Asylum seekers to the UK sent to Rwanda

[Dodie66]

What do you think about the governments plan to send all asylum seekers that come to the UK to Rwanda to be processed. I think this is inhumane. A lot of them have come from places like Syria, Iran etc and travelled across the channel with all the associated risks only to be sent 6000 mile to be processed. What about the cost to do this? I think it’s a big mistake

It is not true asylum seekers get nothing in terms of benefits - they get much much more than I have ever been given by the state - hotels most people in the UK could never afford in a month of Sundays now costing the state £4m a week according to the BBC, free housing they don't pay a penny for, a small weekly allowance. I believe their chidlren are allowed free schooling in UK schools and NHS treatment.

A vast array of freebies - no wonder they flock here compared with a tent in calais.

"Cash support

You’ll get £40.85 for each person in your household. This will help you pay for things you need like food, clothing and toiletries.

Your allowance will be loaded onto a debit card (ASPEN card) each week. You’ll be able to use the card to get cash from a cash machine.

If you’ve been refused asylum

You’ll be given:

somewhere to live
£40.85 per person on a payment card for food, clothing and toiletries

You will not be given:

the payment card if you do not take the offer of somewhere to live
any money

Extra money for mothers and young children

You’ll get extra money to buy healthy food if you’re pregnant or a mother of a child under 3. The amount you get will depend on your situation.

Pregnant mother £3 Baby under 1 year old £5 Child aged 1 to 3 £3

Maternity payment

You can apply for a one-off £300 maternity payment if your baby is due in 8 weeks or less, or if your baby is under 6 weeks old.

If you’ve been refused asylum

You can apply for a one-off £250 maternity payment if your baby is due in 8 weeks or less, or if your baby is under 6 weeks old.

Applying for the maternity grant

You apply for the maternity grant in the same way whether you’re still an asylum seeker or you’ve been refused asylum.

You’ll need to request form MAT B1 from your doctor to apply for the payment. You can apply for the maternity payment at the same time you apply for asylum support.

If you get pregnant after you’ve applied for asylum support, you can apply to the support team that dealt with your application for asylum support.

Healthcare

You may get free National Health Service (NHS) healthcare, such as to see a doctor or get hospital treatment.

You’ll also get:

free prescriptions for medicine
free dental care for your teeth
free eyesight tests
help paying for glasses

Education

Your children must attend school if they are aged 5 to 17. All state schools are free and your children may be able to get free school meals."

@Xenia - they can’t claim benefits but receive a weekly allowance of c£40 which has to cover food and clothing. They rarely have cooking facilities so rely on cold food or take always. Hardly enough to survive on.
If you were claiming benefits you would receive much more in terms of housing benefits/jobseekers/Universal credit.

Do you really genuinely think asylum-seekers in the UK are living it up at Claridge's?
And if you and your children had had to leave your country, friends and family for fear of persecution, torture or death, would you like a tent in Calais or would you prefer at least for your children to go to school and to have a hope of being able to buy food?

Christ some people on here just seem to be devoid of basic humanity.

There's only ONE detail stopping me from saying that this is the best immigration plan I've ever known, and that detail is...

that I'm not a soulless inhumane twat.

Seriously the whole hideous plan is like an Alan B'Stard episode.

they get much much more than I have ever been given by the state - hotels most people in the UK could never afford in a month of Sundays

Not a single asylum seeker that I work with is living in a fancy, or even decent hotel. They're sharing rooms in grotty accommodation with no cooking facilities. Their Aspen card is only needed because they're not allowed to work. And £40 a week to feed and clothe themselves is nothing. Try keeping clean and feeding yourself (without a cooker, pans or crockery) for that money. Apart from being provided with grotty accommodation and £40 a week what is this "much more" that they get that you don't, @Xenia ?

If this govt allowed them to work (and we desperately need workers) they wouldn't have to fund them at all.

Voice of reason. Thank fuck. I despair of some people.

The 'inhumane' aspect which I've seen used a lot seems to come down to being forced to live in a country full of Rwandans. When did that become an acceptable argument?

And yes I've seen the claims that that sending people there leads to abuse, torture etc, but all the 'evidence' offered me so far has turned out to be tabloid headlines on stories that didn't show anything of the sort. (several were of people who left Rwanda only to be badly treated elsewhere)

"we desperately need workers" now that no one in the UK is without a job. Well no one who matters anyway

Everywhere I look, there are notices in windows and on local websites along penne to apply for vacancies. I've not seen anything like it for a long time.

