Paper details

Paper authors	Tess Berry-Hart
In panel on	Volunteer Humanitarians in Europe: their Role, Significance and Potential Implications for the Humanitarian Sector
Paper presenter(s) will be presenting	In-Person / Online

Abstract

Eager to “do something,” about the dire conditions facing refugees in the Jungle camp in Calais in 2015, many grassroots groups focussed on alleviating immediate need and suffering through the provision of tangible needs such as tents and clothes. Significant benefits to large numbers of refugees were potentially available if the restrictive UK asylum laws and policies could be eased. However, traditional large INGOs were remarkably muted in their comment and protest on such issues and for many grassroots groups UK asylum policies seemed relatively intangible and shrouded in legal mystery.
Nevertheless, after the first urgent needs had been met, some grassroots groups did engage in political campaigning and this paper focusses on what was achieved. It argues that several important aspects of policy were changed in part as a direct result of this campaigning: the Dubs Amendment which brought hundreds of unaccompanied children without family in the UK as the Calais camp was demolished; the Dubs/Cooper amendment to the EU Withdrawal Bill to guarantee the right of family reunion after Brexit, and this year’s “Kindertransport” campaign lobbying local councils to provide three places a year for unaccompanied asylum-seeking children (UASC). For real, lasting political change to occur it is argued that campaigning tools should be as accessible to grassroots volunteers as dropping off jumpers.

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