paid France hundreds of millions of our taxes to increase illegal criminals entering our country without vetting or checks! Two atrocities happened by people in similar circumstance, May nearly lost to Corbyn over it!
Rich boy currently holidaying US, I suspect his green card back in a blink of the eye when he sinks his country and party.
August 14, 2023
@Donna
Democracy is not perfect but it is preferable to all the alternatives. To some FPTP may seem at times out of kilter but all the other systems put the smallest minority in-charge of the majority of voters, just look what happened when the LibDems ruled the Conservative Party with their small vote and desire to punish the majority. Not suggesting the LibDems have actually left even today’s version of the Tory Party.
The big failure we have is that it is the āGangā leader that chooses who the candidates will be, not the constituents/electorate
August 14, 2023
No, that is the simple ugliness of first past the post. 50,000 vote one way, 59,001 vote the other. Half the people (less half a person) have a vote that did not count. Parties gain absolute majorities on as little as 25% of the vote.
The only defence of this appallingly undemocratic system is that it produces āstrong governmentā. Ha, ha, ha, ha, ha. My sides are splitting. If what we have now is strong government then heaven preserve us.
August 15, 2023
When you can’t change the Rules, you have to play by the Rules in place.
As Labour and the LibDems (who are both left-wing parties) are currently demonstrating, FPTP can be used to work in your favour IF you get people to play the game and switch their vote because one of them will beat the NaCP if they do.
A small insurgent party doesn’t have much chance of winning, so people who are not politically engaged but might agree with them don’t switch and instead put their cross against the Party they usually support. If they are deterred from doing that, depriving an Establishment Party of a vote, it will give an insurgent party a chance to grow.
It’s a long game.
August 14, 2023
@Wanderer
I believe that “a radical alternative which represents ordinary people ..” has already appeared.
All we need to do is embrace it.
Unfortunately, the all powerful BBC will do its best to exclude it.
August 14, 2023
On your first point, Sir John, the drivers of the boats are also breaking the law by endangering human life at sea. Why are they not arrested and charged?
They are also breaching Art 5 of the ECHR by assisting unlawful entry.
UK jurisdiction extends to the territorial limit in the Channel and UK is entitled to take preventive action out to a further 12nm in its Contiguous zone.
The UK has all the covers it needs to stop the boats and return the unlawful entrants to France. Refugees and asylum seekers have no right in law to shop around.
August 14, 2023
Correct – they’re criminals so why are they allowed to roam freely
August 14, 2023
+1.
August 14, 2023
Until they are immediately returned, nothing will change except tax increases and a change to 3rd world culture already present in London and our major Cities. The Tory’s and Labour are responsible. No one voted for mass immigration and an end to our Nation State and culture.
August 14, 2023
”immediately returned”
Thats the only solution, spot on TimAction
August 14, 2023
@Timaction – Australia basically did that and they all stopped trying to go there. Then again for all its faults Australia is a Sovereign free Democracy working to the principles of so-called āEnglish Law. There the MPās work for their Constituents and are the Countries Legislators. The UK has lazy core of MPās and a redundant Government so they choose to let the unelected unaccountable elsewhere tell them what to do.
August 14, 2023
How do you work that out? The last 75 years have proved that Tory, Labour and Lib Dem all allow and facilitate high levels of immigration. If you donāt want that, donāt vote for them. What they say and what they do are two different things – as they have proved over and over again. Fool me once – shame on you, fool me twice, shame on me. The Tories have fooled you every time that have been in government since the war.
August 14, 2023
The French are not just ignoring the small boat launches, they are clearly facilitating them. Macron doesn’t want the illegals but he’s happy to let England have them.
August 14, 2023
And happy to take our money which idiot Sunak keeps throwing at him. We all know, except Sunak that is, that Macron has no intention of doing anything to stop the boats, in fact the French navy are escorting them over.
I trust at least the ones who were rescued in French waters the other day and for some unexplained reason brought to Dover will be sent straight back to France as soon as they are able. I thought not.
August 14, 2023
Old Albion
History repeats itself. When the going gets tough the French do nothing.
All the time they can hold their hand out and get our money they are no better than the traffickers. They are assisting invaders to land on and cross another country’s borders.
August 14, 2023
To be fair, the French are doing their part on their eastern border, forcing people out with techniques which if we practised the anglophone MSM would go apoplectic.
August 14, 2023
I’ve no doubt that while our benefits and lack of required ID is a pull factor …the French are doing their best to push them towards us in the west
August 14, 2023
Thats the plan
August 14, 2023
The French point of view is that their north coast is overrun with undesirables looking towards the flashing sign on the White Cliffs of Dover saying ‘Free Stuff Here’. Our leaders purportedly expect the French to act as goalkeepers while they debate whether four star hotels are good enough.
As I write, David Mellor is talking sense on GB News: we must remove the migrants’ expectation that they will be better off on this side of the Channel; we must remove the right of migrants to be surrounded by lawyers as soon as they land.
August 14, 2023
Old Albion
“…They are clearly facilitating them….”
Yes of course they are, and if you had undesirables in your Country who wanted to leave and were causing disruption, you would do the same, why on earth would you want to stop them ?
“Let them go to England if they want to, and the stupid English will let them in, they will even let them live there for nothing, give them a hotel room, heat, light, power, food, health care, spending money, access to the Benefits system, and the rest of the family can join them in due course at a later date.
We are being taken for fools by the whole bloody World, but the majority of our Politicians simply cannot see it !
August 14, 2023
Oh they can see it. But they don’t want to stop it. If they did, they would.
August 15, 2023
And there speaketh the truth.
August 14, 2023
England – already the most overcrowded nation in Europe. The SNP are calling the UK Government inhumane for not taking more. How many have gone to Scotland John? Not a lot I suspect.
August 14, 2023
Scotland/Wales and N.Ireland get approx. 10% of all the illegals, between them.
August 14, 2023
a new form of vote buying, akin to Labour and the Benefits increases…..who is going to vote against not working but getting everything to live on?
August 14, 2023
I have no confidence whatsoever that the pathetic, treacherous Tories will actually DO anything to stop this criminal invasion of our country. If the Australian Government could do it, why can’t our utterly useless Government? Instead they shower these criminals with freebies and expect law-abiding citizens to pay for it.
The failure to do anything meaningful to stop the invasion reinforces my suspicion that during the Brexit/Brino negotiations the Government quietly agreed that we’d take “our fair share” of the criminal migrants Merkel encouraged to flood into Europe. For the sake of appearances, the Government pretends it wants to stop them coming and Macron pretends he’s trying to.
August 14, 2023
Exactly, Sunak is clearly not only not even trying to stop them. Iindeed he is attracting ever more. Clearly no political will here to act. Perhaps double next year and double that the year after that?
