Ewa and Andrew from the Barka UK team attended the ‘Humanitarians Together’ meeting chaired by Lord Roberts of Llandudno, a long-time friend and a Patron of Barka UK.
The group, which includes activists of civil organisations of various faiths, meets once a month at the House of Lords in London. House of Lords develops strategies to act on issues which are most important socially and politically. One of such topics is the influx of immigrants arriving to the British Isles in on small boats via the English Channel/La Manche Canal.
Such a journey is extremely dangerous – it often leads to boat capsizing and death at sea. Some of the people coming here are escaping persecution by seeking asylum in the UK, and the British Home Office is not keeping up with processing the applications. It happens that there are also women and children among those desperately looking for a better life.
Nearly 100k this year alone is the number of people who have illegally entered the UK via the English Channel/La Manche Canal, the highest figure ever.
Humanitarians Together has developed a manifesto to support refugees that addresses issues such as: preventing dangerous travel through the English Channel/La Manche Canal, organised most often by human traffickers and other criminal groups, providing clear and accessible routes to the British Isles for all asylum seekers to get to the British Islands, the right to work after a period of 6 months from coming into the UK, providing decent treatment regardless of race, skin colour or gender, raising the standards of housing for refugees, access to free English classes for all, etc.
The last meeting in the House of Lords was also attended by the Head of the Liberal Democratic Party and representatives of the Royal Foundation of the Prince and Princess of Wales, which focuses primarily on protecting adult and children’s mental health from the earliest months of life.
