AIBU to think that this is political and should not be supported by a state school

[FlamingoCroquet]

(I have name-changed as this is very identifiying to any other parents or teachers from the same school. But I've been on here for 8 years)

DC's primary school informed us in the newsletter that the school is supporting a scheme to provide aid - specifically a backpack of items - to unaccompanied boys age 11-17 at the Jungle camp at Calais, in partnership with an organisation called Calais Action. They are asking parents/children to donate. This is to coincide with Refugee Week.

I'm very uneasy about this. I don't want to get into an argument about the whole migrant/refugee debate, but I feel that this is a political action and should not be supported by a state school. I am not against helping refugees in general, and would not complain if they were raising money for the Red Cross or Medicins Sans Frontieres. But I have major misgivings about supporting a group called Calais Action.

I'm thinking about emailing the school governors to raise my complaint, but I'm reluctant to be seen as that person who is anti-charity, when my DD has several years left at this school. What do you think?

You have given us a different take on the situation. A few posts ago someone said that they had NOT applied for asylum in France because they do not want to live there, feel the French are hostile etc etc. That kind of explanation has been on MN for nearly a year now, but here you are saying that they have applied for asylum. Are these the people who did not want to live in the new temporary housing the French provided them?

You'll see in my post I said many, not all. And it's despite the situation with the brutality from the French police, because they feel they have no other option.

The shipping containers that have been set up to house people in The Jungle do not meet huminitarian standards, and also there are not nearly enough of them to house all of the people in the Jungle. not by a very, very long way. The same goes for the camp in Dunkerque - although the conditions there are better adn the mayor of Dunkerque is very sympathetic.

This information comes from volunteers on the ground in Northern France. Both long term and shorter term volunteers. People who work with the refugees every day.

love the way this is getting off topic when we were talking about the children in the camp.

But yes, a significant number in the Jungle have applied for asylum. The French do not offer any accommodation for these people.

The containers are full, there is a waiting list for them.

Yes there are some people using violence to stop trucks, they do not represent the vast majority in the camp, just like the football hooligans do not represent the vast majority of fans.

The unaccompanied children are just that. They aren't pretending, no matter how much some here may assert that.

Call me a wet lefty but I wouldn't resent a kid getting a backpack of useful stuff even if they are accompanied by an adult.

I've travelled to and from 'the continent' many times since the Jungle was established and have never so much as seen a refugee, no matter been hassled by them.

I have a huge number of friends - women in the main - who regularly volunteer in the Jungle and the camp in Calais. They haven't built the camps but they are trying to create an infrastructure to keep the people who are living there alive.

There are lots of things you can do to help the people there - time and stuff is just as welcome as money. For more information, contact www.facebook.com/groups/CalaisMigrantSolidarityActionFromUK/?fref=nf

Thank you :)

I'm refusing to RTFT, OP. This makes me sick. WTF? Uneasy about charity for kids? Go search for your soul.

I can understand your unease, but I think this is an occasion when you should ask your child what he wants to do, and if he wants to support it, then help him to do so. His motives will be purely altruistic.

Call me a wet lefty but I wouldn't resent a kid getting a backpack of useful stuff even if they are accompanied by an adult.
Me too. God forbid your own child was scratting by in the Jungle OP, wouldn't you desperately like to hope that someone somewhere knew and gave just a moment's care?

This thread actually makes me feel ill. OP what is wrong with you?! Who gives a flying fuck if it is or isn't political - these people, children, have come from desperate situations, taken the most drastic course of action in a last chance to make their lives better, and they are suffering and living in inhumane conditions. Why the actual fucking fuck would you not want your children to be taught that it's the right thing to do to help them?! It isn't about politics, it's about compassion- where is yours?!

This is not political. This is about helping people in need and hopefully teaching the kids to help other regardless any political agenda.
Wow

Also OP "the whole migrant/refugee debate"
This says a lot about you

Flamingo I really hope that you and your children dont have to "chose to leave a country"
Unbelievable. Refugees have to fled extremely dangerous conflicts created by the kind of people that have a mentality like yours.

I do hope that you speak up at school, just so everyone can see your true colours

Wow. I also hope your children can learn kindness and morals somewhere elSe

Flamingo there are debates about conservation of the red squirrel. Yet it would be a political issue to go pet one
Ffs

"I am not racist ffs"
Yet I rather have this disgusting people staying in france and not coming to the UK

Who are you kidding OP?

You support Doctors without Borders becAuse it cleans your conscience and they go "over there" instead of bringing "these people" here
You are very much a "not in my backyard" type of person huh

Call me a wet lefty but I wouldn't resent a kid getting a backpack of useful stuff even if they are accompanied by an adult.

