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> Piddington — home to roughly 350 residents > the Government announced plans to house 1,256 male asylum seekers in a nearby former military base. It seems

> Piddington — home to roughly 350 residents > the Government announced plans to house 1,256 male asylum seekers in a nearby former military base. It seems a bad idea to put them all in one place where they will outnumber the local residents almost 4-to-1

pjc50 18d ago
Previous approaches of distributing them across low-rent hotels and bnb accommodation have recently suffered arson attacks. This isn't the first time a disused military base has been used for this kind of purpose, and ultimately they have to go somewhere; wherever the government puts them is going to object. I'm not even 100% clear whether they're allowed off the site! The asylum system leaves people in an extremely unpleasant limbo for a long time while it makes decisions, based purely on the false belief that they're uniquely likely to be criminals.
- philipallstar 18d ago
  > A spokesman for the Home Office said: "The Government is closing every asylum hotel, saving taxpayers over £1 billion on asylum support since the election. This is why the hotels and bnbs were a bad idea.
  - pjc50 18d ago
    .. and replacing them with what, exactly?
    - philipallstar 18d ago
      With nothing. Why does the UK have giant numbers of asylum seekers, and why wasn't any of the EU countries they travelled through to get there good enough? It's the hardest to reach country in Western Europe. EDIT: other than RoI.
      - rapsey 18d ago
        Because the UK wants them. They can stop the boats at any time. They can stop feeding and housing them at any time. They come because the UK government and NGOs provide them with a comfortable life.
        pjc50 18d ago
        It's the minimum requirement under ECHR. The government does actually have to comply with its legal obligations, this isn't America. They can't choose to just ignore them. This is why the problem hasn't been fixed. You can't say "just do X" when X isn't legal. Do you really think nobody's thought of this? That the government actually likes being in this position of the past decade or so?
        philipallstar 18d ago
        Yes indeed, that is the oft-cited fatal flaw of remaining in the ECHR. But that aside: why come to the UK?
        rapsey 18d ago
        The ECHR is actually very loose with their definitions and gives the governments much freedom. The UK chooses to interpret and enforce them as they do. Other european countries are within ECHR limits and deal with it entirely differently. The UK elites no longer have the EU to blame for their policies, so they speak about ECHR. On the continent people barely know ECHR exists.
        hn_throw2025 18d ago
        The ECHR says you must give prisoners the vote. Successive UK governments chose to ignore that part. So don’t be so sure about “can’t” versus “won’t”.
        spwa4 18d ago
        I think you mean "Because the UK wants them, only 2% or so of illegal immigrants arrive by boats". Boris Johnson did Brexit "to stop the immigrants" ... and opened the floodgates. The very opposite of what his campaign promised. The very opposite of WHY the British public wanted Brexit.
    - grebc 18d ago
      May as well house them in Westminster. They don’t actually do anything useful there.
- cdot2 18d ago
  These are not Ukranian war refugees. They can be sent back to their home countries
  - pjc50 18d ago
    Can they? Have you personally reviewed all 1,200 cases?
    - zulux 18d ago
      Real refugees take their families.
      - Timon3 18d ago
        Of course. When a family lives in a dangerous region and has too few resources to afford everyone's escape, no human would ever choose to save a loved one while staying behind themselves. And if they do, it must be virtue signaling or something like that, right?
- allanmacgregor 17d ago
  > and ultimately they have to go somewhere; wherever the government puts them is going to object. Back to their own country, look I am an immigrant myself but there is this massive trend of goverments developing suicidal empathy even at the cost of their own citizens; it really needs to stop.
tobylane 18d ago
They're already outnumbered by prisoners, which has not turned out to be a bad idea. https://hmiprisons.justiceinspectorates.gov.uk/hmipris_reports/hmp-bullingdon-3/ https://hmiprisons.justiceinspectorates.gov.uk/hmipris_repor...

pjc50 18d ago

Previous approaches of distributing them across low-rent hotels and bnb accommodation have recently suffered arson attacks. This isn't the first time a disused military base has been used for this kind of purpose, and ultimately they have to go somewhere; wherever the government puts them is going to object. I'm not even 100% clear whether they're allowed off the site! The asylum system leaves people in an extremely unpleasant limbo for a long time while it makes decisions, based purely on the false belief that they're uniquely likely to be criminals.

philipallstar 18d ago
> A spokesman for the Home Office said: "The Government is closing every asylum hotel, saving taxpayers over £1 billion on asylum support since the election. This is why the hotels and bnbs were a bad idea.
- pjc50 18d ago
  .. and replacing them with what, exactly?
  - philipallstar 18d ago
    With nothing. Why does the UK have giant numbers of asylum seekers, and why wasn't any of the EU countries they travelled through to get there good enough? It's the hardest to reach country in Western Europe. EDIT: other than RoI.
    - rapsey 18d ago
      Because the UK wants them. They can stop the boats at any time. They can stop feeding and housing them at any time. They come because the UK government and NGOs provide them with a comfortable life.
      - pjc50 18d ago
        It's the minimum requirement under ECHR. The government does actually have to comply with its legal obligations, this isn't America. They can't choose to just ignore them. This is why the problem hasn't been fixed. You can't say "just do X" when X isn't legal. Do you really think nobody's thought of this? That the government actually likes being in this position of the past decade or so?
        philipallstar 18d ago
        Yes indeed, that is the oft-cited fatal flaw of remaining in the ECHR. But that aside: why come to the UK?
        rapsey 18d ago
        The ECHR is actually very loose with their definitions and gives the governments much freedom. The UK chooses to interpret and enforce them as they do. Other european countries are within ECHR limits and deal with it entirely differently. The UK elites no longer have the EU to blame for their policies, so they speak about ECHR. On the continent people barely know ECHR exists.
        hn_throw2025 18d ago
        The ECHR says you must give prisoners the vote. Successive UK governments chose to ignore that part. So don’t be so sure about “can’t” versus “won’t”.
      - spwa4 18d ago
        I think you mean "Because the UK wants them, only 2% or so of illegal immigrants arrive by boats". Boris Johnson did Brexit "to stop the immigrants" ... and opened the floodgates. The very opposite of what his campaign promised. The very opposite of WHY the British public wanted Brexit.
  - grebc 18d ago
    May as well house them in Westminster. They don’t actually do anything useful there.
cdot2 18d ago
These are not Ukranian war refugees. They can be sent back to their home countries
- pjc50 18d ago
  Can they? Have you personally reviewed all 1,200 cases?
  - zulux 18d ago
    Real refugees take their families.
    - Timon3 18d ago
      Of course. When a family lives in a dangerous region and has too few resources to afford everyone's escape, no human would ever choose to save a loved one while staying behind themselves. And if they do, it must be virtue signaling or something like that, right?
allanmacgregor 17d ago
> and ultimately they have to go somewhere; wherever the government puts them is going to object. Back to their own country, look I am an immigrant myself but there is this massive trend of goverments developing suicidal empathy even at the cost of their own citizens; it really needs to stop.

tobylane 18d ago

They're already outnumbered by prisoners, which has not turned out to be a bad idea. https://hmiprisons.justiceinspectorates.gov.uk/hmipris_reports/hmp-bullingdon-3/ https://hmiprisons.justiceinspectorates.gov.uk/hmipris_repor...