August 14, 2023
In 12 months Sunak will say he’d tried his best and bugger off to the USA
August 14, 2023
Yes indeed. Ā£7 million daily will double and quadruple until there is direct action by Government to stop it or we the public will have to organise to do it for ourselves if the useless legacies refuse.
August 14, 2023
Donna
And all the while the gates get opened wider and wider for the WEF cult convĆØrts to march in, infiltrate and add to the mayhem for them to take full control of these islands.
August 14, 2023
@Donna – The Australian Government is running a Free Sovereign Democracy. Its elected Legislators are big enough and man enough to make amend and repeal its own Laws. i.e. its an Independent State where its MPās and Parliament take responsibility and manage the inner workings of the Country ā they do not have Foreign unelected, unaccountable powers dictating to the what is best for them.
Of course the Big difference they run their Country on the Basis of āEnglish Lawā
August 14, 2023
We could learn a lot from them
August 14, 2023
Donna – it does make you wonder about deals signed quietly behind the scenes.
My stance on the immigration debacle is hardening – and I volunteer with migrants. These are decent migrants who are keen to improve their English to enable them to get jobs. Some do volunteering themselves while they improve their English. They love being in England and are keen to integrate. Ps They love the British sense of humour!
I don’t see that with these illegal, entitled men! And when I read personal experiences that readers have encountered, it’s not positive.
August 14, 2023
It’s being reported that Macron has issued instructions to the Police in the Calais area that they shouldn’t attempt to stop dinghies launching because he’s concerned that being seen by French voters to be stopping the criminals from leaving France will increase support for Marine Le Pen’s Party in the French Senate Elections in September.
So Sunak bunged him another Ā£500 million for nothing.
August 14, 2023
Thirteen years you have been in power. Would you be so kind as to stop publishing lists and pledges about what should be done, and instead do it.
Reply I would be delighted to do these things but I have not been asked to be a Minister. As a backbench MP I have to make the case for change to persuade Ministers and senior officials to do things. You do not have to read it.
August 14, 2023
We understand your frustration Sir John. You and a few like minded members do need to collectively put extreme pressure on your leaders. Threaten then publically shame them into action. We have all had enough.
August 14, 2023
Definition of Pledge:
A thing that is given as security for the fulfilment of a contract or the payment of a debt and is liable to forfeiture in the event of failure.
August 14, 2023
Definition of a political pledge ā
āSay whatās poplar and topical to the media, without setting targets, milestones or commitments, in the hope that voters like itā
Same as a manifesto pledge
August 14, 2023
Pledge can be a polish for furniture, like a stool, i.e., polishing a turd, as in political rhetoric.
August 14, 2023
So your plan to take back control of our borders is to ask the French to do it for us. What a farce. Move out of the way, let a proper government take over
August 14, 2023
Well said Partey. How much longer and how many more thousands coming in on rubber boats do the authorities this side of the channel need to witness to reasise the French are glad to be sending the unwanted ‘guests’ in ther country out of their territory?
The French are working hand in glove with the criminals running the boat service. It is even worse than our authorities doing simply nothing, we are actually paying the French authorities/criminals to send the migrants to us!
August 14, 2023
Meanwhile, as the DT reveals today with a leaked Home Office memo, they’re planning for it to continue for (at least) another five years.
August 14, 2023
What happens after five years? Will conditions here deteriorate that quickly to the point where immigration is no longer attractive?
August 14, 2023
Partey
Proper government?
Where is that going to come from. Out of some old Christmas cracker?
The three, four if you count the SNP couldn’t supply a 150 people between them with the experience, passion and dedication to govern this country properly. The new generation of qualified politicians with no real life experiences have run their course and that is why we are where we are.
The present FPTP will ensure it will continue unabated.
The whole parliamentary system in both houses needs to be dragged kicking and screaming into the 21st century.
Change is not good enough, full scale renovation is required. If they don’t do it the WEF sure as hell will.
August 14, 2023
This is a National emergency and the fools do nothing other than offer them more places to stay. Action this day, not soundbites and future promises. Get on with it. If you were private industry you’d be bankrupt. Oh, but you’re doing that to the Country.
August 14, 2023
+1
August 14, 2023
Everyone knows what āshouldā be done, but nothing is ever done, and while the Government wrings its hands, hundreds arrive daily. Robust action should have been taken many months ago.
The Public are increasingly angry, and despair for this Country.
August 14, 2023
Indeed.
JR says āThere needs to be more action against the businesses that provide the boats and run the boat servicesā. So that will be the French Government, the RNLI, border force and the UK Navy mainly I assume?
August 14, 2023
And thatās the crux of the matter, we all known how the stop the boats, our politicians known how to stop the boats ā¦.so why donāt they ?
August 14, 2023
+1 no political will to do so. They know how to cut down the vast government waste and get the economy going too – but no political will for that. They know that “net zero” is an absurd con trick but no will to abandon that insane agenda either.
August 14, 2023
We need a fleet of planes to fly these people home. Straight off the boat and onto a plane.
August 14, 2023
or just tow them back from whence they came – France
August 14, 2023
Given these peoples need to earn money and the terrible conditions mining rare earth minerals in Africa we could kill two birds with one stone.
If the UK offered to help organise labour and safety in these rare earth mines we could fly the economic migrants to work in the rare earth mines until they decided to be flown home.
The virtue signalling electric car drivers could then sleep well at night knowing that child labour was not used to build their car.
August 14, 2023
++
I think that the Russians and Chinese are already doing that.
And treating Africa in a very business-like way that goes down better than our rather patronising charity led approach.
And getting what they want out of the deal.
Whereas we have inherited a rag toggle army to train up in the event ā¦.(of what?) our future shortage of rare earths?
After all we do have a talent for training menā¦or at least we once did.
August 14, 2023
44 countries so far signed up for the brics conference. Example is Uganda, just cut off from World Bank funds due to its harsh laws against homosexuality. They have simply turned to Russia and China for grain and told the EU it can get its tungsten elsewhere.
August 14, 2023
(:
August 14, 2023
In don’t think a lot of rare earth mining is going on in Albania, Syria, Morocco,Iran, Iraq etc
August 14, 2023
Tony Abbott faced this problem.
He placed the people who arrived in a horrible little island. No more came.
I believe the Scottish have some suitable places.
August 14, 2023
As I have been saying for many years now.
August 14, 2023
A horrible little island called Great Britain! At least, thatās what many of you on here think while half the world would love to live here – and are moving here as fast as possible.
In 50 years time there wonāt be anyone here that was born here.
