Some bad stuff!

Our Sicily adventure is in the past and I am once again noting the bad things going on. Here are a few:-

The Washington Post reported the other day that the Trump administration is canceling English classes, recreational programs and legal aid for unaccompanied minors staying in federal migrant shelters nationwide, saying the immigration influx at the southern border has created critical budget pressures.
“The Office of Refugee Resettlement has begun discontinuing the funding stream for activities — including soccer — that have been deemed “not directly necessary for the protection of life and safety, including education services, legal services, and recreation,” said U.S. Health and Human Services spokesman Mark Weber.
Federal officials have warned Congress that they are facing “a dramatic spike” in unaccompanied minors at the southern border and have asked Congress for $2.9 billion in emergency funding to expand shelters and care. The program could run out of money in late June, and the agency is legally obligated to direct funding to essential services, Weber said.”

It must be frightening enough being a child whose parents have gone missing during your flight from whatever threat you left behind and finding yourself locked up in a detention centre. If they then take away the activities that might give your life some semblance of normality, imagine how that must feel. What are these youngsters supposed to do? Sit still and twiddle their thumbs all day?

Then today I read about refugees in Ireland, young women pregnant because of rape, too frightened to tell anyone until they are more than 12 weeks pregnant, the time limit for legal abortions in Ireland. An organisation called the Abortion Support Network has long experience of helping Irish women to travel to England for terminations but fond that they cannot help refugees because of the difficulty of getting visas. They are guiding people to the Netherlands instead.

Now, that is not really a consequence of Brexit but after Brexit the Abortion Support Network will have the same problem with EU resident in Ireland.

And here is something from the NSPCC. They say that racial abuse and bullying of children has risen by 20% since 2015 -16. More than 10,000 incidents were reported to the police last year. Even babies under one year old have been targeted. As a consequence of this children are trying to whiten their skin to avoid the hate crimes. And many of the children spoken to said that they did nit talk about it at home because they did not want to make their parents suffer. Children are whitening their skin to try to avoid a rising tide of racial hate crimes, in which even babies under one year old have been targeted, a charity has said.
The National Society for the Prevention of Cruelty to Children (NSPCC) said racial abuse and bullying of children had risen by one-fifth since 2015-16 to more than 10,000 incidents recorded by police last year. The charity said some callers to Childline, its telephone help service, had tried to change their appearance by using makeup to whiten their skin. Some children told counsellors they kept their pain a secret from their parents because they did not want to upset them.

These are all young people and children suffering.

And I feel guilty about moaning about it raining again!