Should we be taking refugees

My parish has been campaigning for Britain to accept refugees from Iraq for some time. We have offered the use of the church for Christians from the traditions represented in Iraq to use for worship and parishioners have offered rooms in their houses. Despite many letters to the government we have received absolutely no response.

Yes, we should be doing our bit as well as increasing humanitarian aid. Anyone who is driven from their country because of war, terrorism, ethnic cleansing - whatever it is that makes it impossible to stay alive and safe, as I would hope would be offered to me in such circumstances.

I can already hear the "we haven't got room" "charity begins at home" argument on the way! But we should always have room for the displaced, and for the innocent who are suffering; as when says! we hope that someone might do the same for us.

Yes, absolutely we should, without question.

Of course - this country has a long history of providing refuge

Listening to LBC this morning, about the thousands fleeing from the I.S. - one caller said they should be accommodated in the UK.
Is this really practicable?
Why can't other Arab countries take them in?

I would normally be part of "the house is full" brigade but this is very different- these are true refugees who desperately need a home, food and water. I would be happy to accommodate.

I agree we should be helping these people but I do wonder whether moving them to UK is wise, a country which has different customs, language, climate etc. Would it not be better to try to find a country in the region which would take them and then the UK government give that country what aid it needed to accommodate them. Hopefully they will then at some point, when it is safe, be able to return to their homes.

Good idea Sunseeker.

Good post sunseeker - but it shouldn't be a case of Hopefully they will then at some point, when it is safe, be able to return to their homes. - it should be made mandatory.

sunseeker - this is a great idea.. I like the content of your entire post.

Are there any other countries in the area which can take them? It seems to me that too many countries in the area have problems feeding and housing their own inhabitants without taking any others. Believe it or not, we do have enough food, land and water to help refugees in this country, and in most of Europe. And we should.

TriciaF - there has been a civil war with 6.5 people driven from their homes in Syria. Syria is next door to Iraq. You can see from this link just how many refugees have been accommodated in the surrounding countries.
Iraq has taken in a quarter of a million Syrian refugees and now the ISIS attacks are driving Iraqis from their homes and their land.
www.bbc.co.uk/news/world-middle-east-26864485

I heard on the radio of one man who has taken in 3 families into his small house. I agree with sunseeker but also I feel we should offer. They need somewhere safe. I was talking to someone last week who'd escaped the Gestapo and came over here with virtually nothing - not even the language. It moved me a lot

Jess - thanks for the link, that does put the problem more into perspective.
But Saudi Arabia and Qatar etc are conspicuous by their absence.
Even Israel has taken a few thousand Sudanese refugees.

Yes indeed the gulf states are not known for their charity.

I think there is a perception in some quarters that refugees are the same as illegal immigrants and that all they want is to come here, get a council house and benefits and take our jobs. Of course they don't - the poor people who have been forced to leave Syria, or anywhere else where war has taken over, want to have somewhere safe to live and a way of supporting their families until they can go home to remake their lives in their own country. We should welcome them and help them to keep going until they can go home, whenever that should be. As whenim64 points out, we would hope for the same kindness to be extended to us if we were in need.

Yes.

Where I lived we had a lot of Hungarian refugees in 1956. Some stayed, some moved on.

I was at a Catholic boarding school and in 1956 the nuns housed a female Hungarian refugee, giving her a job as a seamstress and her 2 daughters a free education. One of the daughters who had some sort of learning difficulty was a brilliant pianist. It can be done.

So was I Charley ...in a Catholic boarding school (Convent of Notre Dame) in 1956 when the nuns took in some Hungarian refugees. One girl (well we were all girls) was in my class.

Well of course it can be done, and has been in the past, but the UK doesn't have the same capacity as it had in 1956.

In the seventies, the Vietnamese boat people came to this country as refugees.
We have never, as a country, turned away refugees, and I do not think we should start now. Christian values, according to Cameron, should be taught to all our children. Where better to start?

Of course - I wasn't saying that refugees shouldn't be accepted in this country, far from it, but giving examples of how we welcomed them in the 50s and 70s isn't being realistic.