Illegal immigration is currently the hottest topic in British politics, not necessarily because it is a more important issue than Gaza, Ukraine, the Cost of Living crisis, the crisis in the NHS or even pot holes although it may be for some and it certainly is a problem closer to our lives.
Those wannabe political parties that chase the popular vote see it as an opportunity to attract those easy votes by fueling the media with criticism and rash promises which they absolutely cannot keep. Even the Prime Minister has spent more of his communication on immigration than any other topic as he tries to chase the popular vote.
Don't get me wrong this is a problem that needs solving, but it clearly is a very complex problem to resolve and so far none of our politicians and governments have been able to.
But what sort of problems are there to be resolved? Well there certainly is a problem where people die crossing the channel so we need to stop the boats, it certainly is a problem if we deport true refuges and send them back to the regime that they have escaped from so we need to grant them refuge status and its a problem if any of the migrants commit criminal activities here and we need to ensure that we verify and monitor anyone coming to this country who has an unknown past. It is also a problem if you are an existing citizen living in a deprived area and it seems that immigrants are being better served than you are, this of course is not the immigrants fault it is the governments fault, no one in this country should live in a deprived area struggling to survive when there are other more privileged people who have so much.
Stopping the boats needs coordination across Europe as well as in the countries that these people are coming from, this is unlikely to happen as none of the other parties are interested in helping other countries. I think we can reduce the numbers but we will never stop all of them and so we have to ensure they do not use illegal trafficking services back in their countries of origin, we can only do that by ensuring the message is that if you enter illegally you will be sent back, but at the same time we must strengthen routes for true refuges to allow them to escape persecution.
Different cultures have different ways of behaving and different beliefs that we do not always accept in our own culture and that is why we have our laws based on our beliefs and anyone coming here has to agree to honor those laws. We need to step up our execution of those laws and catch and prosecute those who disobey the laws, whether they are rogue landlords keeping people in poverty, grooming gangs, people using illegal migrants as cheap labour, people traffickers, or illegal immigrants breaking the law etc. The law needs to act hard and swiftly to protect all decent people no matter where they are from.
So why do the Politicians in opposition paint such a bad picture, obviously its because they want us to vote for them at the next election and they will do everything they can to make the current government look bad. So why do we listen to these politicians, well firstly people have become very angry and by this I do not mean the hooligan knuckle dragging on the floor people but ordinary folks like you and me who are angry. We may be angry with the cost of living, angry with crap jobs, angry we cannot buy a house, angry with transport costs, angry that it rained on our holiday, being unhappy with our body, not having a partner anymore, basically we just have a lot of angry people in this world and they need to take it out on others and illegal immigrants are an ideal target particularly when politicians and the far right poke the fire.
It is a fact that Immigration legal and illegal will continue to increase in the coming years no matter what we do. It will increase due to conflicts, economic migration seeking a better life, climate related drought and famine, disease epidemics etc. people will migrate and the vast majority will migrate legally here, doctors, nurses, dentists, IT people will all migrate here where there are specific skill shortages which the government should but seem to be failing to address in the long term. The illegal immigrants will make very little different to housing and jobs which to be honest are the lowest paid jobs that no one here really wants to do etc. but the legal immigrants definitely do as there numbers are vastly more than the illegal ones.
So what can be done to address the issues of illegal migration. Well to be honest not a lot, maybe if there was less conflict in the world, maybe if there were less people in the world, maybe if the planet stopped warming so much then things would be OK and people would maybe be less likely to migrate but this will not happen so we have to accept the world is changing and that our lives will change.
This may lead to increasing numbers of illegal immigrants, some people think they are taking our jobs, living on benefits etc. (this is mainly legal immigrants). The only effective way of resolving these issues is to put maximum effort to process them quickly and providing they are not refuges and providing they can be returned without danger to themselves then they should be returned to their country of origin and those that need to stay here should be allowed to do so. It used to take just 5 weeks to process an asylum seeker, now it takes 3 years, this has to change, if we process these applications more quickly then the hotels and HMO residents will reduce numbers naturally with fewer people waiting, people will be returned more frequently sending the message back to their countries of origin that you will not get in illegally.
We need to tell ourselves not to be so angry, we really cannot be happy when we are angry at everything, things are as they are and only if we work to resolve them will they get better. Take it for granted that politicians are only interested in remaining in power and take everything they say with caution but use your vote wisely for a better world for all of humanity.