Vigil for those who died in The Channel 14th December 2022
On Sunday 18th December 2022 we gathered in Hastings Old Town for a vigil to remember those who lost their lives in The Channel as their small boat capsized during their journey to the UK.
Our Director of Operations and Campaigns Alex Kempton spoke at the vigil, and her speech is transcribed below.
Hello, as Polly said I’m Alex Kempton, Director of Operations and Campaigns at The Refugee Buddy Project based here in Hastings.
Thank you all for coming and showing your solidarity for those who lost their lives on Wednesday morning.
The truth is that there are no words to adequately convey the grief we are all feeling as individuals and as a community as a direct result of the violence inflicted yet again by this governments hostile immigration policies.
We don’t know much yet about the four people who died, we don’t know their names or their stories. We do know that one of them was a teenager, and that a further 8 Unaccompanied Minors have been identified among the 39 rescued. Given the systemic failures in the Home Office age assessment which have led to us facilitating the removal of 8 minors from the Hastings hotel, I wouldn’t be surprised if that number were actually higher.
We also understand that the majority of those rescued are from Afghanistan; a country who’s people this government has promised over and over in the last year to assist, but who have been so catastrophically failed that they are being forced to make this deathly journey.
The Refugee Buddy Project is currently supporting a number of Afghan men in the hotel here in Hastings, alongside men from a whole range of other countries including Iran and Syria. Countries which are in the news almost daily due to the levels of state violence and persecution.
Over the past 6 weeks our whole team has got to know these men. We’ve heard their stories, the trauma they have experienced not just in their country of origin but in the journeys. Stories of kidnapping, torture, exploitation and violence; experiences that those us lucky enough to be born in this country can barely begin to comprehend, and stories which to our colleagues with similar have found all too familiar.
Stories which each person on that boat on Wednesday morning probably shared.
They have shared stories , too, of their former lives. Lives just like ours; they were doctors, civil servants, teachers, political activists, manual workers. People with families, friends and communities they have left behind.
Unaccompanied children who have left their homes at 14 and 15 to escape violence and persecution.
All of them have made the same journey by boat across the Channel, and any one of them could have been on that boat on Wednesday.
Any one of the men and boys that we have sat with, laughed with, cried with, who have shown us pictures of their children, expressed their thanks for basic things like trainers, headphones and notebooks, who keep coming back to see us because, as one of them told us, the first time they experienced humanity since arriving in the UK was when they met us.
This humanity has been shown by the whole community - in collaboration with HSR and HCoS we have distributed clothes and shoes, offered haircuts, provided phones, all done in a dignified way.
And that what we have to keep reminding people; that those making that journey are people, human beings, just like you and me and everyone here, with loved ones, friends, families, hopes dreams and ideals. People who have as much right to live free from war and persecution as any of us who were either born into safety by luck, or who have fought their way to it through grit and graft.
We must continue to fight for the rights of all people seeking refuge around the country. We must amplify their voices, and raise our voices for those who cannot raise their own. And we must continue to stand in solidarity as a community with all those who continue to face the violence and hostility of this governments immigration policies.