Why Don't They Come To Europe By Plane?

[Hypognosis]

One of the survivors of the Lampedusa boat sinking tragedy told a TV reporter that he'd paid $5000 for his boat trip.

Surely, this is a ludicrous claim as the air fare from Libya* can't be that steep?

Or am I missing something ultra-obvious here?

What are your thoughts?

What else can we do to stop the poor blighters from drowning by the hundreds? Send physics teachers to African ports, to run demonstrations of what happens to a boat when all the passengers run to the same side at once, perhaps?

(*) or other North African country if the Libyan airline went down the tubes amid the chaos.

[Gromit]

In a previous job we invited a speaker for an International Conference we had organised, who lived in the Philippines. She was a highly regarded professional woman with a top job at a University. Her Visa application was rejected by UK immigration. We appealed and that was rejected (no reason given). Her application and appeal cost about £200 if my memory serves me. Another speaker at our Conference was a Government Minister and MP. It was only when he got involved that she was allowed to come. We had to submit the conference programme, biogs of everyone else speaking and accounts and bank statements, along with a receipt for her accommodation. In short the whole exercise was ludicrous. God knows what impression that made of the UK.

[Hypognosis]

@Gromit,

I have a sudden and unaccountable desire to see figures on the ethnic mix of the Home Office. I'll look these up online, later.

You'd think that, in a city as big as London, there would be at least 2 or 3 Phillipino members of staff there by now but it's the number in decision-making positions that counts.

Precautionary note: the ethnic mix of the capital is nothing like the ethnic mix of the rest of the country.

[Hypognosis]

"Home Office Boosts Employee Diversity" (a report from ~2004)

http://www.cipd.co.uk/pm/peoplemanagement/b/weblog/archive/2013/01/29/homeofficeboosts-2004-05.aspx

Note the disparity between the overall percentage of minorities in the organisation versus the percentage at senior management level.

A surprising amount of employee 'churn' though: -

//A second publication - the 2002-2003 Employment Monitoring Report - showed little variation in retention rates between white workers (14 per cent left in the course of the year) and ethnic-minority employees (13 per cent left).//