Refugees

"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.

Anya

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) ...

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

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.

Fact Sheet UK humanitarian aid in response to the Syria Crisis

Thank you DJ Figures up to 2012 show that the UK gave more than Denmark. Since then it has given over £900 million directly to the area in response to the Syrian Crisis. I think you will agree this is a considerable amount.

www.unhcr.org/cgi-bin/texis/vtx/home/opendocPDFViewer.html?docid=558a639f9&query=funding%20by%20Denmark

That's how much each country had given by the date, June, I think it was.

DJ please can you give me the link that backs up your post re the UK's v Denmark's contribution. I am even more confused having seen the report on the BBC news which stated that the UK aid to Syrian refugee camps is more than any other country.

Answer came there none...

DJ have you managed to find that link I asked for?

I don't think we should feel ashamed, and I think the whole situation is becoming out of control and needs a united, considered approach, not a knee-jerk approach - as a matter of urgency.

What are all these 'united' bodies for if they can't unite in a crisis?

As long as the traffickers are profiting it will escalate.

That needed to be said, rosequartz. There's no reason for the whole of the UK to be wearing sackcloth and ashes and feeling 'ashamed' about the country's perceived lack of contribution to the refugee crisis.

now we ALL need to consider what can be done for today's refugees.

both Britain and the US have certainly done a lot in the past for refugees.

Rosequartz, excellent post, far from contributing nothing, we are the biggest donor country!

As others have said many of these refugees are fleeing from countries where they are unable to get passports and/or exit visas. They cannot board a plane without the correct documentation so come anyway they can.

Many years ago I lived through a revolution with my husband and children albeit a fairly peaceful one compared to what is happening in Syria and Iraq. For several months we were unable to leave for various reasons but were desperate to get our children out of that situation. If we had been facing the lawlessness and bombing occurring today in many countries we might have considered unorthodox methods to escape. When myself and the children were able to return to England we were refugees of a sort having left everything behind, though luckily not in the dire straits of those we see on our screens today. And when my husband was finally able to join us he had no difficulty gaining admission. Now I know how lucky we were even though apart from a few short visits many years later we never went back.

I have counted my blessings many times since then and when I see the harrowing footage of today's refugees my heart aches for them. In most cases their desperation and anguish is all too visible and I can only thank my God that our situation was so much easier. I pray that the world's leaders will find a fair solution.

Gave me goosebumps, Luckygirl.
Any way to get the music?

Last month I was involved in a huge community choirs concert in Hereford Cathedral. We commissioned a new work, which was on the theme of Polish integration into Britain after the war. This is the final song from it - as I write it I can hear the music, but maybe it will appeal to others without that. The composer's message is clear.

There is a world outside our door
A whole wide world we can't ignore
A world that is weary -
weary of travelling through thick and thin

And in this world beyond our view
People like me and people like you
Are endlessly searching
Searching for somewhere
They've never been.

What of this world we've bought and sold.
It never was ours to withhold
For we are but keeping,
Keeping the flame,
The fire within.

We've got to share this road we're on;
Give all we've got before it's gone.
When your neighbour comes knocking,
Open the door and let them in.

For people will come and people will go
The waters of life will ebb and they'll flow
So don't turn your back and pretend you don't know
What's going on.
It isn't by chance, it isn't by fate.
They're running from something they didn't create
We're all that they've got
So don't close the gate
And wish them gone.

One thing I know...
people will come, people will go.

Emma Thompson, on Newsnight last night, made the point that the crisis we have now is as nothing to what could happen if global warming continues to ravage sub-Saharan Africa. If the fertility of these lands withers away with rising temperatures, people will have no option but to migrate north, probably risking everything to do so. And Europe will throw up the barricades as never before. Fortress Europe is a frightening thought.

absentgrandma - Your xenophobia against the French is appalling. Shame on you…!!

The UK has now committed £800 million to help those affected by the conflict. This is the UK’s largest ever response to a humanitarian crisis. This funding is providing support including food, medical care and relief items for over a million people including those affected by the fighting in Syria, as well as to refugees in Lebanon, Jordan, Turkey and Iraq
and this was last year:
Britain's £600 million makes it the second largest national donor to date after the United States, which has contributed just over £1 billion. It is by far the biggest donor in the EU, having pledged almost three times that of Germany, the second-largest donor, which has donated £204 million to date

Britain has a history of helping genuine refugees over many years:
50,000 Hugeunots
120,000 Jews fleeing Eastern Europe
Refugees from Turkey and Armenia
Thousands of Basque children fleeing Spain in the Civil War
80,00 Jews fleeing from Germany
Polish refugees
Latvian refugees
Hungarian refugees (one of them my friend)
30,00 Ugandan Asians
Vietnamese refugees
Bosnian refugees
Albanian refugees
Kosovan refugees
etc

Do we need a lecture from Germany on humanitarianism?

The UK has granted more immigrants citizenship than Germany has to its 'guest workers'.
Germany has a declining birth rate and its population had fallen over about 15 years.
The population of the UK has gone up by about 5 million during the same period.

I think Yvette Cooper's idea of accepting genuine refugees to the UK and helping them integrate is a good one - although they may of course be happier closer to people who have experienced the same horrors as them, not being separated.

The huge problem is the numbers which increase day by day - and of finding out who are genuine refugees and who are not.

The article pkheaduk linked to is well worth reading. Makes you realise that many of comparatively young and fit men are not only out for themselves.

It's offering me 'better knees in 6 weeks?'. Yes please.

No, Jane, that will be the google "relevant ads" thing that automatically puts up ads linked to words on the page. It is a damn nuisance, but in theory you can opt out of it. I forget how, but there has been a thread on it previously.

At the moment it is exhorting me to buy tickets for the Edinburgh Cycle Fest. no idea where it got the idea that i would want to go to that.