Where will the refugees coming to the UK live?

[Meeklynamechanged]

In no way a goady thread, I fully support helping the people fleeing such horrid circumstances, but genuine question.. where will they live? Where do we put people?

Where I live we have people waiting 10 years for a council property. Most areas around the UK have a huge deficit in available housing that doesn't meet demand.

With so many families stuck in overcrowded hostels and B&B's, families of 5 in 1 bed flats, I can't see where all of the required the housing will come from?

some one who has never made an attempt to find employment or give anything back to this county

Are you suggesting that everyone on the housing lists fits into these categories?

Will the 'spare rooms' be available for our homeless too??

And for those of you offering up your spare room, what’s stopping you doing that for a U.K. person? Aren’t they worthy enough? And how do you think the underclass feel whenever they see people falling over themselves to help refugees and not giving a shit about English people? Because that will end well.

Something like vegan recyclers vs mass consumers etc

Yes, there have been a few of these threads as well lately

I'm from the Afghan/Pakistan border, came to the UK as a child with no English, left school with mostly As, went to a UoL university and have been working full time since then and I'm now a head of dept in a major company.

Don't write us all off please.

And for those of you offering up your spare room, what’s stopping you doing that for a U.K. person?

The woke don't seem to care about UK people

Posting these again from a PP for anyone who does want to help:

Room for Refugees: www.roomforrefugees.com
Refugees at Home: www.refugeesathome.org

There are loads of (bleeding heart liberals, obvs) people who offer up spare rooms - but this is only people who can afford to do it because they have spare rooms to offer. Believe many of these charities started to help the Syrian refugees five year ago, but I may be wrong.

The problem is though, many/most of the refugees are relatively young men, and they don't generally advise taking a single man in the house if you have young kids. When we were in touch there were quite a few solo female refugees with young kids though. It's mostly a very short term commitment to start with. They're often just needing somewhere for a few weeks/month whilst awaiting paperwork for official re-housing to be sorted.

SharonasCorona Most are concerned about resources and integration of a large number of people perhaps, I don't think there's any negative sentiment about any group in particular

[quote burritofan]For those talking about giving a spare room to a refugee, my friend did this a few years ago and wrote about the experience. It’s not a case of signing up and a stranger lands on your doorstep – you’re introduced first:

www.theguardian.com/lifeandstyle/2017/may/13/i-gave-a-room-in-my-house-to-a-refugee-now-shes-like-my-sister[/quote]
Yes, you're introduced, you have time to think about it and back off if it isn't right. The refugee and you both sign up to a list of house rules (eg respecting space, they aren't allowed to have people in the house, they can't use your address for stuff). Also if you feel at all uncomfortable with the person, you can stop hosting immediately. The agencies that place them check in with you to make sure everything is ok, the agencies that work directly with the refugees will check to make sure everything is ok. You don't have a random person turn up on your doorstep that you have to do everything for unexpectedly!

All of the people we've had stay are so reluctant to impose on us. They just want to get on with their lives and are stuck in an awful system.

As for the whataboutery of "would you do this for a homeless person", if there was a similar scheme that meant their background was checked and they were being given full support to get back on their feet whilst they stayed in my home - then possibly. Would I just walk up to someone on the street and take them home? No, I'm a lot more risk averse than a lot of people on this thread seem to think I am.

I recognise it's not an option for a lot of people, I'd feel a lot less comfortable with hosting men if I was single. It's not obligatory - you don't want to volunteer, fine, no one is forcing you into it! It's a privileged position to have the space to be able to do it and not everyone is ok with other people in the house. Half of MN don't seem to like guests for a coffee, let alone staying over.

But they're people. They could be your son, daughter, brother, sister, parents etc. They've had to flee their homes in fear for their lives - imagine that was you, wouldn't you want wherever you ended up to not immediately just reply with "we don't have space for you"? They don't necessarily want to come here, they want to be at home and alive and free.

