to be annoyed at so much racism re “the boat people”

[NavyOrca]

A large hotel local-ish to us (around 10 miles away) is currently closed for bookings as it is being occupied by just under 400 asylum seekers.

Recently, in our village and a couple of neighbouring ones, there has been a spate of parcels being stolen from doorsteps. I’m sure you can all work out who has taken the blame for this….! Even though one of the perpetrators is known to be a local lad, born and bred in our village, some people are still blaming others..

The comments on Facebook community groups are disgusting.

Since when has it been acceptable to so readily stick the blame upon those literally fleeing their countries?

I honestly feel that as a human race, we are devolving.

All the people who are questioning what others do to help the British homeless people, if you feel so strongly about these men coming over in boats what are you all doing to help them? Would you all open your homes to them? Everyone will say they would but their circumstances mean they conveniently can't because the reality is, as many people will firsthand experience have pointed out on this thread, they don't have any regard for women and children in their own countries so why would they treat you any differently?

That's really interesting. It would appear that they are keeping families separate from the overwhelming number of single men.

That's a really good thing to hear. Although it does add more weight to the idea from other posters that this hotel is more or less entirely young men if they are putting families in separate accommodation together.

This.

We have had a local hotel taken over for asylum seekers. The council has said that it is about 350 people and confirmed that all men. So 400 men is not unbelievable.

I’d guess because they’re more capable of trekking thousands of miles over mountains, and enduring freezing, perilous sea crossings. Just a hunch but if I were in their shoes I’d think it would make far more sense to send the strongest family member on a dangerous journey across many countries. Once they had established legal leave to remain, the wife and children could follow legally without risking their lives.

400 undocumented, unemployed men are a risk to women and children.

Their skin colour, religion, culture is irrelevant to this fact.

This would be my guess too. I have no idea what other reason it could possibly be.

Honestly I think people are struggling so much in this country that I completely understand that they have had enough.

I say this as someone who came to the UK 33 years ago as a legal immigrant and became a British citizen 10 years ago.

The infrastructure is crumbling (housing, schools, hospitals, benefits) to support the people who already live here and there is no way we can continue to welcome more people, especially as most of them are economic migrants.

I don't think it is racist to say that if a country can't look after its current population, it needs to stop illegal immigration. That's just common sense.

No wonder people have had enough, especially as politicians seem to be unable to get to grip with the asylum system and illegal crossing and people who are not doing anything to integrate with our society and values.

As a woman I would feel very uncomfortable living near 400 young men who are not employed and are just left to hang about the town. Many of them will have no documents and we know nothing about their backgrounds.

@DingDongVerilyOnHigh According to ONS statistics 97% of sexual assaults are committed by men and over three quarters of violent crimes. There is a reason women fear big groups of men.

I'm with you OP.

I’d rather give you empathy.

They're not fleeing war. Many are coming from Morocco and other countries that are safe. They're coming through safe countries to get here. It isn't racism to object to 8 million being spent a day to house these people in hotels whilst children are living in poverty and pensioners can't afford to heat their homes, many of which will die.

So you're in favour of people risking their lives in small boats. What about the criminals behind all of this who are making vast amounts of money who couldn't care less what happens to these people once they are in the boat.

Nobody should be making the journey across the channel this way. France is not a country at war. They don't need to make this journey.

I agree we should take "our share" but not via this route.

I totally agree OP. I am in Ireland and in some ways I was very proud of how our communities welcomed Ukrainians (as an example) but there were still certain situations that sickened me on local Facebook pages.

Eh? Where does OP say the thief is underprivileged? Even if he is, do you think he ‘deserves’ to steal parcels? What nonsense.

A million? Where are you getting that figure? In the year ending June 2024 the government says it granted refugee status to 67,978 people. And there were 93,342 given a safe and legal route to the UK - majority of whom were Ukrainian and those with BNO passports including those from Hong Kong. There were 75,658 applications for asylum in that time and you would assume that some of those granted refugee status were included in this number (although the time for processing an application can take over 12 months).
By my calculations that's less than 250,000 so where are you getting the 1 million figure from?

I absolutely feel sympathy for these people. But I can also see why there is tension. Like it or not, there is money being spent on this. It's very hard to get actual facts on how much. We probably started this problem ourselves with our "commonwealth" and made so many counties speak English, but also on various wars we have been involved in and now we are reaping those 'rewards'. These people are very desperate, because you'd have to be desperate to cross the busiest shipping lane in freezing cold water in a barely sea worthy vessel. And desperate people will do desperate things for survival. The hard truth is, many of us have lived relatively sheltered lives and we want to continue doing so. But now the impact of wars far from home is starting to have an impact on us and our way of life, and we don't like it! The only answer to this is peace abroad in the long term to reduce wartorn countries, a redistribution of wealth (why wouldn't you want a better life in a country like ours where you can earn a decent living!) and stopping the traffickers, setting up sting operations to catch them with fake migrants. If the traffickers themselves face extensive jail time and being rounded up they will stop. This will of course require extensive resources and cash itself! Instead of blaming the migrants, who, lets face it are just people trying to survive by any means, and we would do the same in their shoes. Why don't we blame our government who are just not coming up with sensible solutions. The Rwanda policy was complete bullshit. All the money spent on that (millions!!!) and it could have been spent on more sophisticated methods for catching the traffickers. Blaming the migrants doesn't solve anything, it just absolves the government!

Erm, where did I say I was in favour of small boats? Quite a conclusion you’ve come to there.

Completely agree with you, our immigration system has been underfunded for years, there should be safe passage and a quick decision before either integration or deportation. The criminals are being investigated and targeted currently, we will see what comes of that. But cutting off their supply with safe passage would be better.

Well said.

People conveniently ignore the fact that a huge amount are not fleeing war. Back in 2022 we had a hotel full of Albanians until the government at the time struck up a policy to return them with Albania. People lost jobs because the hotel was used solely for this purpose but according to MN they shouldn't get angry about this because these men coming from a country at peace obviously had it tougher. Easy to judge when it's not happening on your doorstep and with up to 98% of them destroying any legal documents it's impossible for any government to know who we have coming in and what crimes they might have committed in their home countries.

You are assuming an asylum seeker has no access to education though?

Perhaps before you accuse people of being lazy you should do some research in terms of where the UK sits compared to other countries in terms of offering asylum.

Attitudes and opinions are more complex than you observe; there's a bigger picture.

The finger pointing could be considered narrow minded, however I personally wouldn't get annoyed about it.

There aren’t that many women in many of the countries of origin. Families seem often to have five or six sons , but only two daughters. That’s unusual as a sexual distribution, especially since girls are often more robust than boys as babies and young children.

So there is a surplus of young men, who cannot inherit the family land , finds wife, or get much access to commercial or educational opportunities. So the family scrapes together enough money to pay the migration enablers to get them to Europe, with its availability of free food, housing and possibly education. Oh and more women .

Exactly. Our county town has changed significantly. Groups of men hang around outside hostels and hotels on the high street. Any group of men is intimidating. It has to stop. We do not have the infrastructure for this.