August 14, 2023
We do not need to reinvent how to stop mass uncontrolled migration. We have a perfect example to emulate that was positively deployed in one of the most welcoming migrant based countries on Earth.
We should simply take the Australian method and apply it. The usual bleeding hearts would be furious of course, but the whole mess of mass uncontrolled migration driven by criminals and accommodated by Woke activists would stop in less than a month.
Just get on and do the job.
No one has the right to living accommodation, food and welfare services in another country without invitation and legitimate reason to be there.
Paying criminals Ā£thousands to sit on a boat in the English Channel, then throwing away documentation that identifies you, is not a legitimate reason to justify services/support you here in the UK.
August 14, 2023
They throw away their IDs because they’re criminals ….and we welcome them, remember that Libya, Tunisia, Chad and Niger all released their worse prisoners and pointed them towards Europe & the UK
August 14, 2023
Anyone who arrives in the UK from a safe country in which they chose not to claim asylum should be treated as an illegal immigrant, not a refugee, regardless of where they claim their journey commenced. This would not stop the UK accepting genuine refugees who had claimed asylum elsewhere, but would stop the flood of economic illegal immigrants who are travelling through several safe countries to reach the UK.
August 14, 2023
Correct
August 14, 2023
No 2 just highlights the lies this government is giving us and their stupidity in not realising that easy settlement is an attraction.
Somehow it thinks we will not notice.
August 14, 2023
“5. The government does need to sort out where it can send illegals to when their cases have been determined.” – and those suggesting answers that do not include a four star hotel will be required to give reasons.
Recall determination of cases will see many granted leave to remain (thus encouraging the dinghy traffic) and the government hardly ever deports anyone so whatever determination is made the outcome is the same: once here, here for ever.
August 14, 2023
Some things on the Julia Hartley Brewer Show this morning.
“Migrant Crisis to last at least five more years”.
Which means that the Conservatives have lost the next election.
The majority of people will not put up with this issue now, let alone for at least another five years! How many more will arrive in that time? At least another 200-300k+ that we know about.
“Poland plans Referendum- Polish Government asks if voters want thousands of illegal immigrants’.
Why are we not doing this here? If Poland a fully fledged EU member and also under the ECHR can do this, why can’t we? The Government probably already knows what the result will be!
Until this Government stops the pull factors (come to the UK and get endless ‘freebies’ that everyone else pays for), then this problem will never be solved.
The French want rid of them and facilitate the small boats into British waters. Therefore it is pointless, and a huge waste of money keep giving them Ā£100’s of millions of our money for doing absolutely nothing.
August 14, 2023
++
Umā¦great idea but our non elected leaders donāt tend to take much notice of voting or referenda.
As I always bang onā¦the greatest, most terrible act of lying treachery was perpetrated in 1832 when they pretended to give us democracy.
August 14, 2023
+1
The money being given to the French, is just another form of EU contributions.
August 14, 2023
Poland has been deserted. They are asking for 400,000 immigrants a year to keep the country ticking over. I think most of Poland is in eastern England.
August 14, 2023
What a really stupid (etc ed )comment
August 14, 2023
When film is shown of boats departing, there is regularly a French police vehicle on the beach. The French navy then escorts them to half way. The RNLI then escorts them the rest of the way. When illegal migrants drowned near the French coast why did the RNLI pick up survivors in French waters and bring them to the UK?
How can UK authorities possibly accept asylum claims from these (mostly) men when they arrive without ID, without any idea of their orrigens, country of birth, criminal record or indeed whether they are trained terrorists?
To be boreingly repetitive, the only sure way to stop the boats, and save lives, is to send in the RN TO TURN THEM AROUND.
August 14, 2023
They WANT them ā¦
They WANT themā¦..
Not sure whyā¦
But they do!
August 15, 2023
I think a deal has been done behind closed doors. They are just going through the motions hoping we will neither notice or suspect.
How wrong they are.
August 14, 2023
The only thing that is ‘boringly repetitive’ is the Government’s pledge (yet more talk) to ‘stop the boats’.
With the recent leak of an internal Home Office memo staying that the Migrant crisis is to last at least five more years, the pledge to ‘stop the boats’ is utterly meaningless.
August 14, 2023
@BOF – it is beginning to appear that the Bose’s of the RNLI are in cahoots with the criminal gangs profiting from this highly lucrative people trafficking.
These are the same Boseās putting their volunteer crews (who have other real jobs) lives at risk.
At the height of a similar event with Cubans escaping to the US, it was illegal for any one, authorities or others to help or assist until these people physically placed a foot on US soil.
August 14, 2023
Yes BOF. 1 Under the UN conventionon the Law of the Sea we have the right to stop these invading boats entering our waters.
With the electronic surveillance on board a Frigate detecting them on the French shore and a complement of marines with attack RIBS we could stop this fiasco tomorrow !
2 We now have a foreign army in our country that is bigger than our Army and will be a major fight to contain them when they start to push their way of life on native Brits.
Our government is in neglect of their duties to protect the native population.
August 14, 2023
Sorry
Should read ā and there will be a major fightā
August 14, 2023
Agree, under the law of the sea, anyone you pick up should be returned to a safe harbour (it doesn’t say your home port – we can under this law return them to Calais)
August 14, 2023
@BOF – elsewhere in the Media today it is reported that the RNLI appeared deep inside French Territorial waters, close to the French beaches, well outside their own area of operation and jurisdiction to pick up people in French Waters. This took place 15 Mins before the French turned up.
That begs the question who told the RNLI of the situation, it was well outside of the waters monitored by the UK Authorities. Logic says they are working directly with the traffickers
August 14, 2023
The government needs to review what it offers illegal arrivals in the UK
Itās not rocket science just put them straight back onto another faster boat and send them back to France , they are ILLEGALS whatās not to understand about the word illegal they are breaking OUR laws of a country which voted by a huge victory to take our country back and then voted a government back in to protect our borders, it will be no good in a few years time when these illegals start to take over our country with the same effect as the vikings or Anglo-Saxons did because it will be to late, they need stopping now and to hell with there rights or what the mamby pamby lefties cry about they have no rights they are illegal , when the good people who at the moment have there heads stuck in the sand are given the true facts there is going to be a huge cry to get it sorted out, so get it sorted and stop pandering to the Wokie leftists and make our country safe again before itās to late
August 14, 2023
@Mick – To paraphrase President Macron some time back, the UK has created a rod for its own back as it rewards those that make the effort. More than the would get elsewhere
August 14, 2023
Mick
Ben Habib was reporting just now on Talk Radio that on Saturday, migrants were shooting at each other to try and get on the dinghy!
I’ve not read that anywhere, but if true – do we really want people prepared to shoot their way in to the country? Of course not!
