Is the Home Office betraying us?

What a surprise, eh, Dinahmo? Smear "Professor Lockdown" and the gormless see his policy as discredited. There's too much so-called politics of this ilk.

Ngaio There is something called the right of transit passage, which covers the Channel. With some exceptions, shipping from anywhere has a right to use it, even within what are known as UK waters. The UK would be contravening international law, if it were to send patrol boats offshore and interfere with passage.

Until the UK finally leaves the EU, the situation is easier for the UK because the border is effectively in France. As the UK is not in Schengen, there is still border control. Asylum seekers are prevented from boarding ferries and travelling to the UK. However, after the transition period who knows what will happen? If border control reverts to UK ports, asylum seekers will find it easier to reach British soil simply by boarding a ferry. I can't imagine France will want to stop people leaving the country.

And what about Ireland? Are people still going to be allowed to walk over the border and then claim asylum in Northern Ireland? Ireland isn't in Schengen, but the UK is still going to have to rely on Irish goodwill to stop people finding their way to the Irish coast and entering the UK.

The amount of irregular immigration pales into insignificance compared with the number of people who are entering the UK legitimately (and have entered since the outbreak started) and are still not being screened and/or quarantined.

I think that NF being in Dover on Monday was organised by the right of centre media to draw fire from the government in order to prevent further criticism. Same as the fuss about Neil Ferguson and his girlfriend. Apparently his "misdemeanor" had been known about for a few weeks but the press chose to announce it this week. A couple of good days to bury bad news.

As Elegran said, we aren't condoning "people sneaking into GB without papers". If they're found they're detained in detention centres, isolated from the rest of society.
Ngaoio1 - I'm sure that PPE is an issue for Border Force, as it is for nurses, doctors, care workers, police officers, social workers etc etc.
Blaming a few people who manage to "sneak' into the country for the spread of this virus misses the point that sadly, the country was ill prepared.

Ngaiol if you are interested the figures are here www.gov.uk/government/publications/immigration-statistics-year-ending-december-2018/how-many-people-are-detained-or-returned

But we are not condoning it - we are detaining them and then dealing with them by due process of law. If we were condoning it no-one would even bother to notice that the boats are arriving.

trisher. I hope you are right. Nevertheless, we do seem to be condoning people sneaking into GB without papers. I also spare many thoughts to our officials who have to collect them. Let us hope, for their sakes, that they are given PEP. I wonder how many people are deported? As they are quite to break the law and quarantine to get here perhaps it should be an automatic procedure?

Chewbacca I don't think I said they were tested for the virus did I? I said they were quarantined from the rest of us. Of course the virus may be running riot in the detention centres. We will probably never know. And we are also most likely deporting people who have the virus and spreading it world wide.

Even if they're not tested for Covid they won't be allowed to just wander off into the UK at will. They'll be kept in detention. As trisher said, effectively in quarantine.

With the greatest respect trisher I don't think that anyone who comes into the UK, by whatever route or mode of transport, is routinely checked for COVID19, according to details provided in The Guardian on 5th May. My post yesterday, regarding the letter that Sally-Ann Hart, MP for Hastings & Rye, has written to Pritti Patel to seek assurance that this going to be done. And it should; not just for those coming in via Calais but everywhere else in the UK too. New Zealand locked it's borders some time ago to everyone and has seen a rapid decline in new cases and as of Monday 4th May they had zero new cases reported . But as usual, the UK is slow to react and everyone suffers the consequences.

Of course there is an immigration procedure Ngaio1 and people apprehended on our coast will be subjected to that process. They are therefore held in custody whilst their papers and stories are checked and then a decision is taken over their future. It takes time and they are held securely until it is completed. So are effectively quarantined from us if not from other immigrants. Your idea would leave them free to return in their boat land on another beach and disperse into the population without any supervison or quarantine.

Trisher. I cannot say what individuals would do in any particular circumstance. I do know, however, that there is an immigration procedure and that the people coming in by the back door are breaking the law and know as much.

Elegran. I have a humanitarian outlook but fail to see how allowing people with Covid 19 to come into the country will help us keep the numbers affected down. It is of no help to us, or them, if the virus keeps on spreading. When people arrive with no official papers or some evidence that they do not have Covid it is obvious to keep them away and try to remove one source of infection.

Ngaio so when they are turned back what do you imagine they would do? Just beach their boat and give up, or start off again this time heading for a less protected area?

Growstuff. I would have many more patrols, far out into the channel so that they can make the small boats turn around before they reach our shores. I have no problem with official immigration providing that the travellers are tested before arriving here.

How are we going to stop the virus spreading when untested people are allowed to illegally, come into GB and not turned back.

I don’t think it’s about ‘blaming’ the immigrants for bringing in disease, it’s that everyone can become a victim of the awful Coronavirus. Neither a Prince in a castle nor a migrant in a camp is immune, and that’s why the migrants should be tested and quarantined. In my opinion all travellers into the country should be quarantined, but as someone said upthread, that’s mixing two issues. Coronavirus is in the camps in France which is why we should take reasonable precautions. It protects them as well as the usual population. Should a migrant develop serious Covid19 they would then be taken to hospital in exactly the same way as anyone else.

Nagaio A civilised country would have rules that are universally humanitarian, and not ones that only benefit some people

It was the weepies of the world who had the strength of will and purpose to act to improve the lot of the majority of the world's downtrodden populattion, in areas from medical attention for the poor, through marriage rights for women, legal redress for violence and other crimes, to a voice in government and otthings enjoyed by civilised societies, If we can't weep for the misfortunes of others and do something about them, we have no right to believe that we are civilised.

NikDumpling or a chance to hurriedly deport people without anyone noticing or drawing attention to the fact that some may not have had proper legal advice. This government has a history of doing that.

Did I just hear on Radio Four that occupation in detention centres has dropped by two thirds? 50 people have been re-patriated, the rest cleared to remain. It’s taken a pandemic to get things moving.

You will have to excuse my sense of humour I’m new on here.

Thank goodness....

Yes!

Furret. I have to assume you are being sarcastic.

What can the immigrants, illegal or not, carry, in the way of disease that we can't ??

It's we, in the Western world who carry the most diseases by our way of life flying hither and thither, so any argument blaming others doesn't hold water.

The Border Force is not a taxi service. They could simply have given them a local bus timetable. Waste of tax payers money.

growstuff my sentiments exactly.

In my view Farage is an evil bastard who will stop at nothing to lay the blame on others. In this case as usual the migrants for bringing in the virus. He is like a stuck record.

Schools failing? Blame the immigrants.

Hospitals full? Blame the immigrants

Unemployment? Blame the immigrants.

The trouble is it is such an easy simple message that people can grasp it and accept it as true without the need to nuance the argument or think any deeper.