CALL TO ACTION RE 3000 CHILD REFUGEES

[fallingapartfast]

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

[Limer]

WTAF? This is a Mumsnet Campaign? Filling our children's heads with nonsense about tiny starving orphans (rather than the great big male teenagers that most of these "children" have turned out to be) and getting them to write to the PM?

Donate to the refugee charities if you feel so strongly about the situation. Not sure which charity is supporting people trafficking from MENA.

[DeeCrepid]

How can they possibly understand the complex issues involved, quite ridiculous.

[OhYouBadBadKitten]

So many pleasant people on this thread.

Yes there are proportionally more teens in northern france, because its very very difficult to travel so far with little ones. There are lots of young children though in those camps, especially in Dunkirk. When you get to Greece the proportions change. One third are children, very many of them young children.

I will say though, young (and older!) teens still want their Mum.

[AnneElliott]

I don't agree we should take people from Europe. Most will not be actual kids, but men. I used to work for immigration and the number of men that were older than me ( I was mid - 20s) pretending to be 15 year olds was astonishing.

In one nasty case the foster parents took in 2 men ( nearing 30 in my opinion) and these men took advantage of their 15 year old daughter. Horrible for the girl and I do wonder how we ensure that foster families have sufficient protection for their own kids.

[OhYouBadBadKitten]

Things are changing rapidly Anne. Interestingly, many teen refugees actually pretend to be adults to avoid being taken into the sytem.

[gonetoseeamanaboutadog]

I strongly feel that we should be uniting families, not taking unaccompanied children, unless their parents are dead.

I don't think there are that many homes in the UK that would be able to cope with the reality of these traumatised children. There is a reason foster parents who will take troubled children are even scarcer than other foster parents, who are already a rare breed. I say that very sadly and as someone who has fostered and hopes to do so again. I just don't know how we will cope with these children.

[OhYouBadBadKitten]

Yes of course uniting families would be by far the most ideal situation. If you can find their families and get the children to them. In fact, many of the unaccompanied minors have a right to come over to the UK to be reunited with family members, but it appears our legal process only seems to be able to process a couple at a time and at huge efforts by volunteer legal people to get their cases heard.

But in the mean time, if we don't foster them, what do we do with them? Leave them in these camps across Europe, where conditions are really horrific?

[Dapplegrey1]

Badkitten - why do teen refugees pretend to be adults to avoid being taken into the system?
Is it because the care system in UK is so grim and they've been warned about it by earlier refugees who've experienced it?

[howtorebuild]

I don't want these misogynistic men , I am happy to have little children, not men.

[OTheHugeManatee]

Can we also get our children to write asking the Government to introduce bone density tests for migrants claiming to be under 18, like they have done in Scandinavia, so that resources for supporting genuine lone children are not so vulnerable to abuse by adult migrants claiming to be teenagers?

[ItsJustAnotherUsername]

But in the mean time, if we don't foster them, what do we do with them?

We're several thousand fosterers short.

Here is an insight into what it takes to become a fosterer, the sooner you apply badkitten the sooner you can help.

www.telegraph.co.uk/women/womens-life/11864162/Refugee-crisis-The-complex-reality-of-fostering-a-refugee-child-in-UK.html

[OhYouBadBadKitten]

That wasn't an answer to my question.

[OhYouBadBadKitten]

Dapplegrey - no its much earlier, when they reach Greece.

[OhYouBadBadKitten]

howtorebuild - oh the irony!!!

[howtorebuild]

How many 16 yo male children from a misogynistic culture are you fostering for free in a fee paying school, Kitten? Live alone do you?

[ItsJustAnotherUsername]

OK then, in the meantime I suggest you lobby the governments the children are currently in to do their duty and provide the care and refuge they are legally obliged to. We are not better equipped than France to care for them.

[PresidentOliviaMumsnet]

Ahem

[Samcro]

can't do as my child can't write as they are severely disabled. also they can't afford to fund this (yes they will be hit with less services if this goes ahead)

[OhYouBadBadKitten]

What on earth are you on about howtorebuild?

[Dapplegrey1]

Badkitten thank you for answering my question.

[NeedACleverNN]

You got a frog in your throat there olivia ?

[OhYouBadBadKitten]

not a problem Dapple :) from what I can gather it is because they are trying to get to family or friends. Unfortunately those that get into the system are not generally repatriated with family but tend to be then blocked from moving on. The whole system is in absolute crisis.

[AnneElliott]

How is it different now bad kitten? My colleagues still in immigration don't seem to think so.

I don't say that no-one has ever pretended to be older than they are ( and some people aren't sure how old they are) but there are clear advantages to being accepted as a child rather than an adult.

[petitpois55]

Most of them are not children. They are teenage boys from cultures which treat women like chattels. I have a teenage DD. I don't want them here..

[OhYouBadBadKitten]

There are many more younger children coming into Greece and stuck at Southern European borders - this is according to UNHCR