AIBU to be worried about the next Refugee crisis

[Gin96]

The numbers are starting to accelerate again, the poor people stuck in Greece camps but people from the EU have lost interest, I wonder how this is going to end? Will the EU open the borders again?

www.theguardian.com/global-development/2020/jan/16/catastrophic-conditions-greet-refugees-arriving-on-lesbos

@UtterlyPerfectCartoonGiraffe

You are aware that attributing beliefs, behaviours and opinions to people due to their race is racist, aren’t you. Which is exactly what you have just done.

My unpopular opinion is that the UK contributed to the Middle East (and Africa) being unstable. We reap what we sow.

Your opinion isn't unpopular with me, @AlwaysThinkingOfNames. I entirely agree with you.

I’ve been teaching unaccompanied asylum seeking children for over twenty years now. It’s been one of my main roles in all the secondary schools I’ve worked in since the mid nineties.

Some may be a bit older - I think that was more the case fifteen or more years ago - but the vast majority are clearly around the age they have been put at ( and some genuinely don’t know their age).

I think as a whole they add a lot to our society. They are usually hard working and keen to fit in, massively grateful for the chance of a warm home, enough to eat and more than anything, an education. Some of them have done extraordinarily well - entering good universities and becoming high earning, tax paying citizens.

But their journeys - both actual and metaphorical - are littered with huge trauma, violence, incredible grief and loss, sadness, fear, isolation, danger... everything we try to protect our precious children from at any cost. It really isn’t something anyone would send their child to do so they can have a better fridge, designer shoes and a pension. You wouldn’t do it, you wouldn’t send your beloved child away without being absolutely desperate for his safety.

It's very hard to engage with the... '' Britain's awful empire is the some reason war in Syria and Afghanistan is causing massive refuge crisis and from elsewhere ''

I agree - but equally we can’t sit comfortably as a small, relatively wealthy nation saying it’s none of our business when we are part of a whole planet of people. It dehumanises us to turn away.

Oh Janey. So it’s ok for you to make things up (no UK terror attacks have been committed by afghani or Syrian refugees, you stated they were coming here and blowing us up )

The 21/7 attacks didn’t cause any fatalities and ok, 1 attempt by an Iraqi child refugee. Hardly hordes of bombers is it?

And do not misquote me. I didn’t say “I know your grandfather would be angry at you.” That’s another lie you’ve told.

And point out to me where I attributed beliefs to people based on their race? I’m so confused by you Janey.

I’d have so much more respect for you if you admitted that saying refugees were coming here to blow us up was hyperbole and you misspoke. Why lie and attack?

Help needs to go to their countries of origins. Try and build those countries up and make them a better place to live.
We cant just keep letting millions in, or we will end up in the exact same position they are in now.

Help needs to go to their countries of origins.

and how do we get help there? People are adverse to world aid and adverse to sending money overseas

Well the 21/7 attack and the attempt by an Iraqi child refugee did happen. I think that there is a feeling amongst a high proportion of the population that the government doesn’t know who it is letting in. Which is why we now have a hard right government, who have been voted in to reduce immigration. Corbyn was an option but he didn’t win the election.

Not saying I agree with the above, just stating that I think that is where we are at right now. I won’t be expecting the current government to offer any help to refugees. I expect policy towards immigration and refugees to get tougher over the next 5 years.

Not saying I agree with the above, just stating that I think that is where we are at right now. I won’t be expecting the current government to offer any help to refugees. I expect policy towards immigration and refugees to get tougher over the next 5 years.
If you don’t expect any support for these people who are in a terrible situation from your government, do you not think it’s up to individuals to step forward and try to help? Surely whatever you can offer is better than just accepting Lesbos as it is now?

You go to Lesbos and help then 5zeds.

I don’t have the time to actively help, given I work full time, have a small child and ailing father. These responsibilities are a higher priority to me.

I made my intentions clear when I voted Green and I donate when I can.

You don’t have to go to Lesbos, this

I donate when I can.

Is much more than nothing.

The wealthy West wants all the perks of globalisation without any responsibility. When it suits us we pull up the drawbridge and the media perpetuates the opinion that immagrants are scroungers just draining society, attracted by our bountiful welfare state and taking all the council housing.
Anyone who works with asylum seekers knows that this narrative is complete bollocks and our system actually prevents them contributing to a society they want to be a part of. And often they are sent back to certain death.
Leaving aside the UK's narrow mindedness about remaining part of the biggest free trading block in the world and the huge economic benefit/ free movement of worker which has benefitted the UK economy. What kind of person has an issue with people fleeing persecution and seeking safety for their family? The western world has played a huge part through colonisation/ political decisions and interventions based in protecting their own interests. Of course no country is 'full up' and in the scheme of things the cost to taxpayers is minimal.

