It’s down to the French really but a few gunships patrolling the channel turning them back wouldn’t go amiss
I think we need offshore containment. Something like a fleet of 30 ex-container ships, refurbished as detention vessels. Each capable of holding 2,000 people. Moored in International waters. Mid-way across the Channel preferably, elsewhere if necessary. That could be set up in maybe 2 or 3 years max. All small boats to be intercepted and their passengers routed to the vessels. Women & younger children / older boys & men to be detained on separate ships. Vessels to be guarded by a Navy security force. All of this paid for out of the foreign aid budget. Anyone can leave whenever they want to - in safe numbers on small boats, towed to coastal French waters. No asylum application processing. Anyone choosing to cross the Channel illegally should be automatically denied asylum. No exceptions, no appeals. So people can stay in detention indefinitely on the container ships, with only the most basic provisions. No leisure or entertainment, no fancy food. The bare minimum of medical care. No communications. Or when they have had enough of that kind of life they can be towed back to France. Once people in France understand that nobody gets to the UK in a small boat anymore, the boats will gradually stop coming. It might take a year or two. Asylum should only be granted where appropriate, to people using legal routes.
I never liked the idea of Rwanda. Nasty, dangerous place. Cruel and unsafe, and I never liked those qualities being used as part of the deterrent. But detention ships would be completely under UK control. We can make them safe, clean, secure, humane (for the younger children). but not comfortable. Not luxurious. Spartan. And the message must be sent to Calais that nobody who boards a small boat will get into the UK. Then this particular problem will fade away.
Didn’t they try and use a detention ship before and was closed down within a week due to health problems?
Get yourself on a 36B at Catford and stay on it until you get to The Oval. You'll get to see plenty of that then, and save yourself the price of an airline ticket.
Yes. And unfortunately this is where the plan will all fall down. It cannot be done by half measures. Old container ships would need money spent converting them properly. Making them safe, clean, secure for the inmates and wardens etc. Staff would have to be good people, but not soft. Ex-soldiers, or maybe even serving ones. There can be no corruption. No drugs, no gang activity. No secret beatings or other kinds of cruelty. And it would all have to be monitored, and open to scrutiny & audits. Not whitewashes. Real accountability. All that would take a level of dedication and professionalism I don't think we in the UK are capable of anymore. We would try to do it on the cheap. Mess it up. There would be a riot, or a mutiny. People would get killed. Then the whole thing would likely be abandoned. One of the nastier aspects of the Rwanda scheme was if anything went badly wrong (and it would have) Sunak could blame it on the Rwandan authorities. We would have to own the proposals I've suggested. And we cannot even prevent millions of tons of sewage being tipped into our rivers with utter impunity.
I wonder if we should start a travel & tourism thread... Not joking, a serious thought. If somebody would like to start one, it might be interesting. EDIT @Watameire has now started a new thread
