Children’s Asylum Centre ‘too welcoming’ 😢

Baggs

Interesting, Freya.

It reminds me of something.

I and my colleagues from other western countries, had to have work visas to work in a south Asian country back in the nineties. Since the government never got round to making our visas long term, we had to cross a border into another country every month to renew our short term visas.

I was only about an hour's drive from a border but for some people it meant a longish flight, somewhere to stay for a day or two and another flight back to where they worked.

So, when people say asylum-seekers in Britain "aren't allowed to work", I just remember the visa requirements even for invited people in the south Asian country I worked in.

And I shrug and don't find the no work until approved policy, or whatever it's called, at all strange.

I know where you are coming from having worked in France in the 60/70s and needing both work permits and residence permits.

I am not living in the UK bit France and I've worked with Asylum Seekers' children for several years. Most of these kids already have PTSD when they arrive and can't get any professional help until they speak the language - I digress.

Some of these families spent 10 years living on peanuts from the State. They were all ready and willing to work if only to stop people saying they were scroungers. Not being able to provide for his family is a njghtmare to men from many cultures and their children don't think much of parents lounging around in front of the telly because they have no money to do anything else.

Primrose53

@LibbyFionn29.

So anybody who agrees with you is “kind” and those of us who don’t “lack compassion”?

I don’t lack compassion but it is just a mural on a wall that we are talking about in a centre which is supposed to be for “children” but it is very well known that many of these “children” are men in their 20s.

I was brought up to be kind and compassionate just like my parents were but I draw the line at men masquerading as kids and also firmly believe we need to have controlled immigration.

This week I have donated stuff to a Ukrainian family moving into their first house, I regularly donate to charities close to my heart, I invite a lonely neighbour for meals, I Crochet or knit things for new babies in the village and I help out at local charity events.

We all choose what we support and what we don’t and until we have ensured that our own people have housing, food, healthcare and dental care then I don’t support allowing more and more people into our country every day especially when they have not put a penny into this country to start with.

The post immediately above yours says that some media had said 2/3 of these 'children' had in fact been adults. That was rubbish and it was 20%, 1 in 5 so I don;t call that 'many'.

However, you are so right when you say they shouldn't be here because "they have not put a penny into this country to start with". If they were given the right to work instead of getting a 5.38 pound a day handout, they would pay tax just like everyone else.

It's the sheer petty vindictiveness of some of our politicians that is so bloody depressing.

JaneJudge

The murals were painted by volunteers, it states it in several articles. The tax payer didn’t fund it. I want to say get a bloody grip. I have never seen so many unfeeling posts regarding vulnerable children. It’s sad

I missed that. Glad you brought it up - hope they don't get prosecuted by the Tory Vice Squad. I too am really surprised at a lot of the comments on here. Some of these kids have been shoved onto dinghies by their parents who don't have the cash the people smugglers charge,

Vito

Some of you on here have sunk to a new low . What the hell does "need more information" mean ? What more information do you need ? A minister has ordered cartoons in a centre to house kids who are scared ,possibly traumatised, to be painted over so as not to make them welcoming . I dispare when I read some of the comments on here, you should be ashamed.

150 %

foxie48

Contrary to what some of the media wants us to believe, the UK takes a tiny number of refugees, other countries take many many more eg Turkey (3.65m), Germany (2.2m), Pakistan (1.3m), Bangladesh has a million stateless Rohihgyas. Many of the countries that take thousands of refugees are very poor, we are not and it is my belief that we should take our share and we should do it to the best of our ability. I think there are politicians who want to give us a "common enemy", just like Hitler did in Germany, so we focus on that rather than poor govt. We tell people they haven't got school places, decent homes, good services, etc because we have too many immigrants, yet so many of our public services are kept going by people who have migrated here. Have a look at the doctors and nurses in your hospital, who your pharmacist is, who drives your buses and trains, who looks after your old mum in the care home. Just look around you and tell me that we have not benefitted by welcoming refugees and migrants. It is poor policy and a lack of proper funding that creates problems, not people.

You are so right. Turkey hosts the largest number of refugees, with 3.6 million people, followed by, can you believe, Iran with 3.4 million people. Colombia is third with 2.5 million, UK, 361,000 !

Sorry Joyce it did not quote your post 🙈 re austerity

It was just part of the discussion

VioletSky

That'll fix it!

As soon as children hear there is no longer murals they won't get on the boats at all!

In fact, they will probably just stay in war torn countries and slowly starve if they can't come look at Mickey Mouse!

That certainly seems to be what this creep expects to happen.

JaneJudge

Do you think immigration centres for unaccompanied children shouldn't have toys in either? How can having a sterile environment be in vulnerable children's best interests? and if we bring tax into the scenario, how does it cost any more tax to have a painted mural on the wall.

