Nick. imo, we remain a soft touch. Give them all the comforts (human rights and all that), slow immigration process.... the longer it goes on, the less they are likely to be deported.....besides, where could one deport them to?!
As for Italy.. despite having all those patrol boats, still they get the bulk of immigration boats (literally) hitting their shores. Human rights kick in again and have all those camps set up. Think of all the resources deployed to rescue such irresponsible 'trafficking'. I say 'trafficking' because there are guys making a fortune from these 'refugees', providing overloaded, unsafe passages to pastures new.
Again one has to question the authorities that allowed them to make in to the water in the 1st place.
Don't get me wrong, I understand they all want to leave their homeland, whether for better life, fear or just joining the bandwagon of mass immigration...... apart from the war torn regions, their home countries don't give a hoot. Therein lies another sore topic for me. Corruption and imbalance of wealth distribution.
Any way, back to football as this debate will just wind me up! Leave this to the politicians to sort out.