There are organisations who work really hard to get unemployed people who are not asylum seekers, into work. But still there are businesses, care homes and hospitals barely functioning, and people almost forced into overtime because there simply aren't enough people to fill the vacancies.

If there are people born in the uk who need to work, this is probably one of the best times to find it. Asylum seekers are unlikely to take jobs from anyone who wants one.

Nice try suggesting racism, but you know very well, I'd wager, that that isn't what people are objecting to.
I'm unable to work out how to post a link without it crashing the site, but google 'human rights Rwanda' for some idea of what goes on there in terms of human rights. Then tell us you'd be happy to take your chances/have your kids live in that environment.

Out of interest where abouts are you @saraclara ?
migrants have been put in lovely hotels here, so I’m just curious

Where are these nice hotels - the people I’ve met through volunteering at a food bank are staying in horrible hostels in London.

I know the Grande in Exmouth has been used for refugees from Afghanistan - a nice hotel

@Parker231 one near LEGOLAND with spa and pool. People have been refused a booking due to the home office blocking out rooms.

Okay I googled. And was taken straight to the DM of course. While I feel for those whose bookings were cancelled, if you believe for a minute that the asylum seekers are getting to use the spa and pool, you're kidding yourself. Nor will they be inhabiting the fancy suites that the DM is dribbling over.

Even in the basic hotels, rooms have been stripped of everything other than the basics for those living there, and often people are four to a room. Security guards ensure that they don't stray anywhere other than their rooms and the outdoors.

This is not a holiday, and it's emergency accommodation. This isn't 'where they live' it's where they're put and exist temporarily. And probably just a stage before one of the detention centres.

You do know that the Afghans are those brought over by our government because their lives over there were wrecked by them helping our people over there, don't you? I'm glad they're being put up somewhere comfortable, as we all should be.

Yes Sara

I was answering the question about accommodation

@lollipoprainbow The problem is right there in the sentence, clear as day. No asylum seekers, when claiming asylum sit there and go “well I’d quite like to stay near Legoland, preferably somewhere with a spa and a pool, or if not then a gym and a nice bar.”

The Home Office are choosing the rooms. The Home Office are block booking them. The asylum seekers are not choosing or demanding where to go. The Home Office are depriving holidaymakers of those rooms.

Are we working out who to blame yet?

except they set fire to the barracks where they were housed @BewareTheLibrarians So that argument holds little water
As I recall they got 3 meals a day too . Probably not the best , but it was safe and dry

"They"?

Are you seriously tarring all asylum seekers with the same brush as a tiny few who did that? Unbelievable.

Don’t be ridiculous @saraclara , why are you wanting an argument over every post ?

And wow. People fleeing war and persecution getting three meals a day in a derelict barracks? Lucky sods. I bet you'd love to lose your home and everything you have, to swap places with them.

It's like you don't see these people as human beings.

There are loads of homeless people on our streets, perhaps they would appreciate this

Napier Barracks again? OK. This is taken from a 2022 report by MPs from the All Party Parliamentary Group on Immigration Detention. And this is after the “refurbishment”.

“A ruling by the High Court in June 2021 found that Napier Barracks did not meet minimum standards for asylum accommodation. The parliamentarians’ report warns that changes introduced by the Home Office after the ruling have failed to address the fundamental problems at the site, with serious concerns continuing in relation to:

• inadequate safeguarding of vulnerable people, such as victims of torture and trafficking, with little being done to identify residents who are in need of support

• the physical environment of the site, which was run-down, isolated and bleak, with many buildings in an extremely poor state of repair
a near total lack of privacy and private spaces at the site, with residents continuing to be accommodated in dormitories of up to 12-14 people and having to share showers, toilets, and other facilities

• noise levels in the dormitories, and the sleep deprivation and the negative impact on residents’ mental health resulting from this

• inadequate access for residents to healthcare and legal advice, and the difficulties they face in engaging with their asylum claim at the site

• the site’s prison-like nature and military features, including security checks upon entering and the presence of security guards patrolling

• the lack of autonomy, choice and control over their daily lives that residents experience at the site.

The report explains that, having seen and experienced the sites for themselves, the MPs are firmly of the view that Napier and other sites like it are fundamentally unsuitable for use as asylum accommodation, and do not allow a person to engage effectively with their asylum claim.”

https://appgdetention.org.uk/napier-barracks-visit-report-published/

For what it’s worth, I don’t agree with setting things on fire, but to say it’s “safe and dry” with 3 adequate meals a day is sadly not the case at all, as shown by this report.

My last post was for @UpYourBumHun