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U.K. 'Quietly' announced it won't be taking anymore unaccompanied child refugees

369 replies

Motherofhowmany · 08/02/2017 17:07

Absolutely appalling, we've only resettled 350 of the promised 3000.

I work with some of these children. The things they have seen are horrendous.

www.independent.co.uk/news/only-350-syrian-refugee-children-will-be-allowed-to-settle-in-britain-thousands-less-than-promised-a7569691.html

OP posts:
PausingFlatly · 09/02/2017 16:42

I've been in touch with my council to see how I could help financially: they directed me to various charities working locally.

There seems to be a fallacy - much-loved by some MNers, I've noticed - that unless an one person personally does ALL of the work assisting refugees, then NONE of their work counts.

Quite bonkers. Of course one person doesn't do everything. We each chip in our bit: money, personal time, in-kind assistance... You know, like with every other endeavour.

coffeetasteslikeshit · 09/02/2017 17:01

How do you go about fostering Syrian children? I'll do it if possible. Fucking bastard government.

I really don't understand the attitude of not helping Syrians because you could be helping Brits. They're all children at the end of the day.

RortyCrankle · 09/02/2017 17:04

I'm very sorry to hear that AnchorDownDeepBreath. A very good friend of mine had the same experience. It has affected every aspect of her life as I assume it has yours too. Flowers

Well, I think the deafening silence in response to my first question says it all. It simply reinforces what others and I have come to realise: liberal luvvies are all about do as I say, not do as I do.

Is giving money to a charity, comparable to taking a child into your home to live with your family? I don't think so. Posters are saying it's wrong that we are not taking more children - if they are not prepared to give a home to a Syrian child who exactly do they think should? Just some other person as long as it's not them?

DevelopingDetritus · 09/02/2017 17:10

liberal luvvies are all about do as I say, not do as I do. Well said.

PausingFlatly · 09/02/2017 17:21

As pointed out twice already on this short thread, Rorty, this is about children who already have family in the UK and are not in need of fostering.

Don't let that inconvenient fact get in your way, though...

53rdAndBird · 09/02/2017 17:22

Rorty, if someone had replied to say "why yes there are 15 Syrian children in my living room right now," you'd find a way to call them hypocrites for not having another 16 British kids in their kitchen.

And no, not everybody can foster, It takes more than vaguely good intentions to provide a good foster or adoptive home to a massively traumatised child. This thinking that it only counts if you do it yourself is why we have a bunch of kids going off to developing countries to "work in orphanages", causing more trouble than they're solving.

Sometimes it actually is better to give your time and money to organisations who know what they're actually doing, and/or campaigning for better support for the people out there - like people in this very thread! - who would foster or adopt if more support was there to allow them to do so.

(btw I work for a charity, I've worked on child social care, so yes if you want to do what I do - go right ahead!)

RortyCrankle · 09/02/2017 17:36

No, actually what I would say is how absolutely fantastic, I would applaud them.

Have just read Coffeetasteslikeshit's post about deciding she wants to foster a child - that's amazing and I hope she will keep us up to date on how that progresses.

PausingFlatly · 09/02/2017 17:41

Some more practical stuff one can do to help from Citizens UK:
www.citizensuk.org/8_step_guide
www.citizensuk.org/refugee_welcome_boards_register

Those links are primarily about the Syrian Vulnerable Persons Relocation Scheme (people being resettled directly from countries near Syria), rather than the Dubs Amendment children.

More info here: www.refugeecouncil.org.uk/what_we_do/refugee_resettlement/syrian_resettlement_programme

scatterolight · 09/02/2017 17:56

Outstanding news. Very pleased to hear about this.

Showmethewaytogohome · 09/02/2017 18:02

Shameful that the clatter of jackboots even infiltrates threads about CHILDREN

wheresthewine36 · 09/02/2017 18:02

Rorty, still avoiding the fact that these children have relatives in the UK to look after them?

IamWendy · 09/02/2017 18:03

Considering there is no more jungle, where are these 'children ' going to be coming from? Aren't they already IN a safe country, in refugee centres?

Showmethewaytogohome · 09/02/2017 18:04

Shameful.

PausingFlatly · 09/02/2017 18:07

More information here, IamWendy:
safepassage.org.uk/frequently-asked-questions/

HOW DO YOU FIND THE CHILDREN YOU WORK WITH?
In France, our team builds relationships NGOs and community leaders, who help us identify vulnerable children.

In Greece and Italy, refugee children are scattered throughout the country, often located in children’s homes, detention facilities, police holding cells, refugee camps, unofficial structures or on the streets. Our field workers identify children by working with a range of partners, including children’s shelters, NGOs, refugee communities and volunteers.

