Lord Dubs Scheme shamefully halted, Britain is better than this! Please sign

RE: Lord Dubs Scheme shamefully halted, Britain is better than this! Please sign

Martin Atkinson — Fri, 10 Feb 2017 16:07:37 GMT

[quote user="Bob Russell"]

What we do need is a robust system in place to ensure the truly needy are cared for but it has to be done a lot better than it is at present.

http://www.express.co.uk/news/uk/732593/Child-asylum-seekers-trafficked-kids-going-missing-alarming-rate

Also similar reports in other papers. The children entering the UK are not necessarily entering a safe environment.

[/quote]If the report is to be believed the majority of children who are going missing are not those of refugees from war zones:

• The top nationalities of missing trafficked children were Vietnamese and Albanian

• Albanian, Afghan, Vietnamese and Eritrean children accounted for the highest proportion of missing unaccompanied children.

This suggests again that traffickers are placing these children in these situations and then contacting them after arrival to 'repay their debt'. There has to be another way of protecting these children and it it is to our collective shame as a nation that we are not doing more to help but there will always be those seeking to gain from exploiting the vulnerable and the DUBS scheme is not working.

RE: Lord Dubs Scheme shamefully halted, Britain is better than this! Please sign

Bob Russell — Fri, 10 Feb 2017 12:17:25 GMT

http://www.bbc.co.uk/news/education-38896547

RE: Lord Dubs Scheme shamefully halted, Britain is better than this! Please sign

Bob Russell — Fri, 10 Feb 2017 11:58:31 GMT

This situation may not be 'Britain' but it is the world of the tabloid papers. Some of the articles that have appeared should have the newspaper editors hanging their heads in shame!

What we do need is a robust system in place to ensure the truly needy are cared for but it has to be done a lot better than it is at present.

http://www.express.co.uk/news/uk/732593/Child-asylum-seekers-trafficked-kids-going-missing-alarming-rate

Also similar reports in other papers. The children entering the UK are not necessarily entering a safe environment.

RE: Lord Dubs Scheme shamefully halted, Britain is better than this! Please sign

Stephen Putnam — Thu, 09 Feb 2017 20:59:59 GMT

Signed. Appalling situation.

RE: Lord Dubs Scheme shamefully halted, Britain is better than this! Please sign

Martin Atkinson — Thu, 09 Feb 2017 16:44:30 GMT

[quote user="Bob Russell"]

I believe the assistance should go to the root of the problem. For people escaping from Syria, it should go to the surrounding countries to help care for the displaced close to home. Eventually and hopefully there should be a home to go back to at some stage.

Economic migrants - help them make a living in their own country of origin by providing assistance there.

[/quote]This was emphasised when a boatload of 'refugees' land on the the British base of Akrotiri on Cyprus. They assumed that this was British sovereign soil and they would be entitled to seek asylum in Britain. When told that we had an agreement with Cyprus for them to be handed over to the Cypriot authorities to seek asylum there they rioted. If they were genuine political refugees or those fleeing with their lives from war/persecution, would they not be rather happy to stay in Cyprus or anywhere that was just a safe haven?

When interviewed those landing in Greece most said they wanted to get to Britain or Germany, not just I'm glad to be anywhere safe.

Not saying that we should ignore the plight of those children in genuine need but just as Bob suggests, when probably the majority of the migrants in Calais are economic migrants and the children are the pawns in a game, charity begins in the home.

RE: Lord Dubs Scheme shamefully halted, Britain is better than this! Please sign

Lucy Fleming — Thu, 09 Feb 2017 15:48:18 GMT

[quote user="Bob Russell"]I have a regular argument with my younger son, mainly to wind him up, when I suggest no assistance and no landing for those that leave the north coast of Africa. Many will drown but so few would get through that it would only be a matter of time before the route closed.[/quote]

I believe that is the policy that Australia has gone for when dealing with migrants. My understanding is that it isn't going that well

RE: Lord Dubs Scheme shamefully halted, Britain is better than this! Please sign

Bob Russell — Thu, 09 Feb 2017 15:42:55 GMT

Economic migrants - help them make a living in their own country of origin by providing assistance there.

The abuse of the system is only too obvious when people well into their 20's and older are masquerading as children. Some parents abandoning their children in the hope that they might get a better life without them. People traffickers taking advantage of them all!

Figures released sometime back indicated that social services were losing track of so many of the children arriving on their own. What fate have they in store?

Life for asylum seekers and economic migrants is very tough in the UK and many other EU countries. The pavements are not paved with gold.

I have a regular argument with my younger son, mainly to wind him up, when I suggest no assistance and no landing for those that leave the north coast of Africa. Many will drown but so few would get through that it would only be a matter of time before the route closed.

Not suggesting this should happen but I suspect the long term casualties would end up being lower!

You cannot sort this out by allowing 20, 200, 2000 or 2 million children in. Protect and help at origin not after they have risked the lives of these youngsters.

RE: Lord Dubs Scheme shamefully halted, Britain is better than this! Please sign

Martin Atkinson — Thu, 09 Feb 2017 14:34:03 GMT

The problem with the DUBS scheme is that it has been abused and many of the refugee children are anything but children, many are young adults. Add to that it would appear some parents have deliberately abandoned/placed their children in a ploy to milk the system. Genuine lone child refugees would not have rocked up 1000 miles from home in Calais by themselves, someone has transported them or paid for them to be taken there purposefully, be it their relatives or traffickers.

This is not a simple humanitarian problem, a high percentage are the children (indeed if they really are children) of economic refugees not those fleeing persecution as in the 30's to save them from the gas chambers. Stopping the program altogether is not an answer as there are undoubtedly many children in genuine need but an open doors policy is not the answer either and I honestly don't know what is. However, I truly hope that it was not based on racist/immigration control policies and that it is because the scheme is unworkable and was being abused.

For this reason, although I would love to support this campaign I feel I can't. If I have totally misunderstood this issue please enlighten me either politely or vigorously, I don't mind.

RE: Lord Dubs Scheme shamefully halted, Britain is better than this! Please sign

Dinu Catilina — Thu, 09 Feb 2017 00:44:12 GMT

What starts the same ends the same Mariette, sad isn't it?