Time for a zero refugee policy? - *Read OP for mod warnings and threadbans - updated 11/5/24*

Agency staff paid way more than HSE staff - who works for the agency’s.

Does anyone remember this ? I remember at the time watching BBC reports and being frankly offended that a group of Irish people would attempt to assist people attempting to illegally enter the UK, many under false pretences, for the British public to both pay for financially and with regard to the effects on their society, whilst the Irish supporters could get a warm fuzzy feeling without having to actually feel the effect on Irish society, yet interfere in British affairs.

At the time I thought it was the height of arrogance of these folk, many from from monocultural green rural idylls, to dictate to foist this onto the British taxpayer and their already crowded cities.

I'm all for helping people in need, but to attempt to interfere in British affairs and the wishes of the British public ?

Now that the lads have made it from Calais to the UK to Ireland, I'm wondering how many of the convoy and their social media supporters have taken the lads into their own homes and gardens, now that the issue is here and they don't need to go all the way to Calais to help ? Surely there is plenty of room, not just in their homes on camp and inflatable beds, but in their front and back gardens to host tents ?

https://www.thejournal.ie/ireland-calais-refugee-solidarity-2369980-Oct2015/ 'Devastating and incredible': Irish volunteers on life in the Jungle

ON 1 OCTOBER, 54 volunteers left Ireland for the Jungle, a refugee camp in Calais, France. The Irish convoy was organised by Ireland Calais Refugee Solidarity, which was set up by Tracey Ryan and Elaine Mernagh.

https://www.joe.ie/news/feature-this-is-what-irish-people-can-do-to-help-people-living-in-calais-553663 FEATURE: This is what Irish people can do to help people living in Calais. ROSANNA COONEY
… When Brexit takes effect, the UK will no longer be able to send migrants back to France once they arrive. At press conference this morning however  British Prime Minister Theresa May confirmed that the border control between the two countries would remain in France.
“We are both very clear that the agreement should stay,” say said. Hollande added that “we consider it as our duty to apply it and also to improve it.” How the French government intend to do so is unclear, as the plan to fully demolish the camp appears unchanged.
“Why can’t civil servants go over and process the migrants claims remotely from Calais? Why can’t the process be sped up?” asks Elaine Mernagh, co-founder of Solidarity – an Irish volunteer organisation created to help the migrants in Calais … For someone who has seen the camp, it is impossible for Mernagh to accept the politics and games being played by the UK government when the points they score mean life or death for thousands of individuals.

http://www.wsm.ie/c/ireland-calais-refugee-solidarity-convoys-depart-report Ireland to Calais Refugee solidarity - Report as the 1st convoys departed
… Today the first of Ireland-Calais Refugee Solidarity’s convoys of basic aid is due to arrive in the French port of Calais. The aid is for distribution among the several thousand refugees living in deplorable conditions in makeshift camps outside the town, hoping to gain entry into the UK …

https://www.irishexaminer.com/lifestyle/arid-20360832.html My three days in Calais camp hell. I volunteered for three days at a refugee camp in Calais. The dire conditions, and the indifference of officialdom, are shameful, says Suzanne Harrington
We bump into Samer, whom we met last time, … A political scientist from Sudan, he made the journey to Calais via people smugglers … He left his pregnant wife and two children back in Sudan; he hopes to send for them. … Every night, he walks two and a half hours to the Channel Tunnel, in the hope of stowing away to England … “I don’t want help,” he says. “I want freedom.” … We find Samer again and give him medicine and a gas bottle, which he says will last 20 days. And, in a gesture of well-meaning futility, we give him some mejdool dates. He needs medical intervention and a work visa, not a box of dates … Very little would sort this entire situation out. That this level of suffering is happening on our doorstep for purely political reasons — with neither France nor Britain taking responsibility — is a disgrace.

https://www.echolive.ie/corknews/arid-40107488.html Cork nurse slams UK migrant policy: 'People risking their lives deserve to be treated as fellow human beings' 
A CORK nurse working with Doctors Without Borders (MSF) has hit out at UK government plans to make cross channel migrant crossings “unviable” for asylum seekers.
In recent days, the government and media in the UK have been highlighting migrants attempting to cross the channel from France in small boats.
Cork native Aoife Ní Mhurchú has worked for MSF across the globe including in the Mediterranean, assisting vulnerable asylum seekers … Speaking to The Echo, Aoife said: “The demonisation of the men, women and children who find themselves forced to reach the UK by crossing the English Channel is reprehensible.
“Undertaking such a treacherous journey is a last resort, a desperate effort to seek a safe and better life for reasons of sanctuary, family reunification, or employment … “Instead of engaging in public attacks and feeding into their dehumanisation by implying criminality and threat, the UK Cabinet ought to consider the underlying causes of the desperate situation facing these refugees and migrants.”

