Why we should pay for asylum seekers' travel?
There has, believe it or not, been political action away from the cauldron of the General Election and its aftermath.
Last week the Scottish Government announced that it is to develop a scheme to give asylum seekers free bus travel.
The idea was condemned by one of our correspondents, who argued that this is not something the taxpayer should be funding.
Today, however, one of our readers argues that the scheme could be value for money and should go ahead.
Andy Stenton of Glasgow writes: "I would hope Ian Balloch (Letters, July 12) is in the absolute minority in Scotland.
"He condemns the Scottish Government for offering asylum seekers free bus travel. He obviously fails to understand why people facing persecution, violence or war in their own country seek safety elsewhere.
"He describes the pilot travel scheme as a 'freebie'.
Many asylum seekers are eventually granted UK visas, and they fill the job vacancies Scotland desperately needs.
"The Home Office's inefficient immigration process system, which can take years, is what costs the taxpayer the most money.
"During this time asylum seekers aren't allowed to work, although they would love to.
They are given £49.18 a week for 'food, toiletries, clothes and travel' while being housed, yes, at taxpayers' expense, but to the benefit of private landlords or hotel owners, in often pretty dire accommodation.
"It seems pretty obvious to me they can't afford bus fares from places like Easterhouse into the city. Let them travel free and engage us with their friendship and culture."
Why are you making commenting on The Herald only available to subscribers?
It should have been a safe space for informed debate, somewhere for readers to discuss issues around the biggest stories of the day, but all too often the below the line comments on most websites have become bogged down by off-topic discussions and abuse.
heraldscotland.com is tackling this problem by allowing only subscribers to comment.
We are doing this to improve the experience for our loyal readers and we believe it will reduce the ability of trolls and troublemakers, who occasionally find their way onto our site, to abuse our journalists and readers. We also hope it will help the comments section fulfil its promise as a part of Scotland's conversation with itself.
We are lucky at The Herald. We are read by an informed, educated readership who can add their knowledge and insights to our stories.
That is invaluable.
We are making the subscriber-only change to support our valued readers, who tell us they don't want the site cluttered up with irrelevant comments, untruths and abuse.
In the past, the journalist’s job was to collect and distribute information to the audience. Technology means that readers can shape a discussion. We look forward to hearing from you on heraldscotland.com
Comments & Moderation
Readers’ comments: You are personally liable for the content of any comments you upload to this website, so please act responsibly. We do not pre-moderate or monitor readers’ comments appearing on our websites, but we do post-moderate in response to complaints we receive or otherwise when a potential problem comes to our attention. You can make a complaint by using the ‘report this post’ link . We may then apply our discretion under the user terms to amend or delete comments.
Post moderation is undertaken full-time 9am-6pm on weekdays, and on a part-time basis outwith those hours.
Read the rules hereLast Updated:
Report this comment Cancel