Smuggling in GA

I wasn’t suggesting ‘pop in when convenient’! But do think that providing a short period (even just a week) could prevent many, many others dealing with epic problems that were not of their making.

Of course, the ‘flight risk’ angle is important – and even if not, I’m sure that trying to get someone forcibly brought back to France from the UK is going to take rather longer than 5 days.

I wonder, if they had plead not-guilty, they would have been released whilst everything was prepared (months presumably)?

I can only speak about the UK system, but I would not normally expect a foreign national who had already shown that he flouts immigration law to be granted bail following a not guilty plea, but every case is heard on its merits.

Interestingly, the “flight risk” determination, which is a very old criterion for pre-trial incarceration, is still defined on a national level. A German suspect that could go from Munich to Berlin might not be a flight risk but if he has family ties in e.g. Prague, he might be determined to be a flight risk. Even though we are very close in the EU with efficient extradition.

If there is a cross-border aspect to your alleged offence or you as a person, you are much more likely to be held in custody.

Is the criminal history of a UK citizen public record? Would be interesting to see, I bet there is something. People who do such things on a scale like this are typically experienced criminals with a longstanding criminal mindset.

They “benefited” from comparution immédiate.
https://fr.wikipedia.org/wiki/Comparution_imm%C3%A9diate
Simon

Average court time for judgement, 31 minutes.

Wow!

Following all these expressions of surprise about how fast guilty pleas can be dealt with, I would recommend to anyone that is interested that they pop down to the local court (crown or magistrates) and see how things are done. It is a public place and you can just go in with no reason or appointment.

If you know someone in the CJS (lawyer,magistrate, usher or whatever) you might even get them to accompany you and explain what’s going on behind the scenes. It’s a very transparent process.

Timothy wrote:

“Pop in when it’s convenient” isn’t usually the way prisons work, except, I believe, in Sweden.

I wouldn’t put it quite like that, but it is true that for (relatively) minor offenses there might be some time between the actual court decision and the commencement of the prison sentence. Not in a murder case, though…

Timothy wrote:

CptSameh wrote:
If they are already in France, – which is Inside the European Union- They can go anywhere in the European union without formality why UK?
There are so many interpretations of your question? Do you mean David and Edward, or the Albanians? If the Albanians, do you mean why would they prefer to be in the UK than France? Or are you asking why there is not an open border between France and the UK?

All these questions are relatively easily answered, but it would be nice to know which question to go for.

Initially I meant for the Albanian, I meat if they are in an EU country they don’t even need a plane they can just use public transport, trains buses etc to legally move to any ountry in the EU, for the Pilots It would not be “Human trafficking” but in that case they Albanians dont need them, for the pilots its understandable what I dont understand is why the Albanians chose the UK? when they can get anywhere in EU!?

UK is outside the Schengen area, so, though EU citizens have a right to enter and have nearly all the rights of a UK citizen, a non-EU citizen does not have free passage.

Interestingly, since the refugee crisis started, a lot of supposedly Schengen countries have put some border controls in place.

Why the UK?

There are a lot of reasons, some true and some imagined by migrants and asylum seekers.

• The language is the lingua franca of the world, and a lot of people already speak it.
• For refugees, the family reunification policy is more liberal here than in most places, meaning that if one member of the family makes it, they can reasonably expect the rest to follow.
• The UK is seen as a strong economy with lots of jobs.
• Educational opportunities are seen to be good.
• The benefits and health systems are seen as generous.
• The people are seen as humane and welcoming.
• Officials (Police and civil servants) are seen as humane and welcoming.
• There are already large immigrant communities here, so people often have friends and relatives to link up with.

Those are the reasons given by most of the refugees who pass through our portals. I won’t give my opinion as to which are and aren’t true, but people being passed down the chain have no real way to check facts.

I’d be very surprised if Peter wants a long debate on here about the rights and wrongs of migration. It is a huge topic that occupies a good deal of my waking life, and it can get very nasty very quickly (which is why I am trying to make neutral statements about it).

My suggestion would be to leave it there.

CptSameh – a key thing here is that Albania is not in the EU, so Albanians cannot just simply come to the UK. Of former Yugoslavia, only Slovenia and Croatia are in the EU. In any case, just getting to the UK is one thing (and you could do it in a boat at night), being able to stay here long-term is another and AIUI that is what a lot of money is being paid for (fake but probably good enough documents, etc).

Timothy – we have this thread which can be used for this. The usual other rules apply e.g. no personal attacks, no virtue signalling and other offensive stuff… most adults can tell when they are going to p1ss people off so they can easily choose to not do that. As an immigrant myself I have no particular issues with discussing it.