Not So Quick Please

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At a time when officers from the UK Border Agency found cocaine worth £1.7 million inside an HGV trailer coming into Harwich from Holland, I’m not sure I’d be too quick to criticise those members of the UKBAs staff who received bonuses totalling £295,000 last year.

As well as finding illegal immigrants stowed away in lorries and trucks, the UKBA people that work our ports and airports do sterling work and we often hear of the huge drugs and other illegal hauls they detect.

Sure, the immigration side of the UKBA is in disarray but, as I understand it, their staff can be posted to ports and airports to detect illegal hauls as well as to desks to sort through immigration issues or check passports, etc.

I, for one, wouldn’t want to work for the UKBA. Not unless a bonus was guaranteed!
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Topsy-Turvy

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It’s often a topsy-turvy world we live in.

A County Court Judge who has twice been arrested on suspicion of driving while under the influence of alcohol recently has resigned his position. His Honour has, it could be said, done the honourable thing.

On the other hand, the Attorney General, the government's chief law officer, who has been fined £5,000 for employing a housekeeper who was not legally allowed to work in the UK, remains in post.

Very odd!
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Is This A Solution?

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French authorities have announced plans to close ‘The Jungle’, an unsanitary and illegal makeshift camp in Calais which houses around 1,500 migrants all desperate to get into Britain.

Many of these unfortunate people have paid people traffickers extortionate amounts to get there from their home countries, and their sad, and often dangerous, attempts to get into Britain are often featured in the media.

Curiously, the move to close this camp is said to send a strong message that people traffickers can no longer use Calais as their base. Note that the move seems not to be meant to refer to France as a base for illegal migrants - just Calais.

The French seem to have ambivalent views about illegals trying to get into Britain and appear not to do very much about the problem.

There would seem to me to be two ways of curtailing illegal immigration generally now that EU borders are open.

The first is for the French to take a much stronger line with illegals and either deal with them themselves or send them back either to the country from which they entered France or, if they wish, back to their home countries.

The second is for Britain to immediately stop welfare payments to all illegals other than those demonstrably escaping oppressive regimes and seeking genuine asylum.

But something needs to be done and not just the closure of one migrant camp which will merely be moved elsewhere.
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