Chapter 529 (2/2)
Unsurprisingly, the first suggestions were to send some of them to the already established refugee camps. These locations were built to handle them, so a few more wouldn't hurt. Alan almost wanted to smile at this unintended joke. There were 10 of those refugee camps already, operated by the state. Each was designed to house about 8000 people. They all had over 10,000 there currently.
How would 150,000 people fit in these already overstocked camps?
The obvious second option was to make new camps, but again, that would mean someone would receive more refugees, and none wanted to volunteer. On the one hand, it could be said that a desperate man might consider accepting refugees. They would possibly be indoctrinated into the district and become a staunch voting block of support for some of the Senators. But on the other hand...
All eyes turned to Senator Lazar. He had come out of one of the first expansions of refugees along with 5000 or so others. But all of those were moved to a district together. When that happened, they hadn't realized that the former senator from that area was Senator Lazar himself. So when the next election came around, and the previous Senator was ousted by the refugees working together... Everyone took note. Any group of people could have someone charismatic and famous. Bringing them into your district was a dangerous gamble.
”I do have one suggestion,” Alan finally spoke, breaking the small arguments that had sprung up over making more requests to Father Foster. That was exactly what he didn't want.
”Ghost has established a special work area in quite a few of our current districts. Unfortunately, the drone initiative hasn't taken off as he had hoped, but no one can deny that they are a positive economic force in the area,” Alan said. Several faces flushed and turned ugly as if they knew what was coming. Other faces split apart into grins. ”Perhaps part of that problem is available labor. If we move 1000 to each of these work areas-”
”This is preposterous. They aren't economically beneficial! You just admitted they have largely been failures,” Senator Kane said. She pounded her hand on the table. ”Throwing more Tier Zeros into the mix will do nothing but hurt those districts already burdened.”
”How funny,” the House Speaker said dryly. ”The 20 of you that received the work areas fought so hard for them. And now you claim they are detrimental? Then why haven't we heard a peep about this before now? No, I agree with President Howard.”
There was a chorus of agreements. There were currently 61 districts in Zone 1, and only 20 of those had work areas. It had been a bitter fight to obtain them, and the losers were more than happy to foist the refugees on the winners now.
”You are being ridiculous!” Senator Kane bellowed. ”That's only a fifth of the total number of refugees! We need real solutions to the problem. This isn't the time to latch onto petty disputes, or get even for perceived slights.”
”I actually agree,” Senator Firefly said, surprising everyone in the room. Alan was especially suspicious of the calm serenity on the man's face. Alan had hoped that the vicious arguments about refugees would knock off some of the enthusiasm for speaking with Randidly Ghosthound and believed it had. And yet, Gary Firefly was completely unphased.
”In fact, I was going to propose two things. Combined with the methods we discussed earlier, I believe the crisis will be adequately handled.”
”Your methods are?” Alan asked.
Senator Firefly smiled. ”First, that we keep them where they are. Some might see it as... inhumane, to subject them to those conditions, but for most of them, it will be a transitory stage. There, they can build dwellings and farm to raise their Skill Level while we determine their... relative aptitude. Perhaps we can move the camps farther away from the border, but with a sufficient military presence, it shouldn't be too much of a stretch.”
”These should be new districts,” Senator Kane interjected, her eyes alight with the discovery of a scapegoat. ”If this chunk of populations is going to become something lasting, they should become separate districts.”
Most were in support of this, but there was some discomfort with it. After all, more districts mean more people sharing the power in Congress. But it looked like they would have enough of a consensus to push it through.
”And your other method?” Alan asked.
Chuckling, Senator Firefly said, ”Well, I recently realized that the population and economy of my district aren't keeping up with some of you closer to the two Providences. So I plan on allowing a refugee city to be built in my district. Say about 20,000 people. I hope my small contribution helps.”