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Calais Action is a direct-giving refugee aid and advocacy group which is part of the UK grassroots aid movement. [1]
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Calais Action is a direct-giving refugee aid and advocacy group which is part of the UK grassroots aid movement. [1]
In 2015, the refugee crisis became front-page news across the world. [2] Affected by images of the plight of refugees in camps across Europe, the grassroots aid movement (otherwise known as the people-to-people, or people solidarity movement) consisting of thousands of private individuals with no prior NGO experience began in earnest to self-organise and form groups taking aid to areas of displaced persons. [3]
Calais Action's founder, Libby Freeman, visited Calais in July 2015 with a van of donated items. [4] Upon returning, she founded direct-giving group Calais Action in August 2015. [5] Newspaper coverage and TV interviews inspired a wave of interest from the public. [6] [7] [8] As a result of the press coverage, many people contacted Freeman wanting to help, and so a group of individuals nationwide was created, where aid was collected in local drops and delivered to Calais, Hungary and the Greek Islands. [9]
After the publication of photos of Aylan Kurdi, the drowned child refugee on a Turkish beach in August 2015 in news outlets worldwide, public support and sympathy for refugees peaked, and Calais Action's map of UK-wide aid drops was used in the Guardian to direct concerned readers. [10] Following the huge public response, over 8,000 square feet of aid was collected and sent from the Calais Action warehouse in London to Northern France, Hungary, and the Greek Islands. [11]
When the Calais Jungle was partially demolished by French authorities in March 2016, [12] it was found that 129 unaccompanied minors in the camp there were unaccounted for. [13]
In October 2016, the remaining Jungle camp was demolished and residents dispersed. Volunteers from Calais Action appeared in TV and radio coverage of the event, correcting essential details and misinformation (such as the idea that all inhabitants had been evacuated before the fire). This footage was also used as part of the documentary "Calais Children: A Case to Answer," which was shot during demolitions, covering the plight of minors left stranded by the authorities. [14]
Calais Action campaigns in Parliament to provide more safe and legal routes for refugees, and supported the Dubs Amendment to the Immigration Bill, created by Labour peer Alf Dubs to allow 3,000 unaccompanied child refugees into the UK. [15] [16] The Dubs Amendment was defeated on its first passage through the Commons on 25 April 2016, [17] but a later revision of the Amendment was submitted to the Commons and was passed on 9 May 2016 after both David Cameron and Theresa May conceded in the face of public pressure. However, the Dubs scheme was capped at 480, far short of the 3,000 children that it was intended to benefit.
Currently, Calais Action is part of the House of Lords refugee focus group Action for Humanity, [18] the Refugee Task Force INGO group and the Safe Passage campaign group lobbying for safe and legal routes to asylum such as the Kindertransport Legacy Campaign. [19]
Volunteers have spoken at the UNHCR [20] and ALNAP humanitarian conferences [21] to provide a grassroots perspective to INGOs and aid workers.
Calais Action continues to send aid to Europe and raise awareness of refugees and the necessity for safe and legal routes to asylum. [22]
Calais Action is a Restricted Fund under the auspices of Prism the Gift Fund, Registered Charity number 1099682. [23]
The No Border Network refers to loose associations of autonomous organisations, groups, and individuals in Western Europe, Central Europe, Eastern Europe and beyond. They support freedom of movement and resist human migration control by coordinating international border camps, demonstrations, direct actions, and anti-deportation campaigns.
A refugee camp is a temporary settlement built to receive refugees and people in refugee-like situations. Refugee camps usually accommodate displaced people who have fled their home country, but camps are also made for internally displaced people. Usually, refugees seek asylum after they have escaped war in their home countries, but some camps also house environmental and economic migrants. Camps with over a hundred thousand people are common, but as of 2012, the average-sized camp housed around 11,400. They are usually built and run by a government, the United Nations, international organizations, or non-governmental organization. Unofficial refugee camps, such as Idomeni in Greece or the Calais jungle in France, are where refugees are largely left without the support of governments or international organizations.
The Kindertransport was an organised rescue effort of children from Nazi-controlled territory that took place in 1938–1939 during the nine months prior to the outbreak of the Second World War. The United Kingdom took in nearly 10,000 children, most of them Jewish, from Germany, Austria, Czechoslovakia, Poland, and the Free City of Danzig. The children were placed in British foster homes, hostels, schools, and farms. Often they were the only members of their families who survived the Holocaust. The programme was supported, publicised, and encouraged by the British government, which waived the visa immigration requirements that were not within the ability of the British Jewish community to fulfil. The British government placed no numerical limit on the programme; it was the start of the Second World War that brought it to an end, by which time about 10,000 kindertransport children had been brought to the country.
Alfred Dubs, Baron Dubs is a British Labour politician and former Member of Parliament.
