Tag: Refugees

Thank you for helping refugees in Calais

Last weekend Councillor Anna Birley was volunteering in Calais with a group of Thurlow Park residents, other Labour & Co-operative councillors, volunteers from Emmaus and Helen Hayes MP – helping out at the Help Refugees warehouse.

Thank you so much for helping us with generous donations – we couldn’t do these trips without your help. This time we were able to take three packed full cars, and still have a carload to take in a few days time. 

The situation for refugees in Calais is getting tougher and tougher – as well as dropping temperatures, police are regularly evicting them from where they are sheltering, sometimes forcing them to leave their meagre belongings behind and leaving them without warm or waterproof clothes or tents. Your donations, from sleeping bags to warm shoes, have made a huge difference.

If you would like to get involved next time we are organising a collection or volunteering, please do get in touch with Anna on abirley@lambeth.gov.uk. 

Can you help refugees in Calais and London’s rough sleepers?

This winter we are volunteering with Linkey, a London charity which helps homeless people and rough sleepers in the capital, and Help Refugees, which works with refugees in Northern France.

Winter is a dangerous time of year. Last year alone, 109 people died on the streets of London. And in Calais and Dunkirk, hundreds of refugees continue to arrive as the situation in many warzones continues to worsen.

With a group of local residents, we are working with Emmaus West Norwood and the Hyderi Mosque in Streatham to collect desperately needed items to distribute in London on 18th November and in Calais on 30 November – 2 December. We would love your help – perhaps you are having a clear out and can donate something, or you could go online and order items from the list new. Equally, if you would like to donate your time then please do get in touch.

Support refugees at our comedy and curry evening

Join us this Friday at All Saints Church 7.30-late for an evening of stand up comedy and good food to raise funds for Safe Passage UK.

The recent rise in refugees coming to Europe has left many children alone and searching for asylum. Through a combination of operational delivery, litigation, and political advocacy, Safe Passage UK is helping these unaccompanied children, as well as vulnerable adults, access safe legal routes to the UK. We believe that no one who has a legitimate claim to asylum in the UK should risk their lives trying to get here.

Anna, one of your Thurlow Park councillors, and local residents made a couple of trips earlier this Autumn to take your donations to the refugee camp in Calais and volunteer at the warehouse. Now the French Government have demolished the camp, we are looking to continue helping refugees – we hope you can join us on Friday.

Lambeth have been very proactive in pushing Government to support unaccompanied children refugees and has so far welcomed four of the 20 families that the council has agreed to accommodate – making it the borough that has agreed to do most to help Syrian refugees.

Lambeth Labour part of council delegation to visit Calais with Citizens UK

Lambeth Deputy Leader, Paul McGlone, is part of a delegation of senior councillors to visit Calais with Citizens UK, calling on government to do more for child refugees.

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Lambeth Labour has committed to support refugees, and has let the government know that we are ready to help children coming from conflicts across the world. In April, Lambeth Leader Lib Peck welcomed the first family settling here from Syria.

We have thrown our support behind the Liberty and Help Refugees campaign to Protect Refugee Children, calling on government to urgently play its part. In May 2016, the Government committed to working with councils across the UK to resettle an unspecified number of children. Three months later and no action has been taken to deliver on this promise, despite support from Lambeth and other councils across the country. You can see more on the campaign and the pledge that Lambeth has signed here.