Is Our Attitude to Refugees Colourblind?
Alex Kempton, Operations and Campaigns Manager at The Refugee Buddy Project, discusses the dominant media narratives and the creation of public attitudes towards migrants and people seeking refuge. It doesn’t take much more than a cursory glance at the front…
Hastings Refugee Week
This year, Refugee Week (20-26 June) will see a unique series of creative actions and events taking place in multiple locations across Hastings & St Leonards and beyond which highlight and value the migrant experience, promoting the Refugee Week 2022…
A Look Inside Gaza Ghetto
Invitation from the Hastings & Rye Palestine Solidarity Campaign. Hastings locals are being offered the chance to take a filmic trip behind the barbed wire fences and inside Gaza, considered by many the ‘world’s largest open prison’. On Saturday 11…
Seafront Rally
A rally organised at short notice on Hastings seafront last Sunday with the aim of demonstrating solidarity with the Ukrainian people under attack from Putin’s troops attracted over 200 people, many donning the blue and yellow colours of the national…
Channel crossings: Government and Royal Navy at odds?
According to Border Force statistics, nearly a thousand people crossed the Channel into England on small boats during the first three weeks of January – that’s around three times the rate of arrival for the whole of January 2021. Almost…
Boat People
Political Clashes over Peril at Sea Well over a thousand people – men, women, children and babies – have crossed the English Channel from France on small boats during the past few weeks. Politicians refer to them as migrants. Supportive…
I Mourn for Angelina
Alex Ntung arrived in Hastings as a refugee two decades ago. His journey from the war-torn Democratic Republic of Congo was only made possible by the sacrifices of his sister Angelina. Last month she was murdered by the DRC army in her…
Council Pledges On Refugees
At a full council meeting on 22nd July Hastings Borough Council passed a motion unanimously pledging support for refugees. The motion, introduced by Cllr Andy Batsford, cabinet leader on housing, contained no specific programme of assistance, but promised: • “dignity…
Festival by the Lake Online
By Gareth Stevens It was inevitable that the Festival by the Lake would be cancelled this year given the current situation. However a similar inevitability meant that Polly Gifford, the event’s chief organiser, would not be deterred. In an epiphanic…
Refugee Week 2020
By Fiona McGarry This year the theme of Refugee Week (15th-21st June) is ‘Imagine’. It’s important that we do try to imagine, so we can begin to understand how people seeking refuge in the UK are treated – very differently…