Refugees

Pretty standard - jeans, sweaters, zip jacket, trainers, in better or worse condition? Does your foobank do clothes too, Chocolatelovinggran? - our biggest one does. What's wrong with some basic help to have reasonable clothes, would some prefer rags?

I'm on the bus to volunteer at the foodbank MT62.
Our clients include the homeless, those on zero hour contracts, those embroiled in the benefit system, those with addiction and mental health issues, and, yes, some refugees.
No one group seems better fed or clad than another that I can see .

Also, many do not actually pay over to those dreadful people smugglers that amount in cash - they give some money, but most of it is a promise to pay over very many years, a modern type of slavery.
There but for the grace of god...........
Of course, GB, takes a far smaller number of immigrants, portion of population, than most (if not all) other European countries.
Those that come here, risking their lives to do so, usually have friends or family here and/or speak English.

I mean never having left their country before!

I imagine a lot of refugees will never have had passports in the first place often never having left their country of origin in the first place

Sadgrandma

I think perhaps I am being naive but can I pass something by you all?
Firstly, am I right in thinking that these awful people smugglers charge the immigrants thousands of pounds to risk their lives in over crowded boats. So, if they have this sort of money, could they not use it to book a flight legally and then claim asylum when they arrive in the UK? Surely this would have to be considered in the same way as it is when they arrive illegally. I guess there must be a reason why or they would all be doing it and would put the people smugglers out of business!

Because 98% of migrants who cross the channel in small boats throw their passports away. This makes it much harder to identify them and process them and is done deliberately.

Apparently only 317 out of the first 16,510 recorded Channel migrants possessed passports upon arrival, so it's no accident.

Had a quick google

"Those using smugglers: Many people fleeing war or persecution rely on smugglers because there are no safe or legal pathways to reach a country where they can claim asylum. According to Europol, a high proportion of those crossing external borders irregularly use smugglers for at least part of their journey.

Those arriving independently: Many refugees arrive without ever using a smuggler. They may travel using standard, legal channels (like purchasing commercial airline tickets with valid visas) or independently cross a land border when their lives are immediately threatened.

Government resettlement schemes: Many individuals are formally recognized as refugees while still in camps abroad and are brought to host countries through established, safe government schemes (such as the UK's global resettlement programs)

I think perhaps I am being naive but can I pass something by you all?
Firstly, am I right in thinking that these awful people smugglers charge the immigrants thousands of pounds to risk their lives in over crowded boats. So, if they have this sort of money, could they not use it to book a flight legally and then claim asylum when they arrive in the UK? Surely this would have to be considered in the same way as it is when they arrive illegally. I guess there must be a reason why or they would all be doing it and would put the people smugglers out of business!

So many refugees are hard working. They are also people who have been educated in other countries so we also gain by not having to invest in their education and childhood.

Wyllow3

My point is, there are real refugees amongst them, including those tortured or fleeing death becuase they have spoken up against regimes.

Yes it has to be filtered of course but the gross statements as in "send them all home" goes against so much we have been proud of in the UK.

That slogan - amongst a few others does so much damage,

because it leads a lot of people not able to understand the different sort of incomers, never mind people whose families have been here since Windrush and the 1970's Asian incomers. who are just like you and I working, bringing up families, often very ambitious that their children get on in life - often more so than some white families sadly.

👏👏👏👏

No thanks to Reform.

Wyllow3

Oh Chestnut, I wish you had been with me in my local lovely park today. You see, I live in a multicultural city, and that comes across in my park. To tell you of the Muslim families, and a father lifting his laughing daughter down from a tree that she had climbed in her princess outfit: the mixed race couples watching their children play in the water play area: the small group of migrants (there is a local house somewhere not too far) having a picnic down by the river): the boatload of women with headscarves pedalling vigorously round the boating lake giggling away: the girl with traditional dress running around...

As you say: there are indeed bad eggs from wherever, and there is no doubt that some have come for reasons that mean they need to be returned home:

But having survived from to different white men firstly a coercive abusive marriage, and last October a sexual assault from an ex methodist minister, which has laid me low

I like the O/P.

I do too

Chestnut

A lovely sentiment which may be mostly true, but sadly there is always one bad egg in every basket, whatever nationality.

The problem is when you look at the size of Africa and consider the number of big countries there, and then look at the size of the UK, how can we ever accommodate an endless stream of desperate arrivals year after year? There is no end.

So true. This cannot continue.

My point is, there are real refugees amongst them, including those tortured or fleeing death becuase they have spoken up against regimes.

Yes it has to be filtered of course but the gross statements as in "send them all home" goes against so much we have been proud of in the UK.

That slogan - amongst a few others does so much damage,

because it leads a lot of people not able to understand the different sort of incomers, never mind people whose families have been here since Windrush and the 1970's Asian incomers. who are just like you and I working, bringing up families, often very ambitious that their children get on in life - often more so than some white families sadly.

Exactly Oreo Exactly.

They are all well dressed around here.
Nice phones, headphones, nice warm jackets & well fed.
They look quite happy to me. Whilst we with have loads of our own homeless on the streets.
That needs sorting out for sure.

valdali

I like the O/P.

I missed the bit in the OP which said about about emptying Africa of people and depositing the entire population here?

There are 1.6 billion people in Africa so I don't think anyone is suggesting that will happen.

I haven’t seen any haggard faces in the boatloads of mainly young men coming here in small boats as economic migrants.
I used to have every sympathy in the few who applied for asylum here in the past, but no longer since the system has been massively abused in recent years.

I'm so sorry to hear of these sorrowful experiences and I hope you can recover, renew and look ahead. 💐

I like the O/P.

I missed the bit in the OP which said about about emptying Africa of people and depositing the entire population here?

Oh Chestnut, I wish you had been with me in my local lovely park today. You see, I live in a multicultural city, and that comes across in my park. To tell you of the Muslim families, and a father lifting his laughing daughter down from a tree that she had climbed in her princess outfit: the mixed race couples watching their children play in the water play area: the small group of migrants (there is a local house somewhere not too far) having a picnic down by the river): the boatload of women with headscarves pedalling vigorously round the boating lake giggling away: the girl with traditional dress running around...

As you say: there are indeed bad eggs from wherever, and there is no doubt that some have come for reasons that mean they need to be returned home:

But having survived from to different white men firstly a coercive abusive marriage, and last October a sexual assault from an ex methodist minister, which has laid me low

I like the O/P.

A lovely sentiment which may be mostly true, but sadly there is always one bad egg in every basket, whatever nationality.

The problem is when you look at the size of Africa and consider the number of big countries there, and then look at the size of the UK, how can we ever accommodate an endless stream of desperate arrivals year after year? There is no end.