For many years we have witnessed the ever-increasing migration of people to the UK who, for whatever reason, have made the decision to leave their country of birth to find a better life.
In the United Kingdom and Europe, we find ourselves blaming each other for passing on these people between counties and so the debate rolls on and on. In South America they are also mirroring the situation, with people making their way from Africa to the coast of the Americas and they too are passed on throughout South America and then up through North America until some end up in Canada. It is easy to blame them for their persistence to migrate, so we do. In the UK, we don’t care what happens to migrants in the Americas, so we don’t even report it.
Hitchhiking when I was younger was a fairly safe way to get from place to place, or so I remember. However, in the years I refer to, we also didn’t have the communication systems in place that we have the luxury of in today’s world, so many crimes went unsolved or unreported.
I personally would not recommend any young person to attempt to travel unaided without sufficient funds across Europe, let alone countries beyond. Yet, this is what many migrants are choosing to do. Furthermore, the aid that they are receiving on the way, which in many cases is coming from unscrupulous and villainous entrepreneurs, is being paid for by those that came before them and are and are now being forced to work illegally in underground operations in countries along their way. I wouldn’t like to hazard a guess as to just how many have been raped, robbed, beaten, and abused before they even arrived in the UK. After all that, they turn up to find that no one wants them here either.
No one can convince me that none of them are willing to work, no one will convince me that they are all unskilled, no one will convince me that they have nothing to offer in exchange for a better life than in many cases, the miserable existence they left behind at home. But they are not allowed to work.
They are not allowed to work because many of them are here illegally, but even those who are not, are not allowed to work legally because they haven’t passed a B1 English written and spoken test. Those that want to work in construction cannot, because they don’t have a CSCS card to allow them onsite. But they can drive for a year in the UK, on their country’s driving licence. After a year, they will have to sit a UK theory test and a full driving test, but they couldn’t drive a dumper on a building site because they haven’t got a plant operator’s card. Yet, a HGV truck driver from somewhere like Poland can drive across Europe and into England a deliver a dumper to a project without any of the aforementioned cards.
It all seems too ridiculous to be true, doesn’t it?
I am a person who has been around long enough to realise that some situations in life are bound to happen whatever you do. The continuing flow of migrating people is one of these, but I surely cannot be the only one that has seen the potential in the fact that we have thousands of young, fit people turning up on our shores. With the right leadership and direction, we could use this to have a huge, positive impact on short-skilled industries in many areas across the UK.
The truth of the matter though is that no one will attempt to give these people even the chance to pay their way while unscrupulous lawyers have unlimited access to the taxpayer’s money to do anything they possibly can to prevent it from happening.
The issue must be addressed. If they are to stay, then they must be absorbed into the workforce throughout the UK, or at the very least be given the option to do so. If not, then the process of shipping them onwards towards Rwanda should be organised in Calais to prevent an even greater loss of life in the waters of the Channel. Even if that means having to transport them safely to Gatwick first, these tragedies cannot be allowed to continue.
