Ali had spent all weekend reading about the Illegal Migration Bill becoming law. “Why doesn’t the UK want me?” He asked. “Why don’t they understand?”

Ali fled Sudan when his family were killed, and he knew he would be killed too if the militia found him. All he wants is to be safe. But now he’s in an impossible situation. In France, the police take his tent every few days. He thinks if he goes to the UK, he will be imprisoned in a barge or sent to Rwanda. “I can’t go to Libya because I was kidnapped and kept in prison there. I can’t go back to Sudan because they might kill me.”

He was close to tears. “Where can I go?” he said. “Tell me, where can I go?”

All the volunteers in Calais have been shocked by the huge amount of difficult conversations we’ve had with refugees this weekend. The people we support here in Calais are terrified.

Everyday you hear stories from people of the violence, persecution and suffering they have escaped in their home country. You hear about dangerous journeys they have made to reach Europe. In France, many have been harassed and abused simply for being refugees.

Despite all of this, they are even more scared of what will happen now because of the new law in the UK.

Because of this, people in Calais are taking even more risks to get to the UK before these laws are acted upon. In the last few days there has been a lot of talk about the picture shown here, taken by a photographer called Johan Ben Azzouz from La Voix Du Nord newspaper. It shows a dinghy overloaded with refugees setting off from the beach in Boulogne in broad daylight, in full view of holidaymakers.

Boulogne is much further from the UK than Calais, so the journey is more dangerous. Boats like this has not been seen setting off like this before, and it’s a sure sign that refugees, desperate and out of options, are now taking more and more risks

That means more people are likely to die from dangerous journeys in the weeks and months ahead.

When people have no other choice they do desperate things. People like Ali have no other choice.

I, volunteer

The post Panic and fear now gripping refugees in Calais appeared first on Care4Calais.

That’s a tiny figure. So why do they talk of a “migrant crisis”?

Today, the government will fan the flames of hate and division by saying all immigration is unwelcome. But immigration is not a problem for the UK. It helps to grow the economy. It enriches all of us. And it offers protection to people who have experienced some of the worst things imaginable.

But they will pay particular attention to the boat crossings, and they will continue to attack refugees, just as they always do.

They will refuse to offer safe passage for refugees to claim asylum, and then use small boat crossings to sow division – even though today’s statistics show less than 4 per cent of people who came to the UK in 2022 crossed the channel in a small boat.

The government knows that number could easily be welcomed with a safe passage policy, if only it reduced the backlog. But it never does.

The government knows that number could easily be welcomed with a safe passage policy. So why do they persist with the hateful rhetoric and new laws that cause untold suffering to countless people seeking only safety?

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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 the lives lost on 24 November 2021 be forgotten.

Stand Up To Racism, Care4Calais and the TUC are organising a vigil to take place at 6pm on 24 November outside Westminster Abbey in London. We will say the names of those lost, and gather to condemn the hostile environment that allowed this tragedy to happen in the first place, and is now being intensified by Home Secretary Suella Braverman and the current government.

Please join us there if you can.

https://www.facebook.com/events/429947779349503/?ref=newsfeed

The post Never forget: A vigil for the Channel drownings 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.