{"id":9064,"date":"2016-06-21T15:31:49","date_gmt":"2016-06-21T14:31:49","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/unitelive.org\/?p=9064"},"modified":"2016-06-21T15:31:49","modified_gmt":"2016-06-21T14:31:49","slug":"absolutely-disgraceful","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/unitelive.test.igniteamt.com\/?p=9064","title":{"rendered":"‘Absolutely disgraceful’"},"content":{"rendered":"
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Protests were held outside the French embassy in London over the weekend, after a 250 vehicle aid convoy on its way to Calais was refused entry into France.<\/p>\n

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The convoy, organised by a number of campaign groups and supported by Unite, was prevented by French authorities from crossing the channel to provide much need supplies to around 4,500 Britain bound refugees stranded near Calais.<\/p>\n

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Despite the Convoy to Calais<\/a> being planned for months, the organisers received a letter from French authorities just two days before it began saying they would not be allowed to cross.<\/p>\n

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People\u00e2\u20ac\u2122s Assembly representative and convoy organiser John Rees told the Guardian<\/a> that the convoy had gone ahead anyway because there had been signals that Calais police \u00e2\u20ac\u015bwere willing to facilitate the arrival of the convoy.\u00e2\u20ac\u0165<\/p>\n

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\u00e2\u20ac\u015b(The letter) said there were previous disturbances at Calais refugee camp, which of course had nothing to do with us. It said there was football hooliganism in France, which has even less to do with us. It had the threat of terrorism in France,\u00e2\u20ac\u0165 Rees said.<\/p>\n

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\u00e2\u20ac\u015bThese were all cited as reasons to stop a humanitarian convoy delivering aid. But we\u00e2\u20ac\u2122d also had some discussions with the charities that we\u00e2\u20ac\u2122re working with in Calais saying that the Calais police were willing to facilitate the arrival of the convoy … it was uncertain whether or not they would rescind it.\u00e2\u20ac\u0165<\/p>\n

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On Saturday (June 18), however, French officials stopped the cars, minibuses and lorries carrying the aid from boarding the ferries, and the convoy was held at the port of Dover for around two hours before being turned back. One lorry carrying 38 tons of aid reportedly<\/a> managed to cross through the channel tunnel to deliver its load.<\/p>\n

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In response to being stopped, the convoy\u00e2\u20ac\u2122s participants staged an impromptu rally at the port, with people chanting and waving signs saying \u00e2\u20ac\u015brefugees welcome\u00e2\u20ac\u0165 and \u00e2\u20ac\u015bsolidarity with refugees.\u00e2\u20ac\u0165<\/p>\n

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After the convoy left Dover a number of campaigners traveled to London to protest outside of the French embassy and left some of the undelivered aid on the embassy\u00e2\u20ac\u2122s doorstep.<\/p>\n

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Rees said the reaction of the French authorities was particularly disappointing because aid is in short supply at the refugee camp.<\/p>\n

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\u00e2\u20ac\u015bEverybody knows that in Calais they are running very low on supplies. I think at one point in recent days they were just giving out Bic razors, that\u00e2\u20ac\u2122s all they have left. We\u00e2\u20ac\u2122ve got the biggest single convoy of aid that\u00e2\u20ac\u2122s ever been assembled in Britain — people have come from Shetland, Glasgow, from practically every major town,\u00e2\u20ac\u0165 he told the Guardian.<\/p>\n

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\u00e2\u20ac\u015bIt\u00e2\u20ac\u2122s just unbelievable that they stopped it going over. We\u00e2\u20ac\u2122re hoping the embassy will facilitate the aid to go through. If they\u00e2\u20ac\u2122re genuine about not wanting to stop the aid, they\u00e2\u20ac\u2122re a very rich state, they could offer to transport it themselves.\u00e2\u20ac\u0165<\/p>\n

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Student nurse Danielle Tiplady was one of the many Unite members who were travelling with the convoy.<\/p>\n

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\u00e2\u20ac\u015bIt\u00e2\u20ac\u2122s absolutely disgraceful that we have been stopped by authorities from delivering much needed aid,” she said.<\/p>\n

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\u00e2\u20ac\u015bThis is because the authorities are ashamed of how they\u00e2\u20ac\u2122re treating refugees in Calais. All we\u00e2\u20ac\u2122re trying to do is bring attention to their plight and offer some help to them.\u00e2\u20ac\u0165<\/p>\n

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 <\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

Protests were held outside the French embassy in London over the weekend, after a 250 vehicle aid convoy on its way to Calais was refused entry into France.   The convoy, organised by a number of campaign groups and supported by Unite, was prevented by French authorities from crossing the channel to provide much need […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":9065,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":[],"categories":[1],"tags":[],"wps_subtitle":"Unite joins protests after Convoy to Calais stopped","_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/unitelive.test.igniteamt.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/9064"}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/unitelive.test.igniteamt.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/unitelive.test.igniteamt.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/unitelive.test.igniteamt.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/unitelive.test.igniteamt.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcomments&post=9064"}],"version-history":[{"count":1,"href":"https:\/\/unitelive.test.igniteamt.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/9064\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":9066,"href":"https:\/\/unitelive.test.igniteamt.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/9064\/revisions\/9066"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/unitelive.test.igniteamt.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/media\/9065"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/unitelive.test.igniteamt.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fmedia&parent=9064"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/unitelive.test.igniteamt.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcategories&post=9064"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/unitelive.test.igniteamt.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Ftags&post=9064"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}