August 14, 2023
Exactly Sharon, and I wonder how many of the foreigners have the guns hidden to sneak into our country, I know thereās a Covid inquiry going on but I think there should also be a inquiry into the way this government is handling the illegal and legal immigrationās crisis , questions need to be asked and the truth told and not gobbledygook Double Dutch that most politicians seem to speak now a days
August 14, 2023
Mick: There have been a number of violent episodes reported on in the past on both sides of the Channel so nothing new. This all seems to get quickly forgotten about after the scant info which gets put out each time. Only about 10 days ago, two French officers were injured during attempts to stop a group launching from Sangatte, near Calais. It was reported they were attacked by about 60 migrants throwing rocks and anything else to hand. Fortunately on that day, reinforcements were called and the boat was punctured. Not the first time injuries & hospitalisations have been reported. I’m all for intercepting dinghies & reloading these people safely on to BF ships before they set foot and returning these people back to France, as many individuals suggest but can you imagine how that operation would be carried out and the level of danger involved with the type of people holed up on the French coast. Would Border Force agree – I doubt that very much. Don’t forget too that a retiring BF head stated back in 2021 on stepping down that borders were such a pain the ar.. !
August 14, 2023
We are an island – if we receive a claim for asylum from within this coutry the claimant has arrived illegally. Deny, deny deny
August 14, 2023
country
August 14, 2023
Pledges are just words not actions. The only thing this Government and any of the main political parties can do is just to waste the tax payers money without results.
It is effectively tax payer subsidised captialism. The banks are a good example when they fail, and when energy prices are high we pay the industry to keep them low.
The French do not want to stop the boats because they also do not want the problem of “asylum seekers”.
We can thank the Government for Net-Zero, reducing the insentive to work, and keeping the war going with Russia and Ukraine , and higher taxes in all their various forms.
The 5% VAT on energy sums it all up nicely to show the complete in action of modern Government which is no longer for the people in the country but some organisation(s) out side it.
But we can’t forget that there are major Global problems here caused by wars, population increase and climate change. Looking good by reducing our tiny contribution to the total global CO2 won’t fix this problem.
August 14, 2023
Indeed. And capturing carbon at Ā£20 billion, probably using Chinese materials produced by coal powered electricity is this Governments accomplishment! Totally useless.
August 14, 2023
Just as it is clear the BMA doesn’t want any solution to their dispute, they want to carry on the dispute through the election so as to try to bring in a left-wing govt, I fear we may see a similar effect at work with any govt initiative which might be successful and popular. The blob has its tail up, and can see the prospect of a leftist govt which will entrench its permanent power once and for all, and, inter alia, begin the process of reversing Brexit, likely to completed by the end of 2 Labour terms. Thus we see there is a home office memo saying the small boats problem wonāt be solved for 5 years. All manner of bureaucratic obstacles and nay-saying āadviceā will be offered to any measure likely to achieve anything on this issue. So it is also HS2 will continue, there will be no sensible tax cuts, the covid inquiry will talk about irrelevant inanities such as the impact of austerity and Brexit on the covid expense, but not touch lockdown or school closures. Etc etc
August 14, 2023
Covid response
August 14, 2023
When the authorities have run out of hotels, run out of barges and run out of tented airfields, where are they going to place these migrants then?
We can’t build housing fast enough to accommodate our existing population so we can not build homes for these incoming migrants.
That only leaves one realistic option.
The state will start taking peoples houses of them to convert particularly large houses into multiple accommodation placements.
Those unfortunate displaced home owners, those who have had their homes confiscated they will be notionally compensated, of course… but stand by for a serious downturn of our property rights.
Remember, You will own nothing and you ‘will’ be happy. The great reset is upon us.
August 14, 2023
Rod
Depressingly and frighteningly, it’s starting to look that way…
August 15, 2023
Well they can start with Buckingham Palace – Plenty of room there.
August 14, 2023
All charities visibily aiding and abetting these invaders are breaking a ECHR law and as such should be prosecuted and all their tax allowances be completely removed and their charity registration should be cancelled.
Apply ruthlessly existing laws, be seen to be doing something concrete to stop this uncontrolled invasion of our country.
August 14, 2023
It is an utterly sad state of affairs when you have traditional Conservative voters (like myself) just wishing this Government would go.
I’m not saying I want to live under a Labour administration. However, at this time neither seem to have any credible solutions to the issues the UK has.
The biggest problem is the Conservatives have become a fork of the Liberal Democrats. Pre 2010 there was a clear divide between the two. Since the Coalition Government, the Conservatives have become Liberal, soft, weak and pandering to minority fringes.
Does anyone really think that Margaret Thatcher would have put up with the nonsense of the small boats issue? She would have had the issue sorted by now, telling the EU and ECHR where to go in the process.
If the likes of Theresa May thinks stopping the boats is immoral, then she should be free to stand in Maidenhead as a Liberal Democrat MP – as many of her views more closely align to the Lib Dems than the Conservatives.
August 15, 2023
+1
August 14, 2023
“Most agree if someone is fleeing violence they deserve to find a safe haven.”
Well I don’t. Let them decide which side is right and go back and fight for their country, not run away like cowards.
Notice how it seems to be almost always men of fighting age who are running away. What’s happened to the women, children and elderly whose plight must be worse?
We in this country need to seize the initiative. Asylum is the gift of the UK, not something that should be seen as a right for anyone to claim.
August 14, 2023
John, it is a lamentable situation that we have no control over our borders, that the government seems powerless to resolve anything or change laws and treaties or issue clarifying statements to resolve the inappropriate behaviour of media, border-force agents, ‘human-rights’ lawyers. or diplomats agreeing arrangements with other countries’ bordering the channel from where these people have departed.
The principle should be that if you arrive here without fist claiming asylum oversees at our consulates and embassies you are automatically disqualified and will be sent back to your last point of departure within 24 hours. If you have no papers and have apparently deliberately destroyed them or jetisoned them on-route then you are disqualified from seeking asylum and must leave within 24 hours. If you have transited a safe country on-route, then you are disqualified from claiming asylum. All persons without appropriate papers, without having lodged an assylum claim prior to arrival on our territory and who is definitively not a British Citizen nor a legal alien should have no right to appeal and a procedure to remove them from the UK should be executed within 24 hours. Where they are coming from France they MUST be returned to France and France MUST accept them back. I believe this to be within the scope of existing treaties. Where it is not clear then those laws and treaties should be clarified. We must leave EHCR and if necessary UN treaties also. The UN and its agencies now work against the principles of law, freedom, rights and privilages of the West and we should revisit our relationship with it as well as the EHCR and EU.
