Forum Topic

So this is what the leader of the Council said on September 4th: goodwill, but no commitment to actual numbers.JB “We would want to try and help in any way we possibly can. Everyone’s hearts go out to those refugees who have lost loved ones and are really struggling – so we would want to do everything we can. We are already under pressure with a growing population. We have to find money to expand our skills and we’ve had some disagreement about the levels of funding and hospital services we need in the area so there are clearly challenges, but I think our humanitarian instincts have got to be to the four and certainly as a council we would want to work very closely with central government and the home office to try and do everything we can to help.TT: for schools health – some recognition. Not simple - not year to year. Government will have to think about emergency funding – extra funding if end up there. Greater pressure on servicesQ – If you take Syrian refugees to live in Ealing, that you will you have to cut budgets elsewhere for existing services?JB: This is an international and a national problem, so we need the Treasury and the government to help us to meet it. Obviously we’re having already having to make some very, very tough decisions. Our budgets have been almost halved in terms of our control of budgets that we deliver our main services through.So We are under extreme pressure but as I say, our instincts at this kind of time is that you have to let your compassionate and humanitarian feelings come to the fore and find a way…find a way to help and we will do whatever we can to work with the government to try to help these refugees."Some boroughs such as Barnet and Kingston, have already committed to 15 families. It's not a lot.This is a funded scheme - rent and support paid for by the UN for the first year. And the refugees have status so they can work.Plus there is a team looking for local private landlords so the homeless of Ealing don't drop down the pecking order.These are vulnerable people in desperate need. Surely, as a borough, we can house just a few of them.

Sara Nathan ● 3999d

'Of course they are mostly young men ..... maybe if they stay behind because they may be expected to fight'.  These Muslim men have been proven to be fleeing because they do not want to be conscripted into the army.'Wouldn't you send your son away from the fighting if you could?'Can I remind everyone that if British mothers  took this view during the last war - that the Germans may have had the opportunity of killing and starving to death many more Jews - and others - in the concentration camps and life today in the UK could be very different.  'We are not over-crowded as a country'.... yet we cannot feed ourselves from the land we have available ..... and have to import most of our food. And do not have enough places in our schools...doctors to treat the sick, or homes in which to house those already living here.'Sierra Leone - got leave to remain last month. He's a lawyer'.  Is Sierra Leone in the midst of a civil war?  Africa is a rich continent crying out for qualified professionals - doctors.lawyers.accountants etc. why come here and not stay behind and help build Africa up into a land worth living in? 'we should be generous and welcoming because that's what we would want our neighbours to do for us if catastrophe descended and we had to flee'.  No matter what catastrophe fell upon the UK I do not think that the great British spirit would allow us to flee.  We would stay and fight, but those new to this country perhaps would be the first to flee!  My husband was talking, in rural France, during a commune get together, to an Algerian immigrant newly moved in, after having a few glasses of wine, he was asked by a village elder, if he would fight for France should the need arise..... his answer was ..... no.

Dee Cook ● 4013d

The reason asylum-seekers don't want to be fingerprinted in, say Hungary, is that then becomes the default location for them. If you are escaping Syria/Libya etc and either speak English or have family here (or in France or Germany) that materially lessens the chance you will EVER join them.Of course they are mostly young men - they can survive appalling journeys and are not weighed down by children, pregnancy or age. Not so vulnerable to the journey but in MORE danger maybe if they stay behind because they may be expected to fight. Wouldn't you send your son away from the fighting if you could?As for the phone/money argument, read Simon Jenkins. Best quote: "Refugees bring out the worst in politicians and the best in people"Actually we are making a rod for our own back only taking the vulnerable from the camps, when what would benefit this country is to import some of the people who did have the money to pay the smugglers: the middle-classes; doctors, lawyers, architects, engineers. the most enterprising and determined.We are not over-crowded as a country and every town could take 50 people without even noticing. Nor would they be a net drain necessarily> the reason asylum-seekers are a drain now is that they are not allowed to work while they claim asylum. Such is the arcane inefficency of the system, that this can take years during which applicants are pauperised. It's wholly counter-productive. These are people who want to and could work. We have an Iranian engineer at our drop-in, he can't work, he can't support his family and he is desperate to do so. Or the chap from Sierra Leone - got leave to remain last month. He's a lawyer, hasn't been allowed to work for years. He's now able to retrain as an immigration lawyer here. Just such a waste.But actually, we should be generous and welcoming because that's what we would want our neighbours to do for us if catastrophe descended and we had to flee.Even the poorest Briton has so much compared to those in war zones or refugee camps. Surely we can make some room for refugees?

Sara Nathan ● 4016d