Three events I have seen in the media in the last 5 years have resonated with me and are deeply implanted in me.
The first in 2015 was the body of a small boy washed up on a beach somewhere in Turkey.
The 2nd a couple of months ago. This was in Yemen. A village in spite of all the fighting in that country had been able to restore their local school. They had insufficient teachers and little boy aged about 9, was helping out with teaching his fellow students. Oh, just one thing, the boy was BLIND.
The last, which sums up what a mess mankind is making of itself. The Moroccan/Spanish situation in Ceuta.
An infant child, floating in the water without mother or father rescued by a Spanish soldier.
Talk about what you like. men coming to UK and sending money earned back to his country of origin.
It splits up his family, his kids have no fatherly guidance. Its a petty whinge, not worthy of us Brits.
Its humanity at risk here!

The media are very good at projecting what will tug on our heartstrings. Nobody wants to see the body of a young child floating in the sea after a failed attempt at a crossing. However, the father of this child would be classified as an economic migrant, not a refugee. He had left Syria and been in Turkey for about 3 years and had some form of employment. He had failed in his attempt to emigrate to Canada, where he had relations. His attempt to cross the sea to the EU (Greece) was therefore his perceived route to a better life and perhaps an onward journey to Canada. In addition, I believe he returned to Syria to bury his son within the week, implying that his homeland wasn't as dangerous as it had been. I am sure this is not an isolated incident, in fact I'm pretty sure that the UN once calculated that 75% of those attempting to get to the West were economic migrants. How do we stop those and allow true refugees a safe route?

the kid's body in Turkey was placed there for the photo - it was staged.

I work with refugees on a daily basis. They are always popping home to do something. Even throughout this pandemic. Whilst, at the same time, saying their country is too dangerous. I wouldn't say all are like this - some are genuine. But 80% are here for the life, not for the reasons they state. I ask them, and many simply admit it.
One of the ones I work with just went over to Zimbabwe for a month. A place they have claimed asylum from. I found it rather ironic as it's been nearly impossible for me to go anywhere legally. But I guess they're used to illegal travelling and don't particularly care about 'our' laws, until it suits them. Talk about playing the system. The naivety surrounding 'refugees' is largely caused by the media highlighting the cases that you speak about. It's actually widely known that the kid's body in Turkey was placed there for the photo - it was staged. Yet people still lap it up, thinking they can somehow help. I guess it's just the human way.
Be as woke as you like, work with asylum seekers, I urge everyone to, even the most woke would see exactly what I'm talking about, probably within a week or two.

I work with refugees on a daily basis. They are always popping home to do something. Even throughout this pandemic. Whilst, at the same time, saying their country is too dangerous. I wouldn't say all are like this - some are genuine. But 80% are here for the life, not for the reasons they state. I ask them, and many simply admit it.
One of the ones I work with just went over to Zimbabwe for a month. A place they have claimed asylum from. I found it rather ironic as it's been nearly impossible for me to go anywhere legally. But I guess they're used to illegal travelling and don't particularly care about 'our' laws, until it suits them. Talk about playing the system. The naivety surrounding 'refugees' is largely caused by the media highlighting the cases that you speak about. It's actually widely known that the kid's body in Turkey was placed there for the photo - it was staged. Yet people still lap it up, thinking they can somehow help. I guess it's just the human way.
Be as woke as you like, work with asylum seekers, I urge everyone to, even the most woke would see exactly what I'm talking about, probably within a week or two.

Ah I see another great government IT project in the offing. 2025? Hmm we'll see.

But yes about time we counted them in and out it is a real problem. So far over 5m EU citizens have been given settled status I don't have a problem with that except that when the scheme was announced the government said there were 3.5m EU citizens in the UK.

It demonstrates that we don't have a clue who is here and if you don't know that then how can you plan your public services.

Here's an idea why not buy an off the shelf solution, other countries already have this type of system but knowing our shower they will go for a brand new "world beating" solution. You know like the track and trace, the Germans just bought a perfectly could off the shelf one we spend billions because ours have to be perfect.

I used to say to my boss you have two options:

1. I can give you 90% of what you want in a few months at low cost but you will have to manually manage the remaining 10%.

2. I can give you an all singing and dancing solution that will do 100% what you want however it will cost a lot and take at least a year.

He always went for option 1 why wouldn't you.

As for the remaining 10% well now that you have automated the bulk of your process you then have time to find a solution for the remainder. In one case my boss's solution to the rump that had not been automated
was to actually stop doing that business he realised it was completely uneconomic and labour intensive, problem solved.

Cheap and simple was my motto.

Edited by Badger11 (23 May 2021 9.16am)

Sure but if you think about other countries they will probably have the same requirements:

Identify and count people coming in and out including their personal data. This is hardware (passport scanners) and software.

The data needs to be held securely and only accessed by authorised personnel.

An individual's data needs to be accessed by Border Staff, Embassies for issuing visas and other official bodies so remote access within and outside of the UK.

You need a metrics database that allows civil servants to generate data e.g. How many people came into the country yesterday, last week, month, year where did they come from, what method of transport, where was their point of entry etc.

All of the above is pretty standard, where you need bespoke programming is when you interface this system with other government systems e.g. police criminal records check.

Not difficult but they are bound to screw it up look at the NHS billions spent on a failed system.