It is also time that the government got more direct with the woke media that undermine it and with the civilservants and legal class that are supposed to implemetn the will of the people as expressed through the democratically elected government. We are being overrun currently and both the money, time and resources being expended on illegal, economic migrants should be spent on housing our own homeless, resolving issues with the NHS etc. Enough of this nonsense. It is an evil waste of resources that should be directed towards the service and assistance of British people.
August 14, 2023
+1 D B.
August 14, 2023
It would appear that as these are not UK Citizens committing criminal acts in the minds of this Conservative Government and the HoC, it just doesnāt matter,
I would suggest the activities of Crisis4Calais who appear to be UK Citizen and are openly encouraging people trafficking for profit. If we are to understand the UK Media this crowd a UK Charity is encouraging illegals to become criminals by getting them to loose all documents of ID. From the same sources it is suggested this outfit is touting for business for UK lawyers, for which the UK taxpayer then pays for their services. The logic therefore these entities are all part of the profit making trafficking chain ā but are somehow untouchable.
A UK Citizen abroad in legal difficulties has to use the UK representatives in those Countries to get representation ā why isn’t this reciprocated, to those committing criminal acts against the UK.
August 14, 2023
Today’s Daily Telegraph: “Migrant crisis āto last at least five more yearsā, government memo says
Internal document for civil servants claims No 10 is planning to use other sites to house asylum seekers over the coming years……….The internal document drafted for the top civil servants in the Home Office stated that the Government is planning to use disused RAF bases and a prison to house migrants for between three to five years, and possibly longer.”
https://www.telegraph.co.uk/politics/2023/08/13/migrant-crisis-last-five-more-years-leaked-government-memo/
August 14, 2023
You haven’t mentioned the one thing that would work and stop the trade in its tracks
SEND THEM BACK THE SAME DAY TO FRANCE
August 14, 2023
If we send them back to France, would the French switch off the ‘energy interconnector’ currently at 15.9% today
August 14, 2023
@glen cullen – Its the Blackmail and Leverage the French have over the UK. This Conservative Government knew that situation 13 years ago and have refused to allow the UK to be a safe, resilient self reliant Country. Even their much touted Wind-farms are primarily owned by Foreign States.
The Conservative Government will at all time give UK Taxpayer money to Foreign Domains ahead of nurturing proper UK security
Some think Labour would be worse and on the face of it there is some truth in that. However Labourās bosses and paymasters are the Unions, would they permit the wholesales export of UK workers jobs? Would they allow the UK car industry to be trashed so as to keep China happy?
The Conservative Government has shown after 13 years it is great at doing the opposite to serving the Country
August 14, 2023
G C
If they did it would certainly be a wake up call to all the Europhiles who think the French are our friends.
August 15, 2023
Probably ? But would they ? The UK Government could always counter by nationalising French companies (eg EDF). We could also revoke fishing licences. And as for UK citizens in France, well there are more French citizens in London then there are in some French cities. Always worth reminding them.
August 15, 2023
That’s just an example of the original raison d’etre of the EU: make it impossible for one member country to attack/become belligerent against a neighbour by making them inter-dependent.
We are legally no longer a member of the EU, but to all intents and purposes, the Not-a-Conservative-Government has ensured that we are still under their control. And any leverage we might have had – fishing for instance – is given away.
The Establishment will NEVER permit us to become genuinely independent of the EU.
August 14, 2023
They’re not French and the French don’t want them there either. We should though send back the unaccompanied children, who obviously must have absconded from their humanitarian care system.
The grown men should be sent immediately back to their home countries, and if that isn’t possible hold them in a camp with basic amenities until such time they can be returned.
August 14, 2023
glen cullen
Absolutely correct. If it was only so simple.
Our politicians revel in making everything so difficult.
Why are they not screaming from the top of Big Ben about the French coastguards escorted them in their waters until our boats came in and lifted them water?
Give all the charities a ultimatum you will be prosecuted for aiding and abetting illegal movement of people. If they get involved prosecute them.
August 14, 2023
Few genuinely believe that the invaders are refugees. Most who claim to believe it are Open Borders advocates who will say anything. For a time they were saying that illegal entry ‘in search of a better life’ was permissible.
August 14, 2023
Haven’t these illegal immigrants heard of ‘agenda-21′ and ’15-min cities’ , they should be staying where they are, and not crossing borders !
August 14, 2023
Beresford
Actually, there’s some big, posh houses not far away, perhaps I should wander into one and state that I want a better life.
Same difference!
Illegal is illegal, no matter the situation.
August 14, 2023
Undoubtedly there will be among all those on the french coast a number of genuine assylum seekers. Set up a portacabin office in Calais run by the Home Office, MI5, and a medical team to assess applicants while they still have documents. Photograph, fingerprint, and DNA test all applicants. Those that pass get a ferry trip to Dover. Make it clear to all that those who fail but cross illegally will be incarcerated and deported.
Allow those who pass to work, in fact direct them to work as the UK requires.
Illegal immigrants should be intercepted mid Channel by BF or RNLI boats transferred to RN ships complete with their rubber boats, shipped to inshore France, put back in their boat minus engine or fuel and escorted to the shore by fast shallow water RN craft manned by marines.
They could be returned anywhere on the french coast, a glance at Admiralty Charts gives endless possibilities. The French would of course go absolutely apeshit, so what, they have brought it upon themselves.
This is but one Rishi promise dealt with. I expect he believes that all his key 5 promises can be dealt with within current party thinking. They cannot. All require solutions outside consocialist thought processes which nobody in government is willing to undertake. The majority in the Commons are governing for themselves and their masters outside Parliament, not for the people who elected them.
August 14, 2023
Preaching to the converted again. Perhaps we should spend more time seeking a solution by talking with the Labour Party as the Tory party just dont get it.
August 14, 2023
Labour will just make it worse. Far better would be to talk to the Reform Party.
August 14, 2023
What is the EU agreement to take asylum seekers from these top 10 Countries being mistreated by their rulers, how many did Mrs May agree for the UK to take each year? Being told the truth would help.
You say they could take legal routes what are they? From Afghanistan, Iran, Iraq, Somalia etc.
How much are we still funding refugee camps in Jordan, Turkey and other Countries pa? How many people do we support on those rescue sites?
The people that say there should be more processing offshore, and we should process in France and pay them even more money to do that, they never say how many should be allowed to come to the UK, high numbers would be hit quite quickly, then what happens when someone is refused do they just get the next dingy, it is disingenuous, would act as an even greater pull factor.
What is the international community doing about the leaderships of these Countries that is persecuting so many men, what is the United Nations for?
It seems in the last five years it has started to become just very a very political, very co-ordinated way to remove your government, every time you come up with any solution it is not good enough unless we are paying for 5* rooms, your government wonāt do that for our own people so why are they getting better treatment?
