Meet the refugees remaking a garden in Folkestone
This is the work of the fantastic gardening club that our volunteers run with asylum seekers who are housed in the notorious Napier Barracks in Folkestone. In the last few weeks these hardworking men have completely re-landscaped and planted up the garden of the local scout hut the group is based in – they’ve even installed fire pit, impressing the group leaders with the speed and quality of the work! It’s great to see people who are housed in such a harsh and stultifying environment like Napier find enjoyment and sense of purpose working with the earth and plants like …
Kamal’s Story
Today we had some truly brilliant news. Kamal, a 22-year-old Sudanese refugee whose been in detention for two months under threat of being sent to Rwanda, has finally been freed. For two months Kamal has lived in constant fear and anxiety as he worried about was going to happen to him. He knows of atrocities committed by the regime in Rwanda, and even now he’s been released, the thought of being sent there makes him physically shake. It will probably give him nightmares for months. “I spent 18 months travelling through Africa trying to find a way out. In every …
Rwanda Update
In just two weeks we will be back in court to challenge the lawfulness of the Government’s cruel Rwanda policy. To have any chance of stopping this, the time to act is now. We’ve recently learned that the Foreign Office warned Priti Patel that refugees should not be sent to Rwanda due to human rights concerns, including that they could be forced to join the country’s army and sent to fight in neighbouring states. Following this disclosure, the Government has been ordered by the court to deliver more documents next week that had previously been redacted. What else could they …
Armin’s story
I was out on my morning bike ride when they came to my house. I had left as usual about 6.30 to have a bike ride before I left for my work as a teacher. As I approached the house when I came back, I could see three cars outside, and seven or eight people around the door. I hung back, and then my wife text me not to come home. I didn’t know it then, but when I had left home that morning, it was the last time I would see my children. My name is Armn, and I’m …
The horror of a Mediterranean shipwreck
I’ve been on a search and rescue mission for the last few weeks with Sea-Watch, in the central Mediterranean Sea, just north or Libya. I drive one of the two speedboats. We’d not long got back to the ship from rescuing boat three. Phil, head of mission told us that there’d been a mayday call. A plane had spotted a rubber boat which was sinking, with over fifty people in the water. It was over ten miles away. The briefing was short. What equipment to take, the location for the chart plotter, good luck, go. It was that kind of …
Sudanese man killed by car in Calais
Tragically, another refugee has been killed in Calais The man, Sudanese and his his twenties, was hit by a vehicle while walking on the road near the village of Nouvelle-Eglise at 6am on Thursday morning. Emergency services rushed to the scene, but the man was dead when they arrived. The man had only been in Calais for a few days, according to the La Voix Du Nord news organisation, so he was probably less aware of the dangers faced refugees here. He is the fifth refugee to be killed in Calais just this year. This shocking number brings home how …
Shalaw’s Story
When I was a child in Iraq I had a speech impediment, and was constantly bullied and made fun of. My family thought I’d grow out of it, but I didn’t, and as I got older it got harder to learn and make friends. People would shout names at me on the street, and punch and kick me just because I was different. No one tried to stop it. I couldn’t help the problem as I was born with it. It came with a learning difficulty that affects my memory. I forget so many things. The bullying was hard …
Shaun’s story
Anyone can become an asylum seeker; you just don’t think it can happen to you. I came to the UK because it is safe, and I speak English. It’s a fair country, and I knew I’d have a chance here. Last week I got my refugee status after two years of waiting, and today I picked up my card! I grew up in Uganda. There are four of us in my family, and my father died when I was quite young so my mother brought us up. I went to a good school in Kampala with a lot of …
Eid’s story
“If you have a passion you must believe in it, and go with it with everything you have. That way, you will find your dream.” In December 2017 a young Syrian refugee arrived at Glasgow Airport. People smugglers had brought him there, but he didn’t know where he was, and asked the Border Control guards who had detained him if he could walk into London to buy some food, as he was hungry. “I guess it broke the ice, as they all laughed. They said that would be fine, if I had about five days to spare.” When he …
Anur’s story
I’ve been in the UK since July now, and while I am glad I am safe here I can’t help but wonder why we spent 20 years fighting the Taliban. Was it worth it now everything’s gone? It’s a really hard thing to stomach when you look at everything we sacrificed and lost so that we could have a future for our children, and then saw that future ripped from us. I worked with the British Special Forces. I was with the Afghani Special Forces Commando, and being out there on the front line I saw what was coming, …