By Euro Weekly News Media • Published: 13 Aug 2015 • 9:27
UK SHORES: We need to make them realise they cannot scrounge.
Although I do have a great deal of sympathy for the desperate people fleeing from tyranny across the Mediterranean, I can find very little in my heart for the chancers using any means available to get to the UK via the Euro tunnel.
These are not the terrorized human beings we see packed in flimsy crafts, risking and often losing their lives in a headlong flight to save themselves. Most of this ‘swarm,’ as David Cameron so eloquently described, have travelled through Turkey, Greece, Italy, Belgium and France to finish up at the tunnel way to the UK.
These people would have been safe in any of the aforementioned countries, had they deemed to settle there; but they didn’t. This situation has nothing to do with escaping from terror; this is a mob of individuals determined to get a slice of the UK’s hard won cake. The only way to stop them is to make them realise that they will not be at liberty to ponce off the beleaguered British should they manage to reach UK shores. (Stop putting them up in hotels would be a start!)
They need to have it rammed home that should they be caught, they will immediately be deported all the way back to Syria or Afghanistan or wherever their origins are. Ideally of course the French and British should liaise, using the police and army to forcibly round them up before they can get anywhere near the vehicles and transport.
They should all then be shipped to a holding area, where they could be fed and watered and receive medical attention. Following this, in pre-arranged fairly distributed numbers, they should then be given a choice of countries in which to reside. After they have made their choice, they should be given ID cards and permission to work in that country alone. Failure to comply or attempting to enter a non-permitted area should result in immediate deportation. Job done. I dunno, sometimes I really do despair of it all.
Have a good week. Thanks for all your correspondence. Fair or foul the ol’ boy can take it.
Keep the faith.
Love Leapy leapylee2002@gmail.com
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Not all of them want to come to UK, or Europe even. It takes guts to leave your country for a totally unknown entity, and it’s really difficult. Especially leaving your family behind. Except for northern Europeans sick of the weather ‘back home’, nobody would do that if they could see a viable alternative. Syria and Iraq are a different kettle of fish: their lives are at serious, immediate risk. Don’t forget 85% of those leaving end up in camps in third-world countries and only 0.45% of the total end up in the UK, with Germany taking two or three times the UK’s per-capita figure. Plus, most want to go home as soon as it’s safe. Remember the Balkan exodus of the late ’90s/early ’00s? More asylum-seekers than ever before or since in modern history ended up granted refugee status elsewhere in Europe, including the UK. But how many Bosnians or Kosovo-Albanians do you know living in the UK now? Other than Rita Ora? The flip side is the huge influx after Idi Amin’s ethnic cleansing; millions came to the UK. Most of them now own their own homes, many outright; most have higher-income jobs than residents descended from a long line of native Brits; their children, whom I went to school with, are doctors, teachers, lawyers, IT professionals…and they brought billions into the Leicester area alone through setting up businesses and employing their own community, and later, native Brits. Asian families help each other financially (my Bangladeshi friend drew out 2,000GBP from her savings in our lunch hour to fund an extension on her parents’ house: it was an investment, she said, because she and her brothers would inherit it one day). Remember Britain’s anti-refugee culture next time you’re in the UK and get a takeaway curry. Had it not been for the country taking in the asylum-seekers of the 1970s, you wouldn’t be able to do that. Remember this, too, next time one of your rellies or friends in the UK is cared for by a foreign nurse or doctor. British kids aren’t studying medicine these days; they can’t afford to go to uni and medical degrees are notoriously pricey. There’s a shortage of healthcare workers. Recycling a foreign doctor’s qualifications to equate them to NHS standards costs the State less than a tenth of that of training a brand-new one from scratch. Then there are the Poles (economic immigrants, not asylum-seekers). A factory boss in Peterborough had to bodily remove his entire staff team from the premises on the first day, because they refused to clock off. He tried to explain that EU laws wouldn’t let them work another minute, as they’d done the day’s maximum, but they insisted they wanted to carry on working. He had to get shirty with them in the end. Yes, they’re prepared to work for lower wages. But so were we Brits when we moved to Spain, because we were desperate. And that’s employers’ faults for exploiting workers. Before it was Poles, it was British YTS students, working for 10GBP a week less than they’d get on the dole, a pound an hour at best, and getting no on-the-job training (they were just cheap labour) but too inexperienced and fearful to criticise in case they got fired. Practically none of them got given jobs by the same firm when they finished their so-called two-year training.The solution here is clamping down on greedy employers and enforcing a minimum living wage. If you want quality staff committed to their work and passionate about pleasing customers – and you – then you have to treat them as humans, encourage and lead them, offer them future progression if applicable, and pay them a wage they can live on. If you can’t do that, you shouldn’t be running a company.Saying, “chuck ’em out because their passport covers are a different pattern from ours,” aside from the human aspect, is short-sighted and knee-jerk. There’s a lot more to it than that.
