: spongers of the vulnerable
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| Most refugees who seek asylum are already in debt to their agents and it will take a minimum of five years to pay back the Rs 15 lakhs they charge for smuggling them out of the country. Should these Tamil groups further pour oil into their fresh wounds by instigating them in the name of Tamil patriotism and playing with their minds to cough up for demonstrations? |
by Pearl Thevanayagam
(May 20, London Sri Lanka Guardian) May 19, the second anniversary of Mullivaikkal debacle has come and gone and as expected worldwide demonstrations by refugee Tamils took place in all major cities.
I have been criticised for not taking part in these demonstrations by my fellow Tamils and I have good reason for not joining in. The only demonstration I took part so far was outside Downing Street to protest the murder of Lasantha Wickrematunga, my former editor.
While these demonstrations are necessary to awaken the conscience of the international community to probe into the massacre of thousands of civilians I object to the money raking mechanisms of greedy NGOs who seek funds from vulnerable Tamils, most of them working for a pittance in shops, factories and other service industries.
In the last throes of the war Westminster Square in London attracted tourists and international media and that is a good thing to highlight the plight of hapless civilians cornered into a patch of land and held to ransom with their lives in the hands of both the LTTE and the Sri Lankan security forces.
But who profited mostly from these demonstrations? Not the fasting youth or the crowds but the businessmen and Tamil NGOs who marketed T-shirts for £10.00 each, placards, posters and other paraphernalia and those who held cultural festivals to raise funds.
Last year I was invited to a conference at Westminster University by a group of Tamil journalists and I was asked to pay £20.00 to attend this conference. If these conferences are organised by professionals who live abroad surely these wealthy individuals could easily pay for the conference room and catering.
I am constantly bombarded with requests for donation to provide computers to students in the North and East, another Christian charity wants to set up a windmill project in the North and East and holding incessant church sales, and other media set ups asking for donations to their radio and TV stations.
There is no harm in making money and businesses need money. But charities? The way to raise funds for charities is to go after philanthropists who have a procedure in place and to whom you need to provide details of how the funds would be utilised.
Media set-ups can raise funds through advertising.
Most refugees who seek asylum are already in debt to their agents and it will take a minimum of five years to pay back the Rs 15 lakhs they charge for smuggling them out of the country. Should these Tamil groups further pour oil into their fresh wounds by instigating them in the name of Tamil patriotism and playing with their minds to cough up for demonstrations?
Once upon a time when refugees were pouring in to western countries the governments were sympathetic and they were given all financial and other assistance to re-build their lives. But they have now learnt a really hard lesson. The lesson they learnt is that having established themselves and obtained citizenship they are now defrauding the welfare systems.
It is not uncommon to see our Tamils arriving in BMW and Mercedes Benz cars to collect their council benefits. And they own not one but two houses and a shop or restaurant or petrol station.
Now that the Conservative government is cracking down hard on benefit fraudsters and those who arrived in the UK from EU countries and were given immediate council housing, child benefits and child tax credits are speedily returning to Europe.
In the last two months I have been helping with interpreting, translating and filling out forms and court orders to repossess their house for non-payment of mortgages and utility bills for a Tamil family who have lived here for 12 years and who bought two houses and a shop and are now on the verge of bankruptcy.
After going through their records with the relevant departments I realised I was helping them with their fraudulent claims. They have dodged taxes and avoided paying bills citing various financial difficulties. The best part is they are not afraid of police or bailiff and they genuinely think the British are foolish to allow themselves to be cheated. Only now they realise they are not so smart after all and they have to pay back every penny they owe to the council or else their properties would be re-possessed!!!
On the other end of the spectrum, students are pouring in since asylum is now a no-go area for would be migrants. And students get absolutely no state funds. Unlike the students who arrived in the sixties and seventies who paid their own money and worked hard to pay for colleges and universities, they have been granted visas through bogus certificates since they now do not need to face interviews by the visa officer. The visa is issued from Chennai by filling out forms. And the students I have met cannot speak a word of English and they are not attending colleges but working for a pittance. They are virtually penniless and homeless.
That’s life in the West for migrants.
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