Yet more Tory sleaze….

[icowden]

97,900 people offered to house a Ukranian refugee, and so far 42,600 have arrived. Why not simply contact the 55,300 households and say that because of urgent need they will be matched to a newly arrived Syrian refugee instead. It won't be a 28 Ukranian lady with a small child and may well be a 39 Syrian male with a 15 year old son, but hey, they all need urgent help don't they, so essentially there is no difference at all is there?

Blimey. We actually agree on something!!

 

[AndyRM]

There appears to be a very easy solution to the numbers of arrivals and where they may live, I don't understand why it isn't being called for loudly.

97,900 people offered to house a Ukranian refugee, and so far 42,600 have arrived. Why not simply contact the 55,300 households and say that because of urgent need they will be matched to a newly arrived Syrian refugee instead. It won't be a 28 Ukranian lady with a small child and may well be a 39 Syrian male with a 15 year old son, but hey, they all need urgent help don't they, so essentially there is no difference at all is there?

I signed up to house a Ukrainian refugee and was recently contacted asking if I'd still be willing to do so, which I am. Nothing was mentioned about Syrian refugees but I wouldn't have a problem with that either.

 

[PaulB]

I signed up to house a Ukrainian refugee and was recently contacted asking if I'd still be willing to do so, which I am. Nothing was mentioned about Syrian refugees but I wouldn't have a problem with that either.

We did the same, assisted by a local who is of Ukranian extraction and is currently in Lviv helping his fellow countryfolk get to the UK. So far, despite his best efforts, we've seen only six families - SIX families - actually make it over here to E Lancs legally. He is so infuriated, he reckons the present system has been set up to fail. If not, then the incompetence is shameful.

What they do is give all the members EXCEPT the most vulnerable (eldest, youngest or person with special needs) a visa. The inference being, 'well go on, you can go and live in Britain now' but of course, the mother is not going to leave her visa-less child, the daughter not leaving her vulnerable mother. One case we know of is that a mother is divorced so they will only give her child a visa if she gets the father's signature. Easy enough, eh? Except the father is a front-line soldier so she would have to go - and probably take her two year-old with her because she's in Lviv without other family members - and present him with the sixteen-page document for him to have to sign and get an independent witness to authorise his signature! It's absolutely maddening and we've given up thinking about it too much or it will drive us insane with the awfulness of it all.

 

[Craig the cyclist]

We did the same, assisted by a local who is of Ukranian extraction and is currently in Lviv helping his fellow countryfolk get to the UK. So far, despite his best efforts, we've seen only six families - SIX families - actually make it over here to E Lancs legally. He is so infuriated, he reckons the present system has been set up to fail. If not, then the incompetence is shameful.

What they do is give all the members EXCEPT the most vulnerable (eldest, youngest or person with special needs) a visa. The inference being, 'well go on, you can go and live in Britain now' but of course, the mother is not going to leave her visa-less child, the daughter not leaving her vulnerable mother. One case we know of is that a mother is divorced so they will only give her child a visa if she gets the father's signature. Easy enough, eh? Except the father is a front-line soldier so she would have to go - and probably take her two year-old with her because she's in Lviv without other family members - and present him with the sixteen-page document for him to have to sign and get an independent witness to authorise his signature! It's absolutely maddening and we've given up thinking about it too much or it will drive us insane with the awfulness of it all.

Well that is your experience. The experience of 42,600 other families/people has been somewhat different as they are here. You have taken one case and said the whole thing is a shambles.

It was tricky to start, even people on here were saying that there were too many checks, followed by we need checks, followed by we need more checks on the hosts and the accommodation.

It is working better now though. Still at least by saying you are having problems you can put off having to actually having to host anyone, and instead can simply moan about the government.

 

[AndyRM]

I'd be surprised if @PaulB's pals situation was a one off. From my interaction with the scheme, it seems as though the government has set up the system then handed it over to local authorities to implement. Which is fine in theory, but government cuts to local authorities, particularly housing services mean that there will be a hell of a lot of unmanageable work for already overstretched departments.

 

[icowden]

Well that is your experience. The experience of 42,600 other families/people has been somewhat different as they are here. You have taken one case and said the whole thing is a shambles.

