Some reasons why #refugees might decide to try and get to the UK:

- they have family, or know someone, in the UK.
- they have heard, from people they’ve met, that the systems are better in the UK or worse elsewhere (although they might not know exactly what that means).

1/7

- they have experienced poor/mis treatment in other countries. The French border police are brutal. Reports abound; look them up.

- they feel a connection to the UK as a result of colonialism.

- they may wish to, feel better able, feel better equipped if they learn English.
2/7

- they’ve heard how great the UK is. Usually from UK spin merchants.

- they have paid an agent to get out of a particular country, be that their home country or Libya (if Libya is not their country of origin), and the UK is the destination as per the agent.

3/7

FYI: Refugees/asylum seekers are not required by law to claim asylum in the first country of entry, despite what the UK govt & media would have you believe. There’s a European convention ( #DublinIII) but it’s an agreement between signatories as to which country has responsibility

...for dealing with an asylum claim. There are a number of factors considered, incl whether an asylum seeker has a family member/s in a particular country. UK caselaw recognises that there is an “element of choice” in the country in which a refugee lodges an asylum claim.
5/7

UK is 17th in the EU on the measure of asylum applications per capita; below average. Remember the 2015 #Mediterranean crisis? Operations such as that announced by the Home Secretary won’t stop people trying to get to the UK, it’ll only make the crossing more dangerous. 6/7

It will put at risk the lives of people -men, women and children (many of whom are unaccompanied)- who are fleeing persecution and who the UK has committed to provide protection to under the #RefugeeConvention 7/7.