There is a psychology between art and trauma, it's why they paint children's hospitals with scenes and murals and why there is art in hospital. People going through trauma benefit from it

You are so right! We all know that art soothes the soul. Even if Germanshepherdsmum begrudges a little comfort to children (no idea what % turn out to be over 18) who have often travelled for months and been subjected to physical or mental abuse, The fact that they dared to come into our country at the expense of our taxpayer without the requisite bit of paper doesn't seem look like a crime to me.

Baggs

Galaxy

What difference does it make if there are 16 year olds there as well.

Possibly none. But that's well above the Mickey Mouse appreciation age, I think, which makes the painting over malarky not such a big deal.

I'd also want to know exactly how many unaccompanied children are in asylum centres. Surely it can't be many? How on earth would they get here completely unaccompanied?

www.refugeecouncil.org.uk/information/refugee-asylum-facts/separated-children-facts/

In the year ending September 2022, the UK received 5,152 applications for asylum from unaccompanied children. Many of them come from Sudan, a country facing political instability following years of civil war, children, in particular, are at risk. That is 25% of the asylum seekers for that year.

Really management by local Councils who are given the responsibility for minors without the finances they need often has disastrous results : .https://www.bbc.com/news/uk-63231470

Oreo

Being shorter is often linked to mothers who smoke during pregnancy, apart from genetics that is.

Hello ! I think you are on the wrong thread.

JaneJudge

This is the article

www.womenshealthmag.com/uk/health/a44340862/british-children-shorter-european-peers/#:~:text=Last%20week%2C%20a%20study%20revealed,NHS%20funding%2C%20reports%20the%20Guardian.

This has absolutely nothing to do this inhumane Minister wanting a reception Centre for kids to be unwelcoming. (or did I muss a bit?)

maddyone

I might be wrong but I think the children, who are mostly teenagers, only stay in these reception centres for a short time as I think they are usually moved to foster homes as soon as possible.

www.justiceinspectorates.gov.uk/hmiprisons/wp-content/uploads/sites/4/2021/12/Kent-detention-facilities-web-2021.pdf
Most recent published report.

I might be wrong but I think the children, who are mostly teenagers, only stay in these reception centres for a short time as I think they are usually moved to foster homes as soon as possible.

Let's hope the staff somehow manage to get nice stuff up to cheer the kids up. That Minister can only be the furthest of the furthest of the Right to bash little distressed children. Why didn't anyone stand up to him? This is a free link : www.bbc.com/news/uk-politics-66132158

FannyCornforth

Yes, Glorianny But what you see on the published menu does not correlate with the actual meal given to the children.
That’s why I mentioned ‘parents being misled’.
For over 10 years I was in the dining hall every day and saw exactly what happened

Well I was in many different school dining rooms for over 30 years and the majority of those schools offered decent meals to the children. Had they not provided what was on the menu the PTA would have asked questions. Didn't your school have one?

the question that always stays in my head is just where is everyone going to live?
It doesn't matter what skin colour. we have a housing shortage and that needs looking at.
Some counties eg Cornwall are already short of housing for ordinary people. Due to holiday lets becoming the main industry there.

What does Jenrick think will happen to these unaccompained children?
Do we have places for them?
Who paid for their travel.
So much we don't know.

But over painting a mural is a depth to be ashamed of.
that he is connected to people who went through the holocaust just makes him worse.

Looking at photos in school brochures is almost like looking at propaganda! (I jest, sort of…)
But, in my experience, the kids really don’t get the meals the parents are paying for

Yes, Glorianny But what you see on the published menu does not correlate with the actual meal given to the children.
That’s why I mentioned ‘parents being misled’.
For over 10 years I was in the dining hall every day and saw exactly what happened

Well many of the schools I worked in offered healthy meals to children and my GCs have healthy school meals. But really it isn't that important, for some of the children I encountered breakfast club and their school dinner were the only proper food they would get. Before breakfast clubs I met children whose breakfast had been a couple of biscuits they had found. Milk was sometimes given out first thing before assembly because of that.
Most breakfast clubs give cereal and toast.
Purely on spec I googled Cumbrian primary school lunch menu. I rejected a church school because it might be untypical but found Norman Street.
They look fine to me
www.normanst.cumbria.sch.uk/school-life/school-lunches/

Yes. Parents were stuffing bags of chips through the railings (if the MSM is to be believed)

Remember Jamie Oliver's attempt at healthy school dinners?
And parents protesting because their kids wanted Twizzlers & chips.

And the atmosphere in the dining hall was really noisy and chaotic, not conducive to enjoying eating in company.
The children just wanted to go back outside and play.
There was a lot of waste, hence the small portions.
It was a sort of Catch 22 situation

maddyone

Glorrianny
You think school meals are healthy? You clearly didn’t work in the area I worked in. Those meals were anything but healthy!

Same here. And pathetically tiny portions.
The parents were led to believe that their children had had a healthy, generous hot meal, but that really wasn’t the case at all.
I worried that they’d go home and be given just a snack for their tea.
Ditto breakfast club - it was usually cheap white toast