Lily Allen in Calais

[parrots]

Couldn't find another thread on this. The situation in Calais is awful, but AIBU to see Lily Allen's overtures as slightly virtue signalling and self-indulgent?

Somebody above said unaccompanied asylum seekers have to prove their age. This is not true. Many arrive without documents or come from areas where there is no official registering of birth so they know their age in years. The Home Office records the DoB as 1/1/ Year to give reported age. I work in admissions and we have had schools requesting age checks because the 14 or 15 year old in front of them looks significantly older. These are schools which are majority BME so the schools are used to different development rates. The most memorable being a young man who later was estimated as age 22. This week I've dealt with 2 kids who have been registered as a year older even after getting ILR 3 years ago. The family finally got birth documents and the kids were born 2007 and 2009 not 2006 and 2008.

Unaccompanied children (males) who are lying about their age frequently go missing from their foster placements and disappear as they approach their stated age being 18.

My council is a dispersal area, we have many kids placed here by Kent Social Services. We have had so many cuts we are struggling to provide statutory services. I have no objection to supporting unaccompanied children who are children (we reunited a father and son a few months back, it was wonderful, the boy was only 12) but we simply can't do it on the amount of funding we get. But that's a rant about austerity in all forms...not asylum seeker specific.

war is evil we need love and peace. Time to return to the 60s

Can't stand her. She was trying to attract attention.

Yuck

war is evil we need love and peace. Time to return to the 60s

Are you being ironic?

When the Yazidis were being exterminated, what do you think they prayed for?

Someone in cheesecloth to waft up and cuddle the ISIS troops?

IFeel, can I have some of the drugs you are having as they must be amazing?

I've only got beechams here and it's just not cutting it...

The desperation to pretend there are no kids or pretend the kids are older (and even if they are 13 rather than 9, or 17 rather than 13, they are still kids!!!) is extremely disturbing and it is part of a known psychological phenomenon. People can be victim to racial stereotypes and subtly racial brainwashing in the media without even being aware of it. Think about your own kids before making a judgement and pretend it's your own teenager.

I've worked with early teens and even pre-teens who were well into puberty. I've worked with pre-teen girls who were 5'10 with periods and D cup boobs!

Oh yes the 60's fun days of the Vietnam war

The problem with Lily Allen is that we know she loves a bit of publicity and she likes to be controversial. But I do think she was emotionally overwhelmed by the situation.

But before making such statements when being filmed maybe she should have read up on the history of Afghanistan and the ME after all she has an interest in refugees so why not educated yourself more on the reasons why there are so many.

its unfortunate that many like to view problems as being all rooted in the west and if we had we had not interfered all would be fine. Their is tribal wars that have been going on for centuries, then the split in Islam, the dominance of power hungry religious leaders, the poverty, the lack of education, the discrimination of women and those of another religion, add oil into the mix and corrupt governments that led to the Arab Spring but this all gets very complicated and too much to bother with and just isn't right on enough to bother talking about

I like that Lily Allen is outspoken and hope she stays that way but it's a missed opportunity to raise awareness by opting to be controversial and political

IFeel, can I have some of the drugs you are having as they must be amazing?

It seems to me the name Assad is all but forgotton nowadays, its him after all bombing children in syria...no calls for him to stop is there, or against putin.

Princess, some of them have been proven to be well into their 20's.

I had a fairly decent bust when I was 12/13, however I still looked 12 in the face ( and sadly did till I was about 19 or more).

I am comparing the photo with the many teens I know of many different ethnicities and I can't remember any of that age who had full blown stubble.

My DH is mixed race, most of his family are black. Are you suggesting I've got something subtle against my own husband?

Are you suggesting I've got something subtle against my own husband?

poster littleprincesssara Thu 13-Oct-16 13:45:32

I am black have a white husband and mixed children are you suggesting I hate balck people lol

Do you genuinely think being black or having a black boyfriend jeans you're not capable of holding any form of racist or bigoted beliefs???? That only white people can be Islamaphobic??

Mind-boggling.

Nice try playing the "I have a black friend so I can't be racist" card though.

There are children there. On the last thread I posted a video (from when I personally volunteers there) showing YOUNG children ie primary school age.

But continue insisting they're all secretly adults if you're so comfortable with the idea that basic human rights no longer apply the minute someone hits 18 (or 16, or 13).

My cousin has full blown stubble and beard at 14.

I asked yesterday if here was any proof for the assertion that "most have family already settled here" and (perhaps unsurprisingly) received no answer

So I'll try another one ... do those who've absolutely insisted that the male in the photo with Lily Allen IS thirteen have any proof of that either??

There are some people who see all refugees as being honest, good people who would not lie or try and cheat a system

As with any group of people you will get those that do and those that don't. I don't blame people for trying to beat the system.

