Westminster rally says: 'Refugees are welcome here'

Group from Jesuit Refugee Services outside Parliament with director Sarah Teather on right

Refugee rights groups intensