Refugees

Allocated does not mean it has been given.
That is what the UNHCR figures say, what has been given. They have only been given 40% of what they have been promised so far, which is why they are having problems organising things.
If every country gave what it had promised straight away, UNHCR would be in a better position.

Following on from Lucky girl's song here is a poem I cam across:

"HOME," by Somali poet Warsan Shire:

no one leaves home unless
home is the mouth of a shark
you only run for the border
when you see the whole city running as well

your neighbours running faster than you
breath bloody in their throats
the boy you went to school with
who kissed you dizzy behind the old tin factory
is holding a gun bigger than his body
you only leave home
when home won't let you stay.

no one leaves home unless home chases you
fire under feet
hot blood in your belly
it's not something you ever thought of doing
until the blade burnt threats into
your neck
and even then you carried the anthem under
your breath
only tearing up your passport in an airport toilets
sobbing as each mouthful of paper
made it clear that you wouldn't be going back.

you have to understand,
that no one puts their children in a boat
unless the water is safer than the land
no one burns their palms
under trains
beneath carriages
no one spends days and nights in the stomach of a truck
feeding on newspaper unless the miles travelled
means something more than journey.
no one crawls under fences
no one wants to be beaten
pitied

no one chooses refugee camps
or strip searches where your
body is left aching
or prison,
because prison is safer
than a city of fire
and one prison guard
in the night
is better than a truckload
of men who look like your father
no one could take it
no one could stomach it
no one skin would be tough enough

the
go home blacks
refugees
dirty immigrants
asylum seekers
sucking our country dry
niggers with their hands out
they smell strange
savage
messed up their country and now they want
to mess ours up
how do the words
the dirty looks
roll off your backs
maybe because the blow is softer
than a limb torn off

or the words are more tender
than fourteen men between
your legs
or the insults are easier
to swallow
than rubble
than bone
than your child body
in pieces.
i want to go home,
but home is the mouth of a shark
home is the barrel of the gun
and no one would leave home
unless home chased you to the shore
unless home told you
to quicken your legs
leave your clothes behind
crawl through the desert
wade through the oceans
drown
save
be hunger
beg
forget pride
your survival is more important

no one leaves home until home is a sweaty voice in your ear
saying-
leave,
run away from me now
i dont know what i've become
but i know that anywhere
is safer than here.

by Somali poet, Warsan Shire

Lovely poem G23

OK DJ have it your way. The UK is terrible. It doesn't give aid. It is all allocated and not given. Our country is a disgrace. We all lack humanitarian values (except you and a couple of others). The BBC was giving out false information. Only your opinion is valid, only your version of the truth is the correct one, only your links are accurate, and nobody cares or understands (except you and a couple of others) ...

Anya

"Almost half of Britain’s aid money for the Syria crisis goes to Syria itself - £440m. Lebanon has been allocated £211m and Jordan £177m. According to the department for international development (DfID), from February 2012 to March 2015, British aid has provided 13m food rations to Syrians and supported 224,972 children in formal and informal education."

Not a lot, really, considering that's since 2012.
Less than £1 per person over three years.
I'm sure we've all given more than that as individuals over that time.

I think it was jingle who said we should ask the people who are suffering from cuts in this country to decide whether they want more people coming into the country.

I understand where she's coming from but I don't see it in quite the way she does.

Almost all commentators agree that the cuts here have had a disproportionate and unfair effect on the poor. But the increasing levels of poverty, particularly amongst children, in this country result from policies which deliberately targeted the less well off, whilst lowering the tax burden of the very richest section of the population.

It is my view that the 6th/7th richest country in the world should be able to both implement policies that protect its own population from poverty and also help the refugees, instead of using the (I think avoidable) dire situation of the poor of this country - for whom little governmental concern or compassion has been shown so far - to justify doing nothing to help people from other countries who also desperately need help.

The sight of so many people in Hungary being treated so terribly is, I think, shameful. The Hungarian government seems to me to be totally irrational. On the one hand they have, in effect, indicated that Muslims are not welcome in their Christian country but on the other they are preventing them from travelling to Germany, which has already agreed to accept up to 800,000. Does anyone understand what they're up to? Is it, as jingle suggested, that Hungary is a country on the far right of the political spectrum whose narrow nationalistic/racist attitudes might be thought to be incompatible with the purported values of the EU of openness and co-operation?

These purported values have not, I think, been much in evidence in this crisis. Despite some notable exceptions, most of the countries of the EU have not covered themselves in glory in responding to the desperate plight of the refugees.. The EU itself seems incapable of mobilising any sort of co-ordinated action in this terrible situation. What with the treatment meted out to the people of Greece, I wonder who on earth now has much confidence in what appears to be a very dysfunctional European club - one which, in its eagerness to increase its power, expanded too fast and with almost reckless disregard of the disparate economic situations of potential member countries.

I heard on the news tonight that another round of "Quantitative Easing" has been approved by the EU which presumably signals growing unease about the EU's financial stability. The global financial situation seems to me to be completely out of control.

From Germany: the post from elothan is not quite the true situation.
Hungary would love to send all refugees to Germany, nothing would suit them better. They are really annoyed with Fr Merkel because she has told them they can't do this. It is against the EU law. Refugees are to be registered where they land in the land that they arrive at first.

