There will be no limit to the number of Ukrainian refugees who can live with UK host families under a new visa scheme.
The UK Health Secretary: "I'm pleased that we're doing this because as a country we have a very proud record of offering sanctuary to people from wars and from conflicts,
When the bus driver dropped Vishnu and his friends off, they joined a throng of hundreds of people trying to pass through a gate at the border. Vishnu says only Ukrainians were being allowed through - and each time he got close to the crossing, guards would "drag" him to the back again.
UK Home Secretary Priti Patel: “I have developed the Ukraine family scheme following discussions with the Ukrainian government and neighbouring countries and I am proud to have launched it within a matter of days, enabling Ukrainians with family in the United Kingdom to be welcomed safely, quickly and free of charge,” she said ahead of her visit.
A lesson to all non-white, non-Europeans: get a pet. There is no guarantee it would help, but it might.
A long-lasting tradition:
"There is a striking discrepancy between the lack of feeling aroused by the deaths of tens of thousands of human beings—in their majority anonymous, unrecorded by the authorities and denied the dignity of a proper burial—with that excited by, say, the 1,000 lives lost in the crossing from East to West Germany during the Cold War. There is one obvious explanation: an African, an Arab or an Afghani who drowns in the Mediterranean, in flight from war, oppression or extreme poverty, is not seen as a human being in the same way as the Germans who were trying to flee ‘communism’ and were hailed as martyrs for liberty."
—Stathis Kouvelakis, New Left Review, March-April 2018
—Stathis Kouvelakis, New Left Review, March-April 2018
“These people are not people we are used to… these people are Europeans.”
– Kiril Petkov, Bulgarian Prime Minister, Associated Press, March 1, 2022
All refugees are unequal, but some refugees are more unequal than others.
Poland has said that it is willing to take up to a million Ukrainian refugees.
And Hungary is not using that wall it built to keep refugees away.
After all, Ukrainians are Christians and have a culture similar to us, their women do not wear a headscarf, and they are white…
And just like they did for Syria, Yemen and Palestine …
“UK urgently looking at help for refugees.” Home Secretary Priti Patel, said in a statement that “no dinghy boats to be used. Not a single Ukrainian will be held in a detention centre. They are all our European, civilised, and white sisters and brothers. They are not coming here to blow us up.” [My satire]
An honest Member of Parliament and Home Office minister Kevin Foster tweeted there were a "number of routes" for refugees "not least our seasonal worker scheme". He should have added that any Ukrainian lorry drivers would be welcomed with open arms and paid three times the minimum wage.
When Ukrainians fight an invader they are called a resistance and they “fight heroically”. When Iraqis or Palestinians fight they are called insurgents, rebels, terrorists …
“There have been reports of foreign students receiving racist treatment at the border, with social media footage showing Ukrainian officials preventing some from crossing.”
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