Active discussions

Meet the Other Phone. A phone that grows with your child.

Meet the Other Phone.
A phone that grows with your child.

Buy now

Please or to access all these features

Talk
Mumsnet campaigns

For more information on Mumsnet Campaigns, check our our Campaigns hub.

See all MNHQ comments on this thread

Original poster

CALL TO ACTION RE 3000 CHILD REFUGEES

175 replies

fallingapartfast · 26/04/2016 12:05

CALL TO ACTION! If you have or know kids who can write at all, please get them to write to David Cameron regarding the hideous and shameful decision by the Government not to give refuge to 3000 unaccompanied children fleeing war. The goal is to get 3000 letters through his letterbox by the end of the week.
Write to:
The Rt Hon David Cameron MP
Prime Minister
10 Downing Street
London
SW1A 2AA
Please share this far and wide on your social media networks and pass on the idea by word of mouth

OP posts:
hownottofuckup · 26/04/2016 12:31

(Great post from wtftodo )

OhYouBadBadKitten · 26/04/2016 12:33

love the paranoia of some posters who refuse to believe that there are a good number of us people on mn who would like to see the UK do our bit in helping the children refugees and instead constantly accuse people of sock puppeting.

Perhaps some of us who are posting about this are doing it because they have seen the conditions in the camp themselves through volunteering and are desperate to get small children out of the situation that they are in?

hownottofuckup · 26/04/2016 12:35

So children shouldn't be allowed to show their support for anything for fear of emotionally blackmailing the poor politicians Hmm

OhYouBadBadKitten · 26/04/2016 12:35

Perhaps also people posting about the situation are frustrated that everytime they try and raise the issue they get swamped by people being negative in strongly emotive terms and that sometimes they may show that frustration? Then everyone jumps on them for that.

OhYouBadBadKitten · 26/04/2016 12:36

exactly hownot.

JonStark · 26/04/2016 12:36

I speak to my four year old about stuff like this, but could she understand is well enough to hear all sides and make up her own mind? No.

I don't think any child younger than a teenager could form a proper educated opinion on it, taking into accoubt provisions for children already here. I certainly couldn't have done it as a teenager even.

These letters will most likely be dismissed as the ramblings of children.

NeedACleverNN · 26/04/2016 12:37

Ok then Kitty

Tell me exactly how I can help these children (some who wouldn't even be a child but an adult masquerading as a child so they don't get deported)

I have two children. Both under 5.

I don't have a spare room so in not allowed to foster.

I'm not a strong woman, and I do have some health issues, so if a child turns nasty I have no way of protecting my own children.

kirinm · 26/04/2016 12:38

Strange - how do you know that?

What decent person can honestly say the don't think we should take in 3000 unaccompanied refugee children in. I'm flabbergasted by it. 10,000 children have gone missing in Europe and we can't even take in 5 per constituency.

JonStark · 26/04/2016 12:38

Sorry, OYbBk, is that for me? Or did anyone elae mention sock puppeting? Did you misread my post? I think the children should be brought here. I am more than willing to do things to see that happen. Sending letters in from kids isn't going to help anyone.

Why would the government take advice from children?!

RebootYourEngine · 26/04/2016 12:38

My heart goes out to these children as well as all the other people in fear for their lives but we dont have means to support more people.

ChardonnayKnickertonSmythe · 26/04/2016 12:41

Apart from the letter, what are you doing about it?

Are you taking a child in? If not, why do you think someone else should?

EveryoneElsie · 26/04/2016 12:41

Several people have compared these refugee children to the Kindertransport.

Isnt the 5 year civil war the real problem and what is Europe or NATO doing about it? Its having a huge impact on Europe.

www.rferl.org/content/nato-france-turkey-un-russia-war-crimes-syria-air-strikes-hospitals-schools/27554537.html
"Anti-Assad Syrian monitoring groups have said the Russian air campaign has been the major cause of civilian deaths in Syria since it began."

kirinm · 26/04/2016 12:41

Reboot - yes we do. We also have the means to allow huge companies to negotiate their tax liabilities so 5 kids per constituency is perfectly manageable.

kirinm · 26/04/2016 12:42

Reboot - yes we do. We also have the means to allow huge companies to negotiate their tax liabilities so 5 kids per constituency is perfectly manageable.