SharonasCorona Great. Well done you. How do we figure out which refugees will turn out like you and which ones will still be tribally entrenched and refusing to let their girls access higher education and choose whether to get married or not, let alone engage with radical groups because they’ve spent 20 years living in a country where a significant proportion of residents are hostile to them? You can’t - and if the country is going to take that risk the the country needs an honest discussion about the risks and potential benefits.

And isn’t it funny how most of the refugees are able young men with no caring responsibilities? My condition would be women and children only. Men can stay behind and sort their own shit out.

I firmly believe we have a responsibility to help Afghan people. The one thing I foresee though is how are we going to manage this with all these long, housing waiting lists (10 years where I am) and a Pandemic to pay for. Our NHS is on it's knees too. The people arriving will possibly need medical care and much support. There is a mental health crisis in this country that no one seems to be talking about or care about. There seems to be so many people needing help these days, how do we do all this? Genuine question. I feel so sorry for the refugees and right now for the poor people in Haiti, that country has taken a complete battering. Another thing Id like to ask, does anyone know if Saudi, Jordan, Dubai etc help refugees from places like Syria and Afghanistan?

And for those of you offering up your spare room, what’s stopping you doing that for a U.K. person?

The fact that there’s a very good chance they might be an alcoholic would be a major influence on that decision for me. I’ve lived with one of those and frankly once was more than enough.

Let’s be clear about numbers instead of histrionics.

The 5, 000 initially means each U.K. town has a one in four chance of an Afghan refugee being house there. Not exactly liable to be overrun with an invasion are we? Is the post-Brexit Britain really that fragile?

The woke don't seem to care about UK people

Something I’ve noticed....those that don’t want to help ‘foreigners’, usually aren’t interested in helping anyone at all, (including ‘our own’) other than themselves. The ‘charity starts at home brigade’ aren’t very charitable at all IME, it’s just an excuse to air some unpleasant views whilst trying to pretend they’re not unpleasant. They are always unpleasant, again IME.

I think there are a lot of bleeding heart liberal do gooders on this thread

Definition of liberal - "willing to respect or accept behaviour or opinions different from one's own; open to new ideas."

I guess that makes you a stone hearted illiberal egoist?

@Gothichouse40

I firmly believe we have a responsibility to help Afghan people. The one thing I foresee though is how are we going to manage this with all these long, housing waiting lists (10 years where I am) and a Pandemic to pay for. Our NHS is on it's knees too. The people arriving will possibly need medical care and much support. There is a mental health crisis in this country that no one seems to be talking about or care about. There seems to be so many people needing help these days, how do we do all this? Genuine question. I feel so sorry for the refugees and right now for the poor people in Haiti, that country has taken a complete battering. Another thing Id like to ask, does anyone know if Saudi, Jordan, Dubai etc help refugees from places like Syria and Afghanistan?

Jordan has nigh on a million Syrian refugees plus iraqis. Not many Afghans since they are mainly in Iran, Pakistan and, increasingly, Turkey. You can find all the stats here: www.unhcr.org/flagship-reports/globaltrends/

I think there are a lot of bleeding heart liberal do gooders on this thread

You say that like it’s a bad thing.

@Fferny1

I think Priti Patel is saying that with the complete knowledge that we're highly unlikely to be able to bring that many Afghan interpreters here. The Airport is now surrounded and controlled by the Taliban. Anyone who worked with the UK military are now in hiding and too frightened to go to the airport. How many more flights are we going to achieve before the Airport is completely closed by the Taliban.

Fferny. I've watched Afghan airspace over the last week or so. It's been surreal and quite sad to watch aircraft divert around Kabul, and then to see the single Globemaster aircraft go in, and later, fly back out. I think someone on board one of those took a photo that's since made it to the BBC news pages. There's another very large plane in Kabul right now. Like you, I'm wondering how long before the Taliban decide no one's going anywhere.

The translators have already been marked out by the Taliban. All that noise the Taliban are making about allowing things to continue "within the confines of Islam"? Those poor people.

