Just watching this about people (migrants) crossing the channel on boats. Its tracked the path of a 21 year old Kurdish man who died when the boat sank. Firstly I found it quite moving as he was younger than my own son, he is a brother and son and the family will never recover. Secondly it appears that Kurds make up a large proportion of people in Calais trying to get across. A people who have been allies to the west and have been let down time and time again. The programme showed how these are real, decent people not the demons portrayed by the press. The tory Party have become obsessed by migrants, Patel, Braverman and Johnson repeatedly shown on the documentary stating the need to break up the criminal smuggling gangs, highlighting exploitation of vulnerable people. I'll flip this and say its the tories who are exploiting vulnerable people, who continually portray them as the bogeyman. The programme showed a single Kurd mother with three children who also died on the boat. Anyone should have the right to a better life, Europeans historically flocked to the US and Australia for such!
I watched it.
What I find fascinating is that for all we are continually tools that Britain is shit, they were saying that it's the best place to go and risk their lives and livelihoods coming here.
I agree, we are a fabulous country and if I was in their position, I'd head here rather than stay in France.
The wider point
We have a problem with the need to mix up economic migration with fleeing persecution.
I once upset Tony Blair when he was PM on this matter. The moment we talked about a global economy, we, by definition created a global workforce - but we never put a system in place which recognises and facilitates it (and I'm talking about non-EU countries).
It won't affect the Professor of Engineering - who are always welcome but will affect those people headed into retail or other less skilled roles.
As a result, they need to claim asylum, which it isn't - breaking the system for people genuinely fleeing persecution - which do exist and I've helped plenty in my career.
And that means crossing the channel.
It also means it's dangerously easy to demonise all of them which isn't helpful.
We should have worked better in other places, to facilitate work visas, but which do not acquire other rights for a period of time (say work 12 months, pay tax and NI and get the rights as a resident) - stops the argument about getting preferential treatment having contributed nothing - notwithstanding we have plenty of British born people who would fall into the same category.
And then work with people to acquire citizenship if that's what they want (and most do).
But we haven't.
We have a system designed to make the only realistic route to the UK a dangerous one, where young men have to lie to get here and pay a fortune to do it and inflame tensions in places where they are subsequently homed.
The $1500 they pay for a crossing, could have paid for that visa and give us a far better understanding of who is where.
The system we have is utterly broken and has been for at least 20 years.
People shouldn't be dying trying to better their lives.
