Steve joins us after spending many years doing incredible and much-admired work to help refugees and the victims of armed violence around the world.

Having begun his career as a military officer, he has made it his personal mission in life to help people suffering in the ways that he has seen first hand.

“Having served in several war zones, I know what it’s like to be shot at, and to see bombs going off nearby. I know what it’s like to be afraid.

“But I always knew that I would be going home. I knew that my family was safe, and that my home was safe. Refugees don’t have that certainty.

“As a refugee fleeing war, conflict and persecution, you flee with what you can carry and nothing else. Often, you know there is no way back. You now need to survive, possibly with your family, with whatever is in the bags you’ve taken with you.

“That is the refugee experience.

“I have long respected Care4Calais volunteers’ understanding of, and empathy with, that experience. It has enabled this organisation to achieve great things. And I consider it a privilege to now be working alongside them.”

Steve was previously Chief Executive of the International Refugee Trust and, before that, of Action on Armed Violence.

He has coordinated relief efforts for movements of refugees, and in the course of his advocacy work has worked closely with the UN, WCO and British Houses of Parliament, he also sits on the board of Keeping Children Safe.

As the new CEO at Care4Calais, Steve is determined above all else to enable refugees to find “a safe place they can call home.

“So often, refugees are thought of as ‘the other’ – with different languages, different cultures and customs. But, from personal experience, I know they are people just like us.

“In their former lives, they may have been school teachers, librarians, lorry drivers, bank clerks, factory workers. Normal people doing normal jobs. Now they find themselves cast adrift.

“They deserve dignity, respect and safety. And working with the wonderful team at Care4Calais we will do all in our power to ensure they have just that.”

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But then the threats got more serious.

I was arrested and imprisoned for doing my job.

Two years later, they came to my home and set it on fire. I was not home but my wife and daughters were. They only survived because our neighbours saved them.

After a further attack on our family home in 2019, when my family and I were all inside, I knew I had to leave; they had made it clear they wanted to kill me.

My name is Alaz, and I’m a Kurdish refugee from Iraq. I’ve been a journalist for 30 years. Today I have been thinking about the American war on Iraq, which started 20 years ago this month. That war was a disaster for the whole region, because the US and UK governments had no plan for what happened afterwards.

Because of that, it was easier for people who wanted power to grab it. Those kinds of people hold onto power by silencing and persecuting their critics, so the situation created more refugees.

I am an example of that.

The bombing made people fear for their lives every day, and so many ordinary people were killed. It was horrific. But it was a strange conflict because its consequences were in many ways worse than the war itself – afterwards it was worse than under Saddam, because instead of one dictator we had lots of them, each with their own areas. We all saw what was happening with our local leaders as they made sure all the money and work went to them, their family, their friends and anyone willing to follow them, and as a journalist I spoke out on behalf of my people.

But those new dictators made it clear I’d be murdered, and now there was no US or UK to protect me. The US had said they wanted to bring freedom to the region, but you have to protect freedom. We were told we would have it, but we had no protection.

It was my wife who told me I should go. I know sometimes people say, why are the wives not with the refugee men? But if the husband is in danger as I was, the only chance of him staying alive for his wife and children is to flee. My wife, daughter and son are still there, and they are not safe because of me. I miss and worry about them so much it’s painful for me; I hope badly that I will be given asylum so they can join me.

It took me 48 days to get to the UK. I almost died on the boat crossing to Turkey, and crossing the Channel was almost as frightening. I came with 12 others in a lorry carrying vegetables. That was more than two years ago now, and I have still not had my interview. Being stuck here and unable to work is so frustrating; I feel like someone who has been imprisoned, unable to contribute to my new community.

– Alaz, refugee

Many refugees like Alaz have to make these heartbreaking decisions all the time, and when they arrive in Calais or the UK we are there to give them as much support as we can to make them feel safe and to help them regain their hope for a brighter future. That wouldn’t be possible without our hundreds of volunteers. Join us today to support refugees like Alaz: care4calais.org/get-involved/

#RefugeesWelcome #Refugees #Volunteers #KurdishLivesMatter #JournalismIsNotACrime

Names and images have been changed.

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“Because you see joy on the faces of people when you make them feel safe and wanted, and you feel joy at being part of a team doing good things. That’s why our Care4Calais team celebrates when things go right, and if people are hostile to us and refugees, well, when they go low, we go high.

