Yvette Cooper / Migrant Watch / Stopping The Boats

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I didn’t say and I don’t think that they are mutually exclusive, even though that’s what you imply. But if that makes you happy . . .

I’d like to think you’re right about the people speaking up here for refugees are also helping, donating to or campaigning for people in need in the UK.

Well done Choughdancer, LizzieDrip and Wwm2
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People in my church are generous donaters to the local food bank.
A church member runs a weekly group in our church hall for English conversation which is well attended and supported by immigrants of many nationalities.
Compassion can, and does, take many forms.

Establishing safe and legal routes for refugees to settle in Britain will not deter those who are planning on crossing the Channel from doing so, and we know as much given that such routes already exist. Since 2015, the UK has resettled around half a million refugees into Britain using established safe and legal routes. These routes are intended to help those most at risk, and have therefore prioritised resettling those from areas of intense conflict such as Afghanistan, Ukraine, and Syria.

Yet despite the existence of these routes, irregular crossings across the Channel have consistently increased throughout this period, reaching almost 50,000 people in 2022 alone.”
(Migration Watch Website)

*We can't just stack them up in hotels, barges or army barracks and hope they go away or even worse*

I'd just like to point out the "Army barracks" I know of, being sneered at on GN, consists of decent housing recently occupied by army families, now occupied by Afghan families.

Many British families desperately waiting for social housing would be thankful for them and I'm sure the Afghan families are thankful and relieved to be living here too. Local people have been generous and kind in helping them.

Chocolatelovinggran

People in my church are generous donaters to the local food bank.
A church member runs a weekly group in our church hall for English conversation which is well attended and supported by immigrants of many nationalities.
Compassion can, and does, take many forms.

And it is possible to care about more than one group of people.

Thankfully.

Mollygo

I didn’t say and I don’t think that they are mutually exclusive, even though that’s what you imply. But if that makes you happy . . .

I’d like to think you’re right about the people speaking up here for refugees are also helping, donating to or campaigning for people in need in the UK.

Well done Choughdancer, LizzieDrip and Wwm2
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Ah sorry Mollygo; I wasn't getting at you! I just used your post as an example of caring about both; apologies for any misunderstanding.

Callistemon213

^*We can't just stack them up in hotels, barges or army barracks and hope they go away or even worse*^

I'd just like to point out the "Army barracks" I know of, being sneered at on GN, consists of decent housing recently occupied by army families, now occupied by Afghan families.

Many British families desperately waiting for social housing would be thankful for them and I'm sure the Afghan families are thankful and relieved to be living here too. Local people have been generous and kind in helping them.

No sneer here about the accommodation, it's the time taken to process people that is the issue and the resulting backlog leading to people being unable to start making a contribution to our society that I posted about.

I have every sympathy for genuine refugees fleeing war like the Ukrainians who have come to live in Britain but I have no sympathy for the economic migrants who have paid the smuggling gangs thousands and thousands of Euros to come here or the men waiting in Calais sometimes for months/year to try and sneak on a lorry to get here when they are already in a safe place the EU. Why do you think many destroy their ID papers and then tell a tale to stay here because they know eventually they will be able too.

foxie48

Callistemon213

*We can't just stack them up in hotels, barges or army barracks and hope they go away or even worse*

I'd just like to point out the "Army barracks" I know of, being sneered at on GN, consists of decent housing recently occupied by army families, now occupied by Afghan families.

Many British families desperately waiting for social housing would be thankful for them and I'm sure the Afghan families are thankful and relieved to be living here too. Local people have been generous and kind in helping them.

No sneer here about the accommodation, it's the time taken to process people that is the issue and the resulting backlog leading to people being unable to start making a contribution to our society that I posted about.

Ok, but stacking them up made it sound as if they're in a dormitory of bunk beds in a spartan boarding school !

I take the point and agree about the stacking up on list and failure to process these people quickly.

09:28foxie48

And when they are all processed and out of hotel /temporary accommodation where are they going to live? It's never going to end because more are waiting over in Calais to fill their places. We already have a housing problem here, OK Rayner's going to build 1.5 million homes supposedly, well we'll need them just for the new arrivals.

"How many empty homes? The Department for Levelling Up, Housing and Communities (DLUHC) publishes data on homes classed as empty for Council Tax purposes. In October 2022, there were 676,304 recorded empty homes in England. This is a 3.6% increase on the previous year's total."

commonslibrary.parliament.uk/research-briefings/sn03012/

Many will belong to people who have died or gone into care, waiting to be sold. Many will also be undergoing refurbishment.

One of the biggest potential sources of housing is surely unoccupied office blocks? They obviously aren’t all located in suitable areas, or possible to convert, but many probably are. I don’t see us reverting back to office based working in the future because of the overheads and environmental impact, so it would make sense to make use of them where possible.

Germanshepherdsmum

Many will belong to people who have died or gone into care, waiting to be sold. Many will also be undergoing refurbishment.

They are still empty and their owners are living elsewhere or if they are deceased they are still empty. Surely one of the problems that we have as we have areas of the country where people don't want to live because there are few jobs so the housing stock is left empty and falls into disrepair. Levelling up was a great slogan but there's little evidence that much progress was made. Our Island is not overcrowded but we have areas of the country that are overcrowded because that's where the jobs are. This also puts huge pressure on the services in those areas but makes it difficult to recruit people because they can't afford to live there.

If houses are empty because the owner has gone into care and the relatives need to sell it, or because the next of kin are in the throes of obtaining probate, you can't fill that house with asylum seekers, can you?? For goodness sake........

My area is overcrowded and the Council has been told to build 20,000 more houses - the hospitals, doctors' surgeries and schools can't cope, and there are no NHS dentists.

758 total since 6th July. 41 new arrivals on boat yesterday, there could be more who arrive undected and just disappear.

7 boats yesterday carrying 758 new arrivals making the total since Labour came to power 1185.

Looks like 427 arrived yesterday?

100, 000 undocumented asylum seekers who paid smugglers to get here to be released under Labour Government. It will free up hotels /accommodation for the next arrivals so they say, but where are they going to go and live. 1185 new arrivals and counting in 10 days 😡

Do you have a link to the release of all these undocumented immigrants?

Germanshepherdsmum

Looks like 427 arrived yesterday?

Yes got muddled up there putting total instead of new arrivals 👍

Labour to allow 100,000 migrants to apply for asylum
Indication comes as first migrant boat crossed the Channel since Sir Keir Starmer took power

By
Charles Hymas
, HOME AFFAIRS EDITOR
8 July 2024 • 9:17pm Telegraph Newspaper

Data for this time last year.

Labour is to allow more than 100,000 migrants to apply for asylum after scrapping Rishi Sunak’s Rwanda scheme, Sir Keir Starmer’s spokesman indicated on Monday.

Some 90,000 migrants earmarked for deportation to Rwanda will be among the 102,000 who will be processed through the asylum system.

The move came as the first migrant boat crossed the Channel since Sir Keir won the election as his spokesman admitted it would be a “challenging” summer for the Government. (Telegraph Newspaper)