The major drain by far on our welfare state is pensioners. Of course that does not mean they should be left to fend for themselves, but the narrative that it is every other group needs to stop. My parents have had the best of the welfare state and none of us will have such advantages. I do not begrudge this but we are paying for it, most have not payed in anywhere near as much as they have received, even if they have worked from aged 15.

willstart, parents differe. My father worked full time to 77 and died at 79. Not all older people have had lovely easy lives by any means and plenty live in poverty in the UK.

on the immigrants issue I think things like our £300m foreign aid to Pakistan should stop as we have plenty of problems in the UK to solve. I certainly support those who think we should stop interfering abroad as much as we have done.

We also need people to know they will be better off just going from Afghanistan to Pakistan not right over to a Greek island to live in a field if you don't die on the way. Those can be riskier journeys than just going to the next country - Pakistan.

If the UK was the nearest country for millions of refugees to flee to, I wonder if we'd still think that no other countries should help take them, and that refugees should always just go to and remain in their nearest safe country?

One reason many want to come to the U.K. (and yes I know that many find refuge elsewhere in Europe) is that if they speak any language other than their own, it’s more likely to be English.

I don’t know what the answer is, when just for starters we already have a dire shortage of affordable housing. I’ve seen the would-be migrants hanging round Calais and feel desperately sorry for them - and feel so guilty to be a comparatively well off Brit sitting in a warm car, with a British passport, just a ferry ride and drive away from a nice warm house.

I have known personally for some years. of a refugee family from Eritrea - I used to help the woman with her English. They have a nice flat, both parents work and the children are settled at school. It would be good to think of all would-be migrants eventually being the same, but given the sheer numbers, I doubt that it’s going to be possible any time soon.

I think we have 250,000 legal immigrants coming here (net after deducting people leaving) every year and don't build eough homes for that plus apparently 1m illegal people. We already have some big issues because of the large numbers. However kind we feel towards them on a personal basis we just cannot take any more. I would consider more if we could halve my annual tax bill and halve my council tax so I didn't feel I was already paying a lot of the costs never mind the £300m a year foreign aid to pakistan etc.

However kind we feel towards them on a personal basis we just cannot take any more. of course we can, there is a world of difference between what you CAN do and what you WANT to do. I think we should consider increasing your tax bill, and see if it really impacts you that much. At a guess (and I am only guessing, you could of course be living very close to the breadline), I think you could probably support one more person single handedly. Of course that isn’t really necessary as we can all do a little bit and together make things massively better for those that can’t help themselves.

I am just getting sick and tired of paying so much income tax (just paid my half yearly bill) and it would be nice to have spare money for savings but that probably can come if and when the children are off my hands - I will work until I die I expect as just have stte pensino.

If we have to support any more people then let it be the poor of Sunderland where I have family. There are more than enough poor people in the UK rather then helping 1 billion from abroad who might like to move here. It might look trendy to take in a refugee from Syria etc but taking in an impoverished young boy of 14 from the streets of NE England might be just as charitable a gesture.

I wish we could have a more balanced view....should we let everyone who crosses illegally into Europe, no we simply cant, should we say to the children in refugee camps who are at risk of being trafficked and abused who have relatives in this country "not our problem"...no!
Both extreme opinions only give weight to the opposite side's arguments.

We have a housing crisis already. There are areas that can’t be built on - flood plains, mountains etc. We also need farm land to feed the current population. Continuously growing the population is not sustainable.

The answer is to make the places the refugees are coming from safe, not move everyone to safe countries. When wars do break out then we need to create safe zones, guarded by the UN, for people to stay in.

If necessary, a system of temporary asylum - set numbers per year, depending on what is going on in the world. Once their countries are safe, they can go back and help rebuild.

There would need to be a better coordinated, global response to do this though.

The answer is to make the places the refugees are coming from safe

And how do you propose that we make Syria (for example) safe for those families? With the best will in the world it will take decades, and will rely on the countries that are destroying Syria ceasing doing so.
And then of course it will take foreign aid. Which people on this very thread want us to stop sending.

We give huge amounts and get veyr little gratitiude for the foreign eiad we give £300m to Pakistan alone. Instead we are regarded as evil empire owners who many detest because a few of the people in the UK at some point in history took over South Africa or India etc I don't think people like the Britisth very much so I don't see why we should bend over backwards with all thise abuse coming our way and so little appreciation. i work about 365 days a year full time or at least work on every day even if not full time on holidays and pay about half of most of what i earn in tax a lot of which goes on the NHS which I don't use, state schools which I don't use, state pension which I may not get as my family dies young - that is the bulk of tax - those 3 things then we have foreign aid, defence of the realm etc.