It’s time the world knew that Britain is not a land of milk and honey

[Dowser]

Then these migrant tragedies might be averted.
The uk is a fabulous place to live and I feel very privileged to have been born here and to still live here but it is not a cheap place to live and it can be very difficult to scratch a living.
My relative is now single and fallen on hard times. After a 6 month stint in a hostel which was hell on Earth, he’s now got a flat and on UC
I rang to see how he was doing the other day and was shocked to find he can’t pay his bills.i know last winter he didn’t put the heating on and ended up very sick
His rent is paid but even without heating on yet he’s already going under. Water rates are £45 a month..we pay half that for our house.
It’s an 8 month wait for a meter.

I mentioned food. He said he’s starving and has lost weight.
He’s 64 . His pension kicks In When he will be 67 . He’s unable to find a job and is constantly sick...when a short while ago before this happened he was as fit as butchers dog.
You can’t live on what you’re given he said. We live in a high unemployment area and there’s not a lot of jobs around for ageing 64 year olds with dodgy knees.

OP, your relative is a victim of "Austerity". A governmental cull of the poor, the old, and the sick. You and he have my utmost sympathy. My family are also suffering.

If she's earning £1800 she won't be doing nails, let's face it

We know she would have had to eventually move on to something like that to make up this huge debt. But she and her family were probably scammed by these traffickers, and didn’t know any better.

No one is going to belittle what your relative is experiencing op. It sounds like It Daniel Blake'. Can you make use of a food bank? How did he get to 64 without a separate pension of some description? Can you get him into the GP?

Others fleeing atrocities, harm and poverty well that's a different issue op. They are hardly stealing your relatives job as he can't work anyway!

Agree that Britain’s ‘Empire’ is the reason that many people want to come here.
If you go to some West African countries, English is widely spoken because of colonisation. Therefore, if people are looking to migrate they will tend to come to Britain rather than other European countries.

Don’t forget that Britain’s wealth was built because of colonisation.

And that colonisation is a fancy way of saying genocide. And the consequences of the invasion genocide are traumatizing generation after generation of First Nations people.

Yea the U.k committed alot of genocide

Economic migrants go where there is work; the US/Canada didn’t have colonies so much (at least, not in the same sense) and yet have a lot of economic migrants.

Successful economies attract economic migrants. China, despite being a colonial power in the past, does not have as many economic migrants ... yet.

If the UK economy was in the shitter, they wouldn’t come.

Mangofeverdream, Canada and USA were collonies. China has a very bad human rights record which is why they don,t have them.

China has a very bad human rights record which is why they don,t have them

Look at the Gulf and you will know this isn’t true. If there is economic opportunity, you will see migrants coming in large numbers.

www.migrationpolicy.org/article/destination-china-country-adjusts-its-new-migration-reality

Immigration to China is increasing steadily.
The Chinese are concerned about it, particularly the lower socioeconomic migrants.
They are less worried about the wealthy business people.