Asylum seekers unhappy at Stratford- upon- Avon Hotel

The legitimate asylum seekers are very unlucky in that they are now mixed together with illegal economic immigrants

How do you think its worked in the past? People arrive, some get their asylum requests granted and some get sent home because their requests are denied. Honestly, people are brainwashed. And nobody is "illegal".

The legitimate asylum seekers are very unlucky in that they are now mixed together with illegal economic immigrants and they have all arrived when the native population are having a difficult time themselves with the results of Brexit, lockdown and high inflation. The children's services, waiting lists and care of the elderly who have paid taxes all their lives are in an appalling state. I wonder how many economic migrants would take a ticket home if they were offered it now. Strange to come to an island where you can't just move on if you change your mind.

My asylum seeker friend was delighted when she was allowed to work. She was a qualified teacher in her country and now works here as a teaching assistant. Lucky school, getting a qualified teacher for the pittance teaching assistants get paid. Anyway, my friend is just delighted to be working in education again.

volver3

Where do you think they should have gone Primrose?

Hell in a handcart?

Are you Gullis in a frock?

Good point. Stayed in their own countries and died, presumably.

Primrose53

Grammaretto

I know the situation is dire now and reminds me of a time back in 1972.when we were asked by our local Quaker Meeting to invite a refugee family to our home for the day.

These were Ugandan Asian families, who were expelled by the dictator Idi Amin.
They were mostly family groups being housed at Barracks waiting for papers to be processed, unable to work and suffering similar hostility by some locals.

The ones who came to us were vegan and had been living mainly on boiled cabbage.
I gave the woman who spoke no English, free run of my kitchen and the 8 of us were treated a few hours later to the best Indian meal I think I have ever had!

This family quickly found work and lodgings in London.
Years later I was teaching pottery in Edinburgh and one of my students was a medical student whose family were refugees back in 1972 when he was a baby...

The difference is the people who were kicked out of Uganda by Idi Amin held British passports and were perfectly entitled to come here! They were also mainly very well educated, professional people with a strong work ethic. Leicester today is packed with thriving businesses that Ugandan Asians started with absolutely nothing in the early 70s.

I lived and worked in Leicester then and that city took in more than any other place in the UK. I was involved with finding them employment, visiting schools and homes. Many were housed in old terraced properties which were awaiting demolition. It was a fascinating and rewarding time and I kept in touch with several families for many years and ate with them and attended family celebrations like weddings.

Massive difference between them and people coming here illegally from safe countries who have thrown away their passports and who we know nothing about.

I visited relatives in Leicester recently and was shown a very posh country hotel which is expecting migrants. It stands down a long, flower lined drive and is stunning. Local people have had their functions and weddings cancelled so migrants can live there!

It's a common misconception that all the Ugandan Asians had British citizenship. They didn't. Those stripped of their Ugandan citizenship were granted UK citizenship.
The numbers were huge.
Thousands of Asians left Uganda with no property and only the permitted £55 in cash each. About 27,000 Ugandan Asians came to the UK (Parekh, 1997), while smaller numbers went to Canada, India and Kenya. While many Asians in Uganda already held British citizenship, there were others who were granted British citizenship after they lost Ugandan citizenship.
In 1968 there were 345,000 Asians resident in Kenya, Tanzania, Zambia, Malawi, and Uganda. By 1984, according to the Minority Rights Group (1990), their numbers had fallen to about 85,000, which included 40,000 in Kenya, 20,000 in Tanzania, 3,000 in Zambia, 1,000 in Malawi, and 1,000 in Uganda.
Correspondingly, in 1971 the number of Asians from Africa who were resident in the UK was about 45,000. Following the emigration from African countries, according to the 1981 census, there were about 180,000 East African Asians in the UK (Anwar, 1998: p.5)
Why can't we do it now???

Grammaretto

I know the situation is dire now and reminds me of a time back in 1972.when we were asked by our local Quaker Meeting to invite a refugee family to our home for the day.

These were Ugandan Asian families, who were expelled by the dictator Idi Amin.
They were mostly family groups being housed at Barracks waiting for papers to be processed, unable to work and suffering similar hostility by some locals.

The ones who came to us were vegan and had been living mainly on boiled cabbage.
I gave the woman who spoke no English, free run of my kitchen and the 8 of us were treated a few hours later to the best Indian meal I think I have ever had!

This family quickly found work and lodgings in London.
Years later I was teaching pottery in Edinburgh and one of my students was a medical student whose family were refugees back in 1972 when he was a baby...

