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 …
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, …
Zoran’s story
When Zoran was a young boy growing up in Iran, his mum and dad were murdered by the government for their political views. His grandfather raised him in a small, remote village where Zoran got no schooling. Bring Kurdish, Zoran was part of a persecuted minority with little chance of a job. His parents’ deaths marked the start of years of unhappiness and depression for Zoran, and being isolated and persecuted in the village only made things worse. He knew he had to escape. Aged just 16 he left home to search for a safe future with the chance …
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 Ousama 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 …
A Lovely Cup of Cofffee with Muhammed
For more than a year, the Calais authorities have made it illegal to give food to refugees in certain areas. Even as I write that sentence, it seems unfathomable that the basic human right of access to food is made illegal to people. But Care4Calais and a few other organisations prevail, and continue to find areas where we can give out food to refugees, who are often desperately hungry. Last week, I went with a group of volunteers into the camps where refugees sleep, to give them food tickets so they could make their way to our van and …
Ukranian refugees turned back from UK now in Calais
Britain has turned back nine Ukrainian refugees at the border because they didn’t have visas, according to reports in the French press. The two families from Odessa in southern Ukraine had travelled four days to escape the Russian attack. Having been rejected by the UK, they are reportedly staying in hotel accommodation in Calais. Véronique Deprez-Boudier, sub-prefect of Calais, said that the British consul was now helping them to obtain visas that would allow them entry to the UK. She hoped that the process would be completed by the end of this week. While no one can fail to be …
A moment of understanding with the CRS
Something rather special happened today. We have been looking for new places to distribute food to people. In much of Calais there is a food ban and unbelievably giving food to hungry people is against the law. So we are continually looking for new places where it is allowed. Having studied the map carefully we thought we found the perfect place, but only half an hour into our distribution the CRS police came and closed us down. This was a blow, as the refugees are having to walk further and further to get to us and to food. We went …
Dealing with the Calais food ban
One of the scariest things I’ve noticed about volunteering in Calais this time is here is how badly the refugees want our food packs. They don’t mind a long walk to the places where we’re giving them out, and they are willing to wait for a long time in the freezing cold to collect them. Seeing people that hungry is not good. To a large extent, the problem is down to action taken by the authorities. There’s been a “food ban” in Calais for more than a year now. The ban originally made it illegal to give people food …
How the Government misleads the public about refugees
One of the worst and most dangerous mistruths that this Government peddles is that refugee Channel crossings are “illegal”. As they know very well, the law allows refugees to come to the UK to claim asylum. A recent court of appeal ruling has shown that refugees coming to the UK on small boats are not arriving “illegally” if they intend to arrive at a port and claim asylum – which almost all of them do. In a court case on Thursday, Sir James Eadie QC, representing the home secretary, admitted to court that there had been a “misunderstanding” that …
The photography of former refugee Abdul Saboor
I left Afghanistan because they shot me. Not once, but three times. I don’t know who shot me or why, they were too far away to see. Afghanistan is a dangerous country – people do not follow rules, they do what they like. The first time I was shot, it was was in my arm, and I treated the wound myself. The next time it was my leg, and the doctors wanted me to stay in hospital, but I wouldn’t stay. The last time was in my back, and that was bad; I stayed in the hospital for 10 days …
