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The xenophobic agenda of the Media seems to be worsening by the day.
It is necessary to have translators in order to increase speed of diagnosis and care. To give an example that our roving conspiracy theory reporter could appreciate, let's start with the obvious. Welsh people.
There are still many Welsh-only speakers in Wales. Rather more than there are fluent Welsh-speaking Doctors. And so there are translation costs.
As there should be. Because I am not xenophobic. Even against the Welsh
Current thread titles on this Forum include...
"NHS pays £80m on translators for patients who don't speak English
British taxpayers foot £100k private jet bill for asylum-seeking sex offender’s emergency surgery
Migrant avoids deportation because he lost his phone"
And a day or two ago, a Tweet was posted complaining that a Birmingham MP (who just happened to have brown skin & be a Muslim) was campaigning for a new airport in Pakistan despite (words to the effect) "half the children in Birmingham are starving to death".
I find it all utterly repulsive.
I should add that what is being posted on the Forum only reflects what the Media are saying. It's the Media I'm frustrated with, thinking that reasonably intelligent adults are going to fall for all this BS. Sadly, not everyone can see through it...
It is simply not true to say that these costs are due to people who cannot speak English. It is more nuanced than that.
Let's turn it round. Suppose I was taken ill in France. I have decent conversational French. I can order food, find directions, and so on. What I could not do is provide meaningful French words to describe medical symptoms, care packages or whatever. And so a translator might be needed-there will be medical staff who speak English, but will they have the depth of knowledge needed?
Same holds true for people for whom English isn't their first language here.
Let's look at what happened to me and the missus a few years ago in Spain when we got burgled.
Firstly the local police attended and with a combination of my poor Spanish, I have about 600 words and their poor English, it was established that we had to report to the Guardia Civil at the Town Hall in order to get the reports for the insurance.
Upon arrival at the first come first served system we were met by a large sign in English which informed us that unless we spoke Spanish fluently we would not be seen, that it was our responsibility to engage and pay for any translation service and that the Spanish Authorities would not assist in such an engagement.
It didn't take long to find a translator and after some Euros were exchanged, all parties conducted their business.
My point. It wasn't free, laid on a plate or made available. Oh, and I didn't expect it to be.
And before people start banging on about it not being the same, I understand that. It's the encouragement of entitlement that really boils my p***.
No wonder we are the Country of choice for the economic migrant.
I have no problem with those that think that being bilingual makes them more patriotic.
Although I do disagree with the sentiment.
Those that are able to speak Welsh only, surely limit their life chances.
You can be proud to be Welsh without speaking the language.
It is not clear that there are any stats for those that speak only Welsh.
As far as the headlines are concerned, there seems to be no shortage, and many of them ridicule our border control, and immigration system.
Brexit was meant to increase control of our borders.
Having no control would seem to be quite stupid.
Ability to speak Welsh
On Census Day, 21 March 2021, an estimated 538,300 usual residents in Wales aged three years or older reported being able to speak Welsh, or 17.8% of the population.
This is a decrease of around 23,700 people since Census 2011, and 1.2 percentage points lower than Census 2011.
The percentage of people aged three years or older able to speak Welsh in 2021 was the lowest ever recorded in a census. The number of people aged three years or older able to speak Welsh in 2021 was the third lowest recorded in a census, higher than in both 1981 and 1991 only.
He knows that every time he has to visit the hospital he has to take an interpreter with him, at his cost.
He expected to have to do this.
It was not a huge shock.
Migrants who overstay their visas will be removed from the UK, a minister has vowed after it was revealed they make up nearly 40% of all asylum claimants.
The Home Office said about 40,000 people who came to Britain from abroad as students, workers or visitors last year have sought asylum.
Around a quarter, 10,000 people, had lived in taxpayer-funded hotels or other Government-funded accommodation despite entering the country with a visa that suggested they would not need benefits or had enough money to cover living costs.
It has raised fears that the visa system is being exploited as a backdoor route to permanent UK residency and Home Secretary Yvette Cooper has ordered officials to investigate.
Border Security Minister Angela Eagle told Times Radio on Monday: "We inherited the system we inherited with a 70% fall in any kind of processing with 100,000 people in dispersal accommodation or hotels who weren't even being processed by the previous government."
She added: "When they came in on a visa they actually told us that they had the means to exist in the country without relying on public funds."
