Anti-racist campaigners will call on the government to accept more refugees at a rally in London this evening (details below). Catherine West MP Shadow Foreign Office Minister, Emily Thornberry MP Shadow Employment Minister, Natalie Bennett Green Party Leader and refugee rights campaigners will gather in London tonight.
The rally takes place as Europe sees the biggest migration of refugees since 1945, with no proper solution on how to manage this. Campaigners will say David Cameron must shift his stance and adopt a more humanitarian and responsible approach to refugees currently stranded in the EU, ahead of Wednesday’s EU summit on refugees. So far the government has opted out of welcoming some of the hundreds of thousands refugees currently in the EU, with Germany and Austria taking the majority.
The rally will also hear from activists who have just returned from Calais, after distributing aid and meeting refugees stranded in slums.
Emily Thornberry MP said:
“My family, like many others, found refuge and opportunity in Britain. We are part-Huguenot, part Jewish, part Irish and part East-End cockney. We are British. I am truly ashamed of our Government for refusing to give sanctuary at a time of crisis like this – migrants should be welcome in this country.”
Catherine West MP said:
“The Government’s inadequate response to the growing humanitarian crisis has been shameful. This country has a proud history of helping people fleeing persecution and we stand together tonight to call for much more to be done. I do not want the world to see Britain turning its back on those in desperate need. Refugees are welcome here”
Sabby Dhalu, Stand up to Racism organiser said:
“Tens of thousands of desperate and homeless refugees are currently stranded in the EU. Germany has taken hundreds of thousands, Austria took twenty thousand in one day – the same number Cameron is saying Britain will take over five years and none of those will be those currently stuck in the EU. This is a grotesque dereliction of duty. The so-called refugee crisis is only a crisis because many EU countries – including Britain – are refusing to accept those in the EU. The situation would be easily manageable if these countries would adopt a more humanitarian approach. This is the biggest migration of refugees since 1945 – we must learn lessons of history. Britain must take more refugees.”
Weyman Bennett Stand Up To Racism Organiser and Calais Solidarity Delegation Member said:
“Refugees have drowned in their thousands. This winter they will freeze in thousands. The Prime Minster David Cameron hands out lectures to the world about being decent, honourable and abiding by international law. Yet he refuses to fulfill any of basic tenets of humanity. Describing refugees as a ‘swarm’ will only serve to dehumanise those in need of our help. We cannot stand by while children and others die. This weekend in Calais I meet these shelterless defenseless people we should save them!”
Refugees Welcome Here
Rally
Monday 21 September, 6.30pm
Mander Hall, Hamilton House, National Union of Teachers, Mabledon Place, Kings Cross, London WC1H 9BD
Speakers include:
Catherine West MP Shadow Foreign Office Minister
Emily Thornberry MP Shadow Employment Minister
Natalie Bennett Green Party Leader
Maurice Wren Chief Executive, The Refugee Council
Colette Levy Child refugee from Vichy France
Lindsey German Convenor, Stop the War Coalition
Lee Jasper, Black Activists Rising Against the Cuts
Ros Ereira, Solidarity with Refugees
Abdulaziz Almashi, Syria Solidarity Movement Co-Founder
Maz Saleem Calais Solidarity Delegation Co-ordinator
Sabby Dhalu and Weyman Bennett, Stand Up To Racism and Unite Against Fascism
Meeting sponsored by NUT