Almost 1000 refugees rescued from the Channel this month
Early this morning we were out a food distribution in Calais when I noticed a group of Sudanese refugees looking very subdued and downcast. I was a bit worried about them, so decided to see if everything was ok. As I got closer, I realised that all their clothes were wet. Not just caught-in-the-rain wet, they looked as if they’d been completely soaked from head to foot. When I asked what had happened to them, they explained there had been “a problem with the boat” and made plunging signs with their hands. I understood; they had experienced something that has …
The journey is hard, but we’re there for them
Yesterday 116 refugees in three three boats came ashore at Dungeness. We understand that that everyone on the first two boats was from Syria, and the people in the the third were from Kurdistan and Afghanistan. There were a lot of women and children on the first two boats, including some children who were unaccompanied. Many people looked cold and exhausted, and some were upset and confused – some much that it tore at your heart to see them. There was one family with a small boy and a lady who was just crying uncontrollably. She was obviously in shock, …
This is Why Phones Are So Important to Refugees
“There are two ways to get to the UK, by lorry or boat. Both ways, you could be killed. I don’t want to take either, because I am so afraid of losing my life. But my family spent all their money to get me to safety. So what I can do? I must go on.” This is how Osama from Sudan described his life in Calais to me. I was sitting at Osama’s campfire after distribution one evening with some of his friends. They’d built the fire where they were living, in some scrub land in the hope the police …
Another tragic incident on the UK border
As the weekend ended, somewhere on the coast of northern France, three Somalian refugees climbed into a small dinghy and set off to cross the English Channel. Their boat was notably smaller than dinghies often seen being used to cross the channel, and was certainly not suitable for one of the world’s busiest shipping lanes. The men will most likely have been aiming for the Kent coast, but the tides bore their tiny vessel far off course, out beyond the eastern tip of Kent. Around midday they would have been drifting on past the mouth of the Thames and on …
More Refugees Missing in English Channel
ANOTHER three refugees are missing in the English Channel. According to reports, the three men set off to try to cross the Channel in a kayak on Thursday. You have to be pretty desperate to try that. A kayak. They were with two other men, in separate kayaks, who were rescued by the French police when they got into difficulties. The two rescued men reported the other three missing. The French coastguard used boats and a helicopter to search for the missing men, but the search was halted at nightfall, before being resumed on Friday morning. This means at …