Compassionate ideas to solve the boats crisis (already known)

It’s often attributed to Albert Einstein (but apparently someone made up the phrase before). That ‘stupidity is doing the same thing over and over’.

This would be a good way to describe the present ‘boat crisis’, with illegal immigrants coming in their thousands in small boats (and on lorries) into England, which has led to a huge surge in support for Reform UK.

Even though Reform celebrates Saint George, who was actually Greek, and there’s not even any evidence he visited England! If he did, he would have been an illegal immigrant!

Of course, we all know that safe legal migration is fine (you’ve likely had a relative cared for by one). But to stick our heads in the sand and not address this issue, will likely mean that Reform UK gain power (which won’t stop illegal migration anyway, see below).

And their climate science denial would not only cause wildfires and send native species extinct, but lead to more ‘boats’ due to climate refugees from abroad. 

Greens want ‘open borders’ in an ideal world. But it’s not really clever to say this. As most people will just read the soundbites of big newspapers, and right-wing parties will gain power.

It’s good to be compassionate, but it’s also important to be honest about the issue that there are a few who ‘milk the system’, so something needs to done.

But having a ‘them and us’ mentality (you love or hate immigrants) is not the answer, as it has turned a previously tolerant nation into one that is not.

We Came By Sea is the untold story of the small boats crisis, from a writer whose first book won the Somerset Maugham Award. He has also written a book on endangered curlew birds.

Solutions are already known

If you listen to right-wing MPs, you’d think that solutions to the boat crisis were not known, other than ‘turn them back’ (you can’t, because under international law, they need to stay here to wait for asylum processing).

You can’t literally turn back people arriving on boats to France. If they drown, we are responsible for their murder – some may not care, but most do.

So here are the real solutions (not soundbites from politicians trying to win votes). These are all researched (and linked to) experts who know what they are  talking about. And know how to stop the illegal immigrants who are not genuine refugees, while welcoming genuine asylum seekers.

Those fleeing from oppressive regimes have no idea about England’s benefits system, and often no access to the media.  They also in many cases do not choose which country to go to, it’s the ‘gangs’ that decide.

In 2021, over 27 people died in frozen waters, when French and British authorities refused to help due the people being ‘in the wrong waters’ so no-one came to help until a French fisherman raised the alarm. Some MPs have even criticised lifeboat crews, for trying to help.

Create world peace. This is the obvious one. The more wars that Trump et al start, the more people try to escape from violent regimes. If you and your family were living on animal feed (and dragging children whose limbs had blown off), you would try to escape too, wouldn’t you?

Refugee Settlement. Ordered airlift programs (like Operation Pitting which helped Afghanistan refugees)  takes them to pre-destined safe places (not Rwanda, which has human rights abuse issues).

Register claims in France. At present asylum seekers register their claims in the UK on arrival. But as officials already have a base in France, this could be done before arrival to determine genuine asylum seekers, with no gangs to exploit refugees. The lack of an official legal route is a big issue.

Make UK employment laws stricter. France has very strict employment laws (there are no nail bars or supermarket car washes exploiting immigrants with poor pay and conditions). That’s one big reason why some people try to reach England.

Most refugees are 100% genuine

Refugee Council says around 20% of people crossing the channel are children, with 60% classed a genuine refugees. 40% come from just 5 countries (Iran, Syria, Eritrea, Sudan and Afghanistan). The last 3 have an asylum ranking of 98%, meaning nearly all are fleeing for their lives.

I think people in this country are fundamentally decent and compassionate, they just want a migration system that is fair.  Let’s stop the boats by offering safe legal routes to asylum, not having people clinging on to dinghies for dear life. Zack Polanski (Green Party leader)

What would Reform UK do to ‘stop the boats?’

We all know that the number 1 political policy (and likely why it’s so popular in the polls) is to ‘smash the gangs and stop the boats’. But what are its policies exactly, at time of writing (September 2026):

• Leave the European Convention on Human Rights that prevents governments from removing people who have no right to remain.
• Repeal the Human Rights Acts and introduce emergency legislation to prevent people entering Britain illegally from claiming asylum.
• Creating a Deportation Command’ whose sole purpose is to identify, detain and deport people who are illegally in Britain.
• Build around 24,000 detention places to hold people awaiting removal.
• Deport everyone who is in the UK illegally, negotiating return agreements with countries of origin and potentially third countries.

