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  • "
    The Watcher wrote:
    loosehead wrote:
    Inform Al wrote:
    Anyone escaping from Mugabe's Zimbabwean hell hole is a genuine refugee and I'm pleased that some are allowed to stay. It's only because the country is overfull that genuine asylum seekers are being sent back to suffer despotic regimes such as Zimbabwe and Iran. Sooner we get out of the EU and stop taking their cheap labour, the better.
    I have nothing against them as I'm married to a Thai Lady!
    But isn't the rules ( International) That all Asylum/Refugees seek out the nearest safe country to seek refuge & not travel thousands of miles to the safest cash cow?
    Just remember I watched as Ian Smith Declared Unilateral Declaration of Independence from Great Britain & how all Black & White people were cheering & dancing.
    then when they get what they want they come here seeking refuge?
    Genuine asylum seekers are at a relatively low figure (was its lowest ever in 2006) and through the late '00s was only around 20,000 a year. Despite the Daily Mail notion of shopping around, research shows that we are not the chosen port of call as you suggest for many legitimate refugees.
    .
    Our true refugee/asylum stance is something we as a nation should be proud of (despite the minority of abuses and exceptions).
    .
    The issue of EU immigration is another debate and considering all the three main parties are pro EU, then apart from temporary transition periods we have to accept the influx of Europeans.
    .
    Now if Cllr Smith wants to make a point about that then he needs to take it up with DC.
    So explain to me where all the Zimbabweans in council houses in Lordshill come from?
    Are you saying they're all illegals?
    They're taking homes from British families,
    Look around you the nearest countries to us aren't goingb to claim Asylum here are they.
    now look at where the bulk of Asylum seekers & illegals come from.
    there are many safe havens for them but they come here why?
    do the other countries give them homes? do they get a living wage from the state?
    do they get free heath & free education for their children?
    I doubt it very much these are the reasons they're here & no other reason."
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Labour's John Denham criticised by Tory rival Royston Smith over impact of Polish immigrants on Southampton

John Denham John Denham

Southampton MP John Denham has come under fire after admitting Labour underestimated immigration levels when it was in power.

A former council leader said an influx of Polish workers had had a “huge” impact on the city’s public services.

Tory councillor Royston Smith said the, then, Government had refused to listen to demands for extra funding because it did not recognise the increase.

He was speaking after Mr Denham, a former minister, said the Labour government had been wrongly advised about the number of migrants who would enter the UK after new countries entered the EU.

The UK government chose to allow uncontrolled immigration from new EU states including Poland in 2004. Other EU countries put temporary restrictions in place.

Mr Denham, the MP for Southampton Itchen, said: “It became clear the estimates we had relied on were vastly wrong.

We expected 15,000 migrants and 15,000 came to Southampton.”

At its peak, Southampton was estimated to have received more than 20,000 immigrants from Eastern Europe, largely from Poland. Cllr Smith, whose party led the council from 2007 until this year, said: “What John Denham is admitting is that he knew, while he was in government, Southampton was massively underfunded."

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