What's your thoughts on asylum seekers?

[Lynds778]

I'm all for offering asylum to those genuinely in need but I've seen a lot of negative media recently around 'fake' asylum seekers; people pretending to be from war-torn countries etc to gain entry to the country. Also videos of men giving advice for future asylum seekers on where to say you're from so that you can get in.

Also seen a lot of uproar from local communities about asylum seekers behaving anti-socially, most recently hanging around outside a primary school in Deanshanger and it's got me worried.
I'm also wondering why the large majority of asylum seekers are men and there are less women and children?

So, what's your opinion?

Also, this isn't a racist post. I would have the exact same concerns if these were white asylum seekers from Germany for example. The worry is the system is being abused by some and that we are a bit too lax when it comes to documentation and monitoring of asylum seekers.

www.dailymail.co.uk/news/article-14058597/Fake-asylum-seekers-conning-way-Britain-telling-Home-Office-war-torn-Eritrea-bragging-thousands-followers-TikTok.html

www.dailymail.co.uk/news/article-14185169/amp/Four-asylum-seekers-costing-taxpayer-estimated-160-000-year-living-575-000-luxury-home-accused-faking-Afghan-nationalities-UK.html

I completely understand that you aren’t giving out about people: but it’s a myth that they get to jump a social housing waiting list:

It will still potentially be ahead of people waiting, if the asylum family is deemed to have greater need. And that's what people will see.
The fact is that social housing is a very very limited resource now, so any increase to waiting lists is going to land very badly.

New migrants have the advantage of not having any other preceding address so appear entirely homeless.
A 21 year old British person wanting to move out of their parents will have no chance of social housing but a new arrival being kicked out of a hotel will.
The asylum business is big business. There is money to be made. Trafficking. Crap solicitors. Charities. All making money.
Don’t blame the migrants at all. Why not give it a go? There’s a well established process now and a huge market for the product.

I watched a report on the news about AS in a seaside area.
Parents were complaining about these men accosting their young daughters in the way home from senior school

One elderly woman said that they had been seen trying front door handles , trying to get in. Another said one walked straight into her living room

A fair, efficient and sensible immigration policy has been required in the UK for decades.

Successive governments have utterly failed to create one, leading to the complete mess we now find ourselves in.

Immigration has become an incredibly divisive topic; just reading the flaying the OP has received from some posters on here reflects that.

The truth is that many people (usually, senior citizens) are afraid of huge numbers of (mostly) young foreign men from cultures very different to our own illegally entering this country. I don’t think that makes them evil or mean-spirited but is an understandable, rational position. Unfortunately, this fear is manipulated by certain sections of the media, both MSM (yes you, Daily Mail) and social media that leads to much misinformation and often heightens fear.

Alongside this you have uncompromising hardliners on the other side who take the stance that if you even raise the subject/suggest that we as a country need to cap numbers of asylum seekers you must be racist/evil etc etc

A calm, rational national conversation on asylum seekers (and immigration as a whole) is urgently needed but I don't believe we’ll be getting that any time soon….

p.s. The Daily Mail really is a shitty rag. I rarely, if ever, flick on to read there but equally I find the vocal Daily Mail haters somewhat virtue signalling…

I dont want to keep going over this but they do get extra points because technically they are homeless. If someone has been living in overcrowded or substandard housing for many years - a homeless person will still be of higher priority than them. Therefore, asylum seekers- homeless people- are housed before people waiting decades. Certainly in my area they are placed in hotels etc but short term usually & especially if they have children etc they are housed as quickly as possible- again nothing wrong with that but we acutally have a housing crisis already so it doesn't help people who are already feeling hopeless and desperate after waiting many years.

They do need to have received Refugee status to get housed through the social housing system. Nobody rocks up to any county and gets a house straight off the bat. And when they receive refugee status they are often only given 5 years to stay at a time. But yes of course I see your point that after receiving status on a needs based system they will have a higher need as would otherwise be homeless.

I completely understand how the housing crisis breeds resentment in this way. But with 7% of immigrants being asylum seekers, it feels like they get a very hard time for their relatively small number.

