//Danny posted this elsewhere, but the "first safe country" law isn't a thing.//
Unfortunately, as I commented when that link was posted last week, “Full Fact” provides neither the full nor the correct facts. I largely lost interest in their first response to a claim when they started prattling on about the Geneva Convention. Quite what that has to do with the price of fish is anybody’s guess. What, in fact, governs these matters are firstly the United Nations Convention relating to the Status of Refugees and secondly the EU’s own (rather superfluous) Dublin Agreement. Both these state that refugees should seek asylum in the first safe country they arrive in. Of course many lawyers have sought to distort that basic (and fairly sensible) principle and it now means we have tens of thousands of people roaming all over Europe, unchallenged at unpoliced borders, until they arrive at their destination of choice. It’s quite obvious that claims for asylum for people fleeing danger should be made as soon as reasonably possible. It’s also quite obvious that any nation should have the right to turn away anybody arriving on its shores (whether in a rubber boat or on a scheduled flight). Until those principles are accepted and enforced, nothing will change.