Children’s Asylum Centre ‘too welcoming’ 😢

Maybe you don’t welcome people who come on boats. No one is saying we should encourage dangerous boat crossings. But do we really feel brightening up a detention centre is going to “stop the boats”? We don’t have the prison capacity to lock them all up or and we can’t send them all off to Rwanda. Brexit has meant we can’t return them to Europe. So there has to be a better policy. Cooperate with the EU to smash the criminal gangs many of whom are operating out of the U.K. Set up safe and legal routes via our embassies abroad and process asylum claims within a reasonable time - say 6 months instead of 6 years. Employ more staff to do this and train them properly.

My life is fine too thanks Granniesunite.

I am blessed with a nice family, loads of friends many of whom date back to primary and grammar school and fairly good health for my age.

I just bump along nicely and don’t feel unhappy. However, I do like to keep up with what’s going on outside my little bubble and I am genuinely concerned about the number of people arriving here on rubber boats. 12,500 so far this year!!! Costing us millions every day to look after. Look at the staff (nearly 100) all losing their jobs in a hotel because it is needed for immigrants. How can that be right when they’ve worked and paid their taxes and have rents and mortgages to pay. I don’t hear any of you jumping up and down about them!

TBH I couldn’t care less whether people call me unkind, lacking compassion, unhappy or anything else because I know I am none of these.

I think there are separate issues here. I’m not sure anyone is advocating uncontrolled immigration . I would like to “ stop the boats” but it seems this government’s weak policies have made the problem worse. Painting over a mural will not make a jot of difference.

The original post is not about the rights or wrongs of asylum seekers coming to the UK. Neither does it reference how they get here via some imagined, comfortable Cook's Tour type journey through so-called "safe" European countries where they could have simply chosen to break their excursion, rather than dare to break into "fortress Britain". It's not about people smugglers either. It is purely and simply about how those vulnerable children should be treated once they are here and in our care. The idea that they somehow deserve cruel treatment in order to demonstrate that they are unwelcome is a vile, heartless concept, Should they also be fed on bread and water and forced into hard labour? That would really get Jenrik's message across wouldn't it? The total lack of humanity and compassion evident in attempts to justify this shameful episode is truly loathsome. As has so accurately been emphasised before, the top and bottom of the issue is the shameful Home Office decision to paint over murals, painted by caring volunteers and designed to cheer up a centre, the purpose of which is to receive unaccompanied child asylum seekers. Everything else is just an attempt to make diversionary noise. Indefensible.

Well said Nanadana. I think you have summed up the original post very well indeed.
Perhaps the naysayers could spend a little time considering your words.

the top and bottom of the issue is the shameful Home Office decision to paint over murals, painted by caring volunteers and designed to cheer up a centre, the purpose of which is to receive unaccompanied child asylum seekers.

It is indeed indefensible, and shaming.

NanaDana, spot on! I can't help thinking that some politicians are playing to a certain (ignorant, tabloid reading) audience - those they hope will vote for them.

Forget the abysmal 'government' we've suffered, the underfunding of public services, the poor state of the NHS and education, the strikes for decent wages, the cost of living - etc. - let's just concentrate on getting tough with migrants - the root of all evil. Pathetic, just pathetic.

Germanshepherdsmum

As I understand it, the staff painted the murals without permission and he said it was a law enforcement centre.

Is that you Mr Jenrick?

Germanshepherdsmum

A bit of sensationalist reporting, one side only.

So why isn’t Jenrick defending himself? It’s quite simple.

Germanshepherdsmum

Children’s hospitals can’t be compared with detention centres for people who have come here without permission, who could have stayed in another safe country.

You really don’t understand the concept of asylum do you. By definition it involves leaving your home and travelling to another country, without permission, and requesting asylum.

Hetty58

NanaDana, spot on! I can't help thinking that some politicians are playing to a certain (ignorant, tabloid reading) audience - those they hope will vote for them.

Forget the abysmal 'government' we've suffered, the underfunding of public services, the poor state of the NHS and education, the strikes for decent wages, the cost of living - etc. - let's just concentrate on getting tough with migrants - the root of all evil. Pathetic, just pathetic.

Yes, I agree, it’s spot on

hallgreenmiss

Germanshepherdsmum

A bit of sensationalist reporting, one side only.

So why isn’t Jenrick defending himself? It’s quite simple.

Indeed.

Germanshepherdsmum

I absolutely agree. I don’t welcome people of any age arriving here without permission. They are coming from countries which are safe.

