aintforever

I would tend to agree with that, I wouldn’t be surprised if things end up carrying on pretty much as they are but with Europe stumping up the cash.

You are according to the Refugee Convention.

I’m not commenting on how they should be treated, just saying that travelling through a safe country doesn’t necessarily make someone an economic migrant. If you are fleeing a war zone you are a refugee, regardless of where you go and how you get there, or wether it’s legal or not.

I agree. But desperate people will do what they think is best for them.

I get the problems with taking in too many, I'm not disputing that or advocating open boarders. My point is that just because someone travelled travelled through a safe country doesn't automatically make them an economic migrant. Someone fleeing a warzone is in a very vulnerable position, there are many reasons why they might go to a specific country where they feel safe. If you have lost your house, job and most of your possessions overnight, you are going to need help. You will naturally want to go where you have contacts, family or speak the same language.

It was a hypothetical scenario you bellend. Just giving you an example of a situation where a refugee fleeing war might travel through a safe country and be an illegal immigrant but wouldn’t be an economic migrant.

Isn’t the issue the fact that Russia’s economy is now geared up for war? Right now they are probably weak but in 5 or so years time they could be a serious threat unless we increase our forces.

A refugee coward, not economic migrant coward. Apology accepted.

And a refugee, not an economic migrant, despite being illegal and going via a safe country. You get it yet? If you are fleeing war you are a refugee, wether you get into a country legally or illegally doesn’t change that. Wether you stopped at the first safe country or not doesn’t change that.

It’s an important point, labelling refugees as economic migrants just because they came here via a safe country is wrong. If Putin starts lobbing missiles at us and I travel through France to my mate’s gaff in Spain to stay safe I would not be an economic migrant, even if how I got there was illegal.

No I said a Frenchman wasn’t fleeing war.

If you are fleeing war you are a refugee, wether you enter a country legally or illegally doesn’t change that fact.

A Frenchman is not fleeing war, someone from Ukraine is.

I agree, wether they are legal or illegal, they are refugees - even though they got here via a safe country. Going through a safe country doesn’t change them to economic migrants. It really isn’t rocket science.

Of course it is. I would up spending on our army and air force over immigration control personally. Stopping the boats is a problem but the vast majority of immigration is legal so the best way to bring the numbers down is dealing with that.

Obviously it’s about what you prioritise as there is not a magic money tree. Every billion spent on combating this massive threat from within is a billion that could be spent on our armed forces.

We can barely afford the 2.5% on the forces - how much more do you want to spend on counter terrorism instead? Also, are Islamist terror attacks even on the rise? It would be interesting to see the stats but there definitely seemed to be more around the time when we were invading Iraq and dealing with Afghanistan.

The treat of terrorism is obviously serious and needs to be addressed. Not sure that could be classed as more if a threat to Europe than Russia. Are you saying that we should spend money on immigration control and counter terrorism police instead of the armed forces?

And in English…

Seriously, that’s more if a threat to us than Russia. A few OTT hate crime incidents. 😂

Of course. They have still traveled through safe countries to get here.

Loads of Ukrainian economic migrants over here then.

What is our problem with free speech?

No shit Sherlock.

Paying more on defence made sense but the free speech thing was just weird, especially as it’s their Russian mates who bang people up who speak out against the government and Putin who kills his political opponents.