Germany refuses to take refugees from the Balkan States which is why they have to be sorted in Budapest.

They are in receipt of moneys from the EU which they must use for that purpose. Of course they are out of their depth and the behaviour of the refugees is to be understood. Why should they remain in Hungary when there is chance to get to Germany.
The reality in Germany is quite different than their dreams but they don't know that yet. Life is hard in Germany there are strict rules, the language is not easy to learn, and a powerful work ethic. They will get clean accomodaton but nothing luxurious.
Refugees from the Balkan States will get goods and food packets but no cash, and a return ticket to where they came from.
I know that things change everyday but this is what I got from yesterday's news.

I don't think that is the case. Sorry. I think that awful Hungarian president has an utter dislike of muslims and is tryng to do all he can to keep them out of Europe, and he most certainly doesn't want them in Hungary. He said so himself.

Eloethan I was thinking aloud really. Trying to look at the whole picture, now and in the future. It is a very complicated situation. And it's going to get worse, most likely.

I read your post wrong MargaretX. Sorry. (not got head on round the right way just yet )

So, is that why they tried to take them off the train - to register them first, before letting them travel on? I think I'm totally

This crisis is certainly shown the EU up for what it really is - a disparate group of countries cobbled together with no united aim.

Far from the dream of some of The United States of Europe.

How frightened they must have been when having to leave the train , fearing they were to be put in camps . Seeing them board the train caused my tummy to churn.

Anya, we are not the caring country we want to believe we are, yes many want to help the refugees but many more do not . Cameron is making his decisions based on public opinion , two days ago we were not taking more refugees, the child's body on the beach caused more people to feel troubled and bang Cameron may now allow more in

My understanding is that the Hungarian government are just trying to follow EU rules requiring people to register before travelling on. Seems not unreasonable. We need a record of who's who etc. The people on the train seem to have been completely carried away by mass hysteria. They were told that it wasn't going to Germany.
I hadn't realised that Germany wouldn't take people from Balkan states. That must be why the Kosovans and Albanians are destroying their papers and pretending to be Syrians.

The image of the train packed with refugees, armed soldiers on the platform and the mention of camps made my tummy churn as well.

I find the whole registration issue confusing. The refugees are supposed to be registered in the country they 'land' in. Is that correct?

If so, how come this happens to be Hungary which is a landlocked country in central Europe?

Thank you for that poem G23. You and DJ might be interested to know that the there is a move affot to video the song I posted and get it onto Youtube, from where it can be circulated widely - it has such a clear message.

The EU is being shown up as totally weak and disjointed - it is just this sort of global problem that the strength of the European countries working together was supposed to be able to address.

I am still of the opinion that this is not a problem for Europe alone to tackle, but USA, Australia, Canada, China, Russia (?!) should be getting to grips with it together. There is room in this world for all this displaced people, but there needs to be global goodwill and coordination to make it happen.

I agree Lucky which is why I'm wondering why the UN hasn't taken a lead.

Cameron has said we will now take in thousands of refugees

The title of this discussion is "the refugee crisis how can we help"

Well it seems to me that everyone has got an opinion about the crisis, of course, we all feel strongly about it, but what can we do.

We are fairly helpless really.

I guess we can donate money, clothing etc, but to me it just doesn't seem enough.

We watch and listen to all these horror stories feeling sad and helpless.

Victoria, as individuals all we can do is - do what we can ,it will not seem enough but it's all we have

The Hungarian PM gave a media interview and he said that there was a meeting of all the EU countries and it was agreed that countries had to process refugees/asylum seekers/ immigrants call them whast bayou want. Hungary is therefore abiding by EU rules, or trying to.

Germany chose to unilaterally suspend the Dublin Agreement and that is why there are so many now trying to get to Germany. It is pretty obvious that by saying Germany will take so many people this would be the outcome. Germany is not the UK. It is ridiculous to try and compare the two counries.

There is a valid point in what David Cameron has said. The UK has already taken 5.000 Syrian refugees by liasing with refugee workers in the camps who have taken them in. He has said the UK will continue to take refugees but only by continuing this route and I agree with him.

He makes valid points that I cannot argue with. The route for those being given asylum will have a safe passage. They are genuine refugees from that country.

As I have said before, as there always gets to be a thread about a thread about a thread , if I was fleeing for my life I would not be 'demanding' where I want to go. I would be grateful for finding a safe haven and abiding by the rules and if that meant being processed then that is we hat I would do. I am having great difficulty finding respect for those who have destroyed their passports and papers and are 'demanding' to go to wherever they choose and consider they have a right to demand this happens.

The attitude of Hungary suggests they have rather forgotten their past.

news.bbc.co.uk/1/hi/uk/6069582.stm

Hear hear POGS !

If you had an empty part of your own home, with running water and toilet facilities, would you offer it to a refugee family?
I think some people would, but there would need to be some kind of registration first.
Then could you feed them too? We certainly couldn't afford to feed another family. It could take ages for them to find work, and until then who would support them financially? So-called benefits I suppose.
During WW2 many London children, and some families, were taken in by country people, but I think they were funded from the government.
We, (Mum and I) were evacuated from the NE coast with her sister and my cousins for a year or so, to the country. I've no idea how that was funded though.

ps perhaps my last post would be better placed in the thread about "practical ways to help"?