Maritime Support Or 25,000 Asylum Seekers?

[anotheoldgit]

http://www.express.co.uk/news/politics/574576/Ukip-hits-migrant-Mediterranean-blackmail-crisis

Should Britain's maritime support in the Mediterranean migrant problem, be put on hold because the EU wants Britain to accept up to 25,000 asylum seekers?

/// “What seems to be happening is cynicism at its most repellent. Our humanitarian efforts are being held up by the wish of our Continental friends for Britain to be a full part of the EU asylum system. It looks as if the migrants lives are being held hostage to a dream of greater European integration. Shame on them.” ///

[douglas9401]

Some might say that the UK already takes a fair share of migrants such as those shuffled along to Calais and other ports by other nations keen to dodge their resposibilities as the first point of entry.
It all seems a bit weaselly to me.

[Gromit]

UKIP are being a little misleading here. Where the ship disembarks any rescued migrants, and should we take 25,000 migrant refugees are two entirely different questions.

HMS Bulwark is unlikely to pluck 25,000 from the sea. But the few they do find they want to take to a nearby port. At present there is no agreement where they can unload there cargo, so unfortunately our kind offer to help has been rebuffed.

We should be deterring Africans from this perilous journey. Granting sanctuary to 25,000 will just encourage more and result in more lives lost, not saved.

Denying HMS Bulwark a port in Italy is more of a UK/Italy dispute than an EU one. The distribution of refugees around the EU is something we can opt out of, and have (for the moment).

So the story is poorly represented by UKIP for cynical electoral gain (or not as the election pans out).

Incidently, your threadfrom this morning reached 109 posts before getting the chop.

[anotheoldgit]

Gromit

/// Incidently, your threadfrom this morning reached 109 posts before getting the chop. ///

Yes I noticed that it had been sent to room 101, once again for no apparent reason I suppose, except for a few touched raw nerves.

Makes one wonder if it is really worth carrying on, I am seriously thinking of quitting, yet one is encouraged to contact the Ed by email, if they have a problem, this I have done in the past but they just get ignored.

The only time that I have been contacted by the Ed was because I had failed to post on the site for a period of time, and some fellow ABers had been enquiring where I was.

[anotheoldgit]

Gromit

/// HMS Bulwark is unlikely to pluck 25,000 from the sea ///

I don't think that is what is expected, the 25.000 figure is the number of migrants the EU expects us to take in as part of our fair share.

[Gromit]

// I don't think that is what is expected, the 25.000 figure is the number of migrants the EU expects us to take in as part of our fair share. //

Exactly. We could patrol in the Med and still reject the 25,000. That is why the UKIP claim is misleading.

[New Judge]

There certainly is a difference between plucking people out of the drink and accepting up to 25,000 immigrants. Unfortunately the EU seems to have forged a link between the two. The best way for the UK to withdraw from such a threat is to have nothing to do with either and insist that (a) economic migrants (i.e. the vast majority) are rejected and returned forthwith to North Africa and that (b) genuine asylum seekers are processed in the first safe country they land in. Furthermore they should not be granted full EU citizenship but only that of the country that accepts them. This may make those countries less inclined to accept them when in the knowledge that they will have to feed, clothe, house, educate and medically treat them for the rest of their lives.

[whirlyhurly]

Even more Muslims ??

[New Judge]

And 3,700 more rescued over the weekend:

http://www.bbc.co.uk/news/world-europe-32573389

Am I alone in believing that numbers such as this amount to nothing short of an invasion?

[mushroom25]

if we accept that it's our moral duty to accept large numbers of boat people as part of an EU-wide asylum system, then it would probably be our moral duty to move the "Pride of Dover" to Catania and run a cheap ferry service so as to put the traffickers out of business and make the whole enterprise safer for everyone.

[jourdain2]

No, you are not alone N.J.. Your earlier post elicits my agreement as well.

[anotheoldgit]

We hear much about those who are drowned, but does anyone know the exact figure of how many successfully make it?

Back in June 2014 it was reported that Italy said more than 50,000 migrants had landed on its shores since the start of that year – about the same number as for the whole of 2013. More than 2,000 have arrived in Malta, with up to 600,000 people waiting to cross.

When will enough be enough, or is Europe open to the whole African continent?

[sevenOP]

They are not coming as slaves this time.