Refugees

As I'm scrolling through this thread an intrusive advert is flashing on top of the screen offering free visas with 'indefinite leave to stay'. Has GN sold this space to some dodgy trafficking company?

Can you provide a link for that statement about UK donations to UNHCR DJ because my research says you are wrong.

i think a lot of people are wondering Petra

DJ I thought that was your forte- 'sitting at home and complaining on your computer'

The UN. Couldn't organise a piss up in a brewery springs to mind.

Easy enough for us to say, sitting at home and complaining on our computers.
UNHCR is in charge of coordinating the actions of every other charity and aid group. It also relies on donations from all the countries involved. It asked for 4.5 billion this year and has had less than 2.2 so far.
The UK has given less than Denmark, a country with one tenth the population.

Yes, Liverpool might be able to take more than 100, but at least it has offered. One of the statements by Carswell was about the bidding wars. The interviewer asked him if he'd heard correctly. We do not want bidding wars; we want action.

UNHCR have been working in Greece and Italy since this crisis started.
I do not understand the criticism

Really DJ then let me spell it out.

There has been sufficient time for the various UN 'commissions' to get their act together and make a difference. What we are seeing is a shambles. More than a shambles, at total lack of an effrctive response. They've been caught with their trousers down, again.

There needs to be an effective and co-ordinated international response

Nothing I have seen so far suggests efficiency, or co-ordination. On the contrary they seem to be trying to mop up at best and totally disorganised.
Whatever it is you think they are doing, it obviously is not enough.

United Nations is seeming more and more like an oxymoron.

Remember Kofi Annan.

UN is a disgrace they fill their boots with money

UNHCR have been working in Greece and Italy since this crisis started.
I do not understand the criticism.

Liverpool is too large to take only 100 refugees.
Judging whether refugees can be looked after needs people who can fill in the forms. Liverpool is the home of some foreign consulates. In Germany administration staff who are retired have been asked to come in. Anybody who can stamp a document for it to be official.
Once in posession of a document then some can join their families and won't need looking after by strangers.

Yes, I'm getting a bit sick of the various UN organisations, which were set up to deal with crises, probably paying a fortune to the top brass, who can't get their act together.

Look at how slow the WHO was to act over ebola. It was charities like Save the Children and MSF who led the way.

It is totally disgraceful and reprehensible that the UN hasn't an action plan ready to swing into action

I agree that that is a good idea Anya. They are the ones more likely to be left to the back of the queue as the young, fit men seem to be pushing their way through.

A grim picture indeed. As someone said-the UN has been set up to deal with such catastrophes-its therefore part of their remit to get the world together to form a workable plan I would have thought.

Margaret I too wish they would separate families from the young and single. This situation is overwhelming everyone and some people need to be prioritised. Let us, for pity's sake start with families with young children, and old folks.

I saw that picture Nsfk - it was publicised.

It is indeed a pity that it took a picture of a drowned child to make people want to help. Someone on TV this morning said that there have been many children drowned during the present crisis, it just so happens that someone was there with a camera.

Liverpool has said it will take 100 refugees.

I am not impressed that it took a drowned boy to turn the tide to wanting to help after all. Somehow a government must behave and do the right thing without some sort of tear jerker to start them off.

I wish the Hungarian police etc would seperate the families from the young and healthy, but I suspect that the families think they might get left behind.

Somewhere on this thread someone quoted me as saying there were already 10,000 refugees. It is not true, I took the words out of Yvette Cooper's mouth. She mentioned 10,000 as a sum that the Uk could perhaps take.

Maybe everyone should read this as its horrific and explains why wives and children are left behind

www.theguardian.com/world/ng-interactive/2015/jun/09/a-migrants-journey-from-syria-to-sweden-interactive

I do wonder why there is this sudden exodus though, and think it has as much to do with greedy people jumping on the bandwagon and becoming people smugglers - taking advantage of these desperate people.
The small charity I support has been working for refugees in camps in Turkey and elsewhere for over three years.

Don't forget - there are still refugees in desperate need in camps - not all are on the move.
love-in-the-language-of-yarn.blogspot.co.uk/
This small charity knows where help is needed and can get it to those in the camps where the need is greatest. Unfortunately, the lady who runs it is not well herself and so unable to receive parcels, but money to be spent on essentials such as baby milk, bottles, nappies, sanitary towels, flour for bread ovens etc is always desperately needed.

www.rescue.org/blog/us-commitment-accept-8000-syrian-refugees-not-enough-says-irc

IRC president is David Miliband. It was easy to find out that the US is trying to do something to help.

My FB is alive with groups collecting all manner of equipment and clothing to be transported south. The ball is rolling at a phenomenal rate - could this be the start of grass roots action which could spur the government on? That poor little boy, not much older than my dgs, may have triggered a ground swell of public opinion which cannot be ignored, rather like the photo of the little girl with the napalm burns running down the road in Vietnam. In the name of whomever/whatever people hold sacred, something must be done.

Agree, those we take should be families. But what about the blokes coming ahead to find somewhere for the rest of the family, or the ones catching up with a young family who've gone first? It's a mess. There's just too many to process quickly enough and they're all so impatient to move on - probably because they know it's more difficult to be sent back once in the country of their dreams.

(There was another picture several days ago on FB of an older child's body - probably about 7or 8. I wondered why the media didn't pick up on that. He wasn't known. Completely alone - which I found heartbreaking. But I suppose there wasn't a 'story' attached to an anonymous boy. Cynical? Moi?)

I haven't read through all of the postings, so this may have been mentioned before. If it has, apologies.
38 degrees has launched a petition, asking people to contact their MPs to lobby David Cameron to reconsider his position.
So, if you want to support this, there's one possible outlet.

re Luckygirl's idea: I would think they would want a place of their own rather than being taken in by a British family. Even if very small. So many cultural and religious differences and needs.
Though maybe any children on their own would be better off in a family. on the news this am they said a few hundred refugee children are now in the care of LAs , mostly in SE UK.

I have been close to tears all day after seeing the picture of the dead 3 yr old on the beach. He was the same age as my grandson. If the gov is worried about economic migrants how about Britain taking in families only.