Asylum seekers to get Di fund

[IRiSHMaFIA]

THE Diana Memorial Fund was under fire last night for spending ?1.2million on asylum seekers and crooks.

Accounts reveal the late Princess?s charity gave ?715,000 to refugees last year.

The fund also donated ?545,000 to prisoners and their families.

Most of the money was given by ordinary people following Diana?s death as a way to express their grief. Many would have expected the cash to aid disadvantaged Brits.

John Clarke, founder of the Monte Cassino Veterans? Association ? a charity that sends vets to WWII battlefields ? attacked the handouts.

He said: ?Most people would be very surprised and disappointed that so much money is being given to asylum seekers and prisoners.

?We would certainly have been grateful for some of the cash.?

Bill Bond, who runs the Battle of Britain Historical Society, said: ?I?m staggered that they?re allowed to give money to these groups.?

Cash to asylum seekers and prisoners made up a significant chunk of the ?4.9million gifted in the year to December 2005. The charity also helped landmine charities.

Last night the fund?s spokeswoman Mitali Atal hit back. She said: ?We have been working with asylum seekers and refugees since 1999. We?ve been able to make a lot of good changes. The fund feels this is an area where we can make a difference.

?We work with highly legitimate organisations like Save The Children and The Refugee Council. We?ve given out over ?7million in this area since 1999. We do not think it is a politically sensitive area.?

The fund, set up in September 1997 days after the Princess died in a Paris car crash, received ?108million in just two years.

Diana Fund... a memorial to the Princess

Early statements revealed cash would go to charities close to Diana?s heart ? and in keeping with the spirit of her causes. Last year a decision was made to focus on four areas ? ?displaced people?, ?people at the margins of society?, ?survivors of conflict? and ?those requiring conflict mediation and dying and bereaved people?.

There is roughly ?25million left in the kitty to be issued by 2013.

In 2005 it got ?213,000 from donations, ?1.8million from investments and ?140,000 from royalties. Di?s brother Earl Spencer gave ?50,000. The fund was criticised recently for advertising for a Head of Refugee and Asylum Seekers Initiatives.

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I think it's complete madness for a thing to be given to prisoners. That's just a pathetic abuse of the fund

As far as asylum seekers and refugees go, if they've no food to eat or clothing or shelter then they should get a hand up I think. How can you begin a new life in a country without the proper tools to do so?

[faceless]

I reckon the idea of helping "on the edge of society" would have appealed to Lady Di - these so-called "crooks" that the article accuses people of being are more than likely nothing more than petty criminals and drug users...