Tag archives for refugee
OPINION: Does Suella Braverman believe in Universal Human Rights?
Dr Mursheda Chowdhury, Chair of the Refugee Buddy Project, gives a personal analysis of our Home Secretary's philosophy. On Wednesday 10 August 2022, the Rt Hon Suella Braverman KC MP…
Small boat crossings at a new high
Statistics issued by the Ministry of Defence confirm that refugees and would-be migrants are continuing to arrive across the English Channel from France in small boats – mainly rubber dinghies…
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…
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…
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…
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,…
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…
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…
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…
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,…
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…
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…
War Of Words As Channel Crossings Continue
Another cross-Channel boat containing 25 “displaced persons” was brought into shore at Pett Level on Saturday, as the easing of rough sea conditions over the past week gave a fresh…
Labour Roots
HIP’s political editor, Alan Bolwell, reports from a Labour Party drive in the key marginal of Hastings and Rye East Sussex College, Hastings played host to a local Labour Roots…
A Moveable Feast
By Safiya Young August has been a very exciting month, in terms of cooking. Women’s Voice, a “non-profit CIO (Charitable Incorporated Organisation) run by and for women in Hastings and…
Wi-Fi Refugee On St Leonards Seafront
A homeless Hastings woman with a complex medical condition is facing huge fines for non-payment of parking tickets. Roxanne Roma has been living in a camper van on St Leonards…
Syrian Resettlement: “Working Brilliantly”, Says Project Co-ordinator
Simon Finlay, Project Co-ordinator of the Syrian Resettlement Programme at Hastings Borough Council, seems a happy man these days. He has spent half a lifetime working for organisations that have…
Emergency Refugee Camp Dentistry
It’s hard to imagine anything worse than being forced to uproot your family, abandon your home and set off across the planet in search of sanctuary. For many refugees the…
Sanctuary Festival: Sun, Food, Music and Swimming
The beautiful walled garden of Ashburnham Place rang with sounds of music and laughter last Sunday (23rd June) as the Hastings Community of Sanctuary celebrated its Festival by the Lake.…
The Refugee Experience: A Two-tier System
In September 2015, the then Prime Minister David Cameron pledged that the UK would welcome 20,000 refugees from camps on the borders of Syria over the next five years. The…
BUDDY UP – Hastings Local Wins International Women’s Day Award
By Gareth Stevens Rossana Leal, founder of the Hastings & Rother Refugee Buddy Project has had her innovative community leadership work recognised at the Women of the World Festival in…
Share the Journey – Local Walkers Support Refugees
Local church-based walking group The Amblers are joining with other church groups, friends and anyone wanting to show their solidarity with or reflect on the plight of the many tens…
Being British
Alex Ntung arrived in Hastings as a refugee from the Democratic Republic of Congo (DRC). He has made his life in Britain working for community cohesion, as co-founder of Education…
Trapped in Refugee Limbo
This is the story of a boy called Javad. And it’s the story of a couple called Terry and Stuart who live in a small house in Hastings with two…
Winter In Calais – Part 2: Survival and Escape
HIP Issue 55 carried a first hand account of the experience of a 22-year-old Iranian refugee entering the Calais Jungle camp last November. She, along with her mother and brother…
Winter in Calais Part 1: Entering the jungle
A refugee who fled Iran last autumn following a crackdown on her Christian group gives a first hand account of her arrival in the Calais Jungle camp in November last…