To think if you've escaped a war zone, have shelter and food a wristband is no hardship

[Lj17lj]

I might get slammed but I really don't see the issue. I've went on very expensive holidays and festivals and have to wear a wrist band for weeks on end, its fine. When I go to the steam room in local gym I have to wear a band.

I really can't see the issue. It's not the same as forcing a tattoo on someone.

Can't help thinking a few of you on this thread could do with calming down. I don't see how you can compare the situation of asylum seekers being given food in the UK to that of the Jews in Nazi Germany being sent off to death camps??!! Awful, poor comparison.

Whilst the wrist bands possibly weren't the best idea, I imagine they would be no different to any other token system. My question to all the angry people on this thread is how would you distribute food to asylum seekers?

Yes ooh I was thinking about tattoos as well. FFS

These are human beings. Its unbelievable how they are being treated like dogs.

And if I hear the word 'jungle' again, referring to Calais, I think I'll self combust!

I can understand not wanting to be singled out, but can also understand the practicality of food and other services. indeed some other form of id might work but cost might also be an issue. the wrist bands are cheap and readily available.
an open door policy to all wouldn't only attract the asylum seeker but in theory others who need food. since not all agencies work together or are able to cater to certain dietary needs it could put pressure on established resources that have limited income (salvation army soup kitchen or those affiliated with a church).

There's a very big difference between a token system and making someone permanently wear an item so everyone - strangers on the street - can see their status.

It's not a mystery how to identify for people for dinner (or anything else). Thousands of schools manage it every day. Some use fingerprint systems. Photo cards also work - and indeed the contractor Clearspring will now be using these instead.

oohlala, people are NOT claiming that the situation for asylum seekers in the UK is the same as for Jewish people in concentration camps.

But we know what the period before the camps looks like. The road that is travelled down long before it reaches that end. And visible public labelling of a targeted group - a group already on the receiving end of vitriol and verbal attacks - is one of the landmarks along that road.

If we don't want to find ourselves at the far end of that road, by far the best idea is not to travel along it at all. By challenging things that drag us onto that road.

Clearspring have withdrawn the wristbands with immediate effect. So it looks like they understood the problem very clearly once it was pointed out to them.

Pausingflatly, you could have fooled me, there are quite a few people on here who are quite frankly being bullies, not you I should add though.

I don't see how you can compare the situation of asylum seekers being given food in the UK to that of the Jews in Nazi Germany being sent off to death camps??!! Awful, poor comparison.

Death camps came after long campaigns against the Jews.

Can you imagine a country simply allowing their leader to go about slaughtering their neighbours because he just decided that they were not the kind of people he wanted in his country? There'd have been an uprising.

First came the demonisation and "othering" of the jewish population. A relentless media and government campaign, stigmatising them and laying the blame for all of societies ails at their feet. Blaming them for taking German housing, education and opportunity.

We are already on that road. The wrist bands were just another step in that direction, thankfully one we fought against. This time.

Reading threads like this, listening to the way people speak about the refugees, I do worry for the future because it seems we've learned nothing from the past.

""it could put pressure on established resources that have limited income ""

This is funded by the Home Ofgice as part of their legal duties to meet the Asylum Seekers basic needs for the 28 days that they are in Lynx House.

I also think that further CCTV is needed as part of keeping those at risk, safe and prosecutions need to take place.

Home Office, even.

I absolutely believe the refugees should be helped and they should NOT be stigmatized

I have been shaken by events in Cologne but i also know that the Syrian refugees were in no way responsible for that.

You make it look like you are thinking for them but in reality you are miles away from how they see it. And it's obvious from your choice of words too. Yes they must be grateful but why should that mean that people as stupid as you should be able to recognise them. After all, statistically speaking, one of those stupid is bound to a use them too. Good luck for your next posh holiday though. I am very jealous how people who seem to be ignorant are living such happy lives. So jealous

How do you know that helena. My heart does out to refugees. Just to clear that up.

Let me put it this way: your wrist band reminded you that you were on a lovely holiday or festival or whatever. Their wrist band reminds them that they have just left a very hard struggle behind , with so many loved ones still possibly stranded there, and that they have still got a long way to go as they have to make a proper living in this country for their future generations. How's that for a wrist band, eh?

