Displaying items by tag: migrants

Thursday, 17 September 2020 22:31

Asylum-seeker ‘too tired to carry on’

‘The boat is our only chance for a new life in a safe country’, said Kamal, an Iranian Christian convert who has been in Calais for 10 days with his wife Niki and their baby daughter Sava. ‘I am too tired to carry on. If they try to stop us I will drown myself’. Over 4,600 people have crossed the Dover Strait on small boats so far this year, with increased surveillance and coronavirus travel restrictions having effectively closed the more popular method of hiding in vehicles. With inflamed UK rhetoric, the UK's immigration minister is discussing ‘new, comprehensive action plans’ to stem channel crossings. Priti Patel plans to use warships to intercept migrant vessels, but a MoD official said it’s ‘completely potty, inappropriate and disproportionate’. Kamal has lost everything since leaving Iran three years ago. They were incarcerated with 300 others after seeking refuge in Slovenia, where their savings were lost to the mafia.

Published in British Isles

The Bishop of Dover has expressed her deep sadness over the death of a 16-year-old migrant who drowned after attempting to reach the UK in a small boat (see Europe article below). Rt Rev Rose Hudson-Wilkin said, ‘People who try to cross the Channel seeking safety and security are not criminals, they are like you and I. Human beings who should be afforded the dignity and respect and rights that so many of us take for granted. It is a travesty that this young man will never see his hoped-for future, that his family has been deprived of seeing him grow up.’ She said she ‘would like our government to take the initiative’ in solving the root causes of the migrant crisis. ‘I'd like them to sit down with other governments, not just when someone dies but in the long term.’ She also urged the Church to continue to help with the resettling of refugee families and stop joining in with negative rhetoric.

Published in British Isles
Thursday, 20 August 2020 21:06

Migrant boy found dead on Calais beach

Two teenagers unsuccessfully tried to cross the Channel in a three-foot dinghy using shovels as oars. They wanted to cross by themselves, bypassing people smugglers who charge high prices. One was a 16-year-old Sudanese boy who was found dead on the beach near the former ‘Jungle’ camp; his friend was found on the same beach suffering from hypothermia. Detention Action described the death as horrifying but wholly expected, saying, ‘We have repeatedly warned Priti Patel it was only a matter of time before her toxic policy to deny safe and legal routes to the UK would cost lives. This death lies firmly at her door. She should consider her position.’ Clare Moseley, founder of Care4Calais, said the boy's death demonstrates the ‘total failure of our government’ to help children in such desperate straits.

Published in Europe
Thursday, 06 August 2020 23:44

Migrant arrivals hitting crisis levels

Last month you prayed for compassionate provisions for refugees (see). Now Tony Smith, the former head of UK Border Force, said that if the UK and France fail to agree joint Channel patrols, arrivals will reach crisis levels. He said, ‘They need to agree a treaty with a joint patrol where migrants picked up in the Channel can be returned to France to have asylum claims considered there. What I'm advocating is we try as best we can to replicate the juxtaposed controls for legitimate applicants in the same way as for illegitimate applicants. Over 200 migrants managed to cross to Britain in twenty boats in one day. If they want to come to the UK they need to make their case on the French side, and if they are found in the waterways or even make it as far as Dover we say, “I'm sorry but you go back there and that's where you will be interviewed and processed, on the French side”.’

Published in British Isles
Thursday, 16 July 2020 22:20

Crackdown on channel dinghy crossings

On 12 July as many as 180 migrants crossed the English Channel to the UK (see https://news.sky.com/story/number-of-migrants-crossing-english-channel-hits-new-daily-high-12027639) In six months 2,600+ people have crossed illegally into the UK, compared with 1,850 during the whole of 2019. The home secretary met her French counterpart Gerald Darmanin to push for fresh action to curb the ‘unacceptable’ daily crossings and tackle the ruthless people-smuggling gangs behind them. The two ministers will establish a joint intelligence unit based near Calais, where UK Border Force and National Crime Agency officers will work alongside their French counterparts. The new unit will consist of six British and six French police officers. Also, Miss Patel said France should start towing boatloads of illegal migrants back to its shores, saying it was not beyond the collective experience of French and UK officials to create a plan for returns at sea.

