Refugees

Eloethan, it has been said his family drown too, his little brother.

Maybe this monstrous happening will finally stop the politicians just talking and actually do something. Especially our own dear Cameron, who I think should be pretty ashamed of himself now.

I think refugees from Syria should be given priority. Somehow, in my mind, the Syrian war links to Tony Blair and George Bush. They/we stirred it all up out there in the first place.

Jingle, think of them as immigrants not people , that wasn't a child's body washed up on a beach it was an immigrant's body , he could have come to this country and taken up a desk in a school or a bed in a hospital , he would have affected our standard of living and his death means one less in the swarm .

Germany has chosen to temporarily suspend the Dublin Agreement. Therefore Germany will have to accept that it will be the country to aim for. It has made a stance that has opened it's door open and must accept what follows .

There has just been a press conference with Martin Schulz and the Hungarian Prime Minister. I think it shows publicly the divisions that are within the European Union. Could this problem be the downfall of the European Union?. I think the schengen agreement might be the first to show discord.

I have my own views concerning what I see with regard to asylum/immigration I am asking if I am alone in my concern that this problem will prove too divisive for Europe.

It is heartrending to see these poor people trying to flee misery, and taking such risks. I have no idea what the answer is, but it is certainly not DC's idea - he is right that the problems in Syria need to be dealt with in some way - but that is a long term and possibly fruitless project. Is he happy to see all these people suffering and dying while he goes off on a wild goose chase?

He should be sitting down with all the leaders of the civilised world, both Europe and N America and working out what should be done immediately. After the 2nd WW provision was made for refugees worldwide and that is what needs to happen again.

The UK cannot twiddle its thumbs talking of high-minded projects to change Syria, while children are drowning and suffocating to death.

I am not blind to the problems caused by large influxes of immigrants to an area, and this needs to be dealt with by a proper sharing of the "burden."

Seem to be groups springing up to help the refugees. This is Amazon wish list for one of them-also local drop off points for donations.
www.amazon.co.uk/gp/aw/ls/ref=aw_wl_sr_res?ie=UTF8&lid=1P2RJO27Q6N2T

Is this really just an EU problem, or is it just the direction our media are taking it in? Are the refugees fleeing in other directions? How many countries outside the EU are helping?

We seem to get a very lopsided braised view of things.

Indeed - it is a world problem. America cannot sit on the sidelines and do nothing. The only reason the refugees are flooding into Europe is because it is just over the water. That does not mean that Europe alone has responsibility for these poor people.

It seems to me that the USA are keeping very quiet about this awful situation. Shouldn't they be offering sanctuary to at least some of the Syrian asylum seekers? I do think economic migrants are a different case but my heart bleeds for the poor Syrian families (and the Afghans affected by the Taliban too).

We took in Ugandan Asians and Vietnamese boat people and it feels right to me that we should be offering to take some of these suffering families now.

Apparently the two little boys who drowned, along with their mother, were heading for Canada from Syria but could not go by any other route as they didn't have the correct papers.

home.bt.com/news/world-news/migrant-boys-found-dead-on-turkish-beach-were-trying-to-get-to-canada-11364001620275

America doesn't help refugees,they cause people to become refugees .

We need someone powerful, sensible and non-biased to set up properly serviced refugee camps in northern Africa. These could be financed to some extent by the EU. I read today that the UK has contributed more financially to help Syrian refugees (in Syria) than any other EU country, so altho DC says we will take no migrants, we are at least trying to help them in other ways.

Interesting that it takes a woman (Ms Cooper) to come up with a sensible plan to help refugee families in the short term. I like her idea of each council taking charge of ten families. The WI could be drafted in to organise things as they did in WW2.

And local churches could demonstrate Christianity in action.

Why Christian churches , what about very wealthy landowners who own most of the land in this country

Oh, dear, perhaps YC's suggestion would prove too contentious!

Actually, Anniebach, I think the CofE is a pretty big landowner, too.

Last time I saw it reported there were 635,000 empty properties in England and 80,000 were in London. Many being left to gather financial value as investments.

Yes , but it's good to be inclusive isn't it NotToOld and not choose one section of out society . Centre point was set up by the Rev.Kenneth Leach, The Salvation Army has always been there for the home sleds and vulnerable . The Samaritans was started by Rev Chad Varah. St Martins in the Fields has run a refuge for the homeless since before WW2 . Many churches support the homeless and vulnerable , so a bit more sharing would be rather good wouldn't it

I don't think Hungary, with it's present ultra right wing government, should be in the EU. They don't think like the rest of us do. To them, cruel fences and militaristic control seems to be acceptable. But I guess we don't want to create a them and us divide.

Jingle, we too have put up fences

Anniebach - sharing is definitely good. I would imagine that if councils were given ten families to accommodate they would look at what local facilities are available whatever they may be, local landowners, churches or ordinary householders with room to spare.

Most churches (and other religious organisations) do support refugees in this country and abroad in a number of ways up to and including providing emergency accommodation and defending people threatened with deportation. The idea that refugees could just be 'allocated' to particular areas sounds very sensible but the people who are dispersed in this way may want to live somewhere else, with a larger group of people from their own country. That's what's always happened in the past. Perhaps local authorities etc could sponsor a given number of families, wherever they are housed?

As if things aren't confusing enough, I read today that Albanians and Kosovans are destroying their own papers and pretending to be Syrians so they can claim asylum. What a shambles. Its hard to see how a clear organised way can be found: at this rate the numbers will multiply unimaginably.

I know that anniebach but the migrants in Budapest don't want to stay there - they want to get to their transport to move on. It's posturing.

Jingle it's a nightmare for some of us and a living hell for those poor people