What has the UK become?

[Bluemanc100]

You don’t support saving lives at sea? You sound nice.

Who said I don’t?? I support many good causes… My business which @BobKowalski

 

[BobKowalski]

They are choosing to take a risk and they are putting trust in criminals to do it. Disrupting the criminals through intelligence and enforcement is one way we can really help. What is happening though is no different to occasions where people have tried to stow themselves into aircraft landing gear on the hope that they survive the journey (the odds are extremely slim!).

Just because people are taking these risks doesn't mean that we have some duty to remove that risk. I'd completely understand if this was Dunkirk and they faced imminent death as has been the case for Ukrainians but that is obviously not true in this case.

France is not a warzone, it's a nice place to live, I'd be half-tempted at the moment to do a swap! If their choice is however has to be the UK then unfortunately that choice comes with risk just as much as choosing to travel the planet to live in Antarctica comes with risk.

The rest of Europe is not doing anything either, they're happy to remain ignorant and pick up people on boats when they arrive and not before.

If we don’t have an obligation to remove the risk, do we have the right to increase the risk by removing all means of safe passage?

If a Govt removes all means of safe passage, then by definition they are encouraging unsafe passage and are complicit in any deaths.

 

[Bluemanc100]

Remind me again as to your extensive expertise on French policy and policing methods.

Is it non-existent or a bit less than that?

There is plenty of footage in the media to suggest that the French make a token effort to prevent migrants getting into boats to attempt their channel crossings.. I never professed to be an expert, perhaps you can tell me when I did so maybe you can tell me, exactly what incentive have the French got to stop the boats and stop these immigrants leaving their soil and becoming another country’s problem?

 

[BobKowalski]

Who said I don’t?? I support many good causes… My business which @BobKowalski

Then you support the RNLI saving lives of asylum seekers who get into difficulty in the Channel. I am heartened to hear you say that. Here’s to them continuing the good work.

 

[Alan Harper's Tash]

There is plenty of footage in the media to suggest that the French make a token effort to prevent migrants getting into boats to attempt their channel crossings.. I never professed to be an expert, perhaps you can tell me when I did so maybe you can tell me, exactly what incentive have the French got to stop the boats and stop these immigrants leaving their soil and becoming another country’s problem?

I assume we should be critical of Northern Ireland not stopping asylum seekers travelling into Ireland then?

 

[Bluemanc100]

Then you support the RNLI saving lives of asylum seekers who get into difficulty in the Channel. I am heartened to hear you say that. Here’s to them continuing the good work.

It’s a shit sandwich for the volunteers… I don’t believe that they deserve to be put in a position where they have to ferry predominantly economic migrants who leave France voluntarily to try and reach the UK..

 

[BobKowalski]

There is plenty of footage in the media to suggest that the French make a token effort to prevent migrants getting into boats to attempt their channel crossings.. I never professed to be an expert, perhaps you can tell me when I did so maybe you can tell me, exactly what incentive have the French got to stop the boats and stop these immigrants leaving their soil and becoming another country’s problem?

From a House of Commons report assessing 2022.

‘The UK–France Joint Leaders’ Declaration issued in March 2023 states that France prevented 1,381 small boat crossings, carrying 33,788 people, in 2022. This equates to 42.4% of attempts to cross and 55% of small boats being intercepted by the French authorities in 2022.

The UK Government has said that “at least” 59 Organised Crime Groups connected to Channel crossings have been dismantled, and over 500 arrests made, since the foundation of the UK–French Joint Intelligence Cell in July 2020.’

Since then funding has been increased. I would suggest that this is more than a ‘token’ effort and that stopping all crossings is all but impossible and that the French and UK authorities put in a lot of time and effort.

 

[Bluemanc100]

I assume we should be critical of Northern Ireland not stopping asylum seekers travelling into Ireland then?

Perhaps we should… I’m sure that the Irish will find a way to convince these migrants that they’d be better off going back to NI despite the threat of Rwanda..

 

[BobKowalski]

It’s a shit sandwich for the volunteers… I don’t believe that they deserve to be put in a position where they have to ferry predominantly economic migrants who leave France voluntarily to try and reach the UK..

Their job, or duty, is to rescue ‘souls in trouble on the high seas’. Every boat that launches is invariably doing so voluntarily. It is not the RNLI‘s role to question why you are about to drown or assess if you deserve to drown. Much as some, no doubt, would like that to be the case.

 

[Alan Harper's Tash]

Perhaps we should… I’m sure that the Irish will find a way to convince these migrants that they’d be better off going back to NI despite the threat of Rwanda..

They’ll probably process the ones that have travelled there, whilst pass some legislation about strengthening the border into the EU, jeopardising the Good Friday agreement in all likelihood, but it’s difficult to negotiate with the U.K. at the moment as we have toddlers in charge.