Jo Harris has just expressed precisely what I'm thinking about Johnson: "We will judge this regime by its actions, and not by its words," pontificates Johnson, a man literally elected on bullshit promises, who has done nothing but spout bullshit since, and who was so prescient of the Taliban takeover of Afghanistan that he went on fucking holiday."

Those asking where "all those people" are going. I'd be very surprised if the UK ends up taking more than a few hundred people in the first year. Patel "repatriates" people to places they've no links with n a routine basis. She's already made it so that there are no safe routes to claim asylum (the only way to claim asylum is to be on UK soil, which is why people take heir chances in tiny dinghies.

@Gothichouse40

I firmly believe we have a responsibility to help Afghan people. The one thing I foresee though is how are we going to manage this with all these long, housing waiting lists (10 years where I am) and a Pandemic to pay for. Our NHS is on it's knees too. The people arriving will possibly need medical care and much support. There is a mental health crisis in this country that no one seems to be talking about or care about. There seems to be so many people needing help these days, how do we do all this? Genuine question. I feel so sorry for the refugees and right now for the poor people in Haiti, that country has taken a complete battering. Another thing Id like to ask, does anyone know if Saudi, Jordan, Dubai etc help refugees from places like Syria and Afghanistan?

Also, why would Afghan refugees need all this medical care? Honestly, the people who flee tend to be the healthier and the younger. You don't see many sick and elderly packing their bags and dashing for the airport. They are LESS likely to use medical services. And 20,000 (youngish) people in a country of some 70 million is nothing.

Bleeding heart liberal do gooders, also known as compassionate, open minded people who make the world a better place.

Scoff all you want, if all the world were Daily Mail types like you @DazzlePaintedBattlePants we'd be absolutely miserable.

It's funny because the very same conversations were had about the Syrians, and about the Ugandan Asians, and about the Jews - it goes on and on. Just bloody do the right thing. Think about how much the Jews and the Ugandan Asians (who are now both well established) have CONTRIBUTED to Britain. You're not just providing a refuge but it's good for the country as well.

@SupermanWithTheGreyHair

The woke don't seem to care about UK people

Something I’ve noticed....those that don’t want to help ‘foreigners’, usually aren’t interested in helping anyone at all, (including ‘our own’) other than themselves. The ‘charity starts at home brigade’ aren’t very charitable at all IME, it’s just an excuse to air some unpleasant views whilst trying to pretend they’re not unpleasant. They are always unpleasant, again IME.

Come on now, people who don't want to help foreigners or British people are sometimes very generous towards cats and dogs

Bleeding heart liberal do gooders, also known as compassionate, open minded people who make the world a better place.

Scoff all you want, if all the world were Daily Mail types like you @DazzlePaintedBattlePants we'd be absolutely miserable.

👏 👏 👏 It’s lovely to read so many people having empathy and compassion for others. I’m so used to seeing the opposite.

most of the refugees are able young men with no caring responsibilities?

Well, given the housing stock in our area, most of the refugees here are families with children, so your view may be skewed by where you live.

However, in Afghanistan, some of the most vulnerable people are those who have worked (and this does mean mainly men of working age) for the foreign armed forces.

@SupermanWithTheGreyHair

The woke don't seem to care about UK people

Something I’ve noticed....those that don’t want to help ‘foreigners’, usually aren’t interested in helping anyone at all, (including ‘our own’) other than themselves. The ‘charity starts at home brigade’ aren’t very charitable at all IME, it’s just an excuse to air some unpleasant views whilst trying to pretend they’re not unpleasant. They are always unpleasant, again IME.

"The woke". An interesting phrase used to denigrate those who actually give a shit about other people. So the unwoke are what? Racist, xenophobic "All Lives Matter" zombies who aren't very charitable at all? I suspect so.

Those who use "woke" as an insult tend to be the same ones who want the borders closing (and refuse to consider the obvious disruption that closing the borders would cause to the UK), don't want to help feed hungry and vulnerable people ("Scroungers, the lot: make them work for their food/accomodation").

@LemonRoses. I'd looked at the same figures you did, but apparently, post-brexit Britain really is incredibly fragile.