French Deny Entry of British Aid Convoy to Calais Refugee Camp

On Saturday volunteers from organisations including The People’s Assembly and the Stop the War coalition left London to take aid to the “jungle” camp in Calais, but were refused entry into the country.

Over the past several months, a coalition of refugee advocacy groups has been collecting aid from around the United Kingdom as part of the “Convoy to Calais” project.

Pictures and video from the port show an impromptu rally, with people chanting and holding signs saying “refugees welcome” and “solidarity with refugees”.

A spokesman for the People’s Assembly said: “It seems like a concerted effort stopping us from making the crossing”.

Organisers had been putting the trip together for around six months, Sweeney said, accusing Kent police of colluding with French counterparts to prevent the crossing.

Local authorities in the northern French port city of Calais on Wednesday obtained a judicial ban on the British-organised convoy, which is planning to deliver aid to the so-called Jungle migrant camp.

A port official at Dover said there was some “temporary disruption and delays” to services caused by the protest. “If the authorities still refuse to let us cross the Channel we will be holding a protest in Dover”.

Before the Convoy set out, the Convoy to Calais organisers wrote on their website: ‘This is practical aid but it is also a huge statement of hope in humanity and a demonstration that we will not forget those who are still stranded with no homes and no future.

Nigel Farage slammed for using refugees fleeing war in Ukip Brexit posterThe Convoy to Calais arrived in Dover around 1pm this afternoon ready to board the 1.55pm ferry to Calais.

“It’s adding insult to injury leaving refugees in a perilous state in Calais and then denying aid and solidarity on a false pretext”, fellow organiser Weyman Bennett said.

The aid convoy was set to leave on Saturday (June 18) and according to organisers not only was it to support the refugees but was timed to send an important “political message” days before a planned European Union referendum vote.