Yousef
My name is Yousef, and I am 15 years old. I left my home in Khartoum, Sudan over a year ago, because the authorities shot my brother to death. He was 17. I just want to live in a safe country where there is no war and killing, and in the United Kingdom there is a beautiful system. The UK cares about minors like me a lot. I love the English language, and one of the best universities in the world is in England; I know that British people are not racist like other countries in Europe. So that …
Georgina
As a volunteer helping Afghan refugees in Manchester, the work can be demanding. Sometimes though, you meet someone so inspiring they take your breath away. I’ll never forget one weekend when I was supervising at a hotel, another volunteer was offering haircuts and it was exceptionally busy. There were lots of children and I was struggling to give them all as much attention as I’d like. I don’t speak any of the Afghan languages and it was difficult to understand what people needed as the volume of people gathering in the corridor started to grow. Suddenly, an amazing 13-year-old …
A visit from Dr Rosena
This week we were delighted to welcome to Calais Dr Rosena Allin-Khan, the Shadow Cabinet Minister for Mental Health and MP for Tooting in London. She spent the last few days working with our team and talking to refugees. She found out how refugees’ mental health is impacted by the appalling conditions that they’re forced to live in. When she went out on distributions – food packs in Calais clothing packs in Dunkirk – she was shocked by some of the horrors they endured. Three children she met had hardly eaten for almost two days, and wouldn’t have been eating …
Steph and the Access Team
It’s a real rollercoaster of emotion working for the Care4Calais Legal Access Team, and there’s no emotion you don’t feel at some point. Sometimes the horrific experiences refugees tell us about can be hard to listen to; other times, it’s really enjoyable to think you’re helping people, and you can feel pride knowing you helped someone avoid being unfairly deported, for example. The Legal Access Team refers refugees seeking asylum in the U.K. to lawyers who can help them with the immigration system. It’s so scary for people because they arrive here and they’re given all this complicated paperwork, …
Pauline and Shon’s story
When asylum seekers arrive at their dispersal accommodation or hotel in the UK, they’re given a Primark T-shirt, pyjama bottoms, and some flip flops. And that’s it. All that these often-traumatised people are entitled to when they reach this country, the fifth-richest in the world, looking for safety. Such meanness and unfairness is a big reason why I volunteer to help refugees and asylum seekers here. My name is Pauline, and through the pandemic I’ve been volunteering with Care4Calais at hotel and dispersal accommodation. The hotel I look after has around 250 people in it, many sharing rooms. Mostly …
Helping refugee children walk on air
I’ve just the most amazing day with some of the refugee children I help out with. A brilliant inflatable theme park called Inflata Nation donated a play session for our refugees, and it was incredibly uplifting to take these innocent children there, and see them smiling, laughing and playing – finally being able to do what all children should be doing! There was one little moment that stood out for me. A nine-year- ld boy who I’ve known since I started volunteering was hot after playing, and he came up to me to ask for a glass of water. …
Salah and me
Salah and I have been best friends since 2017. Four years ago we met at my first refugee camp in Rome. Two weeks ago, Salah walked me into my first camp in Calais. Us both, as equals, proudly wearing our Care4Calais hi-vis’. “You looked a little lost,” Salah recalled of the first time we met in Baobab Camp. We laugh about it now – but I really, really was. I didn’t know what to do or where to look and I’d gotten myself in a right divvy. I was young and fairly inexperienced (despite eight years of aid work), …
Were taking the government to court over pushbacks
We’re taking the Government to court to stop dangerous push backs of flimsy boats in the Channel – and we need your support. We’re proud to be bringing this claim alongside the PCS Union, who represent Border Force’s own officials. They’re aghast at the thought that they will be forced to implement such a cruel and inhumane policy. Push backs are incredibly dangerous, and risk lives at sea. Following the recent horrific drownings of 27 people in the Channel, it is simply unthinkable that anything be done to risk further loss of life. But before we go ahead, we have …
Hayat’s family: the pictures that tell an awful story
These pictures tell a story that needs to be told. After the tragic events in the Channel recently, Hayat told me her story. The first picture shows Hayat’s four children who are now happy at school in the UK. She is so proud of them. However, there is one child missing. Two years ago, her eldest son, Yusuf, 13, was shot dead in Kuwait by the police. Why?Because he is Bidoon. Bidoon are a stateless Arab minority in Kuwait who were not included as citizens at the time of the country’s independence, or thereafter. They live in slums outside …
Happy Christmas!
Christmas arrived with a big bang this weekend as our Care4Calais group in Reading held a brilliant Christmas party for refugees. There was such a wonderful spirit of love and friendship between everyone, and I really felt that we all brought the true meaning of the season to life. We had a jolly Father Christmas who gave out pyjamas to the children, and a puppet company who put on a special Christmas show that the children loved. With lots of lovely, warming hot chocolate, and plenty of indulgent nibbles, it was a wonderful introduction to an English Christmas for these …