And he's back. You are again falling into the trap of false corollary. Just because 42,600 families are now in the UK it does not mean that their experience was better, worse or the same, and does not invalidate @PaulB's experience.

It was tricky to start, even people on here were saying that there were too many checks, followed by we need checks, followed by we need more checks on the hosts and the accommodation.

Again, two out of three ain't bad. The consensus was "checks on people in war zone" = bad idea, "checks on people willing to host people from war zone" = good idea.

It is working better now though.

Is it? Please show your working and evidence your theory. What is possibly working better is that aid workers and hosts are learning the best ways to get around the shortcomings in the system.

Still at least by saying you are having problems you can put off having to actually having to host anyone, and instead can simply moan about the government.

Ah, back to just being snarky. Remind us how your experience in hosting a refugee family is going?

 

[qigong chimp]

HMG's a bit sh1t, has anyone noticed?

 

[Deleted member 49]

There appears to be a very easy solution to the numbers of arrivals and where they may live, I don't understand why it isn't being called for loudly.

97,900 people offered to house a Ukranian refugee, and so far 42,600 have arrived. Why not simply contact the 55,300 households and say that because of urgent need they will be matched to a newly arrived Syrian refugee instead. It won't be a 28 Ukranian lady with a small child and may well be a 39 Syrian male with a 15 year old son, but hey, they all need urgent help don't they, so essentially there is no difference at all is there?

Sorry ? We're not sending Ukrainians to Rwanda yet are we ?

 

[Milkfloat]

Sorry ? We're not sending Ukrainians to Rwanda yet are we ?

Shhhhh, don't give her ideas. She might well use it as a leadership slogan.

 

[Craig the cyclist]

Oh come on, we were doing so well with our new found agreement!

Just because 42,600 families are now in the UK it does not mean that their experience was better, worse or the same, and does not invalidate @PaulB's experience.

In the same vein, Pauls experience does not mean the whole system is crap and that no-one has had a decent experience of coming over here. It has been rocky from the beginning, I have never said otherwise, but judging 42,600 experiences on PaulB's is not a good idea. I am sure for someone it was seamless, if I posted up about that single experience you would all tear me to shreds and post crap experiences.

It is a shame that the lady Paul has knowledge of is having issues, but that does mean that everyone is having issues.

 

[winjim]

My daughter is very excited that there's a girl from Ukraine in her Rainbows group. I can only assume that things went smoothly for her family since there's usually a very long waiting list.

 

[icowden]

It is a shame that the lady Paul has knowledge of is having issues, but that does mean that everyone is having issues.

This is true - but it's also true that the system is widely reported to be a shambles and incompetently designed. If Priti Patel was involved of course that makes perfect sense.

 

[PaulB]

Oh come on, we were doing so well with our new found agreement!

In the same vein, Pauls experience does not mean the whole system is crap and that no-one has had a decent experience of coming over here. It has been rocky from the beginning, I have never said otherwise, but judging 42,600 experiences on PaulB's is not a good idea. I am sure for someone it was seamless, if I posted up about that single experience you would all tear me to shreds and post crap experiences.

It is a shame that the lady Paul has knowledge of is having issues, but that does mean that everyone is having issues.

I'm not just speaking from my own experience - I'd love to hear your experience on this issue - I am commenting on the GROUP I belong to in East Lancashire and you probably didn't bother to read this as you've got your tory blinkers on. This is a group of over 40 people/couples/families here and so far - you probably missed this bit - SIX family units from Ukraine have arrived in the UK from the units we are liaising with. Of those though, two units - seven people in total - have returned to Ukraine.

 

[Milkfloat]

My daughter is very excited that there's a girl from Ukraine in her Rainbows group. I can only assume that things went smoothly for her family since there's usually a very long waiting list.

In Scouts many of the groups, including mine are prioritizing immigrants, so far we have only had one Ukrainian, but we have feelers out for other nationalities.

 

[winjim]

In Scouts many of the groups, including mine are prioritizing immigrants, so far we have only had one Ukrainian, but we have feelers out for other nationalities.

I was being slightly facetious but yes, they have prioritised her. My daughter was genuinely very excited and happy though, it's only small in the scheme of things but she feels like she's doing something to help.