“If the far right are doing hateful things in our area, we say RIGHT! Let’s have some picnics! Let’s throw a party! Let’s do things that are filled with love!

“You can take activism and make it fun. That’s why you can see me in the picture taking the Stop Rwanda message to Hogwarts!”

Katie Spencer Matthews, our regional lead for West Yorkshire is an irrepressible force of nature. Laughing, chatting and joking all the way, she somehow manages to run a team supporting more than 1000 refugees, as well as teaching drama and sharing a home with partner and a daughter.

She got involved during the Pandemic, first as a virtual volunteer. “The first lady I helped was a survivor of female genital mutilation. She had fled her home because she had given birth to a little girl, and there was there was no way she was ever going to let anybody do that to her child.

“As I helped her and her daughter with clothing, and put them in touch with local services, I realised there must be many more people with stories like that, and it was important to keep going, helping them. And after that I never stopped!”

Katie feels lucky because all the West Yorkshire team gelled quickly, and get on well. Volunteering doesn’t feel like work, because they’re friends. “I mean, it’s no real hardship to walk into an asylum accommodation with a fantastic bunch of people and help lots of refugees, is it?”

She’s helped hundreds of people. One particular big win she remembers was a 16 year old Yemeni boy, who we’ll call A. Katie asked his school to keep him back a year so he would catch up properly, and when the head agreed on condition she found A a tutor, she persuaded a tutor friend called Emily to do it free. She ended up being employed by the school to help other refugees, and grew close to the boy and his parents.

“They have leave to remain now,” Katie says, “the school has a great teacher, and they are basically part of Emily’s family now. If that’s not a case for joy, what is?” She laughs.

You can tell Katie’s relationships with refugees is amazing – they smile when she walks into a room, and some of them take the mickey out of her Yorkshire accent, repeating what she has said. “It’s terrible!” She says, “The Yorkshire accent gets the mickey taken out of it all over the country, and now it even gets laughed at by refugees!”

There are a few downsides, she says. It’s horrible when asylum seekers are waiting for their interviews and you can’t speed it up for them. And when they get moved on quickly, so you don’t get to say goodbye.

She reckons the key to spreading understanding is telling stories. “That’s the most efficient way of gaining support. For a lot of people , a refugee is a statistic; an unknown concept, someone they never met and have no terms of reference for. Just sharing someone’s individual story can change all that.”

To donate to Care4Calais work in West Yorkshire go to: peoplesfundraising.com/fundraising/west-yorkshire-care4calais

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“As volunteers we just try to show refugees that there’s hope in the world, and they don’t have to suffer alone,” she says. “We see a ripple effect; if you someone feel better, they’ll make others around them feel happier too. And you feel amazing to see the effect.”

Katey began volunteering in Calais and continued with the Access team when she got back to the UK. Then one day a volunteer called her to say there was a mother with a three-month-old baby who needed support in Wimbledon.

When Katey arrived at the woman’s hotel and noticed it was full of people with no spare clothes or support, she decided to set up a Care4Calais volunteer group in the area with some friends. Once that was up and running, someone took over and she went on to set up the group in Croydon, where she lives.

Katey now runs a network of volunteers who support more than 1,000 refugees in six hotels in the Croydon area.

The Croydon group provides help in the form of clothing, food parcels and phones and also provides social support and interaction, including language lessons, sports, kids crafts and drop-in sessions. One of Katey’s most successful initiatives has been to set up links with other local groups who can offer specialised help, such as food banks and children’s charities. She even made an arrangement with the local Waitrose for the supermarket to donate food that might have otherwise been thrown away.

“If we try to do everything on our own, our work might not be sustainable. But we all work together, we can make progress. And I don’t see that progress coming from anywhere else at the moment.

Volunteering with Care4Calais, she says, means doing something that has an impact straight away, and helping people who deserve our support

“The world is full of amazing people each with their own skills, talents and cultures. At the end of the day it’s a matter of chance which country you were born into. In the UK, everyone should have access to clean clothes, toiletries and access to help if they need it.

“But that emotional support is so important too. Kindness goes a long way. There’s a lot of pain in the world, but like small things will make a difference.”

