--- "How doesn't that apply to us as well?" ---
Because the immigrants aren't entering via boats? But more importantly, because we are an EU member and should be working with the other EU countries to solve a problem that has barely impacted us, but has had a significant impact on countries such as Italy and Greece.
--- "all our Calais based migrants needed to do is to catch the (damned) train!" ---
Simply not true, hence why there are 5,000 in Calais, not the UK. If it were so easy to illegally enter the UK, they would all be here already.
--- "The reality is that you don't like the Aussie solution and you are trying, quite desperately, to find an excuse why it wouldn't work for us." ---
It's not about liking/disliking the system. The Aussie system is held up as the gold standard of immigration systems yet it hasn't reduced immigration rates in any meaningful sense.
--- "We catch them when they try to use any of the 'services' for which the ID card is required. You are still suggesting some weird 'space time continuum' where illegal immigrants disappear from the system! If they are not taking a job, using the NHS, having housing, etc., etc., then they are not much of a problem. However, if the turn to crime for an income, then they will need their ID card in the Police station......." ---
You seem to be saying that illegal immigrants are arriving in the country, going to the council to get a house, popping round to the doctors to register for a GP, registering with HMRC and getting a job and if they can't get a job, turning to crime. That would have to be what happens for your system to work. It is my contention that they avoid using government services, work for employers that aren't bothered about checking their right to work status and getting housing from private landlords (usually an overcrowded bedsit). Your system would do nothing to stop this.
--- "What other countries do with their illegal migrants is not my concern. I want to stop ALL of it into OUR country, not least because of how unfair it is to those attempting to get LEGAL entry into the UK and/or how many are DYING while trying!. As I said before, (almost) no other country in Europe has such a high 'population density) (too many people in too small a space) as the UK. On that basis, other EU countries MAY have room for illegals: we don't!"
Again, this "overpopulated" talk is nonsense. We are clearly not the most densely populated country in the world, nor the most densely populated developed country in the world and we're not even the most densely populated country in Europe. In what basis can you reasonably say "we don't have room". What you really mean is NIMBY.
And what about our moral obligation either. Lebanon has taken 1.5 million refugees. They're a country that has a population of 4.5 million and their GDP per capita is half ours. The 5,000 in Calais is a laughably small number by comparison. I'm sure we could spread them around our 43,000 towns and cities somehow. The estimate for the total number of illegal immigrants in the UK (600,000) isn't even close. Moreover, most of the immigrants are from Iraq, Afghanistan and Syria. For the former two, we are clearly somewhat responsible for the state of those two nations, and arguably we're partly responsible for the situation in Syria (although I wouldn't go so far as that).
But no, that doesn't matter. We should let Lebanon deal with it and in the worst case, Greece and Italy can handle them all. We should put up a fence, close our borders and let someone else clean up the mess. /sarcasm
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