That is good, people are needed to fill the roles vacated by EU citizens leaving pre-Brexit.
Donāt worry - as in the Direct Line advert, Pretti Awful is on itā¦
Funny thing is I feel reluctant to visit the UK now - even though I have a British passport!
Of course rationally I know Iād be OK, but the fact that my non-British-passport-holding friends might be mistreated just gives me qualms.
Itās not just this latest treatment of EU visitors - the border force has been out of control - or, worse, in control - for years, mistreating refugees and asylum seekers, and of course the Windrush generation - what was that but an authoritarian amoral state subjecting its own perfectly law-abiding citizens to arbitrary loss of livelihood and rights, arrest, detention, and deportation, because they didnāt have the right āpapersā?
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Jane, China is a market, the UK is backwater.
Robert, we know the Home Office has become āhostile environmentā central, whether one has the right to reside or not. We also know that āborder forceā (roll of drums) is really a hodgepodge of goodness knows what dross in Gestapo-esque uniforms. I suspect that professionally you would have have distanced yourself from such a rag, tag and bobtail bunch. Itās all a bloody mess Mate, the only debate IMO is whether itās on purpose or not. Personally I think it is on purpose and that (female dog) Patel is stoking it.
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Why? Why is it worth people crossing through so many countries to get to the UK?
Iām going with āyou get a lot of free stuff just for turning upā.
Personally, Iām fine with all refugees from the unstable Middle East being housed on land belonging to all the MPs that voted for the U.K. to join Bushās illegal wars in Iraq and Afghanistan and feed/clothed/schooled at their expense.
The main reasons are (in approximately this order - the first easily the most important):
- They have family, friends, or other connections in the UK already.
- They already speak English (and in learning it might have been given a false idea of what the UK is like).
- They believe (to some extent correctly - no need for an identity card, etc) that itās easier to āgo under the radarā in the UK.
- They have other illusions about it.
The vast majority, of course - well over 90% - choose not to go to the UK.
As to whether itās worth it - obviously not!
This article does have good news and bad news.
- The good news is that two thirds of Brits think the UK should protect refugees fleeing war and persecution.
- The bad news is that the UK government is in the horrible other third!
Quite. Itās actually higher than 90%, itās 95%.
About 630,000 asylum applications were made in the EU in 2019, and about 35K for the UK (first applicants, the overwhelming bulk of the applications), thatās roughly 5%. France: 139,000 (first applicants). In both countries, the acceptance rate is about 40% (the EU average). Germany: 111,000. Spain: 115,000 etc.
The tabloids and some so-called āquality papersā bang on about the a ārefugeesā invasionā as theyāre wont to do (itās part of their fond de commerce, stock-in-trade) but it is a trickle that make it/apply for asylum to the UK, far lower in proportion than France, Germany, Spain, Sweden and many other EU countries.
A 60% rejection rate can see high but certainly for France (not sure about the UK), a proportion of these applications come from countries which are on the OFPRA list of āsafe countriesā (the French Office for the Protection of Refugees and Stateless people, who deals with the applications, with the help of hundreds of agencies, associations & charities who steer the asylum seekers towards the right place and help them with the admin and financial side of it, theyāre given a small allowance, about ā¬240 a month and, in most cases, accommodation, in a CADA or another structure).
Some people from these countries listed as āsafeā are economic migrants who flee grinding poverty (and are therefore turned down), although a small proportion are genuinely fleeing persecution, these are generally granted asylum, upon which they officially become ārefugeeā, get a CdS, can work etc.
For instance in France in 2019, the 3 main nationalities of asylum seekers that year were, in that order, Afghans, Albanians and Georgians, about 30,000 between them.
The Afghans applications totalled just over 10,000, and as Afghanistan is considered as as āunsafeā by OFPRA and the EU list, the vast majority of them were granted asylum (all minors were granted it),
2nd on the list were the Albanians: 9,200 applications. However, Albania is of course on the āsafeā list - āpays dāorigine sĆ»rsā, this is one of the latest modified list - so only about 7% were granted asylum, so about 650, people who were deemed to be genuinely persecuted. There are clan problems in Albania and some groups, such as LGBTs or some ethnic communities, are not safe there. There are also health reasons, especially for minors, and these tend to be granted asylum even from āsafeā countries. See this article). Albanians donāt need a visa to enter the Schengen Area, hence the high number of applicants (France was their #1 destination, then Italy, Germany etc.).
Georgia was 3rd with 8,300 applicants (with a marked acceleration in the pre-covid months, over 1,000 Georgian applications a month). Since 2013, Georgia has been on the safe list and Georgians do not need a visa to enter the Schengen Area. Only 5% of applications were granted asylum (homosexuals who were persecuted, some political dissidents, children, health reasons) as, to use the OFPRA jargon, the overwhelming applications from Georgia were ādemandes dāasile de faible qualitĆ©ā.
The UK authorities seem powerless, or unwilling, to sort out the real, and bigger, problem of the overstayers so theyāve chosen to deflect attention away from that failure and put the focus on the refugees, a very small number in reality but a much more visible and emotive one.
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I donāt think the EU is of the nature to retaliate - just get even (over time) for the appalling treatment they suffered at the hands of the likes of leave.eu as witnessed in this poster.
Pity you chose to describe our fascist friends on the border as Rag, Tag and Bobtail. I was quite fond of those three as a child. Iām sure that Patel has been drawing on the DDR playbook.
Just think how many over stayers there will be when Patelās Hindus arrive.
At least the first part of that claim is true - we didnāt win two world wars, at least not without (a lot of) help.
But that poster is SO offensive is it not? I mean mind-bogglingly offensive, possibly the worst one in the Leave.EU campaign.
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I agreeā¦ it is so offensive and I canāt help but wonder why it was even allowed to be run in their ācampaignā.
This overstayersā issue, a significant one I understand as obviously overstayers become illegals past their authorised period of stay (although we donāt seem to know the number with any precision in the UK within 100,000 (!), Iāve read up to 1.2 million illegals in the UK, the vast majority of these illegals are overstayers who entered legally then, but Iāve also read that it could be as few as 50,000), anyway, how do other countries tackle this issue of overstaying, how do immigration services in other countries know if s.o is overstaying etc. Iād be interested to know if anyone has insights on this.
Showing my age David 
Haha are you serious thatās noting compared to Europen countries Sweden alone took 12 991 last year thatās a country with a population of 10 million
Presumably in the US you may be put in a detention centre for a few days without mobile phone and access to meds before expulsion, if the border agents donāt believe that you are coming into the country to visit family or friends.
The unjust and disproportionate treatment following genuine errors is what is most disturbing.
(and the tone of the Home Office press response)
France has a problem with overstayers from different countries compared to the uk here itās allot of Americans and South Americans