With unemployment creeping up towards the 3 million figure due largely to Pandemic management. The widely reported housing shortage in the country coupled with the current need to build 300 houses a day just to house the incoming net average annual figure of 330,000 migrants to this country. We have a major headache for both government and local authorities.
Despite the new points based system of immigration we have a daily influx of people crossing the channel in a variety of boats & canoes. The number of these illegal migrants, for that is what they are, now stands at a reputed 60,000+ and growing daily.
Many of these are housed temporarily in a variety of hotels and army camps and this cannot be a sustainable medium or long term method of dealing with these people. The cost of this to the tax payer, especially given the financial black hole we have sunk into due to the pandemic is in the £billions.
The process of determining if an individual has a right to asylum seems to be both lengthy and on an individual basis very expensive, a further burden on the tax payer. Flights re-patriating failed claimants are often stopped due to technical legal issues or misguided campaigners.
The Home Secretary recently boasted that she had re-patriated 1,100 illegal immigrants during 2020. That is a drop in the ocean and hardly a figure worthy of boast, given the number of those arriving daily.
The question not being asked is what next, how are we possibly going to cope with an enormous influx of mainly young 18-35year old men. They have very little understanding of our language, culture, rules and regulations. They are poorly skilled, if at all and, the expectation of the many is a life on benefits, free housing, health care and the latest phones. How can we house, educate, medicate and employ them in any meaningful way?
It is not an easy issue to juggle yet a clear plan, forward thinking and clarity for the British people is either missing or not successfully being disseminated. The Government have been lax in their management of this.
A payment, reputedly £38 million to France, in order to stop the boat crossings has failed completely. Our French counterparts it seems are very happy that these crossings are continuing unabated. For sure, post Brexit and Covid-19, this issue is and will continue to be, an enormous headache for this country.
The Government, given a successful recent local elections and a complete lack of any meaningful opposition cannot sit back on their laurels and ignore the rising numbers and the obvious worry by many that this brings. Press releases about what they intend to do are not cutting the mustard anymore. Discernible action is needed.
The Queens speech in Parliament on the 11th May will hopefully include some pragmatic intentions regarding this problem. All eyes are on the Government with this, they cannot obfuscate or hide from it.
Stephen Place
Opinions from the Unity News Network (UNN) editorial team & various contributors. | UNN always clearly distinguishes between news and opinion pieces and as an open minded outlet we publish views from a variety of people and organisation that do not necessarily reflect the views of UNN or its writers. Articles published under UNN Opinions are always opinion pieces and if published on behalf of a contributor will contain that authors name at the start of the piece.
