The Calais children

[TheOstrich]

http://www.theguardian.com/world/2016/a ... fugee-camp

I must confess, I am beginning to soften my stance a bit on this .....

Should we allow some in? If so, how many?

One of the great objections, I suppose, is the right to family life which means that extended families could join them at a later date - the "thin end of the wedge" argument.
Do we make it clear before we accept them that we will not allow extended families in? How can we ensure this?

[Workingman]

No, we should not allow any in.

They are in France, a safe haven, and it is up to France to make them safe. They are for the French to deal with and the most we should do is put pressure on the French to act on their behalf, whilst making it perfectly clear we are not letting any into the UK.

[Aggers]

There is another course we could take.

We could offer to send food, clothing, etc. over to France for the refugees.

It seems such a pity that the poor little children involved have to suffer so.

[Suff]

+1 Frank.

Aggers, the French have an obligation, under UN treaties agreed, to care for these people.

Remember these people have put themselves in this position by refusing to apply for asylum in France because they want to illegally enter the UK.

I'm sick and tired of the press on this. If they want to alleviate their suffering they just have to apply for asylum and the French will have to give it to them because they let them into the country in the first place.

No, NO and Hell NO again and again until the press get it. This is NOT our problem and NOT our fault. I absolutely refuse to allow anyone to make it our problem.

[Kaz]

I'm with you Ossie, I think we should take the children x

[Suff]

It takes a hell of a lot of digging to get through the rhetoric and barrage of attempts to force the UK to take all those trying to force their way into the UK.

Something that almost every other country in the EU is now refusing to do. Now it's the blackmail card of the "poor children".

So for anyone who wants to believe the rhetoric, they might want to read this article. Then think long and hard about what it means for the UK and for our society.

Also we might want to remember that every single Iranian, Pakistani and Afghani "migrant" who has applied for Asylum in Germany and the other EU countries has been denied. Yet if they make it to the UK they will be denied then not deported.

Don't be blackmailed. It is the duty of the French to force these refugees to register or to send them back. The reason they are living in squalor and misery and danger is because the French government has put them in that place by refusing to do their international duty.

Then they all demand that we do ours.

Not a chance. Well until Corbyn or Labour get in that is.

[cromwell]

I must confess, I am beginning to soften my stance a bit on this .....

Should we allow some in?

Abso-blinking-lutely not!

If so, how many?

Somewhere inbetween 1 and -1.

One of the great objections, I suppose, is the right to family life which means that extended families could join them at a later date - the "thin end of the wedge" argument.
Do we make it clear before we accept them that we will not allow extended families in? How can we ensure this?

The lawyers will make sure that you can't ensure it!

And here's another reason - 90% of these "children" aren't children at all.
http://www.nationalreview.com/corner/42 ... t-children

To sum up from the article - "It’s very difficult to say for sure how many people lie about their age when coming as refugees, but a study using dental tests in Norway revealed that 9 out of 10 underage refugee children were actually older than 18."

These people have come an awfully long way to get here and they aren't going to let a little detail like telling the truth get in the way. Here's another case, I had a good laugh at this one.
https://www.washingtonpost.com/news/ear ... old-he-is/

No thanks, not one of them.

[KateLMead]

I find the hard stance by some people with respect to granting sanctuary for young children almost impossible to believe. I adopted my youngest who weighed just over 7lbs at the age of one year.. A bag of bones, no milk no food no vitamins their diet was the water that rice had been cooked in ,in a public hospital known as ge death house where millions of AID was received.. Doctors were mega rich, and authorities the money never got to the babies where the mothers gave birth and abandoned them. They lay on dirty pieces of ticking, were never held or cuddled.. My eldest daughter who was a voluntary nurse in another hospital told us about these babies and my late husband said on the way back from the airport the wheels turned into he hospital. When he saw the little ones he said, poor little b"!!!,,. The best answere for these little ones is to put them out of their misery. We went every day from then onwards to the hospital and fed them, when they saw us they smacked their little lips knowing they would be fed. Three died Darling Harry and Yasmin as we called them remained. It broke my heart that we could not take Harry also, who grew over the year into a beautiful boy calling me Mumma, however he was adopted by a woman whose child had died. I will never forget the day we took Yasmin home it was like a transformation the change in her. And I have never forgotten darling Harry wondering how his life turned out.as for my darling Yasmin now aged 44 with two wonderful children and a loving husband she is a jewel as are my grandchildren.. She works for Shelter all my children have worked for charities, the photo you see is of her marriage. I cannot stand to think of her outcome had we walked away. I would not take any males over fifteen. We need to start national service again and we need to open our hearts to those little and young ones who are facing unimaginable abuse and yes even death through sickness and terrible neglect.

[Workingman]

Kate, having read your post and met you wonderful daughter, Yasmin, it is easy to understand why you feel the way you do.

However, it is not going to change my view on Calais. Those who are there should not even be in Europe never mind Calais, but as they are there they are the responsibility of the French and for the French to sort things out.

[Suff]

Kate, you are looking at this from the point of being a mother. Just as the press want you to. The Belgian government looked at the November Paris attackers as criminals and carried out their activities on a normal criminal mould.

We've seen how well the Belgian government approach worked. I have no doubt that trying to treat the Calais children as a mother will have the same effect.

When in doubt, ask yourself one simple question.

How did they get there?

We are asked to believe that these are children without family, without means, without anything. Go take a look at the map to refresh yourself just exactly how FAR it really is.

Then ask yourself.

How did they get there?

Every single time the press start their "Britain is a heartless thug" for not doing what every country they crossed should have done. Let's put it this way, in Britain these children would be made a ward of court if found on the streets alone without family.

So, again, "How Did They Get There?"

Not just physically, not the money it cost, not even what made them leave. I have to ask myself over and over again how every country they crossed allowed them to roam free, school age (so they say), with no family and no parents.

And again. Just how did they NOT get picked up and put into care and given education, food, clothes. How the Hell did they avoid all of that and why has France not done that already?

When you get to the answer that I have already come to, that every country on the way completely abrogated their responsibility to these children and allowed them to wind up in France, trying to pressure the UK to take them and the other 50:1 family members just waiting for them to land, over and above the money and support that it took to get these "children with no means" over those thousands of miles; then, perhaps, you will understand our attitude.

How did they get there?