We certainly cannot let them drown. We do need to enforce the border and our laws though.
However we should place this in context. In terms of our immigration figures this is a very small amount of people. As Andrew Neil points out:
https://twitter.com/afneil/status/1079709883862302720
Quote:
Channel "migrant crisis" in context:
220 have attempted crossing in last 2 months, many well-educated Iranians.
750,000 "boat people" landed Greece in 2015, 150,00 in Italy. 10,000 came ashore Greece in 1 day.
7,500 claim UK asylum every 3 months, very few by crossing Channel
|
If every single person who attempted the crossing made it then it would barely make a dent in the numbers. If they are 'highly educated Iranians' then they probably have both a good claim for asylum and can add something to the UK in addition to that.
Obviously we can't allow that because we don't want to set a bad precedent but lets have some perspective.