Critics say this would not work for several reasons:

You can’t simply remove people from boats, and send them back to France. As they are making a journey that can drown them (including children) and this is illegal, under maritime law.

Such a scheme depends on international agreements with France (who would be accepting the returned refugees across the channel) and countries of origin (Reform UK would have to deal with the Taliban), enough capacity to detain people and potential legal challenges.

Leaving the ECHR does not make another country accept someone. If say Afghanistan does not cooperate and France says its not that country’s responsibility, a third country would have be arranged to accept them.

Reform has admitted this policy depends on returns agreements (it mentioned Albania who said they wouldn’t be interested). The El Salvador link would only be for foreign prisoners.

At the Reform UK party conference, potential right-wing French Prime Minister Jordan Bardella signed a memorandium of agreement with Nigel Farage, saying immigrants would return to France. He’s now in hot water back in France, although the wording was actually different in French – something the baying Reform crowd presumably weren’t told. 

The ‘boats’ are basically an international criminal business, and smugglers will adapt like changing routes, launching from different countries and perhaps becoming more secretive or violent. Just ‘sending boats’ back’ simply won’t work.

In 2018, just 288 crossed the channel, today it’s in the tens of thousands. The issue is the huge money made by smugglers.

Some experts say the solution is to use the National Crime Agency and INTERPOL to intercept payments. In on Europol investigation, 144 bank accounts were frozen, and 18 properties (and 133 vehicles) were seized, worth an estimated combined 45 million Euros. Take the profit away, and you remove the issue. 

In other words, it may sound like a good idea in theory, but there is no guarantee that it will work, as it won’t just be Reform UK involved, by other countries who would have to get on board.

Nigel Farage’s big claim is that illegal immigration is Britain’s big problem. But my problem with Nigel Farage is that the moment he opens his mouth on this subject, he literally talks nonsense.

Migrants do the jobs that people in the UK don’t want to do. They are the cleaners, the janitors, the security guards, the care workers, the people who literally care for the dying.

They provide many of the people who work on our transport system, because of the anti-social hours that other people don’t want. Migrants are more likely to work, than people born in the UK. Richard Murphy

The mass media is not helping

Research by Byline Times (a citizen-funded newspaper) found that TV channel GB News aired claims of an immigrant ‘invasion’ at an average one a day over four months during 2025, with regular complaints to Ofcom not being investigated.

Good Law Project also reports that the channel’s relentless focus on illegal immigrants, is not covering the truth that most people who arrive as immigrants do so legally, and between 60 to 70% of people applying for asylum already live in the UK.

Recently one Lib Dem MP was appalled to view an episode where it was suggested that most defendants charged with sex offences had ‘non-British names’. Tell that to Michael Portillo, one of the channel’s regular presenters.

Turning up to court and counting people with names that don’t sound British to you, is no way to engage with the complex and sensitive topic of immigration. Anna Sabine, Lib Dem MP

Paddington Bear (the polite illegal immigrant bear!)

With a battered red hat, bright blue duffle coat, and spectacles perched on his nose, Paddington Bear walked out of ‘deepest, darkest Peru’ and into English hearts. For decades, this friendly bear has charmed children and adults with his polite manner, honesty, and unquenchable curiosity.

From his arrival at Paddington Station to sharing marmalade sandwiches with friends, Paddington has taken on the role of London’s gentlest ambassador!

Paddington’s back story starts thousands of miles from London, in the jungles of Peru. In Michael Bond’s stories, Paddington is sent to England by his Aunt Lucy, who cannot care for him anymore.

Michael also wrote storybooks on guinea pigs, however these did not become as well-known. He lived next door to Paddington Station, in Little Venice, an affluent area of north west London.

Michael Bond’s serious message

Paddington Bear’s kindness is even more important a message in these turbulent times. Many have wondered over the years where the story of a Peruvian spectacled bear came from.

Michael Bond was inspired to write the books, when his own family housed refugee children during World War II. He remembered seeing children with labels and addresses, carrying a tiny bag or parcel with favourite items (the inspiration for the jar of marmalade).

He personally knew the hazards of war. In 1943, he was working on the roof of a building in Reading (installing a radio transmitter), which collapsed under him due to an air raid, killing 41 people around him, and injuring many more. Reading Museum has an interview on how the event affected him.

Mrs Brown says that in London everyone is different. And that means anyone can fit in. I think she must be right. Because although I don’t look like anyone else, I really do feel at home. Paddington Bear (the original illegal immigrant)