Channel Tunnel Calais Crisis

[mushroom25]

http://www.bbc.co.uk/news/uk-33699141

incursion of 2000 monday.
incursion of 1000 and one death last night.
tonight?
tomorrow night?
next week?

on the basis that water can't be shovelled with a pitchfork, what's the betting that Cameron's "government will do everything it can to combat the crisis" pledge will mean dismantling the border? it will after all make all the current issues go away overnight.

[anotheoldgit]

Why are they just free to wander about, the French should arrest them on sight and then imprison them.

[whiskeryron]

Because the French want to shift all responsibility on to our shoulders.

[anotheoldgit]

Yes I agree whiskeryron, could you imagine if the migrants were here trying to get over to France, would those pesky Frenchies help us out with aid and gifts of money?

[Svejk]

Good idea, bouncy. We should hand out free passes to walk through the tunnel first. Only on the French side, obviously. ( ...on the other hand)

[Sammy48]

The French hate us and want shot of them as quickly as possible.

How do they actually get to Calais, by foot, bus, train. They could be stopped.

What diesese are they bringing with them.

[Ellipsis]

Surely what's going on in Calais is only the visible part of this crisis. It's not as if the tunnel is the only way into Britain, especially for people who have got from Libya to Italy on an overcrowded boat ...

[retrocop]

Ellipsis
They wouldn't last three minutes in the Bay of Biscay in the craft they just about float in.
If we are going to such a great expense of providing £7 million pound to provide fencing lets hope it is not any old fence. 100,000 volts might deter the wire cutters. Lots of Danger de Morte signs on it of course.

[Sammy48]

Looking at that green chain link fence in the video, did they get it from B&Q ?

Hope they chose Wednesday, it's pensioner's discount. Would make the £7 million stretch a bit further.

[New Judge]

The situation that the French now have to confront is a direct result of the abandonment of national borders on mainland Europe. These have been flimsy since about 1970. I can recall crossing the borders between France, Belgium, Germany and Italy completely unchallenged and without even being stopped. The only indication that a border existed at all was a couple of huts in the middle of the road which housed the mechanism for an ever-open lifting barrier. Each had a flagpole with the relevant national flags flying from each end. If you were lucky you might see a pair of boots resting on a desk inside which indicated that the “border guard” was taking his well-earned break.

These arrangements were formalised with the introduction of the Schengen Agreement in 1999. Many wise heads counselled against such a move, foreseeing precisely the problems being seen now. They were brushed aside as xenophobes, “Little Englanders” (or the foreign equivalent) and were accused of trying to derail the “European Project”.

The “benefits” of that project are becoming increasingly apparent for all to see and the situation in Calais is but one manifestation. I have been suggesting for some time that Europe is under invasion by people from North Africa and elsewhere. It was suggested by one or two that I was being hysterical. Perhaps I could ask how else we might describe the situation when thousands of people attempt to storm the channel tunnel in an effort to reach the UK.

National borders must be re-established in Europe and individual nations must be forced to deal with migrants who land on their shores in accordance with the UN Treaty on the treatment of refugees.

[Svejk]

Thank goodness they're better at running than swimming.

[Quizmonster]

Here's a purely imaginary scenario, but picture this...
Many thousands of poverty-stricken and persecuted Irish people see France as a sort of paradise. Clearly, they try to use the UK as a jumping-off point in order to get there, given that we are the nearest landfall on their journey eastwards.
Would the French authorities be sending us millions of pounds/euros to help us deal with the chaos in the Dover/Ashford areas? If you believe that, you’ll believe anything! Why then should we be giving them financial support?
More to the point perhaps, would the British authorities have allowed these even to become or remain sites of chaos, as the French have around Calais? (Having said that, in some ways they ARE chaotic now in the sense that the people of Kent are effectively besieged by massive traffic build-ups on this side of the Channel.)

Having said all of the above, I think the UK should take some responsibility for the migrants, given that we are part of the EU and, if a union means anything, it should involve sharing. Cameron’s “solution” of sending warships to the Mediterranean to pluck survivors from the water is all very noble, but just dropping them off in Italy thereafter is not good enough. Some system based perhaps on size, economy and so on of allocating them throughout Europe should be found. Clearly, Greece could not be expected to cope as well as Germany, for example.
Just saying, “Send them back!” is pointless, since we have no idea where ‘back’ is. The plain truth is that throughout the whole of human history, there have been mass migrations and we are in the midst of one right now.

[anotheoldgit]

Sammy48

/// What diesese are they bringing with them. ///

This one for a start.

*** Mers is passed between animals – usually camels – and humans. First identified in Saudi Arabia in 2012, it is caused by a coronavirus (Mers‐CoV), a large family of viruses that can cause diseases ranging from the common cold to severe acute respiratory syndrome (Sars). Most recent cases of Mers in Saudi Arabia were in patients who had a history of drinking raw camel milk and close contact with camels. ***

[retrocop]

//The plain truth is that throughout the whole of human history, there have been mass migrations and we are in the midst of one right now. //

For migrations read invasions

[Ellipsis]

> They wouldn't last three minutes in the Bay of Biscay in the craft they just about float in.

I wasn't very clear, sorry. They wouldn't be on the same boat they crossed the Med in. They could be in a boat they chartered/begged/borrowed/stole in Northern Europe. No flimsy craft and no Bay of Biscay.

[youngmafbog]

Are you mad?
Giving them eu passports if they make it to Italy will simply encourage more.

And once they have eu citizenship they will all pile into the uk and there would be nothing we could do.

[Sammy48]

Oldgit, they sell all sorts of rubbish in the African Supermarkets here in the UK I would think camel milk is also on the shelves.

[Khandro]

Even the left are finally beginning to realize the threat; Professor Paul Collier (left-wing intellectual and Oxford economist) is saying in his book 'Exodus' that "left to itself, there is no natural limit to immigration", discussion of which has for too long been taboo among liberals, the subject has long been conflated with racism and fears of inter-ethnic violence.

"I am concerned to raise the quality of public debate" Collier says "There's been a lot of sloppy and ideological thinking".

The book has even been praised by the Guardian!

[anotheoldgit]

Quizmonster

If any post supporting the 'get out of the European Union' campaign, it is surely yours.

/// Just saying, “Send them back!” is pointless, since we have no idea where ‘back’ is. ///

Er? Picked from the Mediterranean a few miles off the coast of North Africa or caught getting out of a lorry from France, are two definite ideas of where 'BACK' is.

[anotheoldgit]

Sammy48

/// Oldgit, they sell all sorts of rubbish in the African Supermarkets here in the UK I would think camel milk is also on the shelves. ///

But it can't be all bad, we have seen an increase of Mosques on the English skyline, but we have not yet seen camels being herded down our high streets.