What would you do if you fell out with your neighbours?
By Fleur
@Fleura (31269)
United Kingdom
March 3, 2025 7:45am CST
According to the UNHCR, at present the UK is hosting over 350,000 refugees and asylum seekers. But how many of these people are genuine refugees in need, in the way it would normally be understood?
Obviously I know people are likely to flee a region at war and we would expect to see people coming from places like Ukraine, Gaza or Congo. Having said that you do wonder whether some of those people couldn’t have stopped off en route, somewhere nearer home and possibly a place that has more in common with their home country.
Yesterday a friend was telling me about an acquaintance he has met through the local cricket club. This young man is from Bangladesh and is currently living in hotel accommodation provided free while his claim for asylum is processed. He isn’t allowed to work so he just goes to every cricket practice session and game that he can, to give him something to do.
His story is that he fled Bangladesh after a land dispute with neighbours turned nasty and he was in fear for his life.
I have sympathy for this man (I haven’t met him) and he sounds like a nice chap, but neither of us could understand why he came all the way to Britain. Couldn’t he have just moved to another part of the country? Bangladesh is quite a big place. Or otherwise to India, or possibly Nepal or Pakistan? Why come all the way here?
If we had a major falling-out with our neighbours we would just move to another town, not emigrate to a strange country 5,000 miles away like China or India. What about you?
All rights reserved. © Text and image copyright Fleur 2025.
6 people like this
6 responses
@xFiacre (13289)
• Ireland
3 Mar
@Fleura I wanted to retire to India but wasn’t allowed even though I’d not be taking an Indian job or pension, and would be self financing, spending my British pension in India and paying for my own healthcare etc. they stopped issuing retiree visas. But yes, why not just flee to a country closer to your own if the need arose.
2 people like this
@BarBaraPrz (48830)
• St. Catharines, Ontario
3 Mar
When I moved to Hamilton, I was happy to have wonderful neighbors. But, through the years, they moved and were replaced by others not so wonderful. I put up with neighbors from hell for several years, then finally had enough and moved to St Catharines, where I again have wonderful neighbors.
1 person likes this
@Orson_Kart (7078)
• United Kingdom
4 Mar
They seem to be coming from all over the world to “ask” to settle here. The last government got the blame for the backlog in asylum claims, but I don’t think the new one is doing much better. I believe Travelodges are full of such people, waiting for the green light.
1 person likes this
@DaddyEvil (143090)
• United States
3 Mar
I would just move across the city if I had a falling out with neighbors and it got nasty. There is no reason to go all that far from where you originally lived. Not ALL your neighbors would have something against you, surely.
It always seems strange to me when people move around the world from their home just to get away from neighbors they've known and grown too antagonistic with. Even a move across the country seems better than going to a foreign country.
1 person likes this
@wolfgirl569 (112792)
• Marion, Ohio
3 Mar
I would not go at all. I am the stubborn one
1 person likes this
