Letters: Remove the barbed wires against humanity

A group of Bootham Quaker School Parents are keen to support refugees in UK and especially York.

They are planning to:

– send a series of letters to gov officials,

– to raise funds for RAY through table top sales and tick sale for art sessions, social evenings, etc.

– and to support RAY as volunteers.

They are very keen to link and co-ordinate their actions with other Quakers locally and nationally and would like to keep Friargate Friends up to date.

This is the second letter that will be sent –2015 Oct 19 RAG Letter 2 Cameron (1) – feel free to use it as the basis for your own letters: You will need to adapt it to your circumstances …

Remove the barbed wires against humanity.

Dear Rt Hon David Cameron,

I would like to understand how you and our government came to the decision that tax payers’ money should be spent on erecting barbed wires in Calais at a reported cost of £ 7-12 million?

Building walls and barbed wires have never been a solution to people’s need to escape violence and poverty and seek safety.

I know that the Quaker and York community I live in would never agree to pay for the erection of barbed wires instead of offering shelter. I worry that we may have set a poor example, which Hungary has followed.

My community consists of law abiding, hard working, peace keeping people who care about all humans as much as they care about themselves and wish to see these values represented internationally by their elected government.

As a result of these barriers to access a safe haven, thousands of children have been separated from their parents, have taken enormous risk to enter the UK and have been found stranded, alone and unprotected, without their parents along country roads in the UK.

I would never want this to happen to me and my children, should I have to escape this country for any reason. I want the ‘other side’ to be welcoming and safe, allowing my children and my family a safe entry.

Kent social services are under an enormous strain! They are reported to be short of £5.5m since the number of unaccompanied asylum seeking children is rising. I’d rather see my money spent on helping the Kent community to welcome and support asylum seeking children.

I am calling on you and the government to immediately remove the Calais barbed wire as signal to all countries in Europe, especially Hungary, to do the same and to set up proper border support:

– to offer immediate health care to refugees/asylum seekers

– to allow refugees to apply for asylum at point of entry with the help of a translator

The UK has a fantastic record of having helped with the 10,000 Kindertransport children in just nine months. The UK provided shelter for 19,000 Vietnamese boat people who fled the Vietcong. The UK took in 24,000 Kosovans, who fled genocide in the late ’90s. Both groups consisted mainly of children with their families.

I want to see that history repeated and not the one our government is writing now.

I urge you to take down ‘The Wire of Shame’ and to spend our tax money on border support and care for all asylum seekers and the UK communities, who are taking in refugees.

Looking forward to hearing from you.

Yours sincerely

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