Immigrants go home ...

loz

Interesting perception of UK treatment of (illegal) immigrants

UK benefits a magnet to migrants, says Calais mayor
BBC News - UK benefits a magnet to migrants, says Calais mayor
Illegal migrants see the UK as a "soft touch" and its benefits system acts as a "magnet" to them, the mayor of the French city of Calais has told MPs.

Ms Bouchart, speaking via an interpreter, added: "You have a much more favourable regime in Britain than other countries. The second thing is the entitlement to benefits of £36 which are given to asylum seekers or migrants, which is a huge amount for people who have nothing in their lives."

Ms Bouchart said the "real magnet is the benefits that are perceived in Great Britain".

Meanwhile
BBC News - Calais migrants: France 'to send extra police to port'
France is to send 100 extra police officers to Calais in a bid to end the ongoing migrant unrest around the port, the French interior minister has said.

Bernard Cazeneuve told a French newspaper that the reinforcements would join 350 officers already in the town.

Calais has been struggling in recent months with increasing numbers of migrants arriving.

French police used tear gas this week as hundreds of migrants tried to climb onto trucks bound for the UK.

Clashes erupted on Monday between the Eritrean and Ethiopian camps and continued into Tuesday.

There was further violence on Wednesday, as security forces tried to block the migrants from attempting to cross the English Channel.

Dozens of people have been injured in the unrest.

nabby

And did no-one on the select committee ask her why the French Government is not getting them to claim asylum in France, their first safe haven? It's not a British problem, imo, it's a French problem. They're trying to scare us into stumping up funding to deal with it.

Sonic67

Bloody foreigner, coming over here, wanting to know what love is.

hdsport

Seems our government has decided drowning immigrants (or least not caring if they do) is the way forward.

Home Office defends decision for UK to halt migrant rescues | World news | The Guardian

A policy not all that far removed from that proposed by Nick Griffin

Sink boats carrying African migrants, says BNP leader | Politics | theguardian.com

Combined with the survey showing the public's misconceptions on things like immigration you have to wonder just how positive the influence of certain political parties is on this country.  The contrast to this story is striking,

‘British Schindler’ honoured for saving 669 children from the Nazis | World news | The Guardian

nabby

The misconceptions on immigration is interesting as you see a heck of a lot of it here on AV Forums

hdsport

Agreed.  Some of key ones that jumped out at me,

Immigrant population
Perceived 24% Actual 13%
Muslim Population
Perceived 21% Actual 5%
Unemployed
Perceived 24% Actual 7%

The final one suggests the Tories 'strivers v shirkers' rhetoric is having the desired effect.

loz

No surprise that the Guardian couldn't bring itself to headline that this was an EU decision.

True to form, the UK is chastised for not wanting to abide by EU immigration rules.  And then chastised again when it does agree with them!

loz

Add that up, and its 25% actual.

hdsport

Well spotted!

loz

Well you have to make the figure look as big as possible