Worrying situation

Sorry, I was wrong, according to the Farrow and Ball website classic colours such as black and red are very smart for front doors - try Pitch Black and Incarnadine for a classic, stylish look

Perhaps you ought to read the red cross link, jalima.

"First of all, here are some things an asylum seeker can’t get…

Income support.

Housing benefit.

A council house.

That’s because asylum seekers don’t receive mainstream welfare benefits – the kind of safety net given to UK nationals, when we fall on hard times."

Your family cannot be pushed further down the waiting list for a house because of asylum seekers. These houses are not council houses or housing association houses.

So why can't people on housing waiting lists have them too? Its not surprising that there is resentment in some communities.

Because they are not council houses, Jane.
Ask the government why it has not asked these private landlords to give those wanting council houses one of these houses to live in.
Have you actually seen the houses they live in? Not palaces, you know. They are not up to council or housing association standards.

www.politics.co.uk/blogs/2016/01/26/racist-thugs-take-a-lesson-from-the-home-office-s-hostility

I'm not convinced that the point about asylum seekers not putting pressure on council/housing association waiting lists is entirely fair. Once asylum is granted, the families become priority and progress up the waiting list quickly. This is clear from the growing African population on a nearby council housing estate. I know the area well and traditionally, the council has housed family members close to each other. It's an area of high deprivation where extended families have offered support to help elderly/young relatives cope. The pressure on housing stock must be increasing given the new arrivals and the fact that many former council houses were sold and are now in the hands of private landlords who don't have the commitment to the community that our former social landlord, the council, did.

I read it
Clear as mud

And I am a Red Cross supporter.

Well, when I say clear as mud it threw up as many questions as it (apparently) answered.
And didn't answer the ones I asked

www.refugeecouncil.org.uk/policy_research/the_truth_about_asylum/facts_about_asylum_-_page_1

Perhaps the Refugee Council will tell you the facts more clearly then.
Perhaps it's not clear because you do not want to see the facts clearly.

It's not the fault of asylum seekers that they are living in former council houses which have been sold off to landlords instead of being kept as council housing. You really should try to find the right culprit, and not blame the asylum seekers, who have enough to put up with without having to live behind red doors or wear red wristbands.

Perhaps it's not clear because you do not want to see the facts clearly.
Excuse me??
Who the hell are you to answer so rudely?
Are you always like this if someone asks questions?
I thought GN would be somewhere to exchange views and ask questions, not get rude and personal remarks if something is not clear.

It was not clear because it did not answer the questions I asked.

You were being nasty about red doors. I do not think asylum seekers deserve that, either.

What questions were not answered by the Red Cross link?

Was the chappie who was being accused of acting like Pontius Pilate found guilty? Wouldn't he have to have deliberately painted the doors of houses provided for migrants all the same colour just before they moved in in order to mark them out for some purpose?

All sounds rather far-fetched to me.

Good point, thatbags.

And besides, the landlords may be guilty of something some people disapprove of, but it is not abuse to paint doors red. The guilt when migrants are targeted in some way by abusers is all on the abusers, not the owners or painters of doors.

DJ. You more or less say that immigration has had no effect on the housing stock.
The population in 2001 was approx. 60 million. The population now is approx. 65 million.
We all know that 5 million homes haven't been built in that time. ?

Are you saying the increase in population is all down to immigration?
An increase in population of 5 million does not require 5 million houses. That's rather simplistic. We do not each have a house, unless we are very rich.

Net migration was at its highest last year at 330,000. The lowest was 77,000. The average was roughly 200,000 over those years, so the increase in population because of migration was nearer half that.

I haven't said that immigration had no effect on the housing stock. The houses lived in by asylum seekers, which is what this is about, are houses that the indigenous population do not want to live in.
An asylum seeker can be living in near slum conditions for up to a year before their claims are sorted. They are then not necessarily given decent housing. Many of them go to live with relatives.

This is the company that lets those houses in Middlesbrough to the asylum seekers. Strangely enough, I do not see any houses like the ones for asylum seekers on this website.

www.jomast.co.uk/

Stuart Monk was the man questioned in parliament.

You were being nasty about red doors I have never been nasty about front doors of any hue, although some are nicer than others.
And I have not been nasty about asylum seekers.



I was being nice about red doors and pointing out that I was probably wrong in saying that it could perhaps have been a job lot of red paint obtained cheaply, as apparently red front doors are very fashionable.

Some people condemn others for attempting to question and rationalise but do not seem to offer any solutions.

www.irr.org.uk/news/indifference-to-asylum-seekers-property/

The fact that the company who owned the properties with red doors have apologised suggested to me they had made a 'faux pas' but i don't know for sure. The other issue was the red wristbands....

But responsibility for the attacks /abuse lies 100% with the racist people who carried them out.

I agree there, Penstemmon, about the racist people. But there was still no need to single out the asylum seekers to the racists.

The doors is only one symptom of that company's problems. It wasn't a faux pas, and the government knew about the problems in 2012 and 2013.

The irr link is about their problems with race relations and how they have treated asylum seekers for years. It's only now that it has been reported in the national media.

Jalima several of your posts are dripping with sarcasm about the treatment of asylum seekers, so stop playing the injured party.

Would you like to tell me which EU countries have asylum seekers in tents?

The houses in question are below the standard to be used as council or housing association properties. Private landlords do not have to meet the standards councils and housing associations are legally required to provide. Most of the properties would be classed as slums by UK standards.

The executive being asked the questions may not have known the answers, but that doesn't change the fact that the organisation previously said doors were painted one colour for easy identification by their staff. And even if the figure of 59% is correct, if the 59% are all in one area then it will look like all the doors are the same colour. There's been no explanation either why the white doors were repainted red.

Nobody is saying the company are deliberately making asylum seekers easy targets for abuse by painting front doors the same colour, but that's what's happened anyway.

And I haven't heard anything about asylum seekers complaining about their accommodation, so why are some posters implying that they are?

www.irr.org.uk/news/g4s-jomast-stockton-hostel-and-the-mother-and-baby-market/

This is the company in 2012. They've been mistreating asylum seekers since then at least.

In that last article, there are a few mentions of Clearsprings. That is the company that issued the red wristbands.

Really, wilmaknickersfit?
I am not being sarcastic about the asylum seekers, merely about some of the posts on here.

If you didn't know (puzzled as to why not, it has been on the news) Germany, Denmark, Finland, Slovenia, France house asylum seekers in tents.
And Denmark wants to take away their personal possessions - presumably along with what dignity they may have left.

And personally I have been donating to help start up a drop in centre for refugees in Turkey (no, I do know it is not in Europe) and a friend is helping find accommodation there, with the help of donations, for people found in the freezing cold sleeping in shop doorways, one couple with a newborn baby.

so I don't need moralising from any posters on here - some posts seem to come from the indignant lofty heights and not from experience.

Germany - Most asylum seekers are housed in sports halls, disused aircraft hangars, empty barracks with a small number of heated tents still in use.
France - Most are housed in wooden containers, although the conditions in France are probably the worst in the EU.
Denmark - Are the tents at Thisted now in use?
Slovenia - Migrants pass through here on the way to Austria or Germany, so I don't know what arrangements are in place.
Finland - The initiative to replace tents with refurbished shipping containers is almost finished.

I won't list the initiatives I have and continue to support.

Just read that Sweden is expelling 80,000 failed asylum seekers. Wonder where to? Will the other countries with previous open door policies follow suit? What a shambles and disaster. IS must be laughing at Europe.