The Spectator magazine combines incisive political analysis with books and arts reviews of unrivaled authority. Absolutely free. Go to spectator.com.uk forward slash voucher.

Hello and welcome to Spectator Outloud. Every week, a few of our favourite writers read out their

articles from the latest issue. This week we'll be hearing from Charlotte

Eager, who is a producer of the Trojan Women Project who works with Syrian refugees, about

why refugees need to be given more jobs. Then we'll be joined by Lionel Shriver, who asked

whether or not she's alone in not wanting to download the COVID app. And finally, Tom O, in defence of B-days.

First, it's Charlotte Eager.

The Alpha Migrants by Charlotte Eager.

We're all slowly becoming aware that there's a new migrant crisis.

Last week, John Donelson of the BBC, cruising the English Channel looking for asylum seekers heading to the UK, found four young men paddling by hand their tiny rubber dinghy.

They'd come from Sudan via France, and for the last leg of their journey, they'd dodge the oil tankers and the container ships,

ploughing the world's busiest shipping lane, only one of the young men even wore a life jacket.

They'd come from Sudan via France, and for the last leg of their journey, they'd dodge the oil tankers and container ships ploughing the world's busiest shipping

lane. Only one of the young men even wore a life jacket. These were the latest of more than

9,000 people who have risked their lives to arrive by sea this year. The other story of the

summer is the shortage of labour. Desperate farmers are being forced to leave vegetables rotting in the fields for want of pickers and packers.

Haulage companies report a shortage of lorry drivers.

Restaurants just reopened post-COVID are closing again for lack of staff.

So why can't we put two and two together?

If we urgently need pickers and sa sorters, waiters and chefs,

if agriculture and hospitality depend on labour they can't now find,

why not let asylum seekers do those jobs?

...