Dublin Riots

As this article shows, we have the second slowest asylum decision-making system in Europe, behind Ireland. This is certainly a complex issue but the figures are clear that the slowdown in processing times long preceded the recent spike in claims. Obviously the spike has worsened the numbers, but it’s not the primary cause of the exceptional backlog level.
Relevant factors include the extraordinarily high turnover of civil service staff under this government (meaning that nearly half leave before they ever get up to speed) and also the changes in rules by this government that have added to the complexity (and therefore time taken) to process them.

https://migrationobservatory.ox.ac.uk/resources/briefings/the-uks-asylum-backlog/

So, yes, immigration is an issue across Europe but our government’s incompetence means we are handling it particularly badly.
Home Office figures show cases awaiting a decision was 18,954 in June 2010 (ie before the General Election that brought the Tories to power) and 166,261 at the end of December 2022.

 

Wouldn't have this problem if we just turned these invaders around before they even landed........just as we would had they broken your front door down ....

 

I don't think the report you quoted back that up to be honest.

But yes. Incompetence is a constant issue, both in governance the civil service. 100% the reason why we should make the government less important rather than more.

Maybe one day there will be a discussion where the answer isn't "the UK government is shite". I'm guessing when Labour are in power then global issues will be discussed as such?

 

You seriously saying in 2010 under Labour the amount of immigrants claiming asylum to the UK is similar to the present claimants irrelevant of the number of jobs that were lost, I cant wait for Labour to get into power and solve our asylum problem by just employing a few more staff.

 

A honest question Steve, where do we send them back to France, as that is usually their last port of call after coming through several safe countries where they wouldn't be under threat if they were in fear of their lives as many claim, certainly the boat people, because many of the asylum seekers don't have documentation to say where they are actually from.

 

Well, we’re never going to agree about this. There are so many areas where we need strong, competent government to lead us out of the abyss. Because relying on the markets and private sector to plan, provide and manage essential public services, housing, utilities etc etc is what has led us to our current situation where nothing works anymore.
We built modern Britain after WW2 on the back of strong government vision, planning and leadership. We’ve seen much of that fabric ripped to shreds in the past thirteen years. And it will keep getting worse until we get a government that isn’t afraid to make strong public priorities and intervene to make them happen. I’m not convinced that Starmer is the person to give that leadership but I’m hoping that he’ll at least arrest some of the slide. With the disastrous finances that the Tories will leave behind, it’s clearly going to take two terms or more to start building back better.

 

No. If you read my posts properly, nowhere have I claimed that the numbers claiming asylum now are the same as under Labour. But the processing system worked much faster back then to either grant them asylum if they genuinely qualified or repatriate quickly if they didn’t.

I don’t know the detail of how failed asylum seekers should be dealt with, any more than you do. But I’m confident that a Labour government will work much more effectively with EU countries to find better solutions than the Tories have. Of course it’s not just about employing more staff, as my post above made abundantly clear.

 

You keep telling us about the EU could be on better terms with Labour, but that can only be an opinion as in the pasted when asked why the EU wouldn't give a little on issues you were quite happy to tell us who voted to leave. why do you expect better from an organisation we came out of, it will all change once Labour get into power ?.
What's you opinion with regards my question where are these failed asylum seekers going to be repatriated too as we don't know from where they originally came from.

 

It’s already perfectly clear that Labour’s front bench is on better terms with the EU than our government is. It’s not rocket science. They are holding regular friendly meetings with them on a range of issue.
The EU knows that most Labour politicians are/were Remainers - ie sympathetic to the EU - whereas most of the present government has spent years slagging them off, reneging on promises and causing them problems. If you’re on good terms with another body then it’s obviously likely to be easier to negotiate cooperation and compromise than if they (quite rightly) view you as hostile to them. That’s a no-brainer.

I don’t know the solution to where we repatriate those whose country of origin is unclear. But I expect that it will be easier to identify their origin if we negotiate better arrangements with the continent so they aren’t hanging around in camps for ages. And is this genuinely a big issue or just some exaggerated scare story cooked up by the right wing press? In order to claim asylum you have to demonstrate that you are in genuine danger of harm in your home country. How can you do that without declaring where you’ve come from and what sort of danger you were under there? Answer - you can’t. So you can’t actually lodge an asylum claim without revealing your country of origin.

 

Got to love your optimism Steve, especially "The EU knows that most Labour politicians are/were Remainers - ies sympathetic to the EU" so you're suggesting they will be more accommodating because most Labour MP were more sympathetic, no brainer.

 

Yes, that’s exactly what I’m suggesting. The EU are heartily sick of the Tories and don’t trust them as far as they could throw them.
It’s much easier and more appealing to have constructive negotiations with people you know are friendly towards you than with people who’ve consistently bad-mouthed you for the previous eight years.
Let’s face it, most Labour MPs would have us back in the single market tomorrow if they could do so. The only reason they don’t say that is because they don’t want to turn the next general election into another Brexit row. The EU know this perfectly well. Ursula vdL more or less said as much last week. They want to re-establish good working relations with the next UK government, assuming it’s Labour (which isn’t yet a given) in the hope that, maybe, ten years down the line, there will be sufficient support to take us back in, even if in some limited form, and that Labour would feel able to do that with a majority of the country behind them.

 

Get the navy in the channel and sod what anyone else thinks........