Less boat people, more facts

Almost every week that I turn to the letters column of this paper, there appears to be a letter from an A Philips of Twyford bemoaning what they term “boat people”. Their latest letter spoke of being “flooded out by these peoples” which at best is reminiscent of the hyperbole used by the Leave campaign and at worst has echoes of Enoch Powell’s rivers of blood speech. Less dog whistle, more atomic air raid siren.

Perhaps in their obsession with “boat people”, A Philips would like some basic facts.

According to the Government’s own statistics, up to June 2023, small boat crossings equated to 40,386. On the face of it, this sounds a lot.

Put in the context of overall total immigration (1.2 million) this is only 3.7% of all immigrants coming into the UK. According to the Refugee Council, three-quarters of these people are granted protection at the initial stage and refusals are often overturned on appeal (51%).

So overwhelmingly genuine people in genuine need. Perhaps A Philips would like to go spend a day with one of the marvellous charities such as Reading’s Refugee Support Group, that work with asylum seekers in the local area and actually meet a “boat person” in real life and hear their stories.

Of course, it is in everyone’s interests to stop dangerous boat crossings, we must protect innocent lives and prevent criminal gangs profiting. However, the answer lies not in gimmicky schemes such as the Rwanda pantomime but with all parties being honest about immigration.

We need immigrants in this country and the best way to do this is to provide safe, legal routes.

In the UK, we have a declining birth rate and an ageing population, putting an ever-increasing strain on NHS and social care services without increasing numbers of tax paying workers to support this. This is the elephant in the room that no political party seems willing to discuss.

Let’s put government spending on illegal migration (£3 billion) in context of the amount we spend on health care (£211.6 billion) and social security for pensioners (£114.2 billion). Overall government spending on illegal immigration is a minuscule percentage of overall government spending (£1200 billion). A Philips is very keen on the free covid vaccination but that needs to be funded through taxation. Without a young healthy workforce we cannot continue to do this. We currently have nearly 1 million job vacancies in the UK.

May I also suggest that the reason the council are crying out for money, people are struggling to get a GP appointment, young people can’t get on the housing ladder etc isn’t due to people arriving in dinghies.

The problems we face are far more multifaceted.

We have suffered a pandemic, a war in Ukraine, now a war in the Middle East and attendant inflation. The problems we have are also symptoms of the Tories deliberate policy of austerity, followed by Brexit.

Bloomberg has recently found Brexit has cost the UK £100 billion a year.

Perhaps A Philips’ time would be better spent campaigning for a return to the EU if they truly care so much about the costs to our society and economy.

I’m sure A Philips would agree with the sentiment we need to “look after our own”.

In order to do so, we need to stop the demonisation of desperate people and see it as the dog whistle distraction it is.

Instead, we need to welcome people to these shores through safe and legal routes. I’m sure everyone will agree, Wokingham’s new residents from Hong Kong and Ukraine have been a much-welcome asset to our community.

Fiona Dignan, Wokingham