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It's all kicking off in Merseyside. Big protest against the UK government's ongoing policy of housing groups of unknown and unvetted asylum claimants who have illegally crossed the channel and are attempting to stay here, in hotels, at the taxpayer's expense. The inciting incident being passed around social media appears to be this. Reports include that a police van has been torched as attendees accuse police of "protecting the nonces".
As you might guess, it is unlikely that these events will be described as "fiery, but mostly peaceful". Several publications such as the Guardian have already gone for calling all in attendance far-right. Accusations are flying that protesters were bussed in from elsewhere because the famously bloc-left voting Merseyside would never do this. Some are remarking that this was organised by people passing out flyers in the days beforehand, and that this should make it a premeditated riot. Opinions are split exactly as you'd expect along culture war lines.
I can only see this sort of thing getting hotter and hotter as time goes on. There's a large contingent of the country who quite simply don't want the migrants here, and reports like the tweet above turn off even more. But the state -- controlled by people calling themselves the Conservative Party -- seems to have no interest in closing the floodgates (they make noise, but no more than that). No solution is in sight, as far as those concerned can see. So I really don't see how this is to be defused at all.
Is there any real way to get rid of the migrants? Does the UK have the capability to deport them to Albania or wherever, or is it a binary choice between ‘shoot them or let them in’?
They have a deal to send some to Rwanda, but there are questions re whether that is legal.
They can also try to speed up the asylum process, as the Biden Admin is trying to experiment with. But, doing so while not incorrectly denying asylum claims by those who have legitimate claims to asylum might be difficult, since as a practical matter it takes time to assemble evidence re asylum claims.
Unless they are coming from a neighboring country none of them have a leg to stand on. Send them back to their home country and if they refuse to identify where they're from hold them in solitary until they mentally break down and then send them back. While you're at it charge their home country with every expenditure related to expelling and transporting them.
Let's set aside that many of these countries are already broke. How exactly would the UK extract these funds? I highly doubt any of these countries are going to agree to pay those costs.
Stop foreign aid to such countries?
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