Opening up our homes to Ukrainians

Felonious Crud

Felonious Crud

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That's a generation of young Ukrainians that will have some challenging memories and perceptions to deal with, Sam. I can only imagine that time with you and your family will help restore his faith in humanity.
 
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bigbob

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Scaf said:
Ok so good news on the Visa front.
The family now have visa’s / permission to travel letters. They will now plan a journey from **** - literally from the East, across to Lviv and then to Poland. Once in Poland we can help organise flights or trains over to the U.K. and safety.We hope We hope will be with us by the end of the month, but travel across Ukraine is very difficult and unpredictable.
This was yesterday morning’s gift from **** - landing
250 metres from their home. Thankfully in adjacent farmland and I am assuming unexploded

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I have personally kept off this thread until we were paired which we now are. Please keep posting as, I suspect, those of us who have the space to go through this journey will need all the help we can get. It’s quite a responsibility and not something which I expected to have in this lifetime.
 
Scaf

Scaf

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bigbob said:
I have personally kept off this thread until we were paired which we now are. Please keep posting as, I suspect, those of us who have the space to go through this journey will need all the help we can get. It’s quite a responsibility and not something which I expected to have in this lifetime.
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I am pleased to hear you have matched and agree it’s a big responsibility.
The OPORA website and facebook has some great resources and advice, Sunflowresisters on facebook has been helpful also there local groups that are worth tracking down to give local support and social connections.
Feel free to connect via PM
Sam
 
Scaf

Scaf

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Well everything is confirmed, our guests arrive on the 6th May.
The free travel from Poland is very limited so we have paid for a hotel for a couple of nights in Warsaw and flights to Luton. Scamming budget airlines are bending me over on luggage, but it’s only fair they are able to bring all they can carry.
 
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HenrysDad

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We too are entering the mire of the UK visa scheme. Our sponsees are stuck in Odessa with a 2 yr old. They are very frightened and our home office just puts bureaucracy in front of everything. Frustrating is not the word.
 
UlstermanAbroad

UlstermanAbroad

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I heard on Radio 4's Today, this morning that the UN warned the UK when the scheme was announced, of the problematic nature of such a scheme. Based on past experiences of identical schemes in various countries.
Separately, a UK NGO audited / polled those in a southern English town who were registered to offer accommodation or who had arranged accommodation via Facebook groups etc. and found that the majority were single men over forty, offering single accommodation to unaccompanied Ukrainian women in their late teens or twenties.
Many of the men had records of domestic abuse on social services files. Some were screened out by the system due to serious violent criminal convictions.
I don't have the words to comment just now.
 
CatmanV2

CatmanV2

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UlstermanAbroad said:
I heard on Radio 4's Today, this morning that the UN warned the UK when the scheme was announced, of the problematic nature of such a scheme. Based on past experiences of identical schemes in various countries.
Separately, a UK NGO audited / polled those in a southern English town who were registered to offer accommodation or who had arranged accommodation via Facebook groups etc. and found that the majority were single men over forty, offering single accommodation to unaccompanied Ukrainian women in their late teens or twenties.
Many of the men had records of domestic abuse on social services files. Some were screened out by the system due to serious violent criminal convictions.
I don't have the words to comment just now.
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I'm amazed that anyone is surprised. While HO may not be covering themselves in glory a 'Sure, come on in and stay with anyone you like' was never going to be sensible,

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Scaf

Scaf

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I don’t think anyone is or can be surprised that the UK system is open to abuse, and there can be no defence of its weaknesses.
It is also a fact that there are traffickers waiting in Poland intent on taking advantage and I can’t imagine what is going on in Germany where ransoms were waiting at the train stations to take refugees away to God knows where.
 
allandwf

allandwf

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The whole world is full of predators , scam artists, and the like. Unfortunately that is the the world we live in now.
 
CatmanV2

CatmanV2

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Scaf said:
I don’t think anyone is or can be surprised that the UK system is open to abuse, and there can be no defence of its weaknesses.
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I think one the issues people think there is with the system is it is trying to protect from these predators. A free for all as has been previously suggested in many quarter would be far more open to abuse.

allandwf said:
The whole world has always been full of predators
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Sorry, had to fix that ;)

C
 
CatmanV2

CatmanV2

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Scaf said:
Thankfully the vast majority of people are well meaning open hearted people trying to do the right thing by those that need help
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You're absolutely correct. (And my comment to @allandwf is that while we always think the world is getting worse, it's not really)

C
 
midlifecrisis

midlifecrisis

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I think it's simple demographics. Men or more likely to offer their spare rooms than women (from a personal safety aspect) and the older generation will have more space than the younger, further down the housing ladder.
 
Scaf

Scaf

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Well Mrs Scaf met our guests at Luton this afternoon and they are settling in and unpacking.
They seem lovely and are so grateful to be safe.
A quiet weekend for them I think and then Monday we have to start registering them for Doctors, benefits etc…….. although we may have found the mother work already as a TA at a local school.

I dont back home till Sunday, until then Mrs Scaf is in charge.

the young lad is playing with Lego that’s been in the loft for about 10years, but is happy and relaxed.
 
lozcb

lozcb

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allandwf said:
The whole world is full of predators , scam artists, and the like. Unfortunately that is the the world we live in now.
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Totally agree , without a doubt they have always been there lurking in the background , but no where near as prevalent as the days we are living in now, largely due to the Internet which has given that ilk the anonymous platform to make it 10 times easier and safer for them to hide behind ..............not all things are better with the net , we survived quite well without it for eons ........its not the be all and end all
 
lozcb

lozcb

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12,557
Scaf said:
Well Mrs Scaf met our guests at Luton this afternoon and they are settling in and unpacking.
They seem lovely and are so grateful to be safe.
A quiet weekend for them I think and then Monday we have to start registering them for Doctors, benefits etc…….. although we may have found the mother work already as a TA at a local school.

I dont back home till Sunday, until then Mrs Scaf is in charge.

the young lad is playing with Lego that’s been in the loft for about 10years, but is happy and relaxed.
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Kudos Scaf ..........................loads of it mate :drinks:
 
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