The Promised Land - for some.

Sayida Khaliif, wife of Saeed Khaliif,
at the £2m house she shares with members of her Somalian family

This morning I awoke to the news that benefits are being claimed by 371,000 migrants. The Mail Online filled in some details including the case of the Khaliif family. According to the article, Somali asylum seeker Saeed  Khaliif was given a £2million home in one of the country’s most exclusive neighbourhoods at the taxpayer’s expense. No wonder Sayida Khaliif has a smile on her face. A few days ago we received the news that radical cleric Abu Qatada won his appeal at the European Court of Human Rights against deportation from the UK. According to another Mail Online article, this preacher of hate is reported to be living  in West London "off state benefits said to total £1,000 a month – including £70 a week for a bad back".

Only yesterday I listened to a number of accounts of hardship and the difficulties of obtaining assistance. The first, a young man who is incapacitated to the extent that his mother has been completing the forms demanded by the state, not once but three times in a procedure that appears designed to avoid payment. His mother said that had she not intervened her son would have starved. Towards the end of her life a frail but independent lady in her 90's was struggling to survive with the aid of local authority assistance limited to 10 mins a visit yet migrants who have paid no contributions appear able to receive benefits without difficulty. How can "people from Romania and Bulgaria [be] claiming benefits by claiming to be self-employed because they sold the Big Issue newspaper"? During the trial in 2010 of a migrant gang who defrauded the country of £450,000 the barrister for one of the defendants said: 'It is not a sophisticated fraud in any way, shape or form. The reality is this country is known as "Benefits Britain". This defendant cannot be held responsible for that.'

After Christmas I heard of a dodge which sounded a little far fetched. A farmer friend had taken pity on an East European and given him work. He left for home in Europe for the holiday period perfectly healthy but instead of returning for work he sent a note asking for confirmation that he had broken his leg, apparently enabling him to claim sick pay from this country while living back home in Europe.  Perhaps not so far fetched after all!

All this comes on top of unemployment figures at a 17 year high of 2.69 million which makes it all the more outrageous that "official figures show that up to 90 percent of new jobs created in Britain over the past decade have gone to foreign-born workers while levels of unemployment have risen". 'Great Britain' has become 'Benefits Britain', the Promised Land for immigrants where human rights can be enjoyed by all but innocent victims and a better life can be enjoyed provided no contribution has been towards it. 

What a mess!