Anti racists head to Calais to stand in solidarity with refugees

Theresa May used her conference speech last week to attack refugees in Europe as “bogus” and said high levels of immigration harms the cohesiveness of society. But the overwhelming solidarity shown by people in the UK and beyond, as well as the resilience of the refugees themselves has the potential to put the government on the back foot. Weyman Bennett, Joint Secretary of Stand Up to Racism says; “Whilst EU leaders meet to discuss the refugee crisis our delegation is going to Calais to shine a light on the human cost of their inadequate response.

Stand Up to Racism is taking a large delegation of antiracists, councillors, trade unionists and students to Calais to tell refugees in the camp that David Cameron does not speak for us and stand with them to demand that Britain upholds its humanitarian obligations and lets these people in.”

Ahead of Saturday’s delegation local SUTR delegates have collected large amounts of money and goods for people living in the camp. It is crucial that we step up our solidarity with migrants and refugees who are living in atrocious conditions in Calais with winter approaching.

This week the government’s response to the refugee crisis has come under fire from senior lawyers, former law lords, retired judges and the UN. Maz Saleem, SUTR activist said; “The UN’s most senior human rights official has compared the dehumanising language used by our politicians to describe refugees with the rhetoric used about Jewish people before the Second World War. This should raise alarm bells in people’s ears and demonstrates the importance of coming to Calais and standing in solidarity with the people in the camp.”