For the rest of the immigration system would there be much need for the same housing?

They're a priority over the native population because they have no family links and usually have children in tow, personally I live going to work and paying tax knowing it's to support people from extremely misogynistic and backwards cultures.

This is true, as I've said before I personally work with groups that include asylum seekers and one of them sent me a photo of himself when he posed as fully homeless I.e. not in a hotel but on the street and he was laughing because to him it was absurd, bur he did it as evidence to show the council sk they'd move faster with getting him a house. He later moved his wife and child over to live with him, lovely council house in a city area.

@Veronay well if that happened you can utterly blame the council for using a photograph as proof of homelessness. As he would be registered at an address. Also getting a house and then moving over his family? Very unusual situation. extraordinary really.

@EasternStandard - no I would assume not. But then none of us really know how many refugees end up in social housing anyway. I’m not in the Uk and here most end up staying in the temporary accommodation for a few years as they cannot find a place to rent. there would be very little social housing available and people wait years for it, even if they are at risk of homelessness.

I thought the argument against them was that they are all young men ‘of fighting age’ (whatever that’s supposed to mean)? Now they’ve all brought children so they can jump housing queues?

PP are conflating different types of migration but that doesn't mean they don't have an overall point: that our immigration system isn't a net positive to the existing population and culture. This is for different reasons for different groups but it's sophistry to pretend it doesn't count just because there are multiple systems that aren't working not just one.

The thread is about asylum seekers - who, as has been pointed out repeatedly, make up just 7% of immigration. They really aren’t the problem (if there even is a problem). Immigrants on visas aren’t jumping housing queues.

I thought the argument against them was that they are all young men ‘of fighting age’ (whatever that’s supposed to mean)? Now they’ve all brought children so they can jump housing queues?

Posts covering number of families joining later are below

Exactly. Below t(e comment. That’s not what the poster meant.
Plus the time it takes to get a family here after being given refugee status, I imagine most have sorted themselves. They won’t want to bring a family into homelessness.

Ok so looking into this a bit. Once asylum seekers get refugee status or some other types of leave to remain - they get 56 days to leave their temporary accommodation, find a place to live, open a back account and secure a social payment or a job. Single men remain the most at risk of homelessness - This is why homelessness among refugees has risen by 250% . the very bare minimum of time family reunification decisions take is 3 months - so add time for paper work and travel.

So I would think it’s highly unlikely that these “fighting” age men (whatever this means) move over their families and secure social housing as quickly as this. Particularly as the family reunification figures were 20,000 people last year.

"fighting" age means 18-40, fit for military service. Simples 😊

Like my own DH so. He’s a fighting age male… of course nobody would ever describe him like this.

this language is fear based and used to demonise people.

So the majority then? What’s the significance of it supposed to be?

No, refugees have the same priority as anyone else regarding housing. They are housed by the government as asylum seekers but once they are given refugee status, they can work and rent like everyone else.

I don't have children but my taxes go towards schools, nurseries, free school meals and playgrounds. I love working to pay for other people's children, especially those of narrow minded bigots.

I think the world and half of the Uk forget how small we are as a country.
The whole of the Uk can fit into Australia 32 times. Uk has a bigger population.
France is twice the size. Smaller population.
Even Italy is bigger in size with a smaller population!
Our green belt is diminishing due to being built on due to ever growing housing crisis. NHS is crumbling.
People are registering at a GP surgeries before they even get to the Uk these days by using family members addresses here so they then can come and go as they please whenever they need surgery.
It’s nothing to do with racism but unless they can build an extension onto the Uk, it’s only going to get worse until we close the borders.
on the positive side, it will continue to get so bad no one will want to come.
I would happily leave now if I could.

Yes all this is spot on. I would also leave too if it was possible, which sadly it isn’t at least for time being. Really worry about my children’s futures in the UK.

Massive LOLZ at you seeing emigration as the solution to the country you’re in not being good enough for you because of all the immigrants.

Massive LOLZ yes I do

Genuinely made me snort with laughter. Amazing work. 😂