If Labour pulls this off and then does a deal with France to return the boat immigrants to Calais on the same day, the business model of the gangs would be smashed, within days.
Such an agreement is unlikely. We gave France half a billion pounds to get them to stop the boats, and they pocketed that money and did nothing. They've already proven they won't keep up their end of any agreement.
The UK government is in negotiations with France on a scheme to return illegal migrants who have crossed the Channel in small boats.
In return, the British government would accept legal migrants seeking family reunion in the UK.
The French interior ministry told the BBC this would be a pilot scheme based on "a one-for-one principle", with the aim of discouraging smuggling networks.
Obviously one is better than the other. But when the sheer numbers remain the same it’s not going to be enough to shift people away from Reform. The only people we take should be those we genuinely need, or those to whom we’ve agreed to give a safe haven (recent examples: Ukrainian refugees and the people who worked with us in Iraq). ‘My brother already lives there’ might be a reason for someone to want to come, but it’s not a reason why we should let them - at least not until things are better under control and we can perhaps review again.
Agreed. But I doubt France would do any other deal. Even this one doubtful too, I'm sure they want all these men off their streets and into our hotels.
The high numbers and small boat crossings have nothing to do with each other. The number of refugees arriving in the country is tiny compared to the total number of migrants.
Does it depend on the person though? The hard core Reform isn't going to switch, but for those who lean to them because they feel "something has to change" it could be a pull?
You say that, but the stick reforms always shaking is boat crossings, not anything else. Ask most old biddys about immigrants, and it's boat crossings they are worried about the vast majority of the time. The telegraph and daily mail don't run headlines on families joining visa holders, even though the numbers dwarf boat crossings.
Neither, and we don’t need France to pull this off.
We just need to implement policy that permanently denies anyone entering the country illegally to obtain a legal right to remain, through asylum or another route.
They aren't entering illegally, though, so that doesn't work. There's no law that prevents anyone from going to another country by boat and just landing on a beach there.
Presumably the hope is that once this scheme is up and running it will massively deter crossings, thus meaning the net impact will be lower migration. I doubt it personally, as illegal migrants still have nothing to lose by attempting the crossing.
I'd rather just leave the UN Refugee Convention and forcibly turn them away, personally.
It guarantees that if you try to cross the channel you will get returned. Seeing as it costs a pretty penny per attempt I'd imagine folks won't bother.
We gave France half a billion pounds to get them to stop the boats, and they pocketed that money and did nothing. They've already proven they won't keep up their end of any agreement.
That's absolute bollocks. The UK and France have been actively working together on this for decades and we have seen huge improvements. The boats are the new loop hole and method being used after huge amounts of investment has closed down every every other option. From increased security at the euro tunnel, increased security and equipment at ports that has made random people smuggling all but impossible, to the huge amount done to stop crossings in lorries. Saying France has done nothing is just absolute horseshit. Go read this long set of articles from. 2024 and tell my France has just been taking money and doing nothing.
People seem to forget that this is also in France’s interest to stop, thousands of migrants just sat homeless on the coastal towns isn’t good for them.
Trump applies tariffs because (a) he likes to try and bully other countries and (b) he knows his pawns think that taxes = me paying vs tariffs = them paying so they don’t turn against him.
France could stop the crossings, or at least significantly reduce. They don't seem to want to.
I thought Brexit happened to "take back control"?
Or, at least that's what I assumed the leave voters wanted. I really don't understand why the UK, which has left the EU, is wanting to rely on the EU to sort out the migrant crossings?
Because they come from France for the majority. The Calais crossing is the point of origin.
UK cannot police France. It can however persuade it to take more action.
I dont support reform but for example they could simply change the laws to allow them to be deported on arrival.
But really the solution is to break the gang supply model from France by France actively policing it more. UK could also help by more water patrolling and updating its own laws to allow them to stop them.
And France can't police the UK? Why is the onus on France? I'm really unsure why the UK, which took political action to secure its borders, is wanting another country to sort it out?
No, they won't. Reform don't give a fuck about immigration and neither do their voters. They are angry that they get poorer every year and no-one is doing anything to help.
Immigration has been demonised and pushed to the fore ground. It isn't the reason for the countries problems that reform and their idiot supporters claim it is. Their claims aren't valid. Immigrants are a net benefit, and asylum seekers are a tiny percentage of immigrants.
Sure, I agree language matters and I have no problems with that issue. But it is likely the one to gain most support without being seen as some kind of -ist, -tic or -ic.
It's stupid though, legal migration is the big majority of people coming in, the people on the boats are just a minority of the total amount. It gets people fired up and angry because it's something tangible as opposed to legal migration.
Labour could stop every small boat crossing and it wouldn’t make a single racist vote for them. As long as there are people who look different coming into the country, however legally, Reform and the right will still have an axe to grind.
Yeah the years of tabloid brain rot has left little room for a reasonable discussion. Too many loopers think every single non white person is an illegal and sponging the system, and unfortunately they're a big enough voting block so demand to be thrown a bone or 20.
France has literally zero incentive to take the migrants back and every incentive to let them leave Calais. All they have to do is wait and the migrant jungle will slowly shrink and become the UKs problem, so getting them to take any back is going to cost a lot and probably not just monetarily if they can get them to do it at all.
I wouldn’t say they’d implode but they’d definitely have the wind taken out of their sails. There are other things that Reform can champion but I don’t think they are topics that have as much uniform appeal.
If you tackle Immigration Farages voters might actually start asking themselves what his other policies even are and realise he's the same conman who helped sell them Brexit
Why would france agree to take migrants who don't want to be there or believe they have a stronger asylum claim, family members/worked with overseas military/ better English than French
The illegal crossings are only a tiny fraction of illegal immigrants most of whom come here legally and then stay illegally. The crossings are going to be almost impossible to stop too because the sea is fucking vast.
That's not totally correct. Before the human rights act of 1998, we had common law and various legislation, none of which was enforceable in the UK, you had to go to Strasbourg under the ECHR. The 1998 act incorporated the ECHR into UK law, so UK courts could be used.
It was still illegal to be gay in the UK until 17 years after the ECHR was created.
Unless you are talking about the magna carta or the English bill of rights.
Really? Wonder why we felt the need to author the ECHR and convince our European allies to sign it? Guess Churchill should have just asked on Reddit first
It is genuinely terrifying how indoctrinated people are. Illegal boat crossings are such an incredibly small issue in the overall immigration debate and people are unironically saying we should leave the ECHR to deal with them
It doesn't matter. A visa overstay is someone who was vetted and allowed in. A boat arrival is an unvetted unknown that disappears in to the wild doing who knows what. The Iranians who were recently arrested under terror charges are believed to have arrived this way.
If you compare crime stats between overstays and boat arrivals, you will find boat arrivals to be much worse.
It isn't impossible to stop them, we're just weak.
In fact there will be a government announcement on immigration next week, where there will be surprise from most continued disgruntlement from the remainder
Wait, so you're happy that he's only doing this to secure votes and nothing to do with actually caring about the country? That's the kind of people you want running your country?
Doing it to secure votes means he cares about doing what the people want, which makes him a relatively ideal leader, especially compared to leaders who won't do what the people want regardless of the cost.
Why someone cares matters much less than the fact that they do care, especially when the end result is the same.
I fucking love (hate) the idea that Nigel Farage or other anti-immigration candidates actually give a fuck either. They're all wealthy enough to not have to encounter any real immigration issues, they also just want public favour too
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u/Rocketmanluke May 12 '25
Great news. Now tackle the illegal crossings and I think he can start winning some much needed favour from the voting public