Ukrainian refugees in Ireland - Megathread

On a side note don't you have to tell the social your leaving the country with a valid reason. I would think escaping a warzone to goto said warzone would not be covered.

I took screenshots from an article on the Indo which repored the results of a survey of Ukrainian "refugees" who had come here.

From the article:

independent.ie/irish-news/news/survey-reveals-ukrainian-refugees-challenges-with-life-in-ireland-so-far-41763619.html

50% of respondents are not actively seeking work. Which sort of flies in the face of the term Jobseekers Allowance, but I'm sure they won't be dragged to monthly status update interviews at Intreo or asked to show proof of job applications.

"Nearly half the respondents are mothers here alone with their children. Two thirds of those are married but are single mothers here because their husbands are fighting the Russians at home."

On May 21st Zelensky stated there were 700k men fighting for Ukraine. There is mass conscription/ volunteering, but nothing on the scale we would have seen in the likes of WWII. Whether this is because war is fought with technology as much as boots on the ground, or whether it's because they simply don't have enough weapons to hand out to a larger army, I dont know. Out of 35 million people in the non Russian aligned regions of Ukraine, 17.5 million of them males, exclude male children and men over 60 brings it down to probably the 10 million men mark, you are probably looking at somewhere around 7% of men aged 18 to 60 on active service. The idea that two thirds of the husbands of women living here are enlisted sounds highly dubious and raises questions as to the honesty of the survey respondents.

At least 56% of respondents are from cities that have not been hit by a single missile (and as this survey relies on the honesty of the respondent the real figure is undoubtedly higher)

85% are from areas outside of Russian control

17% claim their homes were destroyed or damaged. This war is not WW2, it's not the Blitz. The idea that only 44% of the respondents are from a region that has been hit at least once by missiles, but 17% of the total (or 1 in every 2.5 people from rocket hit regions) have a destroyed or damaged home, mathematically doesn't make sense. Up to June 26th the UN estimates just under 5000 civillians killed by Russian action- every death is a tragedy, but this figure pales in comparison to the estimated 7269 Iraqi civilians killed during the initial invasion and occupation phase of the Iraq War- a 5 week period, compared to the current 4 month war. If the Russians were firing missiles willy nilly to the extent they were hitting 1 in every 2 to 3 homes in the conflict zones, we would have seen far far more than 5000 civilians killed.

TLDR- more civilians died during the US/ UK initial invasion phase, in 5 weeks, than have died under Putin's 4 month long invasion. The figure is even more galling given that the Americans did feck all street fighting, they were met by waves of worn out and skint Iraqi conscripts who had no interest in fighting for Saddam and gave up easily.

When you break down these statistics, it becomes clear that the vast majority of refugees here are not from a region heavily affected by the war. Very very few have had their homes damaged. The vast, vast majority are in a position where they could return home, the risk of death for civilians from rocket attacks in cities far from the conflict zone is probably less than that of Londoners getting caught by IRA bombs in the 70s to the 90s.

To put another perspective on it:

Say you're from Ukraine. You came here in, I dunno April. That's two months ago. Assuming you have learned some basic English, you will have been reading our news. You can see we are a country enveloped in a housing crisis. Whole swathes of the country have 15, 20 properties to rent between three or four counties. Young working couples see house prices going through the roof (albeit, we hope, there are signs the surge may be cooling). You read about motorists, homeowners, everyone being crippled by spiralling price rises in fuel, electric, mortgage interest. You see a government that ringfenced 3 billion euro for your community claim there is no money to alleviate the cost of living stresses on the natives.

You see all of this, and you still think to yourself, yeah, I'll continue staying in this hotel at 120 per night, with the three free meals, my 205 per week, my 70 quid child benefit, I'll continue saving all this up seeing as I have little to no expenses for travel, clothes, light and heat, food, while I decide to take up r a council house that will eventually be offered* or I return home in a few years with my welfare savings.

That is some ungrateful sh1t. They are laughing at us. I cringe everytime I hear Darragh O'Brien or Matt Cooper use the phrase "our friends from Ukraine",.

These people are not my friends. As a group I dislike them. They have by and large come here for spurious reasons, to take advantage of a thick ignorant government of career politicians who know their time is up by 2025 and so are fishing for a gig in Brussels or on the board of some useless NGO. 3 months ago some in government were hoping 200,000 would arrive. We have been seriously struggling since the day 10% of that figure arrived.

At the very most, allow a few stay who are being put up by relatives who lived here pre war, without welfare assistance mind.

*: the government was all for offering council houses and even initiated the renovation of 3000 empty ones, they have since went quiet on this promise such was the scale of the public outcry. I believe Eoin O'Broin, of all people, got an assurance from O'Brien that the renovated council homes would not go to Ukrainians after he previously stated that was exactly why they were to be renovated.

When a champagne socialist like EOB thinks your plan is gone too far you know you're in the wrong.