Living next to asylum seeker HMO, ask me anything

[JapanesePotWeed]

As the title says. I live in a Victorian mid-terrace, wall-to-wall, garden-to-garden with an asylum seeker dispersal HMO. They were moved in nearly two years ago, replacing a multi-generation family that were living there before.
There is another HMO directly opposite my house, where asylum seekers get rooms once they are approved to remain but don't have an income to support themselves.

Not AIBU but more like AMA. I'm wondering what people would ask me if they really could ask anything. Does anyone actually want to know what it is like? I hear a lot of political point scoring in the media regarding this topic but no one actually talks to people like me!

Yes, this case shows how out of control the asylum racket is. 18 family members, what an absolute joke.

It's big business, companies like Serco are making a killing as well as the criminal gangs who are laughing all the way to the bank.

Unfortunately that's only the case if it crosses the boundary into your garden.

I'm not sure about that. I think the landowner has a responsibility to stop it spreading.

That's what I mean. You can have it on your land with no problem, but if it crosses the boundary into your neighbours' land or the wild then you can be prosecuted under the Countryside Act 1981 (or antisocial act.. or both!).

My current neighbours had knotweed a couple of years ago and thankfully got rid of it. Phew!

You have my utmost sympathy, OP.

Presumably these asylum seekers are not working, although some may be working illegally. Yet they can't be bothered to maintain even a minimum standard in their accommodation. When I lived in rented houses, I did the garden, even while working full time. What kind of contribution are they going to make to Britain, judging by their current behaviour?

I suspect if some of the posters on here found themselves living next to an asylum HMO, they wouldn't have such a positive view of the asylum system.

Hopefully when we get back into the EU we can go back to offshore processing

When you think about the demographic of who would migrate it makes sense, though. In order to pay these traffickers you need to be fairly well off and in the countries in question that generally doesn't mean wealthy workers. In the main countries that are currently migrating to Britain, which lie almost exclusively in the middle east and north east Africa, to be this level of wealthy is to simply have family assets you live off without working. Some will also be poorer than that but also usually not working, so relying on welfare/charity of some kind in their home country, they may sometimes actually be workers and have been supported financially to travel by their families as a means of bringing everyone over eventually via the (now scrapped I think) family reunion route, or else get themselves indebted to the traffickers who no doubt have a way for poorer people to access trafficking..

Make no mistake: we are not importing workers, or even those who have a very basic concept of supporting themselves wherever they are. This is a large scale operation to extract money from the public purse for the benefit of mainly landlords and a few other private businesses who will 'support' these people on our behalf for life.

Was there offshore processing before Brexit?

Do you have any evidence for that?

Sangatte refugee camp was existant pre-milleneum so if there was processing it was already overwhelmed.

The was no offshore processing.

Simple as that.

Posters try to re write history.

Yes, it's a net drain whichever way you cut it. We don't need these people, they will most likely contribute very little, they will add to the strain on our services and resources, some of them are criminals and gangsters, some will have severe mental health issues which will stretch mental health services even further, some will commit rape and murder.

However big companies like Serco and Mears along with landlords and activist law firms all benefit from this, so that seems to outweigh the interests of the British people.

I did get the council involved, they sent the landlord a notice "reminding them of their responsibilities". Then the council promised to me they'll monitor the situation... No monitoring has happened, whatever that even means!
As someone said upthread : legal action is only possible once the Knotweed in my garden already. I sense that I'll be left with a massive treatment bill OR the prospect of taking MEARS&landlord to court. There is no way I could afford lawyers against MEARS!

When you're faced with these rotten organisations, normal laws and human decency don't apply.

@5MinuteArgument What kind of contribution are they going to make to Britain, judging by their current behaviour

This thought crosses my mind now and again.
What we value as a contribution in our society, isn't a match with their values. So when some glib politician or misguided housewife tells us that asylum seekers will "contribute by working", they miss the point by a mile. Maybe their employer values low-paid and easily available, easily exploitable workforce. Congrats, then, I suppose...🎉
I value community, safety, decent living standards, pleasant built environment and the feeling of working towards a common goal of prosperity. Even if some of the asylum seekers end up in a job, it still has cost me everything I value. Is that a fair cost? Is it?

Totally agree with you. The idea that someone adds value to a society by working in a kebab shop, as a deliveroo driver or the like is just not credible.

The 'refugees welcome' lobby don't look at the big picture. They say these people benefit us economically but they don't, not even in a narrow sense. They certainly don't benefit us as a society. It's only because the pro-migration brigade are so detached from the reality of all this, that they continue to champion this completely dysfunctional setup.

Goodness me, so many overgeneralisations and yet when you are asked for hard evidence you just ignore.

Not worth your time in writing ‘nothings’.

Unfortunately they derive their social capital by supporting the use of poor immigrants to ferry hot food to their homes on demand. They're modern slave importers.

This is the best description of the “Paddington Bear was an immigrant” poster displayers ever

@DownToTheGround I would agree that @5MinuteArgument was wrong in her(?) generalisations, as she missed out barber shops from that employment list!

I knocked on a large number of doors in my street a few days back.I did it to find households I could start a street's WhatsApp Group with.I wish I was able to film it and show you! I didn't even realise just how abnormal the situation is in the whole street until I did.
Every other property is occupied by 6 immigrant males with poor to no English skills. One house - 6 Bangladeshi workers. They then tell me about another two houses with 6 of their mates in each. I live next to and also opposite to houses with 6 asylum seekers in each. I spoke to an asylum seeker in yet another one of the houses and they have 7-8 occupants, which is actually overcrowded and illegal. Another two asylum HMOs no one came to the door but I know they house multiple males each.
Then we also have a minimum of 5-6 so called "supported" houses that house addicts and criminals - mostly men.
I'm just shocked about the number of random, single men in my street! There must be hundreds of them in total!

I found 10 (out of circa 130) houses with permanent residents in them and they will form our WhatsApps group.

And the bloody BBC come and won't ring a single doorbell!

And in my professional experience, missing many, many other factually correct information and evidence of her/his sweeping claims.

Sharing misinformation helps no one.

And I was told twice that I'm a brave woman living here!
One of them was a big man of a construction worker who added that he'd hold my handbag whilst I go and settle fights for him.
At least he was funny 😁

@DownToTheGround
I suppose this is not the best thread to share "facts" on anyway. After all, none of us has them.
I can only share what I see and experience because no authorities or media will care to show it! I'm totally invisible here.
Whilst it is possible I live on the worst HMO riddled street in the country, I believe there are hundreds of inner-city streets just like mine and equally ignored by everyone.
At least I can talk about it here!

Exactly.
The UK did not use offshore asylum processing before Brexit. Prior to leaving the European Union, the UK processed all asylum applications on British soil

I just lost it with them...
I swore, I shouted and I'm bloody shaken from my own anger.
I honestly wish the police would attend, so I can unburden myself from feeling like this. Obviously no one will call the police but I wouldn't mind if they did.

Around 22:30 someone started a fire in a metal tray next to my fence as a form of BBQ. Two drunk Albanian or Romanian guys, who don't even live in the asylum house but have been invited in. Lighter fluid and sparks going everywhere, my house full of smoke just as I'm about to sleep.
I'm just tired of being constantly on edge. I'm fucking sick of being the police here for everyone and everything!!
I look the other way once, I look the other way twice... Someone else take the lot of them! I've done my part. 2 years. If I have to do another 5, I'll be in the news (probably me arrested for disorder or something!)

I hate with all my guts the politicians and ALL the do-gooders, ALL the "charity" workers doing this to me. I hate you. 💐

I don't blame you, OP. I hate the people responsible for your situation too.