Migrant crisis would be a ‘fiasco’ if not for ‘brilliant’ work going on, says Shelagh Fogarty
3 November 2022, 16:06
The current situation with migrants “would be worse than the fiasco that it clearly is” if not for the 'brilliant' work of church groups, charities, some councils and individuals, said Shelagh Fogarty during her show today, after the news that around 40,000 people have crossed the Channel so far this year.
The migrant situation would be worse than it already is if it was not for the work of churches, charities, and some councils, said Shelagh Fogarty.
Shelagh said: “I think we can all agree that if it wasn’t for some of the brilliant work by church groups and charities and individuals opening their home and their hearts to migrants when they come to their communities, and some good work by local council as well…it would be a fiasco, it would be worse than the fiasco that it clearly is in some respects.”
This comes after the news that a group of migrants were taken from the Manston processing centre in Kent and left stranded in central London cold and hungry.
In Dover, a man threw petrol bombs at a migrant processing centre, and “frustrated” residents caught 40 migrants running around an estate and hiding in bushes.
Shelagh continued: “It kind of chimed with one taxi driver who rang my programme yesterday to tell us about dropping people off…’off you go into the night and do your best’, which isn't quite what an asylum or immigration system should be doing.”
She added: “Apart from out and out racists, people who have concerns about migration into their town, their city and especially people in Kent at the moment and what they’re facing - these are legitimate concerns.
“I have, currently, what I think are legitimate concerns about some minor functional things going on right outside my house at the moment that I'm dealing with the council about. They’re not no to do with migrants, not to do with anything as serious as that.”
Shelagh pointed out: “It’s disturbing when the place you live in and where you pay your council tax, where you pay your bills and all the rest of it, it’s disturbing when that’s suddenly different or suddenly changed.
“If I feel it about those relatively small things I completely get why somebody would feel it about much bigger things.”
