10 March, 2011

 

Thinking of the children

Interesting news this morning that Barnardo's are to be contracted to manage the welfare of children detained with their families awaiting deportation at the facility which is to replace the family unit at Yarl's Wood.

Cue the usual bleating about children being "imprisoned", with the impression being actively promoted that the poor terrified little mites are being cast mercilessly into dank dungeons where they are compelled to fight off the rats for possession of their meagre rations of bread and water. Actually, the proposed site looks quite pleasant.

But it's still detention, they say. You promised to end the detention of children whose families are slated for deportation (or immigration removal, or whatever, but let's not get bogged down in legal technicalities that are not pertinent to the issue).

So let's look at the practical possibilities. If a family with children has exhausted the legal paths available to them and has been told to leave, there seem to be five distinct ways of handling the process.
  1. The family leaves voluntarily.

  2. The family is detained together pending expulsion.

  3. The adults are detained pending expulsion. The children are left with neighbours, relatives or the like, or are taken into local-authority care. The family is reunited immediately prior to expulsion.

  4. The complete family is collected on the eve or on the day of expulsion.

  5. No attempt is made to expel the family, who are allowed to remain indefinitely.
It is clear that only outcomes 1 and 5 are acceptable to the Righteous. Actually, no, scrub outcome 1: the Righteous will see this solely as evidence of the family having been "intimidated" into leaving.

Outcome 5 will satisfy both the Righteous and the affected family. But it is unacceptable to the state and to the British people at large. Why?
OK, so a brief look at remaining outcomes 2, 3 and 4. Outcome 4 (the six o'clock snatch and the van ride to Heathrow) is perhaps the most unnecessarily traumatic of the lot. And error-prone too, with bags of possibilities for people to get separated. Surely you don't want that. Outcome 3 (bang up the parents and put the kids briefly into care) is almost as bad. Separating the kids from their parents at a difficult time and placing them in the care of strangers. Do you really want that? No, if the deportation is to go ahead and it is clear that the family will not co-operate or may attempt to actively frustrate the process, then outcome 2 (detain the family together) is the only realistic and humane approach.

Outcome 5 (let 'em stay) is a dereliction of the duty of the state to its people. It is similar to saying, "OK, Mrs Smith," (or Ms Smith as it might be these days), "your partner Kev has been convicted of armed robbery and GBH, but we're not going to imprison him because we wouldn't want the kids to be deprived of their father." Get a grip.

But we do expect a decent state to treat those in its charge humanely. Spare us the bollocks about the kids being locked up and deprived of their freedom. The freedom of movement of children is routinely circumscribed and constrained by parents or other guardians as part of everyday life. A 2.3m fence at the perimeter of the grounds of what amounts to a rather pleasant-looking country hotel is not traumatic.

The trauma, or to use old-fashioned language, the stress of the situation comes from the reaction of the parents, which is communicated to the children. Perfectly understandable. If I'd been convicted of an offence and was about to suffer the legal consequences, I'm sure I wouldn't be feeling particularly laid back about it either. It is also unavoidable. If we wanted to be nasty, we could say that it was the actions of the parents that brought about this situation and it's up to them to do the stiff upper-lip thing for the benefit of the kids. But being decent folk, we are bringing in a bit of extra support in an attempt to minimize it.

Far better to accept that you've been rejected and to leave quietly and under your own steam. For this country must enforce its laws. Ask yourselves this. You've come to the UK for a better life for yourselves and, in particular, for your kids. If, by accommodating your illegality and the illegal behaviour of the potentially many others in your position, we put into practice what amounts to an open borders policy and people then flow in from the third world until the country collapses into a copy of what you left behind to come here, what then have you gained?

Catch-22, innit?

Comments:
XX Spare us the bollocks about the kids being locked up and deprived of their freedom.XX

Did not seem to bother them when they paid thousands to some rowing boat owner to stow them under deck for the trip there, did it? (Why the HEL do we have U-Boots if they are never used???)

What their complaint actualy SEEMS to be, is that they are put up in four star luxury when they think with a little kicking and screaming, they will be moved to the five star around the corner.

 
'If, by accommodating your illegality and the illegal behaviour of the potentially many others in your position, we put into practice what amounts to an open borders policy and people then flow in from the third world until the country collapses into a copy of what you left behind to come here, what then have you gained?'

Excellent analysis overall Edwin. Trouble is, as someone (Keynes ?) once said 'In the long run, we are all dead'.The third world chancers who'll end up in this detention centre aren't worried about the long term impact they and their ilk will have on the carrying capacity of the UK over the long term. They just know that, for as long as they stay here, their own lives will be appreciably better than they would be back in their own countries.If emotional blackmail (via scenarios of 'poor terrified little mites' being 'cast mercilessly into dank dungeons') enables them to extend their stay, and ideally forestall their removal, then so be it- and bugger the long term consequences for the host country.

 
Unfortunately, Mark, our own dear Righteous elites aren't worried either.

They'll start in denial: "Oh no, there's no third-world immigration problem. look how few of them there are."

When that tactic fails, they'll proceed to rationalization: "Some of them are brain surgeons and the rest are doing the jobs the Whites won't do. And anyway, what does it matter? We're all the same colour under the skin; what are you, some kind of racist?"

 
XX ".....what are you, some kind of racist?" XX

To which the correct answer is "Yes".

It throws them a fucking country mile so it does.

They have their argument to prove you ARE when you say "no". You say "yes" and they are totaly flumoxed.

(Learned that from an old copper when we were "on the carpet" (getting bollocked by the boss). Boss asks "Do you thinlk that was fuinny?"

Old copper, "Aye lad. I dae". The boss had vapours for days.)

 
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