debating the bnp

[luke]

does anyone know of any good resources for dispelling the myths spread by the bnp ( and tabloid media ), you know the usual immigrants and asylum seekers getting more benefits and rights, taking all the council houses, they're all coming to this country blah de blah

[faceless]

Well for a start, immigrants are treated completely differently from asylum seekers. Asylum seekers are put on tokens for food (they aren't given any money directly) and aren't allowed to do any kind of work - this can even last for a few years.

Asylum seekers tend to have come through a lot of grief - bnp twats freak when you ask, if the tables were turned, how many of them could handle getting from Britain to Afghanistan with nothing but the clothes on their backs.

Here's a page I just found:


http://www.menter.org.uk/html/migrant_and_refugee_issues.html

[luke]

interesting, cheers faceless. i read somewhere else asylum seekers get £40 a week

[faceless]

You could always just forget about debating them...

[luke]

yeah normally i couldn't really be bothered to debate them, and its not really them i'm debating, its the people that aren't necessarily racist but appear to have been sucked in by their lies and distortions. i really thought it would be quite easy to come by the sort of facts and figures i need to take 'um down - buts its actually really difficult.

i mean, where did you find out about that food token stuff? cos i can't find that anywhere but i've got 3 different figures for benefits they can get!

you'd think there'd be a simple government page that would address all these issues and myths, but i can't find it

[faceless]

I know some people who work with asylum seekers here in the social work department - I think it was them who told me. But I'll check with them during the week.

[luke]

during my travels around the interweb earlier i did see some stuff about there being differences in how some things were dealt with in scotland compared to here, so maybe thats one of them

[cobweb]

Faceless is correct in that asylum seekers do indeed get voucher instead of cash. My partner used to help with a volunteer group in our home town to welcome asylum seekers.

She (and this would be funny if it weren't so tragic) had to help a family who didn't get their vouchers one time, they came from Manchester as I recall, and when she phoned she was simply told they had been posted out a few days before. After doing a little digging they had been sent to Mrs X at Great Western Road.

The two things wrong with that are that firstly they didn't even live on GWR but just off it and secondly it's one of the longest roads in Scotland. The issuers couldn't have cared less. The family had to make do with handout's of food (for over a week) until the address issue was sorted and replacements sent out.

Also make sure that you stress the difference between asylum seekers and immigrants. An immigrant can arrive here from any country (ie all those bloody Ausie bar staff) for any reason but an asylum seeker is fleeing from persecution (usually religious though other reasons are valid) in their own country which, if they are returned, would have a significant threat to their, or their families, safety.

A bit wordy but an important point to make to someone sucked in by BNP retoric...and if all else fails twat them one with a hammer.