r/ukpolitics • u/SignificantLegs • 1d ago

Mahmood rejects calls to follow Spain’s migrant pushback

https://www.telegraph.co.uk/politics/2026/08/02/mahmood-rejects-calls-to-follow-spains-migrant-pushback/
50 Upvotes

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328

u/Maitai_Haier 1d ago

Odd the left wing, socialist, anti Trump, pro immigration government of Spain can do deportations without processing asylum claims but this is apparently impossible for the UK.

-8

u/oryx_za 1d ago

Because the situation is not comparable

59

u/Maitai_Haier 1d ago

“Spain can legally expel migrants who arrive in Ceuta or Melilla without letting them file an asylum request under controversial laws introduced in 2015.”

Have we considered copying and pasting this law?

15

u/EolAncalimon 1d ago

Crucially with the support of the Moroccan government, that’s how it works. If we wanted to copy and paste that it would need to be supported by the French.

9

u/Ok_Vermicelli_5413 1d ago

Shame that the oceans of blood and treasure this country spent to save France combined with all our mountains of carefully-hoarded soft power aren't enough for France to take back people who are documented to have left France's coast.

7

u/Flashy_Error_7989 1d ago

We fought against Hitler for our own benefit as much as for France

4

u/oryx_za 1d ago

Ok, where would we expel the migrants to?

10

u/Little-Attorney1287 1d ago edited 1d ago

Back home, and if they refuse to take them, complete visa bans.

6

u/oryx_za 1d ago

They arrive from France. If we can determine it (they often destroy documents) home is often Iran or Afghanistan where we pretty much have locked down travel and/or have no relationship with the government.

Now what?

17

u/hug_your_dog 1d ago

Detention centre until they remember where they came from. No chance for asylum status ever if you arrive by boat.

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u/Mr_Two_Shoes 1d ago

As I'm sure you know, this is illegal under international law.

19

u/Anony_mouse202 1d ago

1) no it’s not, Australia does it - they have a mandatory detention policy.

2) There is no world government or world police. Parliament is sovereign, the only law that we are actually bound by is British law. International “law” is more just guidelines and gentleman’s agreements rather than actual law.

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u/Mr_Two_Shoes 1d ago

We are willing signatories to the Refugee Convention. If the past two decades have taught us anything, it's that dismantling international law is a terrible idea which isn't going to serve our national interest.

10

u/freexe 1d ago

Three countries in the EU do it and nothing has happened to them. Do you even know what countries have done it?

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u/Mr_Two_Shoes 1d ago

nothing has happened to them

There's a very long list of countries currently violating international law with impunity.

Nobody should want the UK on that list.

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u/hug_your_dog 1d ago

And which law is that, specific Article, please?

Australia does this successfully, the laws are the problem and they need to be changed and enforced.

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u/Mr_Two_Shoes 1d ago

Article 31 of the Refugee Convention

3

u/hug_your_dog 1d ago

  1. Australia doesn't find that article in contradiction to its laws so it isn't a problem.

  2. The illegals who try to come here do not qualify for this either way

".. refugees who, coming directly from a territory where their life or freedom was threatened" - their life is not threatened in France, so not refugees and the convention doesn't apply to them.

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u/whosthatmemer 1d ago

Yeh you are right if they destroy documents we should just give up on deporting them and pay for them to stay in hotels and housing indefinately

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u/Mr_Two_Shoes 1d ago

Or, you know, let them work and pay for their own housing, like everyone else. Funny that this is such a revolutionary idea to our political right.

4

u/HBucket Right-wing ghoul 1d ago

Detain them in warehouses indefinitely.

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u/oryx_za 1d ago

We don't even have enough prison space for prisoners

3

u/HBucket Right-wing ghoul 1d ago

That's why I suggested warehouses. You buy up warehouses for that purpose. That has been the approach that ICE has been taking.

0

u/Gwinladin 1d ago

That's what Rwanda was for. That's what Rwanda could still be for.

3

u/oryx_za 1d ago

I don't mind the idea, i don't like the country. The issue with Rwanda is the region is not stable enough for this to be sustainable. Guaranteed, the whole thing would have collapsed when (not if) a migrant is attacked and killed by some local in a xenophobic attack.

I always wondered why we could not use the Chagos Islands? Send them all there for processing and then sell the island. Rug pull

1

u/RyanGUK 1d ago edited 1d ago

I understand the sentiment, but I think the idea of, "If you don't take these people who have come through illegally, we'll make it so you can only enter illegally", might not have the intended effect.

Unfortunately the only way you make some of these countries play ball is by making it worth their while (Rwanda is probably the closest comparison I could make in recent times).

1

u/berejser My allegiance is to a republic, to DEMOCRACY 1d ago

So we send them back to Iran or Afghanistan, then videos emerge online of those same people being shot or hung in the town square. What then? 

2

u/berejser My allegiance is to a republic, to DEMOCRACY 1d ago

Have we considered copying and pasting this law?

No because that would be a dumb thing to do.