The Central British Fund for World Jewish Relief, which operates under the name World Jewish Relief, is a British Jewish charitable organisation and is the main Jewish overseas aid organisation in the United Kingdom. World Jewish Relief was formed in 1933 as a support group to German Jews under Nazi rule and played a major role in organising the Kindertransport which rescued around 10,000 German and Austrian children from Nazi Europe. After the war, the organisation brought 732 child Holocaust survivors to Britain; the first 300 are known as The Windermere Children and collectively they are known as The Boys. Currently, World Jewish Relief functions as one of Britain's leading development organizations, working with Jewish and non-Jewish communities alike. World Jewish Relief operates programmes mainly in the former Soviet Union but also in Eastern Europe, Africa, and Asia.
Tess Berry-Hart is a British playwright and novelist writing for adults, young adults and children. Novels and theatre plays deal with themes such as the European migrant crisis, LGBT rights, mental illness, genetic engineering, and the sex-positive movement. Berry-Hart has also written fiction and verbatim theatre pieces for stage to support human rights campaigns and to raise funds for the refugee crisis.
The Son of a Migrant from Syria is a 2015 mural by graffiti artist Banksy. The mural was located in the Calais jungle, a nickname for the encampment near Calais, France, where migrants lived as they attempted to enter the United Kingdom. The artwork depicts the late Apple co-founder and former CEO Steve Jobs—the son of a Syrian migrant to the United States—as a traveling migrant.
The Calais Jungle was a refugee and immigrant encampment in the vicinity of Calais, France that existed from January 2015 to October 2016. There had been other camps known as "jungles" in previous years, but this particular shanty town drew global media attention during the peak of the European migrant crisis in 2015, when its population grew rapidly. Migrants stayed at the camp while they attempted to enter the United Kingdom, or while they waited for their French asylum claims to be processed.
Migrants have gathered in and around Calais, on the northern French coast, since at least the late 1990s seeking to enter the United Kingdom from the French port by crossing the Channel Tunnel or stowing away in the cargo area of lorries heading for ferries that cross the English Channel. During this time, informal camps of migrants have formed, the most notorious commonly referred to as the Calais Jungle. Other migrants come to the area because they are homeless while seeking asylum in France. The presence of migrants in and around Calais has affected the British and French governments, the Eurotunnel and P&O Ferries companies, and lorry drivers heading for the UK and their companies. EuroTunnel, the company that operates the Channel Tunnel, said that it intercepted more than 37,000 migrants between January and July 2015.
Edlumino Education Aid is a nonprofit charity working to improve education for disadvantaged and displaced children around the world. It is a non-governmental organisation (NGO) registered with the UK Charity Commission as charity number 1166131. Edlumino is based in Cambridge and the date of registration was 18 March 2016.
Voluntary return or voluntary repatriation is usually the return of an illegal immigrant or over-stayer, a rejected asylum seeker, a refugee or displaced person, or an unaccompanied minor; sometimes it is the emigration of a second-generation immigrant who makes an autonomous decision to return to their ethnic homeland when they are unable or unwilling to remain in the host country.
This is a timeline of the European migrant crisis of 2015 and 2016.
Route Nationale 216, also known as the Rocade Est or Rocade Portuaire, is a French trunk road that connects the long-distance A-16 and A-26 autoroutes to the Calais ferries towards the United Kingdom. From the interchange with the A-16, A-26, the road runs northward, connecting to Rue Yervant Toumaniantz at exit 3, and the Rue de Garennes at exit 2. The northern terminus is at an interchange which connects directly to the ferry terminal, along with an exit for local traffic. The southern 2.5km from junction 3 to the A16/A26 interchange has been upgraded to autoroute standard and is now marked A216.
La Linière refugee camp was situated in Grande-Synthe, Dunkirk, France. It was opened in March 2016 at a cost of around 4 million Euros.
Basroch refugee camp was situated in Grande-Synthe, Dunkirk, France. It began as an informal refugee camp in a muddy field in about 2006. As late as summer 2015 it still only contained about 60 residents, but by January 2016 the camp had expanded to more than 2000 people.
Jasmin "Jaz" O'Hara is a British woman human rights defender working in the field of international refugee support, and founder of Asylum Speakers.
Seeking asylum in France is a legal right that is admitted by the constitution of France. Meanwhile, the status of recognized asylum seekers is protected by corresponding laws and Convention Relating to the Status of Refugees, which France signed on 25 July 1951. France is considered to be one of the main asylum host countries in Europe. According to statistics collected by the World Bank, in 2021 there were 499,914 refugees registered in France. Asylum policies in France are regarded as a concerned topic among the public and politicians, and some controversies also exist in the current system of French asylum policies, such as issues on the assimilation policy, national security problems and living conditions of asylum seekers.
Sue Clayton is a UK film director, writer and activist, best known for her work on the rights of refugee children. Her documentary films have been cited as evidence in UK court cases involving asylum seekers.
Choose Love is a UK-based non-governmental organization (NGO) which provides humanitarian aid to, and advocacy for, refugees around the world. In 2016, it became the largest grassroots distributor of aid in Europe.
Humanitarian protection is the act of promoting and ensuring the legal rights of people affected by humanitarian crises.