Totally agree, Colin. Germany, for example, thinks it’s hilarious how the UK claims to have an ‘immigration problem’ or being ‘overrun with foreigners’, because the UK’s intake per head is among the lowest in the EU. Not even in the top 10. And Spain (and Malta, Greece, Italy et al) has a greater ‘migration problem because they’re nearest to Africa; Spain is the only European country that borders Africa by land. But unlike the UK, Spain doesn’t have much of an issue with foreigners settling here (except that they dislike the arrogant, ‘up the Empire’ attitude of a lot of Brits) and there have been on-street demonstrations, petitions and outright rebellion from the public, some councillors and regional politicians, and doctors over the current far-right government’s attempt to ban all bar emergency healthcare for illegal immigrants, and likewise in outrage and horror when the same gov fitted sharp spikes to the top of the border fences in Ceuta and Melilla. Spain has the same percentage of immigrants as the UK, but only about 25% are from western Europe. I can just picture those Brits you describe in Malta. Actually, in fairness, in my part of Spain (Valencia/Castellón/northern and inland Alicante), I’ve seen big changes in the last decade-and-a-quarter. They used to be just as you describe, over here, then. Most now speak at least basic Spanish, if they don’t have actual Spanish friends (they all have Spanish acquaintances) they’re desperate to have them but geographically find it hard to mix; numerous Brits are on town councils, local protest platforms, associations, mixed-race charity committees, animal shelter volunteer lists, PTAs, fiesta commissions/peñas/filaes, and praise the health service (the care and technology and knowledge, at least. It’s still hard to praise the bedside manner: many hospitals still ‘treat the illness and not the patient’, but I’ve noticed big improvements recently and family GPs are usually absolute saints). Maybe a lot of their food still comes from Brit supermarkets (because there’s more variety, that’s all, and/or it’s ‘different’ and a novelty) and TV from UK satellite (because there’s more choice, although with the advent of TDT and v.o. serials, far more Brits now have Spanish TV), and often go to Brit bars (as well as Spanish/Romanian/German/Dutch bars, and are big pals of the Spaniards who go to Brit bars – often to practise their English or join organised language intercambios there run by the British owners) and a second generation of Brits or half-Brits is getting near voting age, or already there, who are native English-speakers with London accents but chat with their native-English-speaking siblings and schoolmates in colloquial valenciano out of habit and instinct. Go a bit further south, to the built-up urbs isolated from main towns and with nearly-complete facilities and shopping complexes, and you’ll find Sun-readers who are absolutely clueless about Spanish culture, society and current affairs or even cuisine, and don’t speak, or need to, a single word of the language. As for ID cards, though, I think they’re a bit like online social networks or communism: they’re a great concept, but the people who use them give them a bad name and in the wrong hands could be dangerous. I’d welcome photo ID cards from the UK, because EU citizens no longer have them in Spain and you have to carry your passport with you everywhere (that’s 200⬠worth of property you could potentially lose in the supermarket). My only gripe about ID cards from UK or in Spain for expats is if you have to queue for 12 hours overnight on the pavement on the off-chance of maybe getting a ticket to allow you to get in the door and book an appointment to come back in person. Not nice. To get my ID paper here, which doesn’t have a photo and actually isn’t considered legal ID anyway but is essential for all admin, I literally queued for three years. How many days did I go to work after spending the entire night standing on a pavement in the cold, not drinking anything because there was nowhere to go to the lav, worried sick about all the drunken men in the same queue and the punch-ups at dawn if anyone thought you were ‘pushing in’ at ticket hand-out time (30 a day, and the queue is 100-strong before midnight the night before). ID cards that can be done by post at minimal expense would be great, as long as the EU imposed limits on how far they could be abused.
Cosidering the fact that most are ‘economic’ migrants I would round them all up and ship them back to where they came from.What people tend to forget is that when one is given a home in Britain, after a short while their entire family will follow them and live here off the Benefit System.Food for thought when making these decisions!
Please,Leapy. If,as you suggest,the refugees/asylum seekers were given a choice of which country they would like to live and work in,the huge majority would opt for the UK. In a very short space of time the UK would find itself in the position that Greece is now.Surely that cannot be your wish ? Perhaps part of your article was not published,or misquoted ?
I don’#t like saying this – but the French have it right – We need ID cards – with photo, country/nationality and fingerprints. They wish to be in a community that doesn’t have these controls, it is something that can be fixed.
Yes ship them back to where they came from, if they have passports then stamp them so we know they have entered an EU country illegally. If the EU and EU country politicians keep pussy footing around on this they will just keep coming, keep creating a problem and keep costing money.What we need running the country are politicians and not clowns, unfortunately it is very difficult to tell the difference today!