Tate15 · 26/04/2016 12:44

I wouldn't be surprised if these kind of threads have nothing to do with helping children but are dressed up to look so in order to push their own political agenda.

People know what's going on in the news, if they want to do something they will find out how to help.

Hand wringing titles in the vein of 'Won't someone think of the children', serve to push the op's agenda.

And for that reason, I'm out!

OrangesandLemonsNow · 26/04/2016 12:46

Perhaps some of us who are posting about this are doing it because they have seen the conditions in the camp themselves through volunteering and are desperate to get small children out of the situation that they are in?

You know absolutely nothing about what those, including my family have and haven't done or seen.

People are allowed differing opinions without being told they aren't 'decent' if they are not thinking the same way you do.

kirinm · 26/04/2016 12:48

Tate 15 - what the hell does that mean? The Tory party voted against the Dubs amendments. Who else should we be petitioning if not the Tory MPs that voted against the amendments?! If it was the lib dem MPs or Labour we could petition against them but they voted for the amendments. This sort of thing goes above and beyond tribal politics.

kirinm · 26/04/2016 12:50

Sorry orange but I struggle to consider someone 'decent' when they refuse to assist desperate children. These kids went economic migrants but kids in grave danger alone in Europe.

Hoppinggreen · 26/04/2016 12:51

Slightly baffled by the link between helping refugee children and making large companies pay tax but anyway.
What are we supposed to do with 300 ( probably traumatised and in need of specialist help)? Do we have lots of empty foster places or specialist units to help them? I very much doubt it.
Also, if we do take them in it encourages desperate parents to send their children off unaccompanied in the hope that they will be helped which is extremely risky.
Finally, even if I did think this was a good idea I would write to David Cameron, I would not get my children to do it.

OrangesandLemonsNow · 26/04/2016 12:53

Sorry orange but I struggle to consider someone 'decent' when they refuse to assist desperate children.

Sorry I completely disagree. I am very much a 'decent' person.

No one is saying don't help. People are saying they don't agree with it being done this way.

By attacking the personalities of people that you don't know and don't know what they have done you imo weaken whatever point you may have.

kirinm · 26/04/2016 12:54

Do you honestly believe not taking in refugee children is going to stop people fleeing war torn countries?

And it's quite clear that if this country can afford to bail out banks, sell shares off at a loss, allow companies like Google to pay fuck all tax, that it's a country rich enough to take in 3000 kids. They might very well be damaged but given that our bombs are part of the reason for that, it's the least we can do.

kirinm · 26/04/2016 12:54

Do you honestly believe not taking in refugee children is going to stop people fleeing war torn countries?

And it's quite clear that if this country can afford to bail out banks, sell shares off at a loss, allow companies like Google to pay fuck all tax, that it's a country rich enough to take in 3000 kids. They might very well be damaged but given that our bombs are part of the reason for that, it's the least we can do.

EveryoneElsie · 26/04/2016 12:56

kirinm et al;
2 children die at the hands of their parents every week in the UK. There are children dying from dirty drinking water in Africa. 10,000 every day. What are you doing about that, and is it OK for us to attack your character now?

Tate15 · 26/04/2016 12:58

EveryoneElsie

Excellent post. Thank you.

Original poster
fallingapartfast · 26/04/2016 13:03

JonStark my kids are slightly older than yours, but since they started school they have regularly been asked to use empathy in their writing, so for example, at age 6 my son was asked to write a poem from the poiint of view of a teenage soldier being sent off to fight in the first World War. The class produced some very moving, powerful poems. Children have an incredible capacity for empathy IME, they are also quite self absorbed, so when they asked me why I'm sad this morning, and I said it's because our Government have refused to give refuge to 3000 children whose homes and in some cases families have been destroyed in the war in Syria, it was very natural for them to think 'I am a child, how would I feel if my home and family was destroyed in a war' and to feel very strongly and instinctively that the decision to not offer refuge is something they would wish to protest against. It's not sockpuppeting it's empathy.

OP posts: