Refugees

I do wonder what Assad's British born and educated wife thinks of all this bloodshed.
Does she think it is justified or is she terrified into submission?

The refugees we are suppose to be giving shelter to will only be allowed to stay five years, so an orphan if age ten when arriving here is out again age fifteen. What of children born to the families in those five years? I do wish Cameron would put brain in gear before opening his mouth

I think some of the refugees will be professional people such as doctors; it would be a pity to waste their skills by offering them work picking fruit and vegetables when we may welcome their skills elsewhere.

Re housing shortage, wasn't one council (was it Stoke-on-Trent?) offering rundown houses for £1 provided people do them up and live in themselves, not rent them out? Sounds like a good idea and improves run down areas

From Germany: the problem is that your journalists just don't understand enough German, especially spoken figures.

Germany has already taken 28,000 and another 30,000 OVER the next few years will bring the sum up to half a million. I think a million will be the end sum that is one refugee to 80 Germans.

I live in a wealthy town similar to Cheltenham and there are plans for our federal state of Baden Wurttenberg to build a centre for 1000 refugees or victims of catastrophies and it will be finished in 2017 and will have jobs for 15 in the medical centre etc.
Refugees are housed in group accomodation and never in private homes until they have been approved and accepted
This shows that Fr Merkel has grasped the chance for more higly qualified workers and of course their children.

Sorry, misread the time.

Wrong thread, Petra ?

CelticRose. Your post 08.43. Couldn't agree more. Makes me angry beyond words. And as far as I'm concerned they got everything they deserved.

Also liked they way that Camaron did it. None of this lets talk about it, have a vote, and then the tree huggers turn it down. Meanwhile the evil b.........s are still walking around. Well now we have 2 less.

Is Monaco taking any refugees? It looks lovely from the pics I have seen. I think I might apply for asylum.

British ISIS killed in drone strike. Surely British and ISIS is a contradiction in terms.

Has anyone else noticed the awful piles of rubbish jettisoned alongside the refugee trail.

Quite agree with all posts - we need to look after our own. Whilst I cannot remember the actual verse in KJ Bible - if we cannot look after animals or the elderly, we are not fit... . Or something like that. I will try and research although I suspect a more educated Gnetter than I will know the full verse.

What did spring to my mind also. We were sending orphans from this country to Australia even until the late 1960s.

As for people in Cambridge signing petition to personally home refugees of Syria. What about the African refugees of the Congo, Ivory Coast, Sierra Leone, Sudan, Liberia, et al, over the last 30 years where major human rights violations occur hourly. Why are they only offering homes to Syrians?

If anything, the current news on Syrian refugees has now highlighted just how many other ethnic refugees are settled in this country and how we are supporting them in their enclaves. Education, health, housing, bennies, clothing, food, and their right to live in their own cultures. You will notice that I have not said employment .... ! Although I am sure that if any were to seek employment then they would find it. Especially in the Fens or East Anglia where pickers are needed during crop season. But I am not fully versed with that area either.

Basher al Assad is Alawite Ba'athist, the ruling elite. His father in law lives in London. One less refugee to worry about anyway.

www.stratfor.com/weekly/20110504-making-sense-syrian-crisis

Interesting link for anyone interested

Re the empty council houses. They're usually empty for a reason. Before they can be re-let there's usually a lot of work to be done to bring them up to a fixed standard which is getting higher all the time. New kitchens/bathrooms/doors, decorated throughout, etc. Budgets have to be found for this and it all takes time. Only in the private sector can houses change hands without a complete overhaul! And it wouldn't be fair to put refugees into these when waiting lists are so long.

Many local councils are saying they're more than happy to take several families, but don't have the funds. Would it be an idea to have a voluntary local 'tax' point where people could open a standing order to commit to paying the extra needed to care for this influx? It's easy to give clothes or toys we don't need or a few nappies or cans but we're looking at a long term commitment here. It's going to take years to sort out, not a few months and the country is only now hauling itself out of recession.

Mr O, whatever our opinion of him is, is right I think in taking money out of our overseas aid budget and I think it's giving him an opportunity to prune some of the countries which no longer need it.

(I think I heard that it costs around £100 a day for Kent to care for a refugee child - they have the largest number of those coming over alone - and Mr C wants to concentrate on the children)

These council houses that are standing empty should be given to our own people, in my opinion charity begins at home!!!

I am waiting for that answer too POGS.
I think I am right in saying that Germany are going to turn away immigrants that dont meet their criteria. I have no idea how that is going to work in practice.

I am surprised nobody has replied to my post concerning my confusion re Germany to be honest.

Those who have said Germany will take in 800.000 refugees must be wondering why Merkel has declared Germany will take 31.000 over the next two years.

What an extreme in figures, can anybody enlighten me?

More homeless or more refugees?
A Labour government would not have brought in the bedroom tax which has made more homeless.

I wonder if we could kindly request those economic migrants who have settled in the UK from Eastern European countries who are reluctant to take refugees to return to their home countries to enable the UK to provide the humanitarian aid needed by Syrian refugees?

Ethel. Look on the bright side: it could have been more with a different government.

I don't doubt that there are homeless everywhere, that makes it hard to understand why they are bringing in more refugees.

It's not all coffee & cake in the southeast. We have had homeless people camping on the beach this summer. Our council turned a blind eye to it as it didn't get out of hand. Lots of us took food and drink to them.

On this morning's news it was announced that Tony Abbott, Australia's PM, is considering allowing more Syrian refugees into Australia. He and his cabinet also agreed yesterday to step up air strikes against IS. I have doubts about the value of the second of these steps as that hideous phrase"collateral damage" springs instantly to mind.

John Key, New Zealand's PM, is always desperate to jump on the bandwagon and be seen to "punch above New Zealand's weight" – an expression he has used on occasion. It wouldn't surprise me if he also wants to step up air strikes. The Greens are bringing a motion in Parliament today to increase NZ's refugee quota – from 750 to 1,000. It has remained static at 750 for many years, although John Key has "reassured" those concerned about the dire situation of Syrian refugees that the figure will be reviewed in 2016. The Greens' motion will not be passed today.

durhamjen you've said it !!! 'they are so cash strapped by this government '.

If our local councils are so cash strapped how on earth are they going to fork out the thousands it must cost per refugee family. It will come from the tax payer as usual or by cutting again the benefits.

That was mentioned on a different thread, ethel, I think over 600,000 empty homes.

There is one authority that is selling houses for £1000 providing whoever buys it gets a mortgage for 20,000 and does it up, and lives in it for five years before selling it.
I recall when we had a guest house in York, someone coming to stay who was going to buy a whole estate for £1 a house on Teesside, then renting them out, after repairing them. I do not agree with that.
Councils should be able to do that now, but they are so cash strapped by this government that they cannot spend money on council housing and have to palm it out to housing associations.
I wonder what happened to that couple in Kent who owned thousands of houses to rent. Their whole portfolio was on the market not too long ago, as they were getting too much flak.