The difference is the people who were kicked out of Uganda by Idi Amin held British passports and were perfectly entitled to come here! They were also mainly very well educated, professional people with a strong work ethic. Leicester today is packed with thriving businesses that Ugandan Asians started with absolutely nothing in the early 70s.

I lived and worked in Leicester then and that city took in more than any other place in the UK. I was involved with finding them employment, visiting schools and homes. Many were housed in old terraced properties which were awaiting demolition. It was a fascinating and rewarding time and I kept in touch with several families for many years and ate with them and attended family celebrations like weddings.

Massive difference between them and people coming here illegally from safe countries who have thrown away their passports and who we know nothing about.

I visited relatives in Leicester recently and was shown a very posh country hotel which is expecting migrants. It stands down a long, flower lined drive and is stunning. Local people have had their functions and weddings cancelled so migrants can live there!

Primrose53

MaizieD

I don't think any of you would be happy stuck in a hotel, in a foreign country, for weeks on end with nothing to do, very little money and no prospect of getting out in the near future.

The relief at getting to a safe country can't buoy these people up for ever. Then there is the stress of waiting months, even years, for a decision on their application for asylum.

The Home Office needs to get its finger out...

Nobody forced them to come here!

Yes war and famine did force them to come here. People like to live near where they grew up it takes a lot to force them to travel hundreds of miles with great risk to another country.

Where do you think they should have gone Primrose?

Hell in a handcart?

Are you Gullis in a frock?

MaizieD

I don't think any of you would be happy stuck in a hotel, in a foreign country, for weeks on end with nothing to do, very little money and no prospect of getting out in the near future.

The relief at getting to a safe country can't buoy these people up for ever. Then there is the stress of waiting months, even years, for a decision on their application for asylum.

The Home Office needs to get its finger out...

Nobody forced them to come here!

Funny how words which are similar can have such a different meaning and how propaganda is used.
Most asylum seekers do want to work and want to make a home for themselves. It's probably easier for them if they are in big cities which already have a network of support through which they can make connections and do voluntary work. They would prefer to have paid work and to support themselves.
Most people think they should be able to do so.
Why then does the government not give them permission to work? Stirring up unrest???
180,000 signed a petition www.google.com/search?q=lift+the+ban&oq=Lift+the+ban&aqs=chrome.0.35i39j0i512l4j69i60l3.3934j0j7&sourceid=chrome&ie=UTF-8

Since WW2 waves of refugees have come to the UK, I remember them housed in barracks in the 1960s, the one close to us was a former POW camp, they were a mix of Italian , German, Polish and Czech families the children went to local schools, men found work, women mostly looked after the family. They were gradually housed and the camps closed, during the 1970s now the only clue is in the names

TillyTrotter

I agree with you Casdon and disagree with eddiecat (sorry).
Stratford on Avon is a lovely place to be, a quintessential English town with the rich history of Shakespeare and a lovely riverside.
Admittedly it would be sinful if asylum seekers are not to be able to take a walk outside (I assume they are not prisoners in the hotel?) but I feel we cannot believe everything we read in the media.
Also not everyone judges a town by it’s shops - there are many other things to do.
There are far worse places to be than Stratford upon Avon , but I am not disagreeing that these people need their own homes as soon as can possibly be arranged.

I’ve never read that asylum seekers are confined to their hotel, so they’ll be going to the town centre and for walks I guess.
Not a great time, the waiting and so on but what do they expect?
The delays in their applications sure need speeding up tho.

As ever, the issue of asylum seekers is muddied by the economic migrants including/especially the very high and inexplicable number of Albanian men.
It looks like a number of middle Eastern refugees are housed near us in a former hotel. I see them out and about and obviously freely able to be so. They are very noticeable as they dress in their familiar clothing which is not nearly warm enough for Scottish winters. I'd hope that there is good support and practical assistance for them but 'a hae ma doots'.

Thanks Grammaretto, for posting your experience. The history of the Ugandan Asians in the UK serves to remind us how much immigrants contribute.

The way asylum seekers are housed is shameful, as is the delay in processing applications. We hear the government telling us they save money by ‘getting rid of pen pushers’. That will include civil servants who could speed the process.

Many asylum seekers have managed to get here because they’re resourceful people. We have teachers, health workers as well as fit, motivated young people languishing in hotel rooms when they could be working.

