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?

Exactly op doesn't mean apolitical they mean a charity that agrees with THEIR politics!

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.

OK, let's work within your world view then and consider that these children have been dragged to the Calais Camp by their greedy economic migrant adult. They have endured all manner of harsh conditions on this journey that they had no say in while their adult ignored one safe haven after the other so that they can chase the money. And now they are stuck in the dumping ground known as Calais Camp and because their parents refuse to seek asylum they are hungry, poorly clothed, living in squalor and chaos. Any child enduring such conditions because of selfish carers must be considered abused - and that is best case scenario as abuse goes in these conditions.

Why the fuck would you begrudge this child of greedy economic migrants a back pack of stuff to make them more comfortable? Why would you resist a school's efforts to help this child? For your child to see that they can make a small difference in the quality of life of that child? For your child to see that those things that they can take for granted can be lost in fleeing war or persecution or in being dragged through the pits of hell as a politcal pawn/ negotiation capital by greedy economic migrants?

A lot of the people fleeing Syria have already done the "nearest safe country" thing. A significant proportion of the Syrian population (perhaps as much as 10%) before the Syrian war were refugees from Iraq. They stopped in the nearest safe country and look where that got them. I completely understand why they want to leave the region entirely. In the 1930s lots of Germany Jewish families moved to the nearest safe countries like the Netherlands, Belgium or France. Those countries didn't stay safe for long. Those that did whatever they could to get themselves or their children to Britain or the USA lived whilst many of those who stayed in the "nearest safe country" did not. If I was a Syrian refugee I would not want to stay in the region at all, I would fear that ISIS might be on my doorstep again in a few years

Surely charity donation is up to the individual. The choice of charity a school chooses is more significant as parents feel compelled to give. Increasingly people are more questioning over the charities they choose. Charities such as children in need and comic relief are supported by many schools - some of the projects they support are not necessarily ones that many would agree with. The problem in that case is that we don't always know what those causes are. In the op case I think it was unwise of the school to choose this charity given the fact this is a contentious issue.

Just to note Calais Action is not a registered charity. They describe themselves as a direct giving aid and advocacy fund.

Not being a registered charity does not mean they are doing anything wrong - plenty of groups aren't registered charities either because they have a political purpose, like Greenpeace, or they are only set up to benefit one person, like a fund to seek private treatment for a sick child. Or they may be too small to register if they have less than £5k a year income.

But not being registered means they do not have to publish their accounts each year so it is harder to find out information about how they spend their money. If you think the organisation is being badly run or not being honest about how it has spent its money you cannot complain to the Charity Commission if it is not registered.

So while I am making no judgement about whether what this organisation is doing is a good thing or not, you might want to make the school aware it is not a registered charity so that they can make an informed decision about still supporting it. The Charity Commission does advise on giving safely and makes people aware that donating to an organisation which is not a charity has some risks.

Unless you are accusing Calais Action I'd curruption (and there is NO evidence of this) then if you donate a rocks acl of toys and essentials (toothbrush etc) you can be sure it will be hand delivered to a child who needs it in one if the camps. Nothing is waayed in admin. The volunteers pay to go out there out of their own pockets AFAIK.

Sorry I should preview!

rocks acl = rucksack
waayed = wasted

For clarity regarding his group's status, this is from their FB page:
"Calais Action is a direct-giving aid and advocacy group registered as a charitable fund under the auspices of Prism the Gift Fund (reg. charity no 1099682)"

Twelly plenty of us have said the OP doesn't have to donate, but as an individual the op has no right to dictate what the school does which is what they are seeking to do by complaining.

Not to mention the lack of sympathy/empathy, knowledge of the situation, hypocrisy over charity and politics being connected...

Thanks sarah

Useful posts.

Guardian article published yesterday which encapsulates a lot of what has been said here.

It would. The guardian hardly lacks bias.

YANBU.

I think those who brought these young people here as economic migrants are immoral criminals and we should not reward them.

There are countless global children's charities that schools can support without such clear political bias.

Absolutely, they come to fill their money grabbing pockets but the STAY for the backpack of second hand children's clothes.

...they STAY...

Mooingcow

You are hardly "rewarding immoral criminals" by giving a child in a desperate situation a backpack of clothes and a tube of toothpaste. I can't quite imagine how broken one's moral compass must be tio equate the two things.

yeah those immoral criminals, living it up in a camp, rolling around in free toothbrushes donated by mugs like us, how lucky are they! I wish I was there with all that free toothpaste instead of safe at home with my safe children in my house going to work ;)

What a sad, sad post! Help, compassion, kindness - should they be limited to certain groups/types of people? Unaccompanied children! Re-read that - unaccompanied CHILDREN! Think of your own son on the other side of the world with absolutely nothing, and without you or his dad. You are being absolutely vile, not unreasonable, but vile. A fucking backpack Is not a political statement, it's a gesture, a small act of kindness, a way of saying "someone cares" and hopefully brightening that child's no doubt very bleak outlook. I hope you do complain to the school, so they know what they're dealing with.

Look forward to a lot more of this kind of sentiment after Brexit.

Kondo - because doing so would send a message to other potential economic migrants and encourage them to make the same journey. We have to make illegal entry to the UK as unappealing as possible in order to deter them.

Much as Australia has done - a hard line, no exceptions.

If my child was in that situation I would want the police to go in and take them to social services to be looked after. I would not want well wishers enabling god knows what kind of traffickers keep them in a squalid camp.

Jesus Christ, I give up. You are beyond resson.

Reason.

OK, take it to its other conclusion. So, we let the first few thousand in, then the next few thousand. Where does it end? No one can ever answer this. So to get back to the OP's actual question, this is why it's political. A school should not be supporting something like this.