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AIBU?

Share your dilemmas and get honest opinions from other Mumsnetters.

Original poster

To think they should vet people offering home to refugees?

82 replies

youllneedthisfish · 15/03/2022 12:47

All morning I’ve heard people being interviewed about the Ukraine refugee scheme. Even interviewers are minimising the risks of not vetting people taking refugees in.

I think this is going to be a great risk to vulnerable children and adults.

Even dogs who need a home are lucky enough to get their new homes vetted under quite infamously strict criteria.

I know nearly all people offering this help will be genuine but I can’t help think a tiny few will be nasty in quite a few different ways.

I really hope that it works out well and that the charities with resources to vet before recommending a named family will step in and gatekeeper this - but perhaps that’s why they asked for you to name someone.

I haven’t a spare room currently or I’d be on the list- but you do need a car where I live not to be isolated - how will that works out for people

OP posts:
StillWeRise · 15/03/2022 17:18

many people will already have a DBS check

2Rebecca · 15/03/2022 17:20

There aren't lots of public sector workers twiddling their thumbs at the moment. If they make it as strict as fostering hardly anyoone will be able to come. One moment people are moaning that we aren't accepting enough refugees, the next moment we don't have enough regulations and red tape. If everyone needs a 1 hour visit by a person who hasn't yet been appointed to vet people then we'll take in hardly anyone for the next month.

BlanketsBanned · 15/03/2022 17:21

Sadly even with checks there will always be nasty perv fuckers who take advantage but whats the alternative.

stayathomer · 15/03/2022 17:23

Last week on the irish news they interviewed a lady who was all about taking in a family. She was sitting in the most palatial pristine kitchen and was talking about her duty in a way that made me roll my eyes. I shuddered thinking of living with her for any longer than a day and thought about that aspect of it (although I know this thread is more about the safety element)

L40Postcode · 15/03/2022 17:23

Those in the sponsoring households will also be subject to security checks and may be subject to safeguarding checks too. Checks may be carried out on a rolling basis.

That’s all I can find about checks, no details of what checks exactly, and who will be carrying them out. All very vague.

CannaBelieve · 15/03/2022 17:25

Everyone in the house needs a DBS check? Who pays that cost? Is it the enhanced version?

CannaBelieve · 15/03/2022 17:26

Eligibility check?
Safeguarding check?
Security check?

Who does these checks and what do they actually consist of?

Mrsjayy · 15/03/2022 17:27

I saw a few well known people have offered I'm assuming they are offering them property to stay in and not in their spare room!

Mischance · 15/03/2022 17:27

NSPCC have been raising this.

I am sure that most hosts will be entirely genuine. The problem is that homes are needed urgently and it might be hard to do the sort of checks that would normally happen. I think you have to have DBS - not sure about that? - Just googled and found this from the Daily Mire: "Hosts will also have to undergo criminal records checks first, with Health Secretary Sajid Javid saying a 'basic level of security checks' would apply."

Mrsjayy · 15/03/2022 17:28

Everyone in the house needs a DBS check? Who pays that cost? Is it the enhanced version?

Maybe pay their own,

gogohm · 15/03/2022 17:29

There's a vetting procedure, they will do basic background checks. Essentially though it is like having a lodger so there's no statutory requirement to check. I'm involved in a group offering to place 20 families in our town (with those of us who don't have room supporting those who do) and it isn't straight forward, we have direct links to Ukraine via a resident and as soon as we get the go ahead a local coach company has offered to fetch them from Poland.

52andblue · 15/03/2022 17:32

@Turningpurple

I agree. I think there's going to be chaos.

I think loads of people applying do not understand how difficult this will be. I would say a good portion will really struggle and end up asking the refugees to leave and causing more upset. I think loads of people are no prepared for this.

I think we could end up housing vulnerable women and children, with hosts who are vulnerable themselves and will be a shit show for all.

And then yes, there's going to be a portion that have sinister intentions. And that probably won't out for 10-20 years.

I agree. Refugees may also arrive in an extremely traumatised state. There needs to be thorough vetting and ongoing support for all parties. I hope the Govt take advice from charities & MH professionals re this scheme, as well as safeguarding experts.
Theeyeballsinthesky · 15/03/2022 17:34

Jakes Cleverley has said Charities & faith groups would lead on matching volunteers with families & the local authorities woukd get the help they needed but it’s a bit light on detail to say the least

Mrsjayy · 15/03/2022 17:34

have this awful feeling a lot of these women and children are going to end up abused, either in prostitution or domestic service. My heart aches for them.