Asked whether people who had come to Britain on a visa would be taken out of tax-payer funded hotels, Ms Eagle said: "They will certainly and if they're overstaying they'll be removed from the country."
https://www.msn.com/en-gb/news/uknews/visa-overstayers-will-be-deported-vows-minister-after-number-claiming-asylum-in-uk-revealed/ar-AA1BYY1M?ocid=msedgntp&pc=W230&cvid=3bd1d8a523634c768fb7bf17df9f8b24&ei=11#
https://www.msn.com/en-gb/news/world/starmer-says-24-000-people-who-have-no-right-to-be-here-have-been-returned-under-labour/ar-AA1BYY8y?ocid=msedgntp&pc=W230&cvid=3bd1d8a523634c768fb7bf17df9f8b24&ei=59#fullscreen
Channel people smugglers are earning “hundreds of millions” of pounds from small boat arrivals syphoned through an underground banking system, crime fighting chiefs have revealed.
The National Crime Agency (NCA) is targeting the informal Hawala banking system
It is exploited by gangs because transfers of funds are agreed between operators, or hawaladars, in different countries, which means migrants can travel across Europe without carrying any cash.
Hawala is an informal method of transfer without physical money actually moving that originated in South Asia during the eighth century and is still used today, particularly in the Islamic community.
https://uk.yahoo.com/news/traditional-islamic-banking-system-used-070000553.html
Inside a blue glass building overlooking the main river in Kabul sits a busy market where migrants looking for a better life begin their journey West.
It is here where Afghans seeking to cross the English Channel transfer payments to smugglers before venturing abroad, The Telegraph can disclose.
The bustling hub is home to hundreds of money exchange brokers that oversee a vast network of global transfers outside the traditional banking model.
They act as middlemen between migrants and smugglers by holding payments – made by people hoping to get to the US, UK, or other European countries through illegal means – in escrow.
https://uk.yahoo.com/news/revealed-people-smugglers-move-millions-060100503.html
The Home Office has announced tougher rules for businesses in the gig economy as it prepares to host an international summit on illegal migration.
https://uk.yahoo.com/news/illegal-workers-crackdown-new-rules-gig-economy-115417771.html
All the boat people are merely searching for a safe country, and are fleeing war and persecution.
Yet they have all travelled through a number of safe countries before they get here.
Thousands of Albanians were arriving, who were not fleeing war or persecution.
This was until we reached an agreement to return them.
We now dont get any from Albania.
One of the articles above points out that many of our illegals have applied for asylum subsequent to overstaying their visas.
They will not be fleeing war or persecution, but are currently in taxpayer funded accomodation.
Maybe they just think we are a soft touch.
The huge mistake is that they can only apply for asylum while on British soil.
If we changed that to not allowing applications from anyone that has arrived here illegally, it would solve at least part of the problem.
Why cant we receive applications by email?
Or open a couple of offices abroad?
We could still accept a reasonable number.
We are deeply in debt, so we effectively borrow the money, paying huge amounts of interest, to pay the £8bn per year in hotel acommodation, without the other stuff, like benefits, food, legal aid, driving lessons, etc, etc, etc.
Surely this cannot be seen as a wise use of our available resources?
What about common sense.
I have sympathy for people that are actually fleeing war and persecution.
I also realise that we cant afford to take all of them.
There are apparently 100 million displaced people world wide.
So common sense dictates that there has to be a selection process.
But we dont, we have to take all the small boat arrivals.
We have no control over our borders, which is really stupid.
Our hotel bills are dependant upon the weather.
The better the weather, more boats arrive.
I cant stand Farage, but his popularity is growing because of this issue.
If you said to me Farage will be PM of this country at some point, 15 years ago, I would have laughed in your face.
That prospect seems to be getting closer by the day, but I still hope it never happens.
I think the Tories didnt have a clue, and it remains to be seen whether or not Labour can get a grip.
Should we advertise worlwide inviting people to come to the UK, with a promise that we will pay their hotel bills, feed them, give them a few quid, pay for their legal representation, and their driving lessons, etc, etc, etc?
+1
I really have no idea where all this hate has come from.
My views are based on common sense.
I was not referring to you Tony, I was referring to the current Media narrative.
The negativity is non-stop.
https://www.msn.com/en-gb/news/uknews/five-nationalities-make-up-half-of-all-illegal-migrants-to-the-uk/ar-AA1BZpPH?ocid=msedgntp&pc=W230&cvid=a6c0e33cd95949bbaea0084944435e6e&ei=50