If you are religious you believe the world belongs to all of us. Boats or no boats. We are who we are because of how or who we were born

Well said NanaDana.

Jenrik is a vile, odious pig!

This thread is becoming unpleasant. It’s about Robert Jenrick’s unkind and in my opinion nasty, comment or demand (I’m not sure which) that a children’s centre remove some murals of Mickey Mouse and other Disney characters. It’s not about being unpleasant to other posters.
It is nasty, as I said in my other post, of Jenrick to make this demand/comment. I’m unsure as to what he thinks the removal will achieve. People aren’t going to stop coming or sending their children on ahead because Mickey Mouse isn’t here to greet them. But children may just feel a bit more comfortable after their traumatic crossing if they see cartoon characters on the walls. No one wants to punish children. These children may have been able to stay elsewhere safely but unfortunately adults will have made the decisions about the children. Often parents send them on ahead in the hope that they can follow because they know we don’t refuse children. The smugglers will have pushed them on to the boats regardless of their fears. Adults who should have cared for these children have exposed them to danger. Mickey Mouse is just a friendly face when they arrive at the children’s centre.

JaneJudge countries have border’s whether we like it or not. It’s got nothing to do with religion. This thread is basically about Mickey Mouse. He’s an immigrant too. He came from America.

John Lanchester's dystopian novel, The Wall is about policing a border against increasingly desperate people. Very thought provoking. Also American Dirt. Refugee and migrant issues are going to continue to increase, it's a world issue and should be tackled as such just like climate change.

maddyone I agree with you in the main but thinking about unaccompanied children - I don’t know if I would be comforted by a mural of Mickey Mouse as a parent less child. Some cultures prohibit images of people and only allow patterns in art. So it depends on cultural background. I think as an abandoned child I would need to be held, fed and reassured. Preferably by someone who could speak my language. The fact that I might fleetingly see a cartoon on a wall might not make too much difference in the grand scheme.
I am unimpressed with the way Jenrick has handled this issue - which makes me ask if the fundamentals are in place to help children make a good psychological recovery from a traumatic event?

Let’s not fall out here please, we all have different experiences which shape our lives and ethics and moral values - for me, I have no issue with refugees, of the many who come here it’s the few who cause issues and have “lied” Our country, imo, has always welcome our “cousins” from other countries and many of them have enriched our country with their culture. Who amongst us doesn’t enjoy India/Chinese/Italian food (and the rest) and it’s sad to think that because we are so fortunate not to have been invaded as in war within our lifetimes.

Let’s remember we are not even in the top 10 countries accepting refugees and many do stay in countries much closer to their originating countries.

ronib, I’m surprised you can even ask whether the fundamentals are in place to help children make a good psychological recovery from a traumatic event.

13 years of austerity has decimated camhs. Children born and growing up here can’t get services. No hope for asylum seeking children - volunteers are plugging statutory gaps

Iam64 I don’t know why you are surprised that I ask. It is much more important than hyper ventilating about a cartoon. I have no direct experience of how abandoned refugee children are treated in the Uk. I would like to know what strategies and structures are in place. It’s not credible that this programme of nurture and settlement is left to volunteers.

* It’s not credible that this programme of nurture and settlement is left to volunteers.*

It is.

As has been stated, children born here cannot get the services they need. One CAMHS when phoned said that they only had one member of staff and that the lady on the phone was it - that she was employed to take referrals and tell people there are no staff!

ronib

Iam64 I don’t know why you are surprised that I ask. It is much more important than hyper ventilating about a cartoon. I have no direct experience of how abandoned refugee children are treated in the Uk. I would like to know what strategies and structures are in place. It’s not credible that this programme of nurture and settlement is left to volunteers.

I agree, we don’t know much at all about it do we?
I wonder about the ages of the children who are unaccompanied and going to this centre. Presumably the word children covers any age up to 18.Are the majority teenagers?
Also agree with posters who say stop making unpleasant personal comments aimed at other posters.

ronib my last comment was a general one and not meaning you.

Iam64

ronib, I’m surprised you can even ask whether the fundamentals are in place to help children make a good psychological recovery from a traumatic event.

13 years of austerity has decimated camhs. Children born and growing up here can’t get services. No hope for asylum seeking children - volunteers are plugging statutory gaps

Ain’t that the truth

I’m actually baffled that people wouldn’t realise that cuts to necessary services would be met by the voluntary sector, some of which is inappropriate. It also puts stress on other more expensive services.

Did you see the research into how uk children who have lived through austerity are now shorter than their European neighbours? 🤬