This loathsome ‘othering’ of people fleeing war needs challenging. As for the DM, it’s approach to asylum seekers today mirrors its approach to Jewish people seeking refuge in the 30’s

I know the situation is dire now and reminds me of a time back in 1972.when we were asked by our local Quaker Meeting to invite a refugee family to our home for the day.

These were Ugandan Asian families, who were expelled by the dictator Idi Amin.
They were mostly family groups being housed at Barracks waiting for papers to be processed, unable to work and suffering similar hostility by some locals.

The ones who came to us were vegan and had been living mainly on boiled cabbage.
I gave the woman who spoke no English, free run of my kitchen and the 8 of us were treated a few hours later to the best Indian meal I think I have ever had!

This family quickly found work and lodgings in London.
Years later I was teaching pottery in Edinburgh and one of my students was a medical student whose family were refugees back in 1972 when he was a baby...

Stratford is one of the nicest places in the Midlands, it is a very popular place to retire because of many activities you can take part in. There are charity shops in the high street, as well as restaurants, hairdressers, nail bars, banks, pubs, hotels, a real mix, far removed from the run down state of many high streets.

Businesses are desperate for staff, since the EU workers left, mainly during Covid it’s very difficult for pubs, hotels, care homes, nurseries, and farms too. The Grosvenor is a mid range hotel, close to the town centre, I presume they are not locked in, so why can they not work to help pay for their accommodation.

It’s a crime that businesses are closing because of staff shortage yet migrants are not allowed to work

They’re not looking for an easier life unless you count not being threatened by war an easy life. They want to work and we have this workforce unable to do so because of the inefficiency of the government departments responsible for processing them. It’s also the fault of the government that there isn’t enough housing for people or that there are unscrupulous landlords making people live in unhealthy conditions. I rather suspect that the government put them in hotels in very prominent places because it makes it easier for them to make scapegoats out of them. Turkey have taken in nearly 4 million refugees in the time that we’ve taken in 54,000. Yes, there is a problem but nowhere near the problem that it’s being made out to be because this government are using these people as scapegoats. Covid,asylum seekers, Ukraine, they’re all a smokescreen for years of mismanagement by successive governments that only care for one thing and that’s being in power for the sake of it.

I agree with you Casdon and disagree with eddiecat (sorry).
Stratford on Avon is a lovely place to be, a quintessential English town with the rich history of Shakespeare and a lovely riverside.
Admittedly it would be sinful if asylum seekers are not to be able to take a walk outside (I assume they are not prisoners in the hotel?) but I feel we cannot believe everything we read in the media.
Also not everyone judges a town by it’s shops - there are many other things to do.
There are far worse places to be than Stratford upon Avon , but I am not disagreeing that these people need their own homes as soon as can possibly be arranged.

I am sure that many of these people would be only too happy to work but they are not allowed to. What is needed if for the process to be speeded up.

Until 2 years ago I lived in Stratford and that hotel has had a very chequered history with many changes of ownership. It is definitely at the budget end of the market these days. It's on the edge of the town and Stratford nowadays mainly consists of charity shops or cafes for tourists. It really isn't an ideal location for asylum seekers

Oh, FGS, biglouis, they're not allowed to put anything into the community, however much they might want to. And as our lovely government won't provide any safe routes for any but a few refugees they can only enter the UK irregularly.

Bring back work camps and make them pick fruit and recycle rubbish. Shades of Cool Hand Luke.

All part of a (deliberate?) campaign to stir up hostility towards genuine asylum seekers. Only in the UK are they left to despair through ridiculously extended 'application' processes, hounded by the press and locals, treated as opportunistic, lazy, money grabbing 'illegals' etc.

Of course, come election time, there will be promises to resolve the (self made) problem. What a horrible waste. We desperately need more 'economically active' - so we ban them from working and expect the oldies to launch themselves back into the workplace!

We don't want to be living all together in a hotel, we want a house so we can be independent.

Well I guess this probably applies to many British born families who are currently housed in shitty BBs and hostels and who are waiting for social housing. The difference being that these are people who have (mostly) contributed to the community and found themseleves homeless through no fault of their own. Possibly by some greedy parasite landlord or corrupt power companies putting up rents and charges.

As for those who have entered the country by an illegal route and have put nothing into the community, just looking for an easier life .... Pass me my tiny violin.

I don't think any of you would be happy stuck in a hotel, in a foreign country, for weeks on end with nothing to do, very little money and no prospect of getting out in the near future.

The relief at getting to a safe country can't buoy these people up for ever. Then there is the stress of waiting months, even years, for a decision on their application for asylum.

The Home Office needs to get its finger out...