Published in British Isles
Thursday, 04 June 2020 23:28

Government’s duty to keep us safe

Our government has the responsibility to protect those in the health service risking their lives for our health. There are still doctors, nurses, care home workers, carers and others who do not have some essential personal protective equipment. Amnesty International say we are not safe until everyone is safe. Also migrant women who are victims of domestic abuse go without safety and healthcare. They are too scared to seek urgent medical care or help with safe housing, for fear of being reported to immigration authorities. Women’s Aid estimates that four out of five migrant women are turned away from refuges because they lack access to government support or funds. Pray for the Government to provide resources for everyone who needs them, no matter what their immigration status. Pray also for the police to catch the criminals stealing PPE to sell at inflated prices on the internet (see).

Published in British Isles
Thursday, 09 April 2020 21:20

Border Force intercepts migrants

So far this year almost 500 migrants have been intercepted while crossing the Dover Straits, from coronavirus-infected Calais camps. On 8 April four boats carrying 57 migrants (23 of them Iranian) were intercepted by the Border Force in the English Channel. The previous day 63 migrants had tried to cross the Channel, despite lockdown measures remaining in place in the UK. Last week 52 Iranian, Iraqi and Afghan nationals, including five children, came ashore at Dover. All such migrants will be monitored for signs of Covid-19, the Home Office added. They go into isolation, and twenty places are reserved for those with coronavirus symptoms. Up to 3,000 migrants are living in northern France in desperate conditions, at high risk from coronavirus. Pray for the home secretary and her French counterpart as they tackle this situation, complicated by the coronavirus crisis. See

Published in British Isles
Thursday, 01 August 2019 23:31

Italy: another charity rescue boat banned

Deputy prime minister Matteo Salvini has banned the Alan Kurdi, carrying forty migrants, from entering Italian waters. The boat, run by a German charity, had hoped to dock at Lampedusa. This rescue mission comes shortly after over one hundred migrants disembarked from a different boat in Sicily, but only after a new deal was reached with the EU to distribute those on board between five nations - Germany, France, Portugal, Luxembourg, and Ireland. A Sea-Eye spokesperson said migrant rescue boats had to respond immediately to situations, as soon as there is an emergency at sea, and political calculations should not play any role whatsoever. It is critical that all migrants be allowed to dock at Lampedusa to receive future treatment. In July authorities arrested the captain of another rescue ship after it docked there without prior permission.

Published in Europe
Friday, 12 July 2019 13:04

Hong Kong: migrants join protests

Demonstrations in Hong Kong have drawn in the youth, parents, first-time protesters and the church, while migrant workers have quietly and consistently participated since the beginning. Migrants distrust the Chinese justice system. In June a Chinese trawler rammed into a Filipino fishing vessel in the South China Sea (called the West Philippine Sea in the Philippines), over which China has claimed dominion. The Filipino boat’s 22-man crew ended up in the water, fearing for their lives, for hours as their vessel sank. They were ultimately rescued by Vietnamese sailors. Chinese officials downplayed the incident as an accident. Onlookers call it one of many dangerous disagreements where China has used its strength to strong-arm neighbouring nations, displaying unwanted authoritarian actions. One migrant said, ‘The moment you make your opposition to certain government policies known, you are treated like a threat to state security, and can be jailed for years.’

Published in Worldwide
Thursday, 23 May 2019 22:03

52 migrants rescued in Channel

Border Force officials intercepted four flimsy dinghies carrying 52 Iranian and Iraqi men, women and children journeying from northern France to the Kent coast. The people-smuggling gangs make thousands of pounds from sending refugees across the world’s busiest shipping lane. Concerns are likely to be raised that the Home Office’s decision to deploy cutters encourages migrants to travel in the belief they will be rescued and brought to the UK. Experts believe the number of arrivals will increase in the next few months as the weather improves. All the migrants were handed over to immigration officials to be processed, fed, given medical attention and undergo security screening. Meanwhile eight men and a child suffering from hypothermia were stopped in French waters and taken back to France. See

Published in British Isles
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