Local depot for refugee donations

[Scottman]

Anyone know of any local places collecting blankets, clothing etc for refugees arriving in Europe ?

[Pat-H]

Based on our official responses to the crisis I'd imagine it's considered too expensive and damaging to our economic base to collect and distribute...
Such a sad day to see GB turn its back on such a crisis. (yes I know we have now begrudgingly committed to 20K over 5 years but I bet that takes 4.5 years to get in place)

[craig]

There is a trip planned to take much needed supplies to those refugees stuck in Calais.
You can donate items (food, blankets, clothing etc) and drop them off at 27a Baldock Street on Sunday 20th September 1-5pm.
It's next to the Landseer frames.

The trip is on the 27th Of September leaving Hertford for Calais. More volunteers are required.

More details will follow once I get a response from the organisers.

[Wickenlady]

Following on from Criag's last post, all the details are now on an advert on Ware Online's Facebook page, including a list of items required.

[craig]

drop-off.jpg (88.01 KiB) Viewed 11015 times

[Scottman]

Please will all donors pay attention to the list of what is needed - one of the daily newspapers this week (I forget which) carried a photograph of the litter of clothes etc delivered that are of no use to the refugees.

[Itsme]

Are these collections for people living in camps in Calais who are trying to illegally enter the UK?

If so they are not refugees but migrants so the title is very misleading.

[Pat-H]

Are these collections for people living in camps in Calais who are trying to illegally enter the UK?

If so they are not refugees but migrants so the title is very misleading.

I don't think you can state that a persons location now determines their status as Migrant or refugee.

They are just displaced.

I know the press have done a sterling job of ensuring we see anyone close to the UK as a threat but that doesn't make it true.

Clearly there are many individuals and whole families moving from the war torn areas. Some can be classed as refugees some are moving by choice as migrants. But the influx over the passed months have been refugees fleeing the increasing violence and destruction.

Just because they are living rough in Calais doesn't define them as migrants.

And that assumes it's ok to feel that migrants should be left to freeze. They are humans after all.
I know the UK plans to scrap human rights to allow a more "flexible" approach to how we can treat people so I suppose its possible we are moving towards establishing a lower level of human treatment. We're well on that path with our own citizens.
http://www.theguardian.com/politics/201 ... roner-says

[mb1]

Excelent post Pat-H.

It's well worth remembering that the vast majority of people fleeing into Europe are from countries in conflict, and again in the vast majority of cases, conflicts in which our country had a direct hand - Afghanistan, Iraq, Syria, Libya. Of these the only one where the UK bears no direct responsibility is Syria, but even there the UK was involved with fuelling the conflict in its early stages. Many of the rest are fleeing communal and inter-religious violence in countries like Mali, Niger, Nigeria and Somalia. In all of those countries conflicts have become much worse recently as a result of floods of arms from Libya, which we helped bomb into chaos. Others flee Eritrea, which is a dictatorship almost as bad as North Korea. The vast majority of these people have a case for refugee status, and they care absolutely nothing for laws and regulations about what they should and shouldn;t do to claim asylum, even if they know those rules. They care about getting to somewhere they feel safe.

It's a matter of deep shame to our country that an already xenophobic discussion about bloody foreigners swamping our country when they arrive from the EU has become tangled up with a debate on how to handle refugees arriving in Europe, and that so many choose to react not with compassion for those in desperate need, but with hatred.

[VicarageRoader]

Its also worth pointing out that the only reason that the likes of Itsme live in a comfortable, democratic country like this and not have to trek halfway around the world looking for somewhere safe to live is accident of birth.