I even read on here that no refugees would have contacts or support Isis and if there did they were not real refugees

And I guess that's what it is coming down to now who are genuine refugees and who are not and it has got so out of hand we don't know

But regardless we can't leave children on their own who may have been instructed by family or those trying to make money from this situation

The problems is though as soon as we take in anyone their place in the camp is quickly taken up so maybe the French now can have better control over the camp with stricter controls but that of course is going to upset many people

FluffyPineapple
How come the "13 year old" that was featured was obviously not 13? How come there are so many children in Calais without their parents? How do they think that UK is the only European country to offer them asylum? How many European countries have they passed through to get to France? Who told them the best way to get to UK is to risk their lives hanging underneath lorries? Why are they not being granted asylum in France? Why are they UK's problem? How many refugees is Lily Allen housing at the moment? If rape is a big problem in Calais why should UK open their doors to potential rapists? Can't men keep it in their pants in the "desperate" situation they find themselves in? Shouldn't they be thinking of other things other than getting their end away? Why should parents put their children at risk to "rescue" these animals? Given that Syria is being bombed by Russia why exactly does UK have to apologise?

Totally agree. I would also add that a good percentage of those in Calais are not refugees at all - they are economic migrants from an assortment of countries and should not be allowed into the UK.

This country gives hundreds of millions of pounds in aid to the Syrian refugee camps and brings families to the UK directly from the camps, which is absolutely the right thing to do.

By god you're an odd one princess! I'm seriously good at hiding it then cos I've got friends from lots of different nationalities and ethnicities and I'm clearly secretly hating my own child too.

Basic human rights do apply to everyone. But how the rights are applied in terms of age often differ in that the care available to children differs to that applied to adults. It's not particularly honest to pretend to be something you are not. I've no doubt there are a few very well developed boys around but full beard stubble at the age of thirteen is not particularly common. He could be one but there have been quite a few. Considering that the average nutritional levels available in Afghanistan might be less than would be available here (given that there is war and shortages), would it be common that children would be big for their age, more well developed than those of all ethnicities in the west?

This is the best comment I've seen about this episode. And sums up everything I would want to say about it so it's a copy and paste job for me.....

Lily Allen has gone to Calais and personally apologised "on behalf of my country" to the good folk of the Jungle - who of course (so I understand from the balanced, even-handed media narrative) are trapped in the Nazi hellscape of France and being unfairly prevented from exercising their inalienable right to come to Britain by our outrageous border control laws.

I hadn't realised Lily Allen had authority, delegated or otherwise, to apologise on behalf of the UK for a situation that isn't the UK's fault; no more have I ever quite understood why the people in question aren't claiming asylum in France (or indeed in the first European country where they made landfall), or, while we're at it, why the liberal left habitually slander Britain as an intolerant racist shithole while simultaneously, and with no sense of contradiction, demanding that half the population of the Third World comes here to be oppressed.

However, and wherever you stand on this issue, I think we can all agree that there's nothing guaranteed to soften the public's heart more than a lachrymose sermon from a virtue-signalling millionaire c-lister who will never, ever have to deal with the social and economic consequences of immigration on the frontline. More of this sort of thing please.

scatter where is that from

From Amnesty international website

"The UK is not disproportionately affected by the global refugee crisis, and neither is Europe
By the end of 2014, the global refugee population stood at 14.4 million people – if you discount the 5.1 million Palestinian refugees, who are generally left out of such figures because they are not within the remit of UNHCR, but rather a separate UN agency (the UN Relief and Works Agency).

Countries like Turkey and Pakistan host more refugees than all EU countries combined. Except for Turkey, no European country appeared among the top ten hosts of refugees at the end of 2014. Ethiopia, Kenya, Chad and Uganda were all on that list.

Within the EU, Sweden and Germany have consistently led the combined EU effort in receiving asylum claims and providing protection. France lags behind but for years has still received more than twice the number of asylum claims received by the UK.

Now Italy, Greece, Bulgaria and Hungary are among those far more affected than the UK"

MilkandAssal It sounds as if you are able to answer a few questions re the Calais problem. How come the "13 year old" that was featured was obviously not 13? How come there are so many children in Calais without their parents? How do they think that UK is the only European country to offer them asylum? How many European countries have they passed through to get to France? Who told them the best way to get to UK is to risk their lives hanging underneath lorries? Why are they not being granted asylum in France? Why are they UK's problem? How many refugees is Lily Allen housing at the moment? If rape is a big problem in Calais why should UK open their doors to potential rapists? Can't men keep it in their pants in the "desperate" situation they find themselves in? Shouldn't they be thinking of other things other than getting their end away? Why should parents put their children at risk to "rescue" these animals? Given that Syria is being bombed by Russia why exactly does UK have to apologise??

^^this.

littleprincesssara says "I strongly suggest you read these articles, as there's an awful lot of hypocrisy on MN about children based on race. It's a well-known phenomenon that people perceive non-white kids as being older and more mature than white kids of the same age."

Yes, the reason people think this "child" is not 13 years old is purely down to racism.

Champagne socialist

Sleepyowl, isn't it a bit apples and oranges to compare the UK to Ethiopia, Kenya, Chad, and Uganda? I'm not sure it's about achieving the number one spot in terms of refugees accepted, so much as settling the number of people possible, and the people best suited to finding work and settling into the host culture.

Opinion seems terrifically divided on this, that's for sure!