WHAT WILL HAPPEN TO THE CHILDREN WHO WERE IN CALAIS?
All the children who were in Calais have been transferred to CAOs in France where they will be assessed. Those who are eligible to come to the UK will be transferred and have their asylum claims assessed in the UK. Many have been waiting for over a month now, which is why we have launched our 1,000 children campaign.

IamWendy · 09/02/2017 18:13

So, we in this country are putting our children into cells when they have mental health issues due to lack of facilities.....but we want to bring in thousands of traumatised 'children' when we can't help our own?
Why? They are in Europe, they are safe, there are places there to help them. We should concentrate on fixing our system, not putting ridiculous strains on it.

53rdAndBird · 09/02/2017 18:21

If only there was some way of caring about inadequate child mental health provision and caring about the UK fulfilling commitments it made. If only, eh? Shame we are only ever able to fund or care about one issue at once Hmm

DorcasthePuffin · 09/02/2017 18:22

Well, I have already taken one child out of the care system and her needs do not allow us to take another. But I have and will continue to donate to charities supporting Syrian refugees.

My grandfather was a child refugee from Nazi Germany - well, an unaccompanied male teenager, who might well have found himself on the front page of the DM for lacking the 'cute' factor. He had to fight desperately long and hard to get his parents into England - it was extremely hard to get a visa, one of the stipulations was that you had to prove you wouldn't be a drain on the public purse, and pre-war Nazi Germany would only allow Jews to leave without taking any money or valuables (after the war started, of course they couldn't leave at all). So you had to find employment in advance, or somebody who would guarantee to meet all your living costs.

Many British families, especially British Jews, did offer to sponsor refugees - but of course there were far more refugees than there were sponsors. My great-grandmother ran a training school in Berlin to teach middle class Jewish women housekeeping skills, as domestic work was pretty much their only escape route.

Nobody, but nobody, wanted to sponsor my great grandparents. They were well into middle age and didn't have a lot to offer as workers: my great-grandmother had never worked, and her husband had been tortured in a concentration camp and was wrecked both physically and mentally. In the end my grandfather persuaded an electrics company which had once done business with my g-grandfather to sponsor him. They got one of the last boats to leave Germany before war broke out. Obviously, not all their family were that lucky.

I'm sharing all this because there are so many parallels between then and now. I think most decent people would be horrified at the thought that Britain had denied refuge to men, women and children who were then murdered by the Nazis - but that is exactly what happened. It was easy for them to do so because most of the population weren't bothered and their apathy was boosted by a climate of anti Semitism (greatly encouraged by the Daily Mail). There was a kind of suspicion of all foreigners, and a reluctance to see any real difference between German Nazis and German Jews (my grandfather was interned on the Isle of Man alongside Nazi sympathisers, as an 'enemy alien').

We are still one of the richest, most privileged countries in the world. If we can't help, who do we think can? If war broke out in the UK, wouldn't we all do whatever it took to get our children to safety - and how would we feel if, say, Sweden refused to give them shelter?

We can all do something. It's not an all-or-nothing "If you're not prepared to foster a Syrian you have no right to say anything at all". Give money. Protest. Send support packages. Sign petitions. Don't be derailed by people deriding you as a liberal luvvie: these people are on the wrong side of history. Remember that the Holocaust is barely history - my grandfather is still alive, Alf Dubs (who I have met) is still alive. We owe it to them than to sit in our front rooms sneering about do-gooders.

Sorry for the rant - you can tell I have strong feelings on this subject Blush

sonlypuppyfat · 09/02/2017 18:23

It looks so much better to care about people in other countries than the ones in your own

PausingFlatly · 09/02/2017 18:37

"It looks so much better to care about people in other countries than the ones in your own"

Really? Sorry, but I think you have a pretty odd view of the world if you think that.

It's entirely possible to care about people in other countries as well as your own. Not an either/or.

sonlypuppyfat · 09/02/2017 18:42

I don't have an odd way of looking at anything, I think you should get your own house in order first

Showmethewaytogohome · 09/02/2017 18:43

My own house is a human one where ALL children are equal

PausingFlatly · 09/02/2017 18:43

So why do you think it "looks better to care about people in other countries than the ones in your own"? Confused

SapphireStrange · 09/02/2017 18:45

Well said, Dorcas.

Some of the comments on here are at best appallingly ill-informed and at worst foul. Shameful. I mean Rorty and IAmWendy among others.

ImYourMama · 09/02/2017 18:45

I'm genuinely glad they've stopped this, as they weren't verifying who was a 'child' and who wasn't. A lot of these unaccompanied minors were men in their twenties?!

PausingFlatly · 09/02/2017 18:46

Oh hang on. Was that meant to be a straw man? Sorry. [dim]

No, no interest in "looking like" I care about people X more than people Y here.