Explosion on a tube train

As Petra says, he may well have been 20 or more and not fifteen, and who knows which country he came from.
He may well have come here to cause death and destruction.

The foster parents are elderly. The husband is 88. No doubt over the years they have provided loving homes for children in need. There must be many who have reason to be forever grateful to them.

I can't help thinking though that there should now be an upper age limit for fostering refugee children. Times have changed and there's a need for constant vigilance.

I don't know if it's been confirmed but I saw on a newsfeed this morning that guns and a bomb may have been found on the premises. The foster parents are in no way to blame for what's happened but surely there must now be closer monitoring of families who are fostering refugees?

That's assuming that he is 15 and from Iraq and is an orphan.
How did he prove he was from Iraq. Not with language, Iraq share Arabic with 19 other countries. How did he prove he was an orphan. Did our home office phone their opposite counterparts in Baghdad, I don't think so. No, it was all taken on his say so.

"Teen arrested on suspicion of planting Tube bomb 'an Iraqi orphan refugee who moved to the UK aged 15, 3 years ago', London Evening Standard.

He must have witnessed such appalling and terrible things in Iraq and in his journey to get to the UK. Which makes me wonder why, now that he's been shown such kindness and support by his foster parents and the British people; why would he want to maim and kill us? He's done other refugees no favours at all.

nonnie
I can argue your viewpoint from my own personnel experience.
My father was a violent dishonest crook. He went to prison, he mixed with very serious criminals. He owned a gun and once pointed it at me.
Did I go down that route, no, from a very young age I knew it was wrong.
Your very disillusioned if you think these murdering scum don't know the difference.

And me too Nonnie but I wouldn't call building and planting bombs "going astray" I would call it a deliberate act of sheer evil !

Think we will have to disagree gilly because I have seen young people led astray, not to build bombs but definitely to do things they were not brought up to do. I think 'But for the grace of God' go I or mine. Just because my family haven't done anything terrible I don't feel it is just down to my parenting and I have huge sympathy for the parents of people who do go astray.

I'm sorry to disagree with you Nonnie but no matter who we are exposed to, deep down we all know the difference between right and wrong and the probable consequences of making and planting a bomb.

I truly pity the poor couple who opened their home and heart to what they considered to be a genuine young refugee in need .

But gilly that might well have been because you were not exposed to such awful people. These days the young probably meet a much greater variety of people than any of us on this forum did. I think my parents probably knew almost everyone I did.

I did one or two silly things when I was 18 Tegan and Nonnie. Fortunately I didn't resort to making bombs and trying to kill or seriously injure several innocent people .

A genuine refugee would not want to do it, very true!
There were always going to be some IS inclined men who slipped through the net though.We won't have many of those, but Germany certainly will.

I agree with Tegan . When we are that age we are vulnerable to the people we come across and if they are strong minded and seem to have all the answers it is easy to see how they can influence the young. The young often feel so sure about things but later, when they have more life experience, they become less sure. In cases such as this they may find out how wrong they are when it is far too late.

I feel very sorry for the parents of such young people who have tried to do the right thing but their child has been manipulated into bad behaviour. Those of you who don't know what I am talking about must have led very sheltered lives.

Totally agree petra the worrying thing is though, how can we tell the difference ?

Ilovecheese
Why would a refugee want to do it
A genuine refugee wouldn't want to do it.

I know when I was 18 I was very naive and open to all sorts of daft ideas. Apologies to anyone who is a member (and I think they do a fantastic job), but I went to some sort of Salvation Army meeting and came close to signing up to something. I realise there is a huge difference between that and becoming a member of ISIS, but our minds are open to all sorts of things when we're young.

But it's the same question isn't it.
Why would somebody born here want to do it?
Why would a refugee want to do it?
I don't know if we can ever understand why, because it seems so unanswerable.

I think the will to murder and maim is hardly being 'a bad apple'.

The sad thing is I don't think many people will be surprised at this story .

I do feel sorry for Penelope and Ronald Jones who are a dedicated foster couple . How betrayed they must feel 'IF' the story is proven .

And this attack will strengthen the anti refugee/immigrant feelings , wrong I agree but it will , people are fearful

Unfortunately any mention of refugee children sets a lot of people off and the 'shut all the gates' daily mail type hate columns will love it
There are bad apples in every walk of life and I m sure statistics would show that for every hundred refugee children or refugees in general there will be one or two hell bent on destruction as in any group of people unfortunately in this day and age any reference sets people off without thinking it through and then there is even less willingness to share our lives with people in need

It is so difficult to know if a refugee is a child or an adult which compounds the problem.

Of course it is Anniebach .

I bet the poor couple who took him into their home are devestated.

This news is certaintly going to cause more suspicion of refugees

I don't think Anyone is blaming all refugee "children"
BlueBelle but various news reports are saying that thIs particular person was a refugee and was fostered. The police have searched the house of the couple who took him in. He had been arrested only 2 weeks previous so it would seem that however premature the announcement Donald Trump was probably right

Please don't go down the route of blaming refugee children on such flimsy evidence, that is really not good

Well lets wait and see but If that's the case we will have to have a very close look at these refugee "children" we are taking in to give them a better life. Talk about biting the hand that feeds . It makes me sick to think about it .