Options for dealing with legal and illegal migrants

I AM on the whole in agreement with Chris Cope (Letters, May 15, ‘Unrestricted access to the UK has to be halted’) regarding the UK’s immigration situation. I agree that those arriving illegally should be immediately arrested and promptly dealt with.

- 

The question, of course, is how to deal with them. Should they be sent back to the country from which they came, or to the country of their nationality?

Mr Cope wants to use the military and MI5, but to what end? Is the Navy going to be dropping off the boat arrivals back on French beaches? Is the Air Force going to be flying Iranians back to Iran? I can't see this working.

We certainly don’t want to be incarcerating them in UK prisons. We already have enough difficulty finding space for our own criminals, let alone undocumented immigrants. However, on no account should such people be admitted into the UK and given accommodation and benefits.

People who are genuinely seeking asylum should be required to apply for it in the first safe country they arrive in, which is unlikely to be the UK. If they want to move to the UK because they already have family members here, they should make a proper application for the appropriate visa through the UK embassy in the country in which they are in.

Obviously this process has to be reformed, and sufficient staff assigned to it, so it takes place within a reasonable time period and people are not left in limbo for years. As with illegal immigrants, such people should not be allowed to enter the UK and be given accommodation and benefits while their applications are being processed.