Boats

[victor]

Hopefully Patel will get Border Force to do their job properly at last.

I know if sounds callous but we CANNOT continue to take in and feed /look after all these immigrants

[cruiser2]

Why don't they stay in France or one of the other countries they must have passed through?

I agree with turning them back and making them land in France. There is a housing shortage without more people comuing in.

[Suff]

France is repatriating 75% of them. It is head for the UK or get rejected.

The UK remains a soft touch.

[cromwell]

It does indeed. No bottle. No will to solve the problem. Just give the French money and ask them to do it for us. Well they won't, they'll just wave them through. Why would France want them?

[Workingman]

It's a tricky one. Rules of the sea and those in distress and all that.

If they are in the Strait of Dover - a rectangle from Folkestone to St Margaret's and Calais to Cap Gris-Nez - they are in either British or French territorial waters.

If they get over half way they are our problem and we have to deal with them.

[Suff]

Not once we have changed the law.

[Workingman]

We cannot unilaterally change International law. We can try to ignore it, as BoJoke is wont to do, but we cannot trash it without consequences.

[TheOstrich]

We can't leave the illegal immigrants to drown in the channel. So we must continue rescuing them and bringing them ashore, as much as we may not like it. (What we do with them when they arrive here is an entirely different matter).

The French have absolutely no incentive to stop the crossings. They don't want the illegals in their country, and they palpably cannot halt the people smugglers. I do not believe that the French are doing anything to counter this whatsoever. The very fact that the French are shepherding the boats into UK waters tells you all you need to know.

So to my mind, these Channel crossings are a problem without a (humanitarian) solution.

So what we must now do is refuse to pay France any more cash, whatsoever. Terminate all agreements with them. Why? Because they are taking the cash and laughing at us. Use the money saved to accommodate / process / assist / repatriate the refugees who make it over here. And if there is any further hard evidence of French shepherding, sanction the French. We need to hit them where it hurts, not pay them. We can do this as we are no longer in the EU. 100% import tax on all French wine and cheese for starters; money raised to go to the refugees.

[cromwell]

It's a big step, but what we should do is to withdraw from all international treaties regarding refugees; plus the rules about people in distress at sea. Those rules were never intended for the RNLI to be used as a taxi service for illegal immigrants, which is plainly what is happening now.

We are supposed to be an independent nation now. OK, so act like one. Illegal is illegal. If you come into out country without our knowledge or permission then we reserve the right to deport you, end of. Whether that be back to where you came from or back to France.

I won't hold my breath though.

[Suff]

Well if we can't stop them then we should ramp up offshoring detention and resettlement centres.

Ascension was one proposed site. Works for me, we can even control mobile phone access.

Time to tell as to whether we have the backbone for it.