Letter from..Morocco

Today my 18 year old son got a 5am bus from Truro to travel to London to Calais to volunteer alongside my 21 year old daughter who is trying to feed 1,000 refugees currently sleeping rough, and  hiding in the woods from the French police who are taking their food and slashing their sleeping bags as part of their control of the UK border. Their objective is to make the conditions even fouler than those they have fled, in order to discourage. This is beyond any understanding of a civilised response. There is a critical need for Safe Passage.This is not how I see my nation, or continent. I'm volunteering right now in Morroco at small human rights organisation, researching the impact of the changes in asylum law. The short version is it makes jaw dropping reading. It is very clear that the UK, and Europe, are now actually in breach of international law which states that every person arriving on our shores has the right to claim asylum. We are breaking it in two ways: 1: creating a "hostile environment" (There is a Hostile Environment Team in the UK Govt) to make it almost impossible to enter our country, regardless of ones's status; and 2: engaging in whats called "refoulement" - ie pushback/discharge - physically and bureaucratically kicking people back from the borders without giving them the right to set out their case for sanctuary. Reading the reports and watching videos has left in in tears. It's almost impossible to believe this is happening in 2017, in Europe. I will be posting some clips and information which you may find distressing. But if we don't know what's happening, we won't know to take action. And action is required. I have no doubt we can change this. But we must decide to do so first. If our children are driven to take action, that should leave us in no doubt what we should be doing too.