Your government is going to have to be honest with just how many people we are taking in on other routes John, publish the figures, show how generous we are not just on repatriating families but also in paying for foreign camps.
20,000 Iraq and Iranians were fast tracked through recently what happens once they are, do we then provide homes? Training courses? University places? What precisely happens?
August 14, 2023
Good morning.
Sir John
Deleting my post will not save you or your party, and it will not change what is happening.
The truth is out there.
August 14, 2023
With a Civil Service which seems to practice disobedience to the Government, how do you think you will get the numbers who get here down as they are doing far less cases now. The Civil Service needs reforming and an oath taken and should happen when people become British. Perhaps then they would know where they stand and what for, more importantly (the good of those who live here legitimately). On the French question, they are not going to want people there so however much money you give them it is not going to make one bit of difference. The French are the French and some of us who have lived with them and in their country know that they constantly criticise the British but ask them if they want an English breakfast and they are lining up. Jealousy is what it is all about and how do you change the human character?
August 14, 2023
Sir John, isn’t the simple truth that there are no safe and legal routes for asylum seekers to come to the UK? None, except for the visa schemes for qualifying individuals from Ukraine or Afghanistan. Since the majority of these people are fleeing from other countries, Syria and Iraq being the two main ones, they have no other means of entering the UK. It is impossible, literally, for them to get a visa and fly to the UK for the purpose of seeking asylum. How about cooperating with France on their idea of processing asylum claims in France (the French seem far more efficient at that), then if they are successful and judged to be genuine asylum seekers (most are according to Home Office data), we could provide a safe a legal crossing into the UK and allow them the right to work immediately. There are of course limits on how many we absorb, but the UK currently takes less than many other European countries so some kind of international agreement could be made. The point being missed is that the problem will not go away. More and more people will flee badly governed and oppressive regimes. This has to be a shared responsibility. The UK public’s perception that we do more than everyone else needs correcting
August 14, 2023
Opening up even MORE legal routes for some migrants isn’t going to stop the criminal migrants who won’t qualify from continuing their invasion.
All it will do is make more places available on the people traffickers’ dinghies.
August 14, 2023
Why should the UK accept asylum seekers from Iraq or Syria? Wouldn’t a genuine refugee from such countries be more at home in a similar Islamic country?
August 15, 2023
Villaking I found these, what facts do you have?
In the year ending September 2021, the top five countries of nationality for asylum applications (from main applicants) were: Albania (13,650), Iran (9,652), Afghanistan (6,644) Iraq (6,333) and Syria (4,143). Source UN High commissioner for refugees.
https://www.gov.uk/government/publications/afghanistan-resettlement-and-immigration-policy-statement/afghanistan-resettlement-and-immigration-policy-statement-accessible-version#the-asylum-system
1 Mar 2023 ā This briefing summarises statistics on asylum seekers in the UK and refugees who arrive through resettlement programmes. https://commonslibrary.parliament.uk/research-briefings/sn01403/
Safe and legal routes – https://www.gov.uk/government/publications/illegal-migration-bill-factsheets/safe-and-legal-routes
The UK is the third largest bilateral donor to the Syria crisis, having committed over Ā£3.8 billion to date, our largest ever response to a single humanitarian crisis. https://www.gov.uk/government/publications/uk-syria-development-partnership-summary/uk-syria-development-partnership-summary-july-2023
We support camps in the Middle East perhaps the government should concentrate on telling us the truth on EVERYTHING we do and what it costs.
reply Thanks for a good answer to those who say the UK does not do enough for genuine refugees. 7 legal route schemes listed here.
August 15, 2023
a-tracy, thanks for the info on āSafe and Legal Routesā .
August 14, 2023
Sir John,
If the UK Government is incapable of stopping the boats, which I believe to be the case, then they’re going to need more barges. With 500 occupants each, at least a hundred. A further one hundred barges will be required by next year. The problem then becomes where to find a berth for them all. This would be the greatest logistical exercise since D-Day.
August 14, 2023
The Tory party are an irrelevance.
The boat issue is but the most glaring example of loss of control and the abolition of conservatism in the UK.
You are being publicly humiliated and the real ruling elites are rubbing your noses in it.
August 14, 2023
Wise and true words, well said James Knight
August 14, 2023
+1
August 14, 2023
Sir John’s overview is extremely sensible and states clearly what our approach to the Channel crossings should be . We cannot continue the way things are and immediate action is required . No. 10 has to use all the resources and skills available and it ought to include Sir John in its decision making ; he should not be spending his time as a Back Bencher . The daily cost to the country over the illegals is enormous and we must get our priorities in order . Sunak does not have much time on his hands to justify his role as PM ; he cannot afford to overlook advice of this sort .
August 14, 2023
Why not investigate the importation and supply routes of rubber dinghies and outboard motors into France? Stop the dinghies and you stop the trade. Itās not as if these things are small and easily hidden. How are they able to import them so easily into the EU? The problem you have is that neither the French nor the British governments want to stop this influx of people. They could easily sort it out if they wanted to.
August 14, 2023
Its not hard to see 50+ people walking from an illegal encampment (thatās under surveillance) to a beach awaiting for a large rubber boat at the morning tide (known time) on a stretch of coastline know for departure (thatās under surveillance), and motor across the channel via its shortage route (thatās also under surveillance) ā¦and nobody does anything until they pass the midpoint in the channel in UK territorial waters ā¦.theyāre seen from the moment they leave their camp and the French & the UK choose to do nothing
August 14, 2023
“3. Those who are genuine asylum seekers should apply under one of the many routes of legal entry.”
For very many genuine asylum seekers there are no routes of legal entry to the UK. It is still UK government policy that an asylum claim can only be made once on UK soil. Why?
We are still waiting for this government to provide an answer to Tim Loughton’s question at the Home Affairs Select Committee.
Why did Priti Patel reject the offer to set up a processing centre on French soil? Having such a facility (with efficient processing of claims) would put a huge dent in the business model of the small boats gangs.
Reply There are several legal routes for asylum seekers
August 14, 2023
Reply to reply: So what is the answer to the TIm Loughton question then?
If you know it, please share it, because the rest of us are still waiting to hear it.
August 14, 2023
We don’t need to set up a ‘safe route’ from France to the UK, as France is deemed a ‘safe’ country and a country in which they can claim asylum ….we set up safe & legal routes in regions/country that are in grave danger ie Afghanistan, Ukraine & Hong Kong and refugee resettlement/reunion, very other route is deemed unsafe & illegal
https://www.gov.uk/government/publications/illegal-migration-bill-factsheets/safe-and-legal-routes
August 14, 2023
It is said there are āacceleratedā (fast-tracking) procedure for people from Afghanistan, Eritrea, Libya, Syria and Yemen who are already in the UK. No such thing for people from Iran or Sudan.
