AIBU to feel helpless about a large asylum camp in our village?

[putupwhatever]

My village has been chosen for a 1500 open asylum camp for single men. It will be an open camp (as the men haven't done anything wrong so aren't detained.)

The thing is the village only has 700 people and it is pretty isolated. it's about 10 miles to the nearest city and you can walk to another small village. There is a playpark, a pub and a primary school.

It has to go through planning, but the government have changed the planning laws so that they grant themselves planning and you can't see it as it is deemed sensitive. So they will just grant themselves planning and you can't oppose it without a judicial review--by which time it will probably be already open.

They want to reduce the number of people in hotels. But am AIBU to think that this puts the burden of sorting these issues out on one tiny community? Feels like we are collateral damage to be honest. The community will be outnumbered 2 to 1 and it feels too much. There is nothing for them to do or places to go. Also the fact that it is all single men put in one massive place with no money or means or anything to do is going to lead to problems

Apparently the camps cost £10 less a night than the hotels. But they don't count the set up costs which are astronomical (the one in Essex was £47 million to set up). So it seems like it's not not even cheaper than the problem it is trying to solve but much more expensive.

AIBU to feel a bit helpless? It seems so unfair but there is nothing I can do. We wouldn't be able to move from the village anyway as no one would buy a house here.

There’s no comparison! Thousands of young, unidentified men of unknown origin,bored, from cultures unlike our own, cannot be compared to our Military- that’s an insult.

Those military men belonged at the base. Nice sweeping statement BTW while you're defending asylum seekers. Those men still now go home to their families, and protect this country when they aren't flying aircraft that left wing fuck wits want to trash. Those men deserve respect.

I live in an area close to a hotel used for several years to house asylum seekers. It’s not had any protests outside or similar. A great number of the residents work as Deliveroo drivers. You see them leave and return to the hotel on electric bikes, motorbikes and scooters. They also work in the money laundering shops which make up a big portion of our high street now. These shops are raided and closed but then open hours later. We of course have a really big drugs problem so there is always cash in hand employment to be found in dealing. The council and police are aware, but it’s an issue so big that they can’t get on top of it.

If it wasn’t so easy to access this employment, I wonder if it would make it quite so attractive to come here?

The problem is no-one wants them .

🥱 predictable

Absolutely. Unfortunately many of the new arrivals will be doing the opposite and probably hate our culture and want to change it

I suppose they're doing a public service by distributing food and 'medication' to the bored and hungry. Sounds quite laudable really.

I don’t use deliveroo anymore. I know of teenage girl’s who had a bad experience with a pizza delivery man, it put me off ordering from anywhere that doesn’t use their own employed drivers.

Trouble is that certain groups have developed the unfortunate habit of travelling to those sites in order to try and burn them to the ground with innocent people inside.

If the people seeking asylum/refugee status weren't at risk of baying mobs with molotov cocktails each time Yaxley Lennon needs a few quid extra, they'd still be in those cities quite safely waiting for their cases to be handled.

It’s amazing that the British values that you boast about having haven’t led you to be able to read and write basic information correctly. your facts are all wrong. I hope you know it.

Look up how much it cost to set up the Wethersfield Site. It was £49 million

Yes, @putupwhatever, and this on an initial budget of £5million, which fits in with the old saying from those with experience of government contracts: "It'll take 5 times as long as said, it'll cost 10 times as much and it won't work"

I realise such contracts are seen by providers as a licence to print money, but looking at that site I'd also love to know where that money went

Yes. Racists and thick.
Any other names up your sleeve?

Plus there is a strain on schools and the health system

This. No one knows who these people are.

I saw this on NextDoor op as I live nearby. I did sign the petition but most people are too scared to say anything for fear of coming across as a Reform voter. I would absolutely not be happy about this.

That's horrific. It wouldn't matter who the asylum seekers were or where they were coming from, being suddenly outnumbered 2-to-1 by people from another culture would unsettle most people, especially given that most of the incomers are single males. It doesn't sound like a good idea or one that's likely to work out well for anyone, especially the people who already live in the area.

Comparing these men to members of the RAF is just silly. It's apples to oranges!

It is a terrible insult!
Quite unbelievable actually.

Yeah, maybe they’re a bit about having nothing to do. That’s a good point as you live in such a warm community. Perhaps you could think of some things to do. I don’t know. Maybe have a football team that you could challenge maybe have a gardening club you could invite them to there’s lots of things you could do because you’ve got British values, haven’t you

I know where you are op. Agree, it is utterly ridiculous to place that amount of men in a small village with nothing for them to do , nowhere to go. I wouldnt want it either.

Give it time.

And they were there because they were at work

Far Right
Extreme Far Right
Extreme Nazi Far Right So Far Right We Now Live On Venus Whilst Hurling Molotov Cocktails At The Earth

300 men in a hotel around the corner. A relatively large population.

300 at a time anyway. They get granted permission to leave and then go somewhere else. So a constant stream of them.

It means women don't walk alone any more.
Are they racist or sensible?

Maybe the city is at capacity already with the amount of people arriving, they’ve no choice but to branch out to find accommodation.
I know that’s the case in Ireland, Rural Ireland has a lot of accommodation centres/ hotels/ housing pop up as the bigger counties, the cities, the properties are at full capacity with many hotels, empty factories, HMO’s in place.