Cause and effect 2

Bob was thinking, in relation to cause and effect, how one man's actions have led to the loss of so many lives, homes and communities. And I'm thinking, cause and effect: the Homes for Ukraine sponsorship scheme relies on refugees, usually women and children, advertising themselves on Facebook sites, including photos of themselves, resulting in potential, and actual, trafficking and other abuse. It seems so obvious - why didn't somebody consider it? - or maybe they did and weren't bothered. Either way, someone should be held to account. The BBC report in this link is worth reading in full:

https://www.bbc.co.uk/news/uk-61311046

This is an excerpt:

On a Facebook group set up to help match Ukrainian refugees, BBC News found one would-be sponsor who appears to live in a one-bedroom flat posting multiple offers to host young women.

Someone who knew him well claimed he had multiple convictions, including for burglary and affray.

Police records indicate he was reported for allegedly carrying a crossbow and threatening a former partner, although no further action is believed to have been taken.

Another man, in Manchester, had joined several Facebook groups and was offering a spare room to a string of young, single, Ukrainian women.

And so on...

People trafficking, we know, is happening in other European countries but, at least if refugees remain on the continent of Europe (EU), they have free public transport across the continent, and so would have more of a chance of escaping from an abusive situation and returning to the safety of a refugee centre. In the UK refugees have 48 hours free travel from when they arrive, to reach their destination. In some areas, criminal record checks have been delayed until after the refugees arrive. There are not enough safeguards built into the system.

Basically, there should be a team of paid professionals here and in other areas, to make what is a very generous scheme humane and safe. Instead, it is left to people like us (in fact, we haven't met anyone like us!) and to charitable organisations, such as the one Bob, Polina (our interpreter) and I will be working with from tomorrow: Ukraine Sponsorship Pathway UK (USPUK).

Yes, we have finally found someone who accepts what we are trying to do! USPUK uses an organisation called Citizens UK to establish communities of Ukranians and do the safeguards, much as we've been doing. We'll be working with USPUK in the huge refugee centre in the disused shopping mall (mentioned a couple of days ago) to try to encourage more refugees to travel to the UK. More of this in the next few days...

In the meantime, the queue of refugees continues... I helped a mother and her 17 year old son complete their visa applications online - mostly done by the son. Another mother, with her much younger son, could not make the decision to leave - her mother Is in the Donetsk region in the East and she is very worried about her. This mother and son live in a room shared by 50 people and still it's the most difficult of decisions.