This is such a worry 😟 hopefully it doesn't happen

Firefliess · 15/03/2022 17:36

I think some light touch vetting is a good idea (eg DBS checks). But what seems to me much more important is setting up other services so that refugees who do find themselves in environments where they're at risk or things aren't working out have someone to contact to help them find somewhere else.

Anything akin to the kind of vetting we put prospective foster carers through would take months and expose refugees who need help now to far more risk than they'd be taking by moving into rooms in people's houses.

I'm not sure vetting the refugees sounds very practical, beyond possibly a screening questionnaire checking for serious mental health issues or other needs that would make them unsuitable. Requiring references or police checks seems somewhat impractical.

CannaBelieve · 15/03/2022 17:39

@Mrsjayy

Everyone in the house needs a DBS check? Who pays that cost? Is it the enhanced version?

Maybe pay their own,

£ 44 for an enhanced dbs and a 2 week wait

4 adults in our house. Can't afford it

Firefliess · 15/03/2022 17:40

DBS checks are free for volunteers btw. So if the government decides to ask hosts to have them, I would assume they'd make them free for them too. And hopefully recruit some additional manpower to process them (or allow a temporary slight time extension to existing certificates to free up some resource) DD had a DBS check a few weeks ago for a new job and it came back within a week, so I think they're ok at the moment at least.

MrsDThomas · 15/03/2022 17:41

It should work both ways.

AlternativePerspective · 15/03/2022 17:49

I’m no fan of this government but they can’t win.

First they’re criticised for not letting in an unspecified number of refugees, so they make that possible by asking the public to, wherever possible, sponsor them in their homes,and then they’re accused of passing the buck. What exactly are they meant to do?

We don’t have the means to house an unspecified number of refugees here for an indefinite amount of time. I suspect this war will be a lengthy one, and many of these now refugees will in fact never go back to Ukraine.

In terms of vetting we need to be careful. People absolutely need to be vetted where possible, on both sides. But people need to think twice when making such statements as that women and children are going to be abused on a mass scale. If someone said that these refugees coming in will likely be stealing from their hosts, abusive to their children and so on there would be outcry. Yet it’s just as possible that refugees could be nasty individuals as it is that hosts could.

No refugee situation is going to be perfect. It’s just not possible. But we need to start from the premise that the people who are scared and running from war are doing so to protect their families, and that those taking them in are doing so for altruistic reasons. If we assume that it’s all a ploy for rapists and sex offenders to get their hands on small children then we might as well abandon the scheme and admit that Britain is too much of an abusive culture to let in refugees, which is of course ludicrous and not true.

Chloemol · 15/03/2022 17:53

Read the Gov.uk website

They will be vetted

DesertStorms · 15/03/2022 18:00

A visit to your home isn’t much of a vetting check. Unless someone has a criminal record, how are they going to know what someone’s true intentions are?
Plenty of adopted children have been abused by vetted families.
Look what happened during the war to children who were sent out to other families in the countryside.
Most of these displaced people are traumatised women and children.
I saw a man on the news this morning saying he and his son had offered their home. He has lost his wife very recently. All kinds of potential issues there, though he is clearly well intentioned.

2bazookas · 15/03/2022 18:19

People who offer space in their home will be vetted. So will the accommodation.

The govt has online access to huge amounts of personal records and it's naive to think they won't use it.

Bywayofanupdate · 15/03/2022 18:21

They are

freshcarnation · 15/03/2022 19:02

I think it's a scheme that has potential to go horribly wrong. When we were in foster carer training years ago we were taught about the traumatised children and teenagers who would be potentially coming into our care. Many carers imagine that they will be looking after delightful, grateful little poppets who will fit beautifully into their families. In fact fostering can be incredibly traumatic to the host family.

There is no guarantee that an incoming family will be a good match for the host family. What will happen if there is a personality clash? If there is a breakdown in the arrangement?

DesertStorms · 15/03/2022 19:23

I just heard a government minister saying the vetting system isn’t in place yet and will be a ‘light fingered approach’ . Hmm.