“Secure reception facilities aren't cruelty, they're basic border control” became the floor’s defining line, and Yes won 530 votes to 97. The scale was striking, but so was the confidence behind it: the winning side treated secure holding as the obvious first act of border control, not an exceptional measure.
The argument the floor rated highest said identity, location and background should be established before arrivals disperse into towns, warning that this “puts huge pressure on councils”. Other Yes voices made the case more bluntly: “Virtually every other first world country does it”, while others demanded swift deportation, a safe-third-country arrangement or an end to any prospect of leave to remain.
No voters did not mainly dispute the desire for orderly processing; they disputed what the machinery would do to people inside it. The most-respected No case said facilities would have to be “decent and fair”, with food, hygiene and access to solicitors, while another warned that “spending billions on creating essentially prisons would be even worse”; replies added that locked centres might slow paperwork and make legal access harder.
The debate therefore sat inside the wider argument over border control and asylum, but the Yes side also split between conditional containment and something more punitive. One of its strongest formulations declared that “The village is not a waiting room”, while other contributions reached for offshore sites, farms, blanket deportation and a Dublin-style return system; a smaller strand allowed release for work once identity was established.
The verdict was a demand to make confinement the default grammar of asylum processing, with faith in speed and safeguards left largely to what would happen behind the locked door.
24 Opinions
We see in the Times today that only 1% have genuine cases, close to what most sensible people suspected all along. These people need to be contained and then the 99% who are clearly chancers need to be sent home or to a third country. We don’t just need to deal with gangs, we need to deal with NGOs and others who have turned this into an industry at our expense
We are biometrically scanned when we arrive/ leave , information stored on us. Economic migrants arriving should be scanned , records checked, age verified ,. At the moment we seem to be discovering sexual predators only after they’ve committed crimes . They have no right to supported lifestyles while being processed and this may deter them arriving.
Virtually every other first world country does it. Why the hell don't we?
Yes, initially they should. Realistically, we should know who is crossing its borders and where they are. Letting thousands of unvetted arrivals disperse into local towns puts huge pressure on councils and allows failed claimants to vanish into the shadow economy. Secure reception facilities aren't cruelty, they're basic border control.
They are illegal, not irregular!! Should never be given leave to stay. As soon as possible send them home.
All asylum seekers: held until vetted, claim processed and exams on living in modern society are past (cultural orientation, basic English and laws), failing each step means deportation . "Irregular arrivals" really means criminals breaking our border laws - they should be held until deported.
How about we don't play with words. They are not 'irregular' arrivals. They are unlawful invaders. They are breaking our border laws. Like any other lawbreaker, they should be punished. Like anyone else who will not produce valid ID, they should be held until identity is proven. Having been found guilty of unlawful border crossing, they should be deported. This lawbreaking must stop. The nation must prioritise and protect its citizens, not the invaders.
Yes, and I'd go further. A blanket ban on any irregular arrivals ever being given leave to remain. It is the only way it will stop. All the while there is hope that entering this way will provide a route to staying in the UK, it will continue. Remove the incentive.
Anyone fleeing from France can safely be returned without any asylum application being considered. France is a safe country.
Plenty of room on decommissioned oil rigs. Just tow them into the middle of the North Sea and helicopter in supplies every few weeks.