I’m just about to apply for an Irish passport- thanks old folks- and am definitely getting the ID card as well. Gonna leave Mrs C_S floundering at passport control every time - mind you someone dodgy did nick her ID a few years back, which made for fun time at immigration anyway 
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I now qualify for a Polish Passport.
Just need to pass degree level exams in Polish Language, History & Culture…
Or be Matty Cash
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So neither then
The reason more are arriving in small boats is because other means of arrival - considerably less risky - are no longer available. Those include getting into lorries and onto trains going through the tunnel - I think it’s the case that the much higher level of checking that’s now going on post Brexit has a lot to do with this.
For all the current hysteria, there are a good deal fewer asylum seekers coming to this country than there were twenty years ago; what’s changed is the means of arrival, and that’s what this nauseating government has seized on. And, as others have pointed out, this country takes in far fewer refugees and asylum seekers (particularly when looked at per head of population) than any other western European country.
As to ID cards, I can’t see what difference leaving the EU would have made; I’m certainly not aware of any mechanism by which the EU could have forced them upon the UK, even had this been seen as desirable.
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There is a big load of irony about ID cards. Those who seem so opposed to ID cards seem to forget that everyone who has a mobile phone is effectively monitored and tracked to much greater extent than any ID card proposal… location, purchases, what we buy, how much, tastes in everything from porn to music…
I have no issue with ID cards, and we would be able to issue different types to migrants and asylum seekers to enable them to work legally and not get exploited, allowing them topay INTO the system (that they are so ridiculously accused of exploiting…). Even during a temporary status while cases are being examined, folks tend to be less prejudiced to such migrants when they know they ARE contributing… and considering how many vacancies we have, it would nice to know WE are not exploiting them out side the system…
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This is what I meant by devaluing the horrors of Nazism. Very articulate piece.
Not sure how that relates to what I’d written (and which you’ve quoted). It doesn’t cover twenty years, and it’s not about asylum seekers specifically. What is it a number of detections of exactly? It shows that small boat arrivals have increased massively, but I don’t think anyone is arguing with that.
Detections of illegal entries to the UK including air arrivals, and totals. You were suggesting that overall levels haven’t increased, while that chart says they’ve trebled in the four years shown. Those are just the ones detected of course, the actual figures will be higher.
Probably not one for here, but how does the return of kids to the classroom improve the economy?
I’m obviously not an economist or politician
I said asylum seekers, not all arrivals.
In that case, it’s my turn to be confused (or disingenuous,) given that this debate is about the newly announced government plan to reduce illegal migration via small boats, not only those that subsequently seek asylum. In fact, my understanding is that the measures are aimed only at curbing illegal migration, and asylum seekers do not arrive illegally.
Not sure any Asylum Seekers can arrive by legal means any more…
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Ok, I give up. 
There’s no difference between asylum seeking refugees and illegal migrants, whatever the law or anyone else says. And we should be encouraging people to give money they can’t afford to criminal gangs in France to put them into unseaworthy dinghies to try and float across the channel. Mr Sunak and Ms Braverman, regardless of their ethnicity, are clearly racists for suggesting otherwise, and anyone agreeing with them is, as Mr Lineker suggests, a Nazi. 
There you go. I concede.
I don’t understand the term “illegal migration”? Asylum seekers are those who flee their country to seek refugee status in a safe country. If the host Government deems the country of origin to be unable or unwilling to provide their citizens with protection, then they offer to accept the individual as a refugee, and with that “status” comes various rights. Until that time they are an asylum seeker, but it is not illegal to seek asylum anywhere - this right is enshrined in law. As such, there is no “illegal migration” as the process for determining refugee status is a legal one and one either gets that status or doesn’t. I assume if one attempts to stay in the host country after having their application rejected, then that is illegal, but not before they have been through the refugee assessment process. By which time of course, they are not on fucking boats. So those arriving by boat are not to blame for any of this, but the populist shite spouted by the Govnt puts the blame on them when their efforts should be directed at stopping the bastard traffickers who profit from these poor souls. As most asylum seekers to these shores come from Iran and Afghanistan, countries that the UK deems to be unsafe for its citizens, then it seems to follow that those seeking asylum in the UK from those countries should be granted refugee status. What is evident is that the assessment process is underfunded, under resourced and not fit for purpose. Maybe Braveman needs to properly fund an efficient asylum system instead of wanking around with cheap populist language that gets Express and Fail readers frothing at the mouth.
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Albania was the top nationality claiming asylum in the UK in the year ending September 2022 (13,650 applications). - Sources UNHCR https://www.unhcr.org/uk/asylum-in-the-uk.html
Albanian is not an unsafe country (certainly not in the Syria / Ukraine definition)
I meant those on the boats.
My view on this policy is that the government is using problems created by previous policy to exaggerate the crisis. I’m with Lineker on the numbers issue - this country doesn’t take as many refugees as our European neighbours.
Internationally, it makes us look like an embarrassment. Internally, it doesn’t really make any sense and I would say “safe country” is relative to the individual. Hungary is technically safe, but I wouldn’t want to be brown there.
The government is getting away with it because we’ve had visceral images and stories of people crossing on small boats, people dying on small boats or people being housed in hotrls in deprived areas of the UK.
The news is hot on the criminal gangs, but not so much interested in why these people are refugees in the first place, and how much culpability UK foreign policy might have had in their arrival.
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Quelle surprise
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