The Bibby Stockholm!

[Cousin Jack]

...........It's in my Soul!

WTF is a "soul"?

[Greenman]

...........It's in my Soul!

WTF is a "soul"?

Who knows...it sounded good at the time...

Maybe it's the realisation of something you don't directly know much about but that has always been in your life indirectly, and at some point in your life you realise the thing that has always been in the background has actually had a lot to do with the desicions you have made in life?

[Mussels]

Can the trans people not be put on there too?

Keep it Brexity, nice and Brexity.

I doubt they discriminate against trans illegal immigrants, all are welcome there.

[Tomcat]

This'll probably go down like a lead zeppelin on such a right leaning forum, but I see the Stockholm as little more than performative cruelty, dog whistling to those who would love to assign all the country's problems to a few brown faces. Well, rampant xenophobia did a good job for Boris in 2019 didn't it? And railing against stopping the world burning won them a by-election in nimbyville a few months ago. It's all a great distraction to the consistent clusterfuck this sad excuse for a government has delivered (or not delivered) for the last 10 years. The birds are coming home to roost, so let's throw some red meat to the forriner-haters and hide behind the dust cloud they kick up.

The rooms on the Stockholm were designed for single person occupation, it was a working barracks for people who didn't need to spend much time in the room except to sleep, and in any case there was half the number and they were rotated regularly. Putting twice the number of people in there with no jobs, nothing to do, many of them suffering PTSD, is a recipe for disaster. If it burns down in the first 3 months I wouldn't be in the least surprised. Given the incompetence of its implementation the govt has succeeded in keeping refugees in hotels all through the summer and now that the tourists have gone home, they'll empty the hotels of refugees as well, so the hotels have no income. Well played.

Will it stop the boats coming? Of course it bloody won't. These people are fleeing war, famine, abject poverty and frequently deadly harassment. You don't do a journey like that for a few quid's worth of benefits (which they don't get anyway). There is also precisely zero evidence that refugees know anything about the conditions that await them. It was, and is, widely believed that the UK is a tolerant country where a hard working person can make a decent life for themselves. It would help if we didn't keep stoking the situations that create refugees of course, but maybe that's a bit much to hope.

There's only one way to stop irregular arrivals and that's to take the demand away. Set up a refugee processing centre in northern France, resource it adequately and process claims in weeks, not months/sometime never. Those who are accepted can cross legally and safely. If they are refused asylum or come in by irregular means they need to be returned, either to their home country (as with Albania) or to France, depending on agreements reached. The French have indicated they would be willing to do this - they would want some assurances that we wouldn't simply use it as an excuse to bounce or delay all applications of course.

Before somebody starts moaning about quotas or being dictated to be France remember we had the right to return incomers to France under the Dublin Regulation but lost it when the "took back control" and left the EU. If people are serious about stopping dangerous crossings rather than just general xenophobic whining I'd love to hear any better solutions (that don't grossly breach human rights and general principles of decent behaviour).

[Dodgy69]

Some might say, over tolerant and also over populated, but the UK still remains a very popular destination for some reason.

[Cousin Jack]

The solution, probably the only solution, is to put the criminals who exploit these people by 'selling' the idea of a trip to the UK out of business. That would cut the numbers by at least 50% and weed out most of the bogus asylum claims.

[Dodgy69]

Never been privy to a conversation between a trafficker and an asylum seeker, but I'd imagine there ain't much selling required. Phone calls home and news of a safe warm bed, food and showers would be enough, when you're running for your life.

"Sending them back" is very much easier said than done.

[Cousin Jack]

Except that quite a few are NOT running for their lives. They have been sold a fable about how good life in the UK is, and have mortgaged their life, and often their relatives lives, to raise the money for a ticket. Those are economic migrants, and I have met some of them.

[Bustaspoke]

I don't get the seeking refuge argument.Surely these migrants have travelled across Europe to get here.If it's just about escaping from a tyranical regime why don't they apply for asylum as soon as they arrive in Europe?Why are they paying thousands to escape France & arrive here? Is France not a safe destination?
Maybe they're here for reasons other than safety? Were those Vietnamese migrants escaping a tyranical regime?

[demographic]

Government figures show that in 2023, 82 % of asylum seekers who have their claims processed are granted refugee status (asylum.

Where are you getting your figures from?

[Cousin Jack]

Government figures show that in 2023, 82 % of asylum seekers who have their claims processed are granted refugee status (asylum.

Where are you getting your figures from?

The Home Office typically grants asylum to those who can prove they have come from a war zone fairly quickly. If you come from somewhere else, have ditched any documents and are pretending to be from somewhere dangerous they spend a great deal of time and effort, so the good claims get processed quickly, the bad ones can take years before final refusal. 82% granted sounds about right, the dodgy ones can date back 3 or more years and are still pending. They do not get refused lightly.

[Yambo]

This'll probably . . .

Before somebody starts moaning about quotas or being dictated to be France remember we had the right to return incomers to France under the Dublin Regulation but lost it when the "took back control" and left the EU. If people are serious about stopping dangerous crossings rather than just general xenophobic whining I'd love to hear any better solutions (that don't grossly breach human rights and general principles of decent behaviour).

I think there's a subtle difference between genuine refugees and the boat loads of 'asylum seekers/illegal immigrants'.

I guess you don't see any difference even though I doubt you can explain why there are Albanian refugees on our shores. The UK, in general, has a very good record of 'decent behaviour' towards genuine refugees and I think it would continue to do so.

Maybe you can tell me the ratio of genuine refugees to other (illegal) immigrants arriving on UK shores.

[Timmy]

The Stockholm boat/barge thing is a useless show pony, something that they can point at and say "look, we're doing something". If you enter illegally, whether from a war torn country or not, you should be f@cked off back to main land Europe pronto not housed here for an indefinite amount of time at the tax payer expense. If you enter legally, you can wait somewhere to have your claim processed, ideally within 48-72 hours. That does rely however on our feckless civil servants and public sector workers doing something, so it's never going to happen.

[JamJar]

The Stockholm boat/barge thing is a useless show pony, something that they can point at and say "look, we're doing something". If you enter illegally, whether from a war torn country or not, you should be f@cked off back to main land Europe pronto not housed here for an indefinite amount of time at the tax payer expense. If you enter legally, you can wait somewhere to have your claim processed, ideally within 48-72 hours. That does rely however on our feckless civil servants and public sector workers doing something, so it's never going to happen.

How do you enter legally?

[MyLittleStudPony]

Send them back and keep it Brexity. Nice and Brexity.

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[Bustaspoke]

How do you enter legally?
[/quote]
You enter the first safe country you can get to & apply from there

[Timmy]

With some form of documentation, if none available, they are not accepted. They should have a defined time limit to apply for asylum, processed within 48-72 hours and either accepted to the UK or deposited from their last known departure location. If they can't be processed within the time limit, they're not accepted.

[JamJar]

How do you enter legally?

You enter the first safe country you can get to & apply from there

You can't apply for asylum in the UK that way.

[Cousin Jack]

The whole system is FUBAR. The process is stupid and wrong, it is slso broken and doesn't work. The solution is to nuke the Home Office, bit of collateral damage to London, but that is ni bad thing.

[Mr. Dazzle]

How do you enter legally?

You enter the first safe country you can get to & apply from there

You can't apply for asylum in the UK that way.

You used to be able to, but there was some small change in international relations or something which changes our relationship with Europe. It was probably on the news.