Same here.

I agree and believe the issue is political. I therefore believe that the school should not choose this as a cause. I think the section of a school charity is something that many schools do not think through. Parents and carers have views as to where they wish to donate their money and therefore a non-contentious charity would be most appropriate

I've always wondered how the applying for asylum in the first country you get to rule works. Surely it can't be literal, or else virtually nobody would ever be entitled to claim asylum in the UK unless they snuck in illegally, or France started persecuting its own citizens? As for whether clothing and feeding unaccompanied children is political, I would agree with the poster/s who said that is a humanitarian act and that it only becomes political when you ask yourself whether this might be encouraging more unaccompanied children to go there and whether it is therefore politically more expedient to make them suffer.

The "first country" rule is unrealistic anyway, because it just doesn't recognise the reality of modern travel and of things like trafficking. In some cases, refugees have to get on whatever plane they can get to leave the country as fast as possible for their own and their families' safety. Clearly they can't force that plane to land in the nearest safe country. Many are dependent on other people, including traffickers, to get them out, and again they have no choice about what their transport is or where it stops. But it's one of those mantras regularly used by the likes of the Mail's most bigoted readers as a reason to excuse themselves their refusal to produce so much as one penny to help refugees.

You're not a wet leftie. You are a decent human being.

Some of the people on this thread that would see kids denied money for food or a bag of someone else's cast off clothes really need to take a long hard look in the mirror and a long think about what horrible gullible cretins they are.

Oh Lord. How sad some people are. Donate or not but please get some enlightenment!

or France started persecuting its own citizens?

That's how I ended up here. Or at least about 0.1% of me did. France was a Catholic Country in the 1600s. My ancestors were Protestants. My family were refugees and sought asylum.

From the blonde hair I happen to have I suspect I also have quite a lot of Viking blood in. Ie coming over and invading.

I doubt I'm anything special. Does anyone not have refugees and invaders in their blood?

Op - if you are concerned that this is political and that the children are not really children then make sure your backpack is aimed at an 11 year old. It is probably more fun for a primary school child to do one like that anyway.

I could never figure out why the "first country" rule was ever agreed. Now it looks like Greece is going to have to keep the huge number of refugees that have landed on its shores, while Cameron smugly says that he will only accept 20,000 over five years, while unaccompanied minors are having to risk their lives to illegally get to their relatives.

I don't understand why Brits can live in a country where not 2 generations ago we had evacuees (children of all social classes sent unaccompanied by parents away from bombs to safety - sound familiar?) yet not understand Syrians etc DOING EXACTLY THE SAME!

As for those not wanting to stay in France? (And that's not all of them) In addition to language issues and possibility of having connections to uk (family/friends), there's ohh the fact that the French govt are being a bit shitty to them!

Blackriver do you believe EVERYTHING govt's and msm tell you? And there's no such thing as an 'independant observer' he's not a robot, he has his own political beliefs and personal experiences that will colour what he saw.

'It's not entirely surprising that children retaliated against people taking down the only homes they had. It doesn't make it OK for them to be gassed.' Especially as they came from a WAR ZONE!

'Both of your parents were refugees and yet you hold these views? This is some magical thinking right here.' Yep! Also pulling the ladder up after you! Your parents would be proud of this view??

'Or is it OK to laud humanitarian gestures made for their own sake, and with a deliberate disregard for political difference, when it's happening 2000 years ago, and not on our borders?' (Or back yards?? I wonder if op describes themselves as Christian?)

op also said she supports war child but doesn't like charities being political?

Direct quote from war child's site :

reached by a link 'we've delivered our message to prime ministers'

'We are supporting her to campaign on behalf of the thousands of girls in northern Uganda who are still being denied an education.'

And yes the 'first country' rule is utterly ridiculous! Politically and economically because when a situation erupts that means the first geometrically available country will be swamped!

YANBU Flamingo but the bleeding heart liberals will shoot you down. As you say, there is nothing stopping them from claiming asylum in France, or indeed in any other safe countries they will have traveling through to get to France. They are economic migrants, pure and simple, and yes it is political. I would be contacting the school, for sure.

OP can you suggest a different charity that doesn't seem so political to you?

Would you be happy with a local food bank? (although the need for them has also been discussed in parliament)

A charity for homeless children? (although in your terms they might also be internal migrants who have "chosen" homelessness)

What about foreign aid? Shoeboxes for S African kids who are largely in need due to the legacy of politically endorsed racism in their country?

A child who needs specialist cancer treatment that isn't funded by the NHS?

Most people in need are in need because of politics. Just don't help anyone eh?