If there are other legal routes, that would not involve āsmall boatsā, it would be good to have the details of these Home-Office-sponsored asylum seeker offices abroad with at least the name of the towns where such people could apply.
From gov.uk 28/06/2023 āInformation booklet about your asylum applicationā, my reading is that only a person already in the UK can initiate the processus.
So what are the other āseveral legal routes for asylum seekersā?
August 15, 2023
Genuine refugees don’t go asylum-shopping. They can’t pick and choose which country they want to go to …. they go to the first safe country they can reach.
We are under no obligation whatsoever to offer asylum to Irani or Sudenese asylum-shoppers.
August 16, 2023
Fast track for thousands of Iraqi and Iranian asylum claims.
https://amp.theguardian.com/uk-news/2023/may/16/home-office-to-fast-track-thousands-of-iraqi-and-iranian-asylum-claims
Syria development partnership
https://www.gov.uk/government/publications/uk-syria-development-partnership-summary/uk-syria-development-partnership-summary-july-2023
Afghanistan resettlement policy
https://www.gov.uk/government/publications/afghanistan-resettlement-and-immigration-policy-statement/afghanistan-resettlement-and-immigration-policy-statement-accessible-version#the-asylum-system
There is more out there, the government doesnāt seem to want to show people just exactly how much the UK spends and does. It seems there is also a safe route for thousands to simply fly into Rep of Ireland then destroy papers. See the Irish Times.
August 14, 2023
The only way someone in France who trying to reach the UK is a genuine asylum seeker is if they have a right to live in France and are having to flee persecution from the French authorities. Even in that case it would be easier and safer to travel to a country bordering France instead of crossing the Channel.
If they genuinely started their journey as a refugee, if they fail to claim asylum in the first safe country they reach they become an economic migrant.
August 15, 2023
Wrong. The UN Refugee Convention does not require refugees to claim asylum in the first safe country they arrive in (although very many do – Greece takes more asylum seekers than the UK does, for example).
This interpretation is supported by rulings by UK courts.
August 15, 2023
How would you distinguish between an asylum seeker and an illegal economic migrant? I suggest a simple way to do so is the asylum seeker claims asylum as soon as they are able to, i.e. in the first safe country they reach, but an illegal immigrant will travel through many safe countries to reach their destination and will destroy or dispose of their identity documents so that their origin cannot be determined.
What makes you think that someone who doesn’t need asylum and is willing to illegally enter a country, paying other criminals to do so, is going to be a good citizen?
August 15, 2023
Given the lack of safe and legal routes (i.e. an answer to the Tim Loughton question), the refusal of this government to set up an asylum claim processing centre on French soil (which was offered by the French, but declined by Priti Patel), the policy that a claim can only be made once a person is already physically in the UK (again, something Priti Patel introduced), how, exactly, do you suggest that genuine refugees make a legitimate claim for asylum in the UK?
Or are you suggesting that claiming asylum in the UK should be effectively impossible? It sounds like it to me.
Reply There are plenty of safe routes and many using them
August 14, 2023
All logical sensible points, John. BUT Westminster has NO will to stop this invasion! Why? Have to say it’s been looking suspect for nearly 3 years. France & EU benefit by reducing the burden on them. Plus we pay France huge sums to do what?? Do we have financial audits of how our money is spent. Let’s get that published & be more transparent about taxpayers funding.
More key is what exactly is the magic number of illegal migrants we can continue to take? 100k, 150k pa??
Who is paying RNLI to do this work daily & the staff. Because the volunteers & the companies they work for could not support this level of activity just via donations. This is costly big bucks, let’s have the figures.
This is clearly now a pre-planned, pre-agreed deal with EU. It’s time to tell the electorate the truth!
August 14, 2023
Yes Jude, I agree.
August 14, 2023
The ‘carefree’ approach to the illegal migrant problem by leftie activists and HR and Legal Aid dependent Lawyers is to the detriment of our efforts to accommodate the bona fide asylum seekers and genuine refugees.
Therefore, I find the thought, irresistible, that they are acting, purely with vested interests rather than with compassion and generosity. If not, why are they not acting more strongly for the bona fides?
Why are we, an independent Nation, still controlled by unidentified pseudo-judges from unidentified countries who may meet in secret session (or alone in their back garden) to decide the fate our us British tax payers who just want back the total control of our country? If we wanted unelected and unaccountable foreigners to rule us, we would have elected to remain in (and under) the EU.
Leave the ECHR, NOW!! Let’s get our country back! For real this time as we do not need anyone telling us how to protect our own citizens and the genuine refugees and asylum seekers who come here. We already have a proud record dating back centuries of doing so..
August 14, 2023
I thought the bill that went through parliament meant that people who arrive here illegally cannot claim asylum.
Just wait until those that are already here suddenly remember where they came from and claim their extended families using yuman rights with the right to family life. The figures we now hear about will pale into insignificance and will increase 6 fold as a rough estimate. So the 100,000 already here you can assume will become 600.000 eventually.
August 14, 2023
We already have the Immigration and Asylum Act 1971 & 1999 that sayās the same thing, but are ignored ā¦.likewise the new Illegal Migration Act 2023 will be ignored
All pointless while we’re in the ECHRs
August 14, 2023
Technically they are not arriving illegally if we are picking them up and bring them in. That is why I keep saying to let them land, then arrest them for illegal entry.
August 14, 2023
Since JR doesn’t like links, here is a cut-and-paste from an article on BBC news in 2012 quoting Peter Sutherland the UN Migration Chief:
“The United States, or Australia and New Zealand, are migrant societies and therefore they accommodate more readily those from other backgrounds than we do ourselves, who still nurse a sense of our homogeneity and difference from others.
“And that’s precisely what the European Union, in my view, should be doing its best to undermine”.
But don’t say that this is what is going on or you will be called a conspiracy theorist.
August 14, 2023
The EU is implementing the Coudenhove-Kalergi Plan. It’s why both Blair and Merkel were awarded the Charlemagne Prize.
August 14, 2023
If our adherence to the European Court of Human Rights is killing people, then we need to urgently disassociate ourselves from it .
August 14, 2023
I note there is no sense of āwhat is good for the countryā in the national discussion on this – only what is good for the migrants.
August 14, 2023
āMost agree if someone is fleeing violence they deserve to find a safe haven [in the UK].ā
Erā¦noā¦You need to know why they are fleeing violence and how can we know this if they throw away their ID?
Any genuine asylum seeker would not be throwing away their ID as they would want to prove the reason why they are seeking asylum.