I agree that we should have ID cards, it is not just the French that have these it is most countries! In todays age these are an important necessity for the security forces, anyone that is against them must be because they have something to hide.
BTW, if security cards where brought in it should be made illegal for the British government or any other establisment office to share information from these security cards to anyone not government based.
so are these comments written by uk immigrants in spain
Yes Franco they are, but we are ALL EU citizens and NOT from Africa, Pakistan, or Afgnahistan. Get the difference? Without our money pouring into Spain you would be in the same position as Greece!
Is this a UKIP party political broadcast by a bunch of immigrants living in Spain?
do you think all UK migrants pay there taxes here, run legal cars, not to mention have medical insurance if they are not eligible to use the health service for free. Old story, how true is it, that we are doing this country a favour with our money. All this aside, the appalling lack of compasion on the part of some of the posters here is a sad indicment of the outlook of my fellow country persons. These poor souls are human beings.
Mary, I agree in part with your comment, BUT, even if some people do not pay taxes or register their cars they still spend an awful lot of money here in shops etc. This is all adding to the wealth of the Costa del Sol. And in this I do not even include the tourists who flock here every summer. So far as your ‘compassion’ comment is concerned, allowing EVERY immigrant into Europe will totally destroy the economy, the job market and health care facilities.Remember too that Europe is currently being infiltrated by members of Islamic State among the refugees, and they are not here to organize a rally or multi-faith party.
It’s not a lack of compassion it is common sense Mary, so what do you suggest? Just let them in this week, does that mean we do the same next week, and the week after that…. there are only around 1.5 Billion people living in Africa, Siria and Iraq… so when would you stop letting them in Mary?
I understand that it is a complex and difficult problem. It will not be solved in a short time frame that much is clear. What I object to is the tone of the replies we have here. No one seems to look at these desperate people as members of the same race, the human race. statements like ” round them up” ” ship em back”, whats next stamp there foreheads, open camps and shove them out of site. We would all do better maybe to start pushing our elected leaders to find humane and long lasting solutions. Along with so many so called civilised countries we have helped to cause the problems. We should be very much part of the solution.
[quote]so are these comments written by uk immigrants in spain[/quote]Leapy: as always, saying it how it is. The Eurocrats have made life a misery for most people in Europe , while they live in their ivory towers and take salaries of upto â¬260K. Uncontrolled Immigration has ruined Europe and Especially Britain..
After reading comments dont you think its time to get to the bottom of why,all these people want to leave the countrys they were born in,if you notice most imigrants are men .why not satnd up to the tyrony in there country of origan,or is that too simple be men
Mary, there is only one way to solve the entire migrant crisis and that is for the United Nations to send in a multi-national force to put an end to every terrorist group like ISIS, al Quada and Boko Haram. They must also do the same for the Syrian crisis which has been going on for too long. The last time the UN took any such action was 65 years ago in Korea. The first mandate of the UN is to ensure world peace and in this they have failed miserably.Nothing will change until such action is taken by showing a united front against these terrorists. Once that is completed all the migrants can return home.
well said Roy
The problem will not be solved without sending these people back so your argument does not stand, many EU countries including the UK cannot afford to cover their running costs with the UK at the moment having a poor police service, poor NHS, poor public services and can’t look after our elderly properly… to mention but a few issues so how can we support letting in and dealing with this issue!
Many people speak out about lack of compasion with this issue but offer no solution and so in my mind know not what they talk about so given we can’t afford to run our country as it is and letting these people in will not stop the problem what is your suggestion Mary?
[quote]Mary, I agree in part with your comment, BUT, even if some people do not pay taxes or register their cars they still spend an awful lot of money here in shops etc. This is all adding to the wealth of the Costa del Sol. And in this I do not even include the tourists who flock here every summer. [/quote]
Generally, the Spanish population doesn’t agree. Their view of us Brits in Spain is “won’t integrate, expect natives to speak a foreign language in their own country [English], sponge off the health service, and come over here from the UK specifically and solely to get treated in Spanish hospitals because it’s quicker and better quality.” In other words, UK residents coming on ‘holiday’ to Spain just because they need a hip operation or are about to go into labour, and taxpayers in Spain have to fund it. Or come to live here, having paid nothing into the system here all their lives, but expect free healthcare at the Spanish taxpayer’s expense in their old age.
We all know this isn’t true, this isn’t how things work. The UK pays retirees’ healthcare, non-retirees who are working fund their own through their income tax and social security, and those in the middle only get a few years’ worth on the State before they become one or the other – and frequently pay for private health insurance so they can go to clinics which speak English. Also, nobody in the UK would come to a foreign country where they don’t know the system or speak the language to have operations when the UK has its own free-of-charge NHS system.