Katey needs more volunteers to help in Croydon. If you can help, please get in touch through care4calais.org/get-involved/

The post Meet Katey, our amazing lead volunteer in Croydon! appeared first on Care4Calais.

The boy, who I’ll call Tariq, suddenly disappeared, only to reappear a few moments later with a sticking plaster. It was such a moving thing to do – he had been through so much, but he could still notice and help with my little problem. I have only been in Calais for a week but I’ve already learned that the refugees here often have big hearts.

We talked some more, and he told me that a few days ago he had tried to cross to the UK in a boat, but but the engine had failed. They had been stranded on the sea among high waves, and terrified until they were rescued.

But still, he said, he would be trying again tomorrow (that’s now today). It was a chilling reminder of their situation; even that terrifying risk is better than what they have left behind.

I’ve met a lot of Afghan people in my time here so far. There are many in Dunkirk – in fact there are so many, and they like making friendship bracelets so much that we buy big reels of thread in green, black and red, the colours of there Afghan flag! Small things like that are so important when they’re this far from home. Like Tariq, they all just want to get and job and work, to have a normal life, and most feel sure the British Government would welcome them.

Their faith in us is so at odds with what some of our politicians say, it’s heartbreaking sometimes. I know Tariq has left now, and he must be either still at sea or in the UK. I really hope he gets the welcome he deserves in the end.

The post Tariq’s story appeared first on Care4Calais.

Despite this the UK Home Office is, shockingly, trying to force her onto a plane so they can deport her to Rwanda.

The Home Office has previously said that it would not send pregnant women to Rwanda under its new scheme. However, we have seen paperwork that shows they knew Delina was pregnant, but still served her with a letter saying she would sent to Rwanda.

This is an incredibly brutal example of the carelessness of the Rwanda plan, and the horrific human suffering that it causes.

As the interview reveals, Delina’s story prior to reaching the UK is harrowing enough. When she was three her father was killed by the Eritrean government, and her mother took her to live first in Sudan, and then Lebanon. Her mother is now also dead, and she has no other family. She came to the UK already pregnant in July this year.

When she made her claim for asylum Home Office staff knew she was pregnant, and organised her first scan. Later, they arranged for her to move to more comfortable rooms in her accommodation.

And yet, even though she was by now noticeably pregnant, the Home Office then served her with notice saying she would be deported to Rwanda.

Since then she has not slept, and her recent scans show her baby has stopped growing – probably because of Delina’s stress. The doctors current plan is to induce her in just under two weeks time.

Seeking to deport someone so soon after giving birth seems shocking by any standards.

“We have supported hundreds of refugees who have received Rwanda notices but this is the most egregious case yet,” our founder Clare Moseley says.

“The Government knows this woman is pregnant but have still seen fit to issue a letter threatening forced deportation to Rwanda. This case demonstrates the lack of compassion, cruelty and brutality at the heart of the Government’s Rwanda policy.

“Targeting a pregnant woman is disgusting.”

Names have been changed.

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Today we were distributing SIM cards to refugees in Dunkirk when I met Ramtin. He’d just arrived at the site with his wife after fleeing from Iran, and he said he was feeling like he was “in a very bad situation”. 

A few weeks ago he had been living a normal life as a financial manager in Iran. Then he had heard about a protest against the government, and wanted to go along, just to make his feelings known. But the police had grabbed him and put him into detention, and even though he’d been released, he knew they would come for him again. 

He and his wife had fled immediately. He was almost in tears as he said he was so worried because he felt staying in a tent here might not be safe for her, but she was a brave lady, and they wanted to be together. Later when I saw them together you could tell there was so much love between them as they tried to reassure one another in this new place. 

Their journey had been frightening, Ramtin said, crossing through the mountains to Turkey and then travelling to Italy via Greece by boat. Their only hope of finding help and safety was to get to the UK where he had family. 

It was vital for him to speak to his relatives so that he could find them and get advice, but he couldn’t get in touch with them because his SIM from home no longer worked. “So it’s so important for me to get this,” he said. Again tears came to his eyes. 

People should just not have to go through this when all they’re doing is trying to make themselves and their wife safe from harm. 

