Volunteering with asylum seekers and refugees

[Lemniscate8]

There is so much said on MN about asylum seekers and refugees, and often it is speaking about them as a block, rather than by people who know any as individuals.

AIBU to suggest that some of you who currently feel fear and hostility have a go at some volunteering to get to know one or more individuals and see if your feelings change?

There are lots of ways to get involved in helping welcome a refugee to the country, and maybe more people extending more welcome will help with intergration, which seems to be one of the main concerns of some posters.

Many places have volunteers facilitating english conversation sessions, or literacy support. Many councils look for volunteers to support refugee and asylum seeker children in schools, you can ask your local council, or one of the main refugee organisations what volunteering opportunities are available in your area.

Also volunteering with any homeless charity is ineviatably going to bring you into contact with refugees, as so many are sleeping rough

You can find out about people first hand, rather than through the right wing press. Personal relationships can only help people understand each other better

ODFOD

I'll volunteer with legals not illegals hth

No thanks, absolutely not.

About 59% of adult asylum seekers are male, so there are many women, and it is possible to volunteer just with women if you want to

https://www.gov.uk/government/statistics/immigration-system-statistics-year-ending-march-2025/how-many-people-claim-asylum-in-the-uk

No way do we want more!

All refugees are legal

Even the ones that lied to get here? 🙄

No way! The only ones near me are nothing but trouble,always around the town harassing young women.,I wouldn’t go anywhere near them!

Years ago I did volunteer. I wouldn’t now.
things have changed, numbers have increased hugely and I’m not persuaded that many now here should be here.

I work with refugees in a way as part of my job. I like them individually when I get to know them, I appreciate they don't have it easy. I also see that it will be many years before they can work because of language acquisition. I see a lot of them disgruntled because they are struggling to find homes and expect the council to house them. I see many hanging out all day in barbers up to goodness knows what. I also think we have too many young male refugees from very different cultures to the UK.

If they were genuine refugees why did they not claim asylum I the first safe country they reached?
Why?
Because they are economic migrants and the accommodation and allowances here are too good.
The Rwanda plan was the best . It's a safe country

When I've helped refugees whose English isn't very good, they've also been supported by someone from their own community who can translate for them.

It's high time people learned the definition of
Asylum seekers
Economic migrants
Refugees

before throwing around terms like "illegals".

This. 💯

Unless you’ve seen it, from both sides, you can’t possibly have a totally valid view. 🤷‍♀️

Watching people argue in this thread is pointless. You have people who live in areas totally unaffected by migration wondering what all the fuss is about and then the people who actually live amongst this issue and are desperate because of the proven crime increase that are born out my crime statistics as well. Unfortunately its going to take time for this issue to spread to the rural areas of the UK and only then will they will they see your point. Fortunately I left the UK and I only have to visit a couple of times a year now, but my mother doesn't bother leaving the house anymore after one of her friends was mugged by someone outside the hotel in her town and turned out to be a recent arrival not to mention the countless incidents that only make local news regarding sexual assaults, its got to the point now that my nieces have been given advise at school not to walk near the specific hotels in the town centre and make sure you always have company during the day if you have to walk past them. Most people are conflating the hard working visa applying asset to society immigrant to the one who has a criminal conviction in his home country so destroy their documents on the boat here. I mean its pretty common sense that if you get a large number of men dump them in a concentrated area with nothing to do, they will end up doing stuff they shouldn't add into the mix that we have no idea what previous conviction or who these people are. As the saying goes the road to hell is paved with good intentions.

I’d rather get to know the veterans from my own country first, OP, but you carry on if it makes you feel good. A genuine woman or child asylum seeker, yes, I do have time for. The men, not so much.

dont you have male relatives? How would you like tham treated if they are asylum seekers in some one elses country one day? Your sons, nephews, grandsons, brothers, uncles, father? or your husband?

Yeah i will just volunteer my one day off a week when I clean my house and cook for the week to try and teach mainly men, many of whom are actually economic migrants English.

This is either pathetically naive or ridiculously goady.

Should I have the time to help out which i simply dont, I would gladly if asylum seekers consisted of the people who should be protected from harm. Yazidi women, Afghani interpreters etc.

https://commonslibrary.parliament.uk/research-briefings/sn01403/

Most asylum seekers are from Pakistan and unless you have your head firmly in the sand, you should really very clearly understand that encouraging women to work closely with men from a very culturally different background is a risk and totally inappropriate. There's a reason many of the grooming gangs members are Pakistani Muslims. They view women as objects and Western women as whores. There's a reason asylum seekers in Merseyside thought it was perfectly fine to ask a 15 year old child for a kiss and her phone number.

And don't try to tell me that is a Western perspective. Aziza Chaouni a morrocan architect was on the world service taking about her solo trip across the Sahara and how it informed her designs. When asked about safety as a woman travelling alone, she said it was fine as she was respected because she was a Muslim NOT a Western woman.

https://www.google.com/amp/s/www.bbc.com/news/world-europe-35231046.amp

Why do you think the men mentioned in the above article thought it was okay to go about in gangs sexually assaulting German women after Angela Merkal had allowed them wholesale into Germany? They probably thought those women were asking for it for daring to be out without a man.

I can't believe such a dangerously stupid post is in good faith. Surely no one can be this thick? Why ask women to do this work?

Is there a sister post in Reddit and Pistonheads trying to guilt men into this?

Is there fuck.

Totally agree.

Why ask women? Good question.

I've volunteered with refugees and asylum seekers in many capacities for many decades, and have never come to any harm, nothing goady about suggesting it as a way of building bridges for other people

Who is asking women? men are just as welcome to volunteer

Are these asylum seekers worth getting to know as individuals? Do sexual assault victims of asylum seekers need to be more open-minded, too?

https://www.telegraph.co.uk/news/2025/08/03/council-leader-police-cover-up-rape-asylum-seekers/

To reduce tensions, I think that the communities who pontificate about wanting asylum seekers are the ones whose communities should have them all, and the communities who don't want them should be left alone. Don't say there are too many for you to cope with - it is your side of the argument insisting that no matter how many people from completely different cultures come here, it won't impact community cohesion or local resources. To suggest otherwise is racist.

So stand by your convictions. Get together with like-minded people, approach your MPs and local councillors. Demand that asylum seekers be rescued from the filthy stupid bigoted angry plebs and moved into your neighbourhoods. Not the poor neighbourhoods in your constituencies (so you can once again foist them off on someone else whilst looking righteous), YOUR neighbourhoods, next to YOUR kids' schools, where YOUR daughters walk home at night. Then, since you are so very right and enlightened, you can dance around with the asylum seekers singing Kumbaya, and the rest of us can have a little cry about how many productive new members of society we've lost to you.

YANBU to suggest that we should educate ourselves before making assumptions.

YABU if you think it is magically going to change people’s opinion when the refugees they spend time with confirm the previous thinking.

YABU if you think that opinions have all been formed by reading the media rather than real interactions.

There are many people in this country who need help due to the useless government we currently have. So I’d prefer to put my volunteering availability to help people here first……