Death camps came after long campaigns against the Jews

Totally agree. And not just refugees. I have very dear friends and family in England who are Muslim, and when I read all the hate on mumsnet and listening to it everyday on the BBC, I really fear for them.

As for the wristbands and front doors, I find it so sad that anyone would identify an asylum seeker and want to beat them up, but then again there has been such a campaign against them for so long, I shouldn't be surprised. Just like with the disabled, when the government put so much effort into stirring up hatred against them.

Ooh, It started with marking them I think. Them Jews.

Perfect shit-stirring campaign on behalf of media. Weapons of mass distraction.

Monty/Helena - I wanted to ask the same question. The guy who killed 10 Germans in turkey had entered the country as a Syrian refugee, for example. Mohamed Emwazi came here as an asylum seeker in the 1990's, and look how he turned out.

I am sickened by what we see of the refugees' situation, and think we should be doing more, but there will be a tiny percentage of bad apples amongst the many decent people (just as there are here), and also there will be evil people (eg the paris atrocities) who try to use this terrible situation to their advantage. Such fear is exactly what the evil people want, as of course it works to their advantage if people target asylum seekers and civil unrest grows over here.

Somehow the uk has to try and help as much as we can - but also be alert to the 0.1% who aren't what they seem. It doesn't get any more difficult than that.

It's a sickening sorry mess with more tragic unnecessary deaths every day. and I don't see how the world is even going to start untangling it

I can understand why the company opted for wristbands - easy, cheap, and most Britons under 40 will be used to wristbands as ID at festivals, on holidays etc. I dare say that they did not intend to cause distress or offence.

But these people aren't Britons, and they aren't on holiday, and if the people taking the decisions had been better educated then they would have realised that making a group of people carry visible symbols of their status has very nasty historical parallels.

Is that you Katie Hopkins?

Is it just me utterly terrified that there are people this stupid? Worse that our future pensions rely on them.

I despair. We're going backwards! Racism, sexism, inequality, violence...

People in the area have said it is nothing to do with wristbands and they feel uneasy going past the hostel.

I think the whole wristbands thing is just being used as a political weapon, any excuse to compare the opposition to Nazis.

I'm not surprised as doubted the whole story, its winter, wristbands would be easy enough to hide.

So, the locals were scared of the refugees at their centre and thought up the wristbands to mark them?
Nothing to do with marking them, then?

Even if they are easier to hide in winter, they pop out easily, and Summer is coming at some point.

The locals do feel intimidated going past the hostel (me included), where gangs of young men hang out, not because they are refugees, but because they are a large gang of men! And, no they didn't think to mark them with a wristband, the hostel thought of that to identify them so they could get free meals, that's all. Not well thought out, I agree, but not intentionally to mark them out.

I agree that "othering" is problematic and needs to stop, claiming ignorance of the consequences is not a defence and someone should have known enough to object to the wristbands long before they were implemented.

Also, the locals that are scared of the refugees, because of 20 young men hanging around outside the centre - Isn't this exactly like walking past a pub since the smoking ban came into effect? In fact, it should be more comfortable since there is a far higher chance that the men in front of a pub are drunk! I suspect that it's more internalized xenophobia "oh look, those people aren't my people" that causes the fear and that makes me sad.

^Death camps came after long campaigns against the Jews

Totally agree. And not just refugees. I have very dear friends and family in England who are Muslim, and when I read all the hate on mumsnet and listening to it everyday on the BBC, I really fear for them.

As for the wristbands and front doors, I find it so sad that anyone would identify an asylum seeker and want to beat them up, but then again there has been such a campaign against them for so long, I shouldn't be surprised. Just like with the disabled, when the government put so much effort into stirring up hatred against them.^

It seems to be happening with a lot of groups. Single parents, disabled, unemployed - just look at the tosh the have on C5 and yes, muslims. Anyone who is not white, middle class can be targeted, depending which media outlet you look at.

Most people are educated enough to ignore it but there is a growing and not insignificant minority that would happily bring back work camps for the poor, concentration camps for refugees etc. It scares me that these people have such a voice.