Emma Graham-Harrison has been with the new arrivals and those who
missed the overnight buses at Budapest’s Keleti station. She reports
that dozens of determined refugees, mostly Syrian, marched into the
station at almost military pace. “We are going to Germany,
we don’t have time to talk” said one as the group poured down into the
metro before someone realised they had got the wrong train network and
the station disgorged them again. On the mainline platforms where something like ordinary service
was resuming, after days of signs warning no international trains were
running, they stormed onto carriages of one train but again turned back
when inspectors said it would not cross the border. Determined to keep their momentum and the advantage numbers gave,
the group decided to set off for the border on foot again, chasing the
success of Friday’s thousands of breakaways. “Police caught us near the Syrian border, detained us and took us
all to a camp where they locked us up and fingerprinted us,” said a
Syrian preparing to set off on foot with his two year old daughter Yara.
“We shouted at them to let us go to Keleti, to travel on to the border. Eventually they did.”
Amit Sandhu has spoken to Tom Radcliffe, who helped set up a
crowdfund for his Help Calais campaign hoping to reach £1,000. Radcliffe
said within days the campaign went “bananas” and he has now raised more
than £47,000.
The 49 year-old acting teacher from Kent is now staying up late
organising the distribution of the money and getting up in the early
hours of the morning to move supplies, sandwiching his day job in
between. He said the campaign really picked up this week as people
started realising what was actually happening in Europe.
The press changed suddenly - they realised these weren’t economic migrants they are refugees.
I think that was when families started realising what was really happening.
People realised that the stuff they were being fed about Calais was nonsense.
My friend who’s a builder who voted Ukip has completely changed his mind.
Two weeks ago he was saying we should send the army out and now he is
going to drive to Europe in his truck and help build shelters.
Something has changed in the country at large.
Worldwide Tribe, a group of friends from Tunbridge Wells in Kent, have raised £124,000 in a few short weeks through their Just Giving fund raising page and their Facebook page. The group have now morphed both into an impromptu (unregistered) NGO.
They started by asking friends and family on Facebook to donate
clothes and sanitary products and within weeks they were receiving
donations from all over the UK. They then organised drop off points
across England, which they will receive at a massive warehouse they’ve
rented in Dalston on Sunday.
There, they’ll bag the donations for individuals and families, before
40 vans drive them to the Calais refugee camp on Monday. The vans will
be met by vans setting off from Barcelona and Amsterdam.
No comments:
Post a Comment