Oh, and we working-age Brits nick their jobs. (But we’re last in the queue to be employed because we’re foreign, and we’d get flak if we didn’t work, because then we wouldn’t be contributing).
And Brits come here on holiday and cause merry hell and lower the tone with their drunken antics, because British tourists are hooligans.
Again, we know this isn’t entirely true – only a small minority.
But see how lack of communication between cultures, tabloid poo-stirring and ignorance can lead to outrageous urban myths…? Just like it does in the UK, which is convinced it’s the only country to get immigrants and that every one of them goes there to sponge off the State by claiming benefits they don’t truly need. And most of the UKIP and other far-right supporters (and those less so but brainwashed by the Daily Fail et al) also blame EU migrants in the UK for that.
I’m not sure, from what I’ve read, that ISIS and the like migrating into Europe under cover as refugees is a big problem. It seems it’s more likely to be second- or third-generation Muslims, mostly young adults, born in European countries who are sucked in by a minority of radicals. The problem is going to be stopping them leaving the country (to go to the Middle East) and/or stopping them coming back after they’ve done their combat training. And really, ISIS recruiters are everywhere: even if they’re not already in Spain or the UK, they can shift around easily enough. How can you block them ‘visiting’ on a tourist visa, recruiting a load of schoolkids and sending them to Syria? Not all of them are ‘visibly’ Muslim, either: some are westerners who’ve converted. It’s horrific, it’s terrifying, but I don’t think stopping a few Africans climbing border fences is going to make even the smallest dent on this global illness.
Economic migrants usually go back to their own countries, if it’s safe, when they can’t find feasible ways of making a living. We had millions here in Spain in 2004, but a significant percentage have returned as they can’t earn enough money here.
Annie, I understand what you’re saying about leaving their families behind in war zones or impoverished countries. We’d never do that, we’d face the bombs unless we could get all our nearest and dearest out with us. But these are different cultures. Africans, certain Middle Easterners and Latin Americans have a long tradition of sending their males abroad to get jobs, earn money and send it home to their families. It’s seen as their duty to support their wives, kids, siblings and parents. They’d be blamed for neglecting their loved ones if they didn’t leave. Often their families don’t want to leave, so it comesto the young men to keep them out of poverty by sending cash earned in the west to them. Foreign aid can help remove this need, although the west can’t afford much more and often it lands in the hands of dictators. And to bring their families to Europe to live with them, these migrants have to prove they have a minimum legal income per household member; a minimum way higher than most natives here earn.
These problems don’t only exist in Spain. We have lived in Malta for the last ten years and are thinking of moving to Spain next year but we don’t expect things to be rosy by any stretch of the imagination.
There is a natural resentment to all foreigners especially the British all over the world. The British do not integrate anywhere and seldom appear fluent in any language other than English, which ironically, is their main complaint against migrants to Britain.
I don’t personally know one single Brit that can manage a sentence in Maltese. They all congregate in expats bars and ridicule the locals and are totally oblivious to the fact : they are living in someone else’s country.
Don’t be too keen to advocate ID cards. they because a nuisance very quickly and get abused. In Malta even the local deli insist on registering your ID card to order a barbequed chicken. It leads to an unacceptable level of beaurocracy and offers about the same level of security as a driving licence.
There has been over 2 million immigrants seeking better lives or fortunes and social freebies throughout the EEC. Croatia, Czech Republic, Estonia, Hungary, Latvia, Lithuania, Poland, Romania, Sloakia and Slovinia have had swathes of people leaving. Now here is an idea, most of these folk have left for better lives, therefore leaving gaps in their population. Now here comes my clever bit. Because they have not left through wars or internal strife their abandoned countries ut be relatively safe. Now all the asylum seekers and refugees from Syria and troubled countries can be accommodated in the above EEC countries. Saving on policingand logistics families can be kept together and transported by rail, road, air and boat in an orderly and controled fashion whilst doumenting each person. DNA samples wouldn’t go amiss either. I may me a bit naive but just an idea
The Spanish used to have a residence card for non Spanish residents that served as an ID for the holder as it carried a photo of the person ‘also a fingerprint’, I never experienced any issue with these, I was never asked for one when ordering a chicken here 😉 But seriously, now you are issued with a residence certificate ‘which is not an ID’, you need to carry a driving licence or even your passport as a means of ID to accompany this certificate. I found that these OLD type residence cards that where also an ID card to be very much more useful than the residence certificate issued now as everything you needed was on a card and never seen this abused by the authorities, much simpler than they current system where you need to carry this certificate and your ID… so personally I am all for ID cards and feel there is nothing to worry about in having them apart from in the UK where the chances are the local authorities or government are selling the information so that would need to be made illegal.
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