YP Letters: Sajid Javid right over asylum seeker concerns

From: Philip Guest, York.
Sajd Javid is the Home Secretary.Sajd Javid is the Home Secretary.
Sajd Javid is the Home Secretary.

It is amazing that it has taken so long for a Home Secretary to suggest that asylum should be sought in the first EU country of arrival.

The purpose of asylum is to protect people who have a well-founded fear of persecution.

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I fully understand that most migrants/asylum seekers would prefer to settle in the UK and have no intention of returning to their homelands in any circumstances because we are a more tolerant and economically vibrant economy than any other in Europe. If the UK and EU had been able to formulate a sensible plan for migration, Brexit would have been highly unlikely to have happened.

From: John Appleyard, Firthcliffe Parade, Liversedge.

There are 3.6 million Syrian refugees in Turkey and in the English Channel the UK border force intercepts a boat with 12 refugees including a 10-year-old child and calls it a crisis!

The Government follows this by putting troops on alert and bringing in two extra boats to keep refugees trapped at Britain’s border in Calais where around 1,500 refugees are living in destitution in northern France and Belgium. The Tories have manufactured a racist scare over a tiny number of refugees to make it across the English Channel. The reason for refugees being displaced all over the world is due to the West’s wars in the Middle East, poverty and dictatorship,

The real crisis in the UK is not refugees, it’s 14 million people living in poverty, soaring foodbank use,and more than 70,000 NHS operations cancelled in 2017-18 due to a lack of beds, staff and equipment. This Government ought to be ashamed of itself.

True cost of the care crisis

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From: Philip Bartey, Group Chief Executive, Autism Plus and The Adsetts Partnership, Bridge Street, Sheffield.

I welcome the article published by Mike Padgham (The Yorkshire Post, January 2) and fully support all the points he has raised.

My organisation increasingly supports disabled people with high complex needs and challenging behaviours on a 24/7 weekly basis.

The demand for such a specialist service has grown considerably and requires highly trained staff because the people we support present with a range of issues including autism, learning disabilities, ADHD, mental health, to name but a few of the range of neuro-diverse conditions. Some of the care for the elderly is privately funded yet care for people with complex conditions requires direct funding from the state.

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It is the case that acquiring and training staff to deliver these services is very difficult when the available state funding only covers the minimum national living wage. We are asking staff to undertake a professional and highly stressful job that pays less than half the wage of the national median pay rate of £26k per annum in other sectors.

The care sector is losing 900 care workers per day and this represents a national crisis as more providers are handing back unsustainable contracts to local authorities. 95 local authorities across the UK have reported contracts handed back in 2016 by providers who can no longer afford to run them. This crisis rests clearly on the door step of the Government who have kicked the social care green paper into the long grass. The outcome of their failure to act will place more pressure on the already stretched NHS and will cost the state more in the long run.

Time-wasters at hospitals

From: Bob Watson, Baildon.

Teresa Cope, chief operating officer at Hull Royal Infirmary, said that the A&E Department there had been “incredibly busy” in the days since Christmas (The Yorkshire Post, January 2).

She went on to say that around two-thirds to three-quarters of those walking into the “Minors” area – up to 150 people per day – could and should have sought advice or treatment elsewhere.

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Surely it is now time at all hospitals for these time-wasters to simply be sent elsewhere, with suitable advice, and refused treatment at A&E units. No wonder they are all so clogged up. The nettle now needs to be urgently grasped to get the message across. It cannot be allowed to continue as it is.

Corbyn’s life of opposition

From: Brian H Sheridan, Lodge Moor, Sheffield.

Henry Cobden poses the question: “Is Jeremy Corbyn secretly hoping that he never becomes Prime Minister?” (The Yorkshire Post, January 2). Corbyn is driven by the politics of envy and was born to oppose. If he ever acquired power he wouldn’t have a clue what to do with it.

Train delays

From: Coun Tim Mickleburgh (Lab), Boulevard Avenue, Grimsby.

It is disgusting that upgrades to both main Bradford stations are being delayed (The Yorkshire Post, January 3). But that’s to be expected in a climate that is constantly trying to appease the motorist, and concentrates its transport spending on London.

We can do it

From: PL Taylor, Milner Street, Lockwood, Huddersfield.

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Let us put some vitality, sparkle and luminosity into the minds, hearts and souls of all UK inhabitants whether politicians, hard grafters or OAPs like me. We will have no more room for the ‘‘can’t doers’’, we only want ‘‘can doers’’. The more successful we are, the greater our ability to help those people and nations less fortunate than ourselves. Let’s go for it big time.