https://rebelcitywriters.wordpress.com/2015/10/29/is-the-price-of-the-barbie-doll-a-french-refugee-camp/

We are proud to carry this excellent piece from our very own Rachael O’Sullivan which appeared in todays Evening Echo. 
60% are ‘tunnel runners’. People who have run out of money but not hope after their awe inspiring journeys through North Africa and Europe. People who still believe if they make it to the UK they will be able to send for their families and find work or safety. 
Waseem, 35, Syria. I left my wife and two children in Syria and I want to come to the UK because it has the shortest reunification period – I think it is seven or eight months. I think in Germany it’s 18 months … I worked in telecommunications in Syria, we had a good life. I think maybe I should try and go home. ... We had enough at home, I had my family. Maybe we had enough? Why did I come here, this seems worse. At least in Syria I had my family.
Idris, 39, Iran. I was living in the UK for 8 years. I went home to Iran to visit my family … I was in prison for three years. Afterwards, I tried to go back to England and when I got to the airport they said I had been gone for more than six months and I could no longer enter the UK. Now I am in Calais. I have my NHS card, my National Insurance number, I even had a residency permit but it was no good to me. Now I am in Calais.

I think the realisation that 20k asylum seekers arriving this year, which was what the govt projected earlier in the year, is asignificant underestimate is hitting home now with some of the politicians.

25k to 30k arrivals looks likely this year and considering the govt plan to deliver 14k beds for asylum seekers by 2028, the numbers really dont stack up.

The projections that only about 15k would arrive each year between now and 2028 are obviously way off.

What next for the govt?

Even 30,000 could be an underestimate I fear.

I’d argue that there is, asylum applications in the EU increased 50% from 2021 to 2022, in Ireland they increased 400% from 2021 to 2022. Compared with pre-COVID figures, there was a 34% increase in asylum applications in the EU between 2019 and 2022, there was a 186% increase in Ireland. 

Europe's had a serious migration issue for a decade now, it hasn't just snuck up on us. Until very recently Ireland was going full pelt liberalising it's migration policy, while the rest of Europe was running as fast as the could in the other direction. It didn't take a genius to see this current disaster unfolding. The blame lays firmly at the feet of politicians and the electorate who put emotion before reason.

During the meeting, it is understood that Minister McGrath said migration had "exploded as a political issue".

LOL, it's been a political issue for decades, hence why we had a citizenship referendum in 2004

Yes, it was always a issue. They just chose to ignore it and call anyone who drew attention to it "Far Right" because they wanted nothing to get in the way of the ruthless drive to swell labour pools and markets in the country. It makes me smile to see them now use the same language they would have called "Far Right" a year ago.

Expect them to get increasingly tough (or, more accurately, affect the appearance doing so) on mass immigration as the election draws near, only to revert to bulldozing national cohesion if they get back in.

They know unlimited immigration from the Third World, the largely fraudulent IP system being a prominent stream of this, is bitterly unpopular among Irish people, just as it is unpopular among every other European nation.

No one asked for it, no one wants it, no one voted for it. It benefits no one but a tiny, already wealthy elite. Hence, it needs to be imposed by stealth, by silencing the native public (see Hate Speech regulation) and by force (see Newtown Mount Kennedy).

RTE news : 'Up to 30,000' asylum applications expected this year

http://www.rte.ie/news/politics/2024/0515/1449419-asylum-applications/

The other way of looking at this is the ability to bring in nurses from other countries is the get out of jail card for the HSE/Government.

If we had no other option (and its not just nurses obviously) they would be forced to address the calamity that is the HSE.

75 tents on the Royal Grand Canal this morning, according to news reports

edit: got canal name wrong

26,000 to 30,000!?!? We're f**ked, there is no way we can take that many. We have no proper border checks/controls for asylum applications so there is no way to stop them.

In every other country you claim asylum at the border, in Ireland you claim on Mount Street, get a tent and wait.

The horse has bolted, we're to late.

There's tents popping up all over Dublin city now.

I quite agree, the lack of preparation for this, the very slow response to deal with matters all show our government & opposition to be either inept or deceitful. They are starting to make noises now that canvassers are getting their ears burnt and elections coming up.

I don't know what to make of it fully. Perhaps our political classes inc the likes of the Labour Party see this as an opportunity, to take in a large young labour force that will do lower paid jobs and in time help fund the pension problem. Maybe others want to build a new Irish society that is a blend of all nationalities, cultures and religions.

Either way, I know none of them have actually consulted us the Irish public as to how we see the future of the country. And therein lies a simmering anger, immigration is fine like everything in moderation. But overdo it and start affecting lives of many resident citizens and the political establishment can hardly complain about angry responses to them. They are the authors of their own misfortune when it comes to comments they receive.