Category Archives: Refugees

Banksy-funded boat nears ‘state of emergency’ as it shelters 200 people

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Crew of Louise Michel, who rescued 89 migrants on Thursday, say European authorities ignoring them

A rescue boat financed by the British street artist Banksy is close to declaring a “state of emergency” after the crew helped 130 migrants and are now safeguarding over 200 people off Libya’s coast, while the European authorities ignore their request for help.

The vessel, named Louise Michel after a French feminist anarchist, set off in secrecy on 18 August from the Spanish seaport of Burriana, near Valencia, and is now in the central Mediterranean, where, on Thursday, it rescued 89 people including 14 women and four children.

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Banksy funds refugee rescue boat operating in Mediterranean

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Exclusive: UK artist finances bright pink motor yacht that set sail in secrecy to avoid being intercepted by authorities

The British street artist Banksy has financed a boat to rescue refugees attempting to reach Europe from north Africa, the Guardian can reveal.

The vessel, named Louise Michel after a French feminist anarchist, set off in secrecy on 18 August from the Spanish seaport of Burriana, near Valencia, and is now in the central Mediterranean where on Thursday it rescued 89 people in distress, including 14 women and four children.

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Coronavirus has made every day a struggle to survive amid the squalor of Cox’s Bazar | Farid Alam

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Once I flew kites and dreamed of being a teacher. Now it’s hard to see a better future for me or my family

When I was born in Kutupalong camp, Bangladesh, it was a very different place. I remember as a child laughing and flying kites with my friends. Kites are not flying around our camps any more. There is little laughter.

Just months ago, we lived in a different world. We used to go outside a lot, seeking freedom from our little bamboo and plastic homes. But with Covid-19 we cannot. Often we are told to stay inside. It’s hot and cramped, with nine of us in one room.

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If you felt cooped up in lockdown, think of refugees confined in camps | Moulid Hujale

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From panic buying to lack of freedom, the pandemic is an opportunity to understand the lives of those forced to flee

Covid-19 has transformed the world beyond imagination, affecting almost everyone in some way.

Yet for me the changes have felt familiar – from movement restrictions to quarantines, every measure taken to prevent the spread of the virus reminds me of what it means to live as a refugee in a camp.

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Bellicose words won’t stop the Channel dinghies – but compassion might | Regina Catrambone

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Fear of what lies behind drives people against desperate odds. Turning them away won’t stop them, and risks more deaths

The dangerous waters of the Channel have seen a rise in the number of people trying to cross to the UK in desperately unsuitable and overcrowded dinghies. The British government has called for the use of defence forces to stop them.

Fears of “outsiders” bringing danger are exacerbated in the strange times of the coronavirus pandemic, when most of us face unprecedented restrictions on movement, making it a fertile climate to propagate anti-migrant messaging.

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Number of migrants crossing Channel in boats passes 5,000

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UK pursues ‘militarised’ response despite calls for safe routes for asylum seekers

The number of migrants who have crossed the Channel in small boats this year has passed 5,000, analysis shows, as the UK government continues to pursue a “militarised” response to the growing numbers.

A further five people arrived in England on Friday, risking their lives in force 8 gales, rain showers and rough seas. It is understood the five men presented themselves as Sudanese and Chadian nationals, and were brought into Dover to be questioned by immigration officials.

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People are dying in the Channel because of politicians, not smugglers | Maya Goodfellow

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Priti Patel’s recognition of a child’s humanity in death is hollow when he was stripped of it in life by cruel border policies

The human cost of the government’s border policies has been made appallingly and painfully real: a 16-year-old boy from Sudan was found dead on a beach near Calais on Wednesday after trying to make it across the Channel. When people die trying to cross borders, the response from politicians is almost always the same: they say they are shocked and saddened and then carry on as usual. Yesterday was no different.

Related: Calais-based volunteers condemn UK for death of Sudanese teenager

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At least 55 migrants died off north African coast this week, says UN

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45 people – including five children – died off the coast of Libya, and a further 10 south of Canary Islands

The grim reality of the migration crisis unfolding off the coasts of north Africa has been underlined by two separate tragedies this week in which at least 55 people died.

45 people – including five children – perished when the engine on their boat exploded off Libya, in the country’s deadliest shipwreck this year, the UN said late on Wednesday.

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Refugees crossing Channel tell of beatings by French police

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Asylum seekers give accounts of injuries, as Priti Patel says many refugees feel France is racist

Asylum seekers in the UK and France have described injuries they have received at the hands of French police, as Priti Patel said many were making the perilous journey across the Channel because they believe France is racist.

The home secretary made her comments in a conference call with Conservative MPs concerned about the recent surge in numbers attempting the voyage in small boats.

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Give refugees crossing Channel a chance, say Windrush survivors

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Priti Patel risks replicating Home Office failings that led to scandal, victims and human rights campaigners warn

Survivors of the Windrush scandal have attacked the home secretary, saying her approach to the Channel migrant crossings is creating “the same set of conditions” that led to the government victimising the children of Commonwealth immigrants.

A letter to Priti Patel from 100 prominent refugee and human rights campaigners, including members of the Windrush generation, warns that the “pattern of ignoring expert advice, failing to engage with civil society and branding migrants as criminal” replicates Home Office failings that caused the 2018 Windrush scandal.

