The Nationality and Borders Bill
The Nationality and Borders Bill, which was debated in the Commons today, has made me think about how I got involved with refugees six years ago. I came from a corporate background, and knew nothing of humanitarian work, politics or world affairs. I went to Calais because I had vaguely heard about the problems there, but you don’t believe it till you see it. The people I met there changed my understanding of the world. I didn’t help them because they had fled terrible wars, or suffered awful persecution. No; I got stuck in because there were hungry, cold …
Sudanese refugee dies in London
We are heartbroken to report the death of a young man from Sudan who was living in a London hotel visited by our volunteers. We were given the sad news by his friends this morning. Having survived unknown horrors in his home country, and a gruelling journey to get here in search of safety, it is devastating to hear that it is in the UK that he met his end. Our volunteers also knew this young man for a few months of his journey while he was in Calais. He lived under one of the bridges in the city centre. …
Faisal’s story
This is Faisal. Originally from Yemen, his story is one of the most brutal I have heard. He has been in the UK for one year, lives in a hostel, and has no ID. “It’s hard to feel at home like this” he often said. Last week Goods For Good donated some Nike clothing to our team in London. Amongst them was this Official England windbreaker which I gave to Faisal as the weather was wet. Today when I met him he explained that all week people had been talking to him, waving to him , giving thumbs up …
Six years of volunteering: My Story
I’ve been volunteering for nearly six years now, but I very nearly did not make it past the first day. I had quite a traumatic initiation to the Jungle. I spent ten hours in the medical caravans treating a constant stream of injured and sick people, it was quite scary as I’d never seen, never mind done, anything like this before and the jungle was huge at that time. I’d just been left to get on with it and the thought of going back the next day was terrifying. I called my friend Roxanne to apologise for not being able …
Razik’s Story
“If you don’t believe and do as God asks, you must be killed.” That’s what the officer at my local Sharia court in Pakistan said to me one day when he heard me questioning my friend on some of his religious beliefs. I lived near the border with Afghanistan, and the man was a member of the Taliban, so it was a worry. He began watching me, and he and other members of the court would drive slowly past my house staring. I knew one day he would drive past with a gun – after all there was no law …
“It’s not by choice, to live like this.”
Hashem, in his early twenties from Iran, has been sleeping rough in Calais for three months. Until recently his tent was in an abandoned warehouse here. He said it was good to have shelter there, surrounded by hundreds of other people, and felt safe. That was until the police came early one morning. They destroyed and confiscated what belongings they could find. Hundreds of people were taken out of Calais on buses. Others, like Hashem, were able to escape but were left with nothing I met Hashem one hot afternoon last week. We sat on the dry grass, carefully staying …
“Without you, I would not be here.”
Late one night last September my friend Ervin called me, frantic and afraid. Little wonder: as I was soon to discover he’d just found out that he was being sent home to be killed. He was rambling and hard to follow on the phone, but he sounded so upset that I got in my car and set out to look for him. I found him in the middle of a park in Liverpool, where I live. Agitated beyond belief, he was pacing back and forth in the darkness, his habitual limp more pronounced because of his twitchy, nervous movement. He …
Refugee Week 2021: Ammar’s Story
I had a good life in Syria until I reached the age where militia take boys to fight for them. They take you and make you kill your own people; if you refuse, they beat you or kill you. My twin brother left soon after our birthday. I did not want to leave and stayed as long as I could. I did love it there. I lived in the middle of the city, but we’d always go outside to swim in the rivers, eat apples and apricots from the farms and sometimes we stay all night outside. It was very …
People smuggling charges dropped for refugees after successful appeal
Some brilliant news at the end of Refugee Week! On Friday, eleven refugees had charges for driving small boats across the English Channel dropped. This follows a recent successful appeal by Fouad Kakaei, an Iranian asylum seeker who spent 17 months in prison on remand. On appeal in May, his conviction was overturned. Priti Patel has boasted of these prosecutions, claiming the people involved were people smugglers. They are nothing of the kind; smugglers do not travel with their customers. People in this position are often simply refugees who cannot afford to pay a smuggler. Not everyone has money for …
Refugee Week 2021: Sani’s Story
One day I was driving when a car deliberately swerved into me, and I broke my neck; later my mum told me the person driving the other car was my brother. I’m from an old-fashioned, very strict Muslim family in Iran, and when I changed my religion to Christian, my father and brother had a big problem with me. My mum said, “Sani, listen to me. He wants to kill you because he doesn’t like women working, he doesn’t like women changing their ideas, he doesn’t like women talking to men.” But I had to talk to men at my …