I am not in favour of increasing our population and changing our culture in order to accommodate everyone in the world who say they are āfleeing violenceā.
The only solution is turn back to France all those without ID. They certainly should not be ārescuedā in French waters and brought to the UK.
August 14, 2023
The question has to be asked where will all these illegals be living in say ten or twenty years time – what will they be working at – if not working then what? will they be still all living together in high rise as middle aged people? Next question – so where is the Home Sec – on her hols I suppose useless waste of space. The questions need to be addressed but in any case I think it’s time for Braverman to go – she wouldn’t be the first Home Sec way in over her head.
August 14, 2023
Are we getting any value-for-money from the millions being given to Paris? Perhaps you could ask a question next month?
August 14, 2023
Not a one of these people is fleeing violence. They’re coming from France!
It is a conceit and a deliberate deception of the public.
August 14, 2023
I am increasingly convinced that no one inside or out government has any serious intention of stopping the flow of immigrants into the UK.
Our nation state is descending into being a multicultural, multiracial, multi-religious and multi-degenerate society that history tells us will be impossible in the future to properly govern, police and defend.
August 14, 2023
By accepting all these invaders you are ultimately upsetting the balance of the population demographics.
Is this the reason that the state of mass advertising in all the media’s and commercial companies is now heavily slanted towards racial couples, ethnic. sexual groups and overweight children and adults? Is just to make them feel more at home.
August 14, 2023
Sunday was a day of rest for the boats apparently.
August 14, 2023
The fact is, these persons are illegal immigrants. As such they should be treated as criminals.
Instead, our government treats them as though they are honoured guests in our country and ask us tax payers to cover the enormous costs of their stay (forever, maybe).
As SJ has mentioned, no other country treats these illegals as well as we do and that must be an excellent reason for them to “choose” to come here. That they arrive in such numbers across such dangerous waters bears testament to the proposition that the UK is a soft touch. Not only do they get free board and lodging in good hotels they receive Ā£40+ cash per week and a mobile phone to invite their mates to come too.
How stupid can we be? How long can this farce be maintained?
When we will become bankrupt from all the wicked waste that the Government has caused?
Consequently, I fear our currency may be at risk when the international debtors realise we are no longer in control of our economy nor our destiny.
August 14, 2023
More action? Any action would be better than the current no action. How many businesses sell inflatables that can take 50 people. What are such boats used for? I canāt think of any possible use apart from life rafts. How many people make inflatables that size? You could find out in an afternoon of research and then tell the owners that unless they want to be considered an accessory, they need to hand over their sales records and inform them undercover people will try to buy from them and if they sell for cash they will be prosecuted.
August 14, 2023
What are the criteria for asylum?
Fit young man pays thousands for a place on a life raft, throws away his identity papers and rocks up here with a functioning mobile phone.
Mr. Redwood – does he qualify for asylum? What are your governmentās rules on our behalf?
Surely anyone who refuses to say where they come from should be treated as an illegal immigrant – not an asylum seeker. How can you judge if you donāt know what they are running from? How can you tell if you are letting in a serial killer or mass murderer in their own country.
Isnāt the first duty of government to protect the people.
August 14, 2023
The Falkland Islands or their home country. Their choice.
Or, Gibraltar. If enough go there and settle they could, in a future referendum, vote to become part of Spain and then Spain could look after them. Also, whichever way you look at it, theyād be nearer to home – wherever it may be.
August 14, 2023
The French authorities are duplicitous; basically they want rid of these people. They fail to investigate the criminal enter behind the illegal boat racket including the boats, outboard engines, the life jackets etc? They fail to properly organise the technical and physical surveillance of the beaches and the routes taken by illegal migrants from their camps? Are they using high resolution satellite technology? And they signally fail to intercept illegals who make it into the water. Yet they take our money and pay lip service to this catastrophe laughing behind our backs, no doubt, As for anyone arriving illegally from an EU Country claiming asylum, this should not be allowed and they should be detained and returned forthwith. I do not believe the Rwanda policy will work. The only solution is to return all illegals from France or any other EU Country back from where they came.
August 14, 2023
You canāt blame the French. If we had a load of people, desperate to get to France, living in squalid camps on the South Coast – weād organise a āreverse Dunkirkā and ship them over at no charge.
We have only our forefathers to blame. If they hadnāt gone around colonising half the world and making English the āworld languageā, none of these people would want to come here.
We should offer citizenship to people for, say, Ā£50k. This money should then be given to an English person to help them to leave. One in, one out. Why not? Give me a visa for somewhere Iād like to live – and the Ā£50k to pay for health insurance – and Iād happily make room for someone. Iād want my pension though, Iāve earned that.
August 14, 2023
Having read most of the comments @ now 18.00 hrs, I think John has already got the message loud and clear, although I am sure he knew the thoughts of many of his contributors before he penned the posting.
The problem is the Government and the opposition Parties and their members does not seem to be getting or understanding the strength of the same message
So one concludes they are not bothered, and have no real intention of really doing anything tangible to stop illegal immigrants arriving here !
The solution is simple, the law is clear, it is the will to enforce it which is weak.
August 14, 2023
Sir John:
We need to withdraw from the 1951 Refugee Convention. The world has changed in every way since then.
We should refuse to accept any so-called asylum seekers. Any “asylum seeker” who turns up on our shores has travelled through numerous safe countries. There is no need for any of them to claim asylum here.
The Home Office is a shambles. They cannot process “asylum seekers”. The only solution is to end the entire system. It does not work, so it must end.
August 14, 2023
“Most agree if someone is fleeing violence they deserve to find a safe haven.”
Certainly not! That would give anyone living in a violent drug-gang ridden area of Tottenham or Brent the right to a house in K&C or Holland Park.
Please stop all this unconservative ‘deserves’ propaganda. Nobody who is in difficulties ‘deserves’ to take the money and property from those who have done nothing to cause their woes.
August 14, 2023
In this blog of Freedom and Prosperity and especially since we have supposedly taken back control why don’t you get together with your other Members Of Parliament and make z stand for Julian Assange – if you can’t do that to help an Australian whistleblower to prevent him being extradicted to Bidens US then what use is our so called freedom.
August 14, 2023
The biggest mistake made was to tell our boats to lift these invaders when they are on the water.
The invaders should have been made aware years ago we will only attend when they are in the water.
At present the distance of risk is less than 50% of the journey. If they realise the risks are increased dramatically ot will come down to who is feeling lucky.
If like the other incident If they are in French waters then they are their responsibility, not ours.
August 15, 2023
Dear John, I do not believe there is anything in the 1951 Convention or its 1967 Protocol that stays the UK’s hand in this matter (ie illegal arrivals from Northern Europe).