Keir Starmer

" Nearly halved the number of ‘asylum seekers’ in hotels in 12 months of government."

That's just wrong YT....another poster said that earlier in the thread...there are actually more people in hotels now than when Labour took over. That's not a criticism of the Govt, just the reality of what they are having to deal with. I certainly don't know what the answer is.
In the interests of accuracy... the figures reported in the Guardian this week.
There were over 56,000 people in Hotel accommodation at it's peak in Sept 2023, but when Labour took office the figure was 29,585. This weeks figure is 32,345.

https://www.theguardian.com/uk-news...tels-rises-8-percent-on-a-year-ago-shows-data

 

Yes. I am saying that.

 

My apologies. I’d edit the original post but then yours wouldn’t make sense so I’ll leave the mistake there.

I stand by my point though. There are plenty of things I don’t like about this government and particularly Starmer, but asylum seekers in hotels and boat crossings aren’t among them. In fact, whilst I’d welcome an end to the crossings, because it’s risking people’s lives, I really don’t have an issue with immigration at all.

 

…and you’re right

Safe and legal routes into the UK in 2025 are primarily through humanitarian routes such as the Afghan Resettlement Programme, UK Resettlement Scheme, and the Community Sponsorship Scheme for refugees, and special schemes like the Hong Kong British Nationals (Overseas) (BNO) route.

 

You don't think immigration should be controlled or just a free for all open borders sort of thing?

 

Thank you

 

What's that then?

To come by plane or a ferry you need a visa, asylum seekers do not have visas and have no way of getting one. Except for people from Hong Kong, Ukraine and a few other specific cases - these are a tiny percentage of asylum seekers.

Edit; a person can only claim asylum when they arrive in the country unless you have an agreement with a third country. When we were in the EU, the asylum process was started in France, leaving the EU put a stop to that.

 

"To come by plane or a ferry you need a visa, asylum seekers do not have visas and have no way of getting one."

Not relevant to small boat crossings of course, but Student Visa's are a way of achieving it by normal methods of transport...of the 108,000 who claimed asylum in 2024, 16,000 came on student visa's.

https://www.reuters.com/world/uk/uk...ountries-most-likely-claim-asylum-2025-05-06/

 

Sorry, didn’t log on last night.

Of course I don’t think it should just be open borders, but I also don’t buy into the panic around immigration. The positives massively outweigh the negatives as far as I’m aware. I read the other day that international students bring in around £37 billion a year. That’s incredible. It’s well-reported that migrants on average contribute more in taxes than they take out, and they’re actually more likely to be in work than UK-born people. Nearly 40% of the UK’s fastest-growing companies in 2023 were founded by immigrants too. These are just a few huge positives, in terms of immigration and its financial impact.

And beyond the numbers, immigration brings culture – from Diwali in Leicester to the Notting Hill Carnival, Brick Lane’s food scene, the many Ramadan and Eid celebrations across the country, St Patrick’s Day of course, and so much more. These things are part of what makes Britain what it is. At the end of the day, we’re all here because of immigration at some point in history. My great grandparents came over from Ireland for example.

 

This is all down to Brexit and disaster capitalism. We can harp on and the nutjobs can riot all they like, but it all comes down to money. Farage is making a killing (literally) out of all this. The hotel companies are getting contracts for it and the people pulling the strings are laughing all the way to the Cayman Islands. No point even us talking about it.

 

"This is all down to Brexit"

Not really, although people seem to think it's just us, many European countries are experiencing the same issue, and have been for many years, also in far greater numbers than we have. There is an argument that Merkel's open door policy of 2015 was the catalyst.

 

The Dublin III regulation gives EU member states the ability to redirected asylum seekers to the EU country they first entered. Back before we left, arriving on a small boat would have meant being shipped back to the state they entered through. Now we have to process their application.

 

The daily mail have been trying to influence people to rally to the xenophobic cause pretty much since we joined the EU.

 

Dublin 111 wasn't working for the UK, the numbers were miniscule ( despite what people may think).
From the HoC library 2020 figures.

From the
Recent immigration statistics (July 2020) give figures for incoming and
outgoing transfer requests in 2019:
• The UK received 2,236 requests from EU member states to accept transfers of individuals to the UK, and 714 transfers took place.
The majority of these (496) were from Greece.
• The UK made 3,259 transfer requests to EU member states, and 263 transfers took place. 40% (104) went to Germany and 20%
(53) went to France.

 

True, but that has little relevance to the mechanics of the Dublin Agreement which so many seem to quote as a lost panacea.

 

I was replying to your suggestion that the catalyst to anti migrant sentiment started in 2015.

 

I didn't suggest that at all....certainly not deliberately if it came across that way.
What I did suggest was that the catalyst to Europe's mass migrancy issue was Merkel's unilateral decision in 2015 to implement her open door policy.

 

The issue is one of racism and xenophobia and those that purposefully sow fear and division.

If birth rates boomed that created an increase in native populations, it wouldn't even be a topic. The net effect would be the same. The skin colours not so.

 

If course there wasn't. There was no need.

People knew that getting to the UK and claiming asylum would be unlikely to succeed in gaining asylum in the UK specifically. So people didn't make the trip in anywhere near the numbers they do now. If they planned on trying to claim asylum in the EU, most did it at point of entry. Now if they can set foot on UK soil they can claim asylum here. That is 100% a change initiated by brexit.

 

As someone who's fought racism since the 1970's I completely agree.