With more asylum seekers settling in Britain every year and tension running high, Children's Express asks young people what they think about the issue.
| Governments should try to promote a better picture of asylum seekers because a lot of people think they are just scroungers. |
Dominique Crook, 16, North Shields
If asylum seekers get bricks thrown through the windows of their houses then the government should help by maybe moving them to a different area. We should control the numbers coming into this country to a certain extent because we don't want to become too overcrowded. To help control the numbers, we should see who needs to be in the country the most, like people running from persecution.
Ruth Robinson, 15, Northumberland
I think it is a good idea for refugee families to be given places to live because Britain is a multicultural society. The government could help by providing temporary jobs and they could also help change people's attitudes. I think the asylum seekers should be given enough to live on. Five pounds a week doesn't sound like enough, so it should be increased. While they're under our care they should be treated just the same as anyone else. If they become citizens they should get the same benefits because if they don't then we will be discriminating against them.
Zara Hussain, 16, Boldon
Governments should try to promote a better picture of asylum seekers because a lot of people think they are just scroungers, but if governments let people know what they go through to get here and what the processes are, then things would be better and they won't be so discriminated against. We definitely should control the number of asylum seekers because it will also help control how much discrimination goes on. If there are a few people coming into the country, then people may think more about why they need to be here. But if there are lots, then a lot of people will just feel threatened by them and that's when the abuse starts.
Lauren Healy, 16, Little Benton
I think if a refugee family gets given a home over an English family [in this country] it is wrong because they haven't been born here, so shouldn't automatically take priority over our own people. I don't think that it is good idea just to offload refugees onto other countries because that doesn't solve anything - it just moves them around and you can't treat people like they're packages. If they can't go here they should go to places that are more understanding to their needs.
Hannah Wright, 14, High Heaton
I think it is all right for refugee families to be given places to live in Britain as long as they can make a living for themselves and aren't just living off the state. In Australia, they make each asylum seeker prove that they will contribute to the country before they are allowed in - I think that is a good idea. I don't think people should be so discriminative because if they want to live here then that's great.
Naomi Farrimond, 18, Heaton
There must be something really wrong with the country they come from if asylum seekers want to come here, but they should be given a chance because they have suffered a lot and paid a lot of money to get across here and I don't think that people should act differently towards them.
The government needs to be more organised because it's chaos when it comes to asylum seekers and there are loads of houses that could be done up in certain areas, and then used to house asylum seekers either permanently or temporarily while visas are sorted out. I think a lot more could be done than is being done now. It's really hard to control the number of asylum seekers, because I don't know how you would do it. I think going into the countries they come from and trying to sort out why they want to leave in the first place would be a good way to control it.
About the team
This story was produced by Rachael Farrimond, 16. Junior Jury is a weekly column published in the Newcastle Evening Chronicle.
