New call for safe routes after child refugee drowns in Channel

Abdulfatah - FB screenshot

Source: JRS/FB/Safe Passage

The body of a 16-year-old boy washed up on a beach in Calais yesterday. He had been trying to reach England in a dingy using shovels for oars. He has since been identified as Abdulfatah Hamdallah, originally from West Kordofan, a Sudanese state bordering the war-torn areas of Darfur and the Nuba Mountains, Hamdallah fled his country in 2014 and spent two years in Libya with his older brother before heading to France via Italy.

Abdulfatah's last words on his Facebook account were written in Arabic in June, and the literal translation is "on the palm of fate we walk, and don't know what's written." On Wednesday and Thursday hundreds of people left messages of condolence under the post.

Sarah Teather, Director of Jesuit Refugee Services UK said: "This is terrible news. He was just a child. What an awful way to die. In amongst the news coverage, we must remember that he was someone's son, brother, and friend. We pray for all who loved him and who will grieve for him.

"This terrible tragedy tells us again that governments have to act. We have systematically closed down the safe managed routes for people to travel to claim asylum. In doing so, we force people into ever more perilous journeys, with the inevitable consequence that someone will lose their life."

Beth Gardiner-Smith, CEO of Safe Passage, which works with unaccompanied young people in Europe, fleeing persecution and seeking sanctuary said: "This morning's tragic news is the direct consequence of a lack of safe alternatives for those seeking sanctuary.

"The French and UK Governments have been quick to blame people smugglers but fail to recognise that the best way to destroy their business model is to provide safe and legal routes for refugees and a clear pathway to asylum.

"Just this year, the Dubs route designed to give safe passage was closed, and now the only legal route available to children - family reunion - will end unless a deal is reached with the EU. And with four months to go, the negotiations on a deal haven't even started.

"Boris Johnson and Priti Patel have the power right now to make sure today's tragedy is never repeated. Rather than political posturing, Ministers in the UK and France need to get a grip and make it their personal priority to prevent any more needless loss of life.

"This starts with agreeing on a replacement for Dublin III family reunion and the Dubs scheme, so that no unaccompanied child or family has to risk their lives again to reach the UK. And Boris Johnson should back Lord Dubs' amendment to the Immigration Bill when it is debated in September so these safe routes are protected."

Abdulfatah is just one of a number of refugees known to have drowned this week. Today, UNHCR announced that at least 45 migrants and refugees including children, died in a shipwreck off the coast of Libya.

The victims were among more than 80 people on board the vessel which ran into trouble off the coast of Zwara. The survivors came from Senegal, Mali, Chad and Ghana. Federico Soda, chief of the International Organization for Migration (IOM) Mission, said it was the largest recorded shipwreck off Libya this year.

"There remains an absence of any dedicated, EU-led search and rescue programme," Soda said on social media.

According to the IOM, more than 7,000 illegal immigrants have been rescued and returned to Libya so far this year - where immigrant shelters in Libya are desperately overcrowded.

In a statement, the UNHCR and IOM said: "There is an urgent need to strengthen the current search and rescue capacity to respond to distress calls."

The Bishop of Dover, The Right Revd Rose Hudson-Wilkin said: "Today we mourn the death of a young boy, found washed up on the beach in Northern France. A teenager just like any other - one with hopes and dreams, a need for safety and security. My heart is so full of sadness for his family and I send them my love and my prayers.

"People who try to cross the Channel seeking safety and security are not criminals - they are human beings like you and I. Human beings who should be afforded the dignity and respect and rights that so many of us take for granted. It is a travesty that this young man will never see his hoped-for future, that his family has been deprived of seeing him grow up.

"We cannot let his death pass by unremarked. This appalling tragedy should be a wake up call to all of us - we must open our hearts and minds, we must take action to protect those who are desperate enough to risk their lives to land on our shores. We must challenge and condemn systems and practices and people who are driven by greed to exploit people like this young man, with no regard for the consequences.

"The long-term challenges have got to be addressed. What are we waiting for? Our children are being washed up on our beaches. How much worse does this have to get before we take definitive action to save lives and protect the dignity of people who have been pushed to take such desperate measures? They are part of our human family - our brothers, our sisters, our children. We need to take action now. We need to ask why people are fleeing their homes. We need to ask what we can do. We cannot stand by any longer while their bodies wash up on the shores."

LINKS

JRS - www.jrsuk.net/
Safe Passage - www.safepassage.org.uk/stop-the-drownings-safe-passage
Seeking Sanctuary - https://seekingsanctuary.weebly.com/