A, volunteer

Our SIM cards make a huge difference to refugees like Ramtin and his wife everyday. If you can help us to provide them, please do. To volunteer or donate go to care4calais.org/get-involved

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Today I got talking to two friends called Naji (on the left) and Ali. Naji had a bike that he used to get around on, Ali walked with a crutch because he has a damaged leg.

“It was when he was trying to get into a truck,” Naji explained for him. “He fell into the road, and was hit by a car.”

Ali had basic medical treatment for the injury but it was clear he was still in pain. Naji helps to look after him now. They left Sudan together, and have travelled all this way in each other’s company, he said, dreaming of rejoining their families in the UK. They’re not going to split up or give up now.

It was a reminder of how dangerous life is for refugees here in Northern France. These two had made it through Libya, where another friend had died while being held captive. Then they’d crossed the sea to Italy, but even after surviving those risks, they still faced so much danger here, near the UK border. Their resilience and dignity in the face of the hostility and harm are always amazing.

We talked more together, watching as volunteers handed out hygiene packs. We gave out around 200 packs.

The really sad bit came at the end when Naji, thinking of the recent evictions carried out by the French police asked what the police in the UK are like. “Because here they are not so good. And in Sudan, not good.

“And in Rwanda I don’t think they would be good.”

It seemed appalling that two people who had been through so much now had to endure this extra threat just when they seemed so close to safety.

To volunteer or donate go to Care4Calais.org

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As I got closer, I realised that all their clothes were wet. Not just caught-in-the-rain wet, they looked as if they’d been completely soaked from head to foot. When I asked what had happened to them, they explained there had been “a problem with the boat” and made plunging signs with their hands. I understood; they had experienced something that has become all too common here in the last few weeks.

They had decided to risk their lives crossing the Channel, but their boat had sunk just off the French shore and they had been rescued. As they own only the clothes they stand up in, they had had to get as dry as they could and then spend the day waiting for the damp to leave them – not easy in the autumn in Northern France.

Some 970 refugees have been reported rescued in the seas off the French coast this month. It’s easy to see that as just a statistic, but that’s almost 1000 people who risked their lives trying to find safety, who must have been terrified as they waited for their rescuers, and then who had to live with the memories afterwards. It’s horrific.

For us it means there are lots more people who are soaking wet at night needing dry clothing as a minimum – we make sure to look out for them to offer all the help we can. Of course that’s what we did for the men I met.

This situation is chilling when you think that we’re approaching the first anniversary of the worst-ever loss of life by refugees trying to cross; as many readers will remember, in November last year, 29 people died horrifically when their dinghy sank. The horrific truth is that nothing significant has been done to prevent it happening again.

This should be the real story when we talk about 30,000 refugees crossing the Channel; 30,000 lives being needlessly risked, and that risk increasing as the weather starts to worsen. It is the most important reason of all that we need to provide safe passage for refugees now.

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A small group of us in Manchester have been running weekly creative and wellbeing sessions for refugees in the airport hotels here. We thought they’d be opportunities for the ladies and children to have a break, chat to different people and do some light crafts-type activities as a change from their normal routine.

In fact, as the sessions have developed, they have become as much of a learning experience and treat for the volunteers as the refugees, because the Afghan ladies have utterly amazed us with their sewing and creative skills. The intricacy of their sewing and embroidery really is incredible, and we have watched in wonder as different generations have collaborated on spectacular dresses.

Their kindness and generosity has touched us too. Last week, on learning that Karen, one of the volunteers, had a one-year-old granddaughter, they made the most amazing embroided panel and traditional Afghan dress for her. It was beautiful – you can see it in one of the pictures – and said so much about their talent and the friendship between us.

You can see the sense of safety and fun growing in these ladies who have been through so much fear and hardship in the last year. The feelings of friendship, belonging, safety and trust that have developed among us have really warmed my heart.

There are many other things we experience together, small and large. We volunteers were recently treated to Zafaran – a warm homemade saffron drink. And we were honoured recently to be able to accompany many women and children to the amazing garden at Bridgewater, Salford, run by the RRHS – Royal Horticultural Society on a trip kindly arranged by the amazing team at Manchester City Council and also the Walkden branch of RRotary International

I would recommend volunteering for sessions like ours to anyone – we always need more people, so please get in touch!

A, volunteer

To volunteer or donate go to care4calais.org/get-involved

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