@julianf there are a lot of people less fortunate than the most bereft in UK society, and again we have really two classes of ‘boat people’, those who have a real claim to be refugee / asylum status and the economic migrants.
However, the larger question is why would anyone wish to place their life in mortal danger and use a small unsafe boat to try and cross the channel to gain access the the UK from a stable, democratic, none discriminatory Europe? In ever case, they will have passed through multiple European countries to arrive at the shores of France before attempting the crossing.
Now, let’s consider France, they like almost every country have laws about illegal access to the country. You either are permitted to reside, visit or have to claim asylum / refugee status or be deported. Now, it would appear that those seeking to cross the channel have not achieved the right to reside in France, or indeed any other European country they have passed through. For what ever reason, France has not deported them, and neither has any of the other European countries they have passed through. Once half way across the channel, they are no longer within the European Union and become subject to UK laws. Now, Europe is not going to allow illegal aligns back into Europe, now that we are no longer part of the EU. So, once they arrive, determining where they are actually from if they either have no papers, or have chosen to not have papers is extremely difficult, especially if your from a war torn state, or a very poor state where records can be none existent. A country is not going to take back an economic migrant unless it’s certain they are actually from the country. So a lot of time and expense is entailed in working out these basic facts, made harder by those who wish to hide their point of origin.
Being for instance gay, or to have turned away from say the Muslim faith can if a person is returned to their homeland make make them subject to persecution, a legitimate reason for a person to seek asylum. However, it’s very difficult to work out if these are genuine claims, or just claims made to gain access to the country as in reality they are economic migrants.
The fall of Iraq has in essence ‘opened the door’ enabling mass migration from Africa to Europe, totally understandable aspirations for many at the very bottom of the economic ladder, more than a few steps down from the worst economic conditions in the UK. However, what tends to be the case is that the fit, young and bright make the journey, this reduces the ability of the poor country to economically develop, this coupled with legitimate migration from these countries of the well educated, such as doctors and nurses is condemning the country to poor economic development. Like most things in life, it’s an extremely difficult problem if it were simple it would have been solved by now.
To put some numbers on it, I understand that this year alone there have been c38,000 people have cross the channel. Average processing time is circa 415 days for an asylum application I believe. Now, let’s assume around a cost of £100 / day / person for the UK Government (accommodation, food, medical care, legal cost, spending money for life etc), that’s approx £1.57 billion to process just these people. That is affecting your interest rate, inflation, and the taxes that you pay
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