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‘I have destroyed my life for my children’: the families trying to cross the Channel

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More families arrive in Dunkirk each day and they would rather sleep in woods than seek asylum in France

“They are kids, so they are always playing. Like children in the UK play mums and dads or doctors and nurses, our children will re-enact boat crossings, getting patted down by the police, going to food distributions, meeting smugglers. Because one of the way parents safeguard their children is to present attempted border crossings as an adventure.”

In a nature reserve near Dunkirk, Caia Fallowfield runs a play project for migrant children who live among the trees with no running water or toilets. These are the children who vanish overnight off the French coast and reappear on the front pages of British newspapers, being pulled out of dinghies in Dover, often cold, wet and frightened.

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Calais mayor tells Boris Johnson to ‘calm down’ over migrant crossings

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Natacha Bouchart tells PM sending Navy ships into French waters is ‘a declaration of maritime war’

The mayor of the French port city of Calais has told Boris Johnson to “calm down” and change strategy in dealing with migrants crossing from France.

“I consider Boris Johnson’s pronouncements to be a provocation,” said Natacha Bouchart, mayor of the town that is a main embarkation point for the small, overcrowded migrant boats seeking to cross the Channel this summer.

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Asylum seeker removal flight takes off despite last-minute court actions

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Home Office says 14 people were flown out, while 19 of those due to be removed had their tickets deferred

A charter flight to remove asylum seekers who recently arrived in the UK on small boats took off on Wednesday morning carrying 14 people, the Home Office said, despite last-minute high court actions and other interventions just hours before takeoff.

Nineteen people due to fly did not board the plane. The Home Office said 14 people were placed on the charter flight destined for France and Germany.

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‘Entire families are arriving at our shores’: Covid drives Tunisian exodus

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Italy is facing an influx of people trafficked on fishing boats, desperate to escape Tunisia’s deepening economic crisis

Unsurprisingly for a coastal town perched upon Tunisia’s border with Libya, it’s hot when Ahmed climbs into the back of the car outside the petrol station in Zarzis.

It’s clear from the outset he feels uncomfortable talking to a journalist. Nevertheless, he’s here.

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BBC and Sky accused of ‘voyeurism’ in coverage of migrant boats

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Live footage of people crossing Channel to UK is like ‘grotesque reality TV’, says MP

Britain’s television news broadcasters have been criticised by opposition MPs and campaigners over their coverage of migrants crossing the Channel, with claims that some of their reports dehumanise those taking the risk to make the journey.

Footage of Sky News and BBC Breakfast teams approaching and filming small boats trying to navigate the busy waters of the Dover strait was widely condemned on social media. The Labour MP Zarah Sultana said: “We should ensure people don’t drown crossing the Channel, not film them as if it were some grotesque reality TV show.”

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Five ‘safe and legal’ asylum alternatives to cut Channel crossings

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Experts offer other options as UK government seeks to reduce numbers crossing in boats

The government insists the way to reduce the number of people crossing the Channel in small boats is to prevent the vessels from leaving France in the first place or by intercepting the boats and returning those attempting to make a crossing.

But humanitarian groups and refugee and asylum experts argue the way to reduce the number of attempted crossings is to offer alternative “safe and legal” routes to the UK to claim asylum.

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UK and France working ‘at pace’ on plan to halt migrant Channel crossings

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Home Office minister says measures being considered to make route ‘unviable’

The UK and France are working “at pace” on a new plan to put an end to people attempting to cross the Channel in small boats, a Home Office minister has said, as tensions rise over the British government’s approach to the unfolding crisis.

Following talks with officials in Paris, Chris Philp, minister for immigration compliance, conceded the French were doing a “great deal of work” and had intercepted more than 1,000 people attempting to reach England this year after days of loaded statements from the two nations.

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Covid to displace more than a million across the Sahel, new tool predicts

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Software hailed as a ‘game-changer’ in providing early warning for humanitarian relief efforts as virus fuels conflict

Coronavirus is predicted to push more than 1 million people from their homes across the Sahel, creating havoc in an already highly fragile region, according to new forecasting software.

Burkina Faso, Mali, Niger and Nigeria in west Africa are predicted to see displacement as a result of the increasing conflict, unemployment and human rights abuses brought on by fallout from the coronavirus, the analytical tool developed by the humanitarian group Danish Refugee Council (DRC) has found.

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Boris Johnson says crossing Channel in small boats ‘dangerous and criminal’

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PM hints at law change to make it easier to deport people who make dangerous voyage

Boris Johnson has branded attempts by people to cross the Channel in small boats as a “very bad and stupid and dangerous and criminal thing to do” and hinted at changing the law to make it easier to deport such arrivals.

Meanwhile, a French politician has warned that the UK’s decision to send in the Royal Navy “won’t change anything”, and a former Home Office official has said he was sceptical of the plans.

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More than 4,000 have crossed Channel to UK in small boats this year

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French and British ministers prepare to meet after 151 more people came ashore on Saturday

Tensions are mounting between the UK and France over migrant crossings in the Channel after the number of people who have reached UK shores in small boats this year surpassed 4,000.

Families with young children were among hundreds of people who came ashore near Dover this weekend, including 151 on Saturday, the Home Office confirmed.

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