Our volunteers are helping freezing refugees – can you?
Early this morning I checked the temperature where I live. It was minus six degrees; the streets all around were covered in an icy covering of frost. And yet today in my town, and places all around the country men, women and children refugees will be walking the streets in thin clothes, with Home Office-issue flip-flops on their feet. I know this is true because right now my volunteer group is working round the clock to arrange and sorting distributions of warm clothes for refugees in our area. To see people coming in shivering, their feet clearly chilled to the …
Meet Faisal, refugee and aspiring journalist
When he lived in Afghanistan, Faisal dreamed of becoming a journalist, but boys his age were being forcibly recruited by the Taliban and similar outfits. Although he held out, keeping his head down and hanging onto his ambition as long as he could, he knew thart if he didn’t leave, he would eventually be forced to join “them”. And so he packed his dreams and a few possessions, and set off to make the long journey to Europe, where he believed he would be able to lead the life he wished for. I met him in Calais when …
Never forget: A vigil for the Channel drownings
On 24 November last year, 32 men, women and children died in the English Channel when their flimsy boat sank in the freezing cold sea, and British and French authorities ignored their desperate calls for help.. Those authorities face countless questions about what happened that fateful night, but a year on the victims’ families are still waiting for answers. They have been let down appallingly by the British and the French states, and at the very least they deserve explanations about what happened their loved ones. For the victims and their families, we demand justice, and we will never let …
A game with the kind cricketers of Dunkirk
Today I was watching a highly competitive cricket match between Afghan refugees in Dunkirk. It’s getting quite muddy now so I suppose their matches are going to become more difficult, but today they were doing ok. Some of them are really good players. I got talking to a young Afghan refugee called Ali about the T20 Cricket World Cup, which is is being played in Australia at the moment. He explained they were all following Afghanistan’s progress, “because for us, cricket is like football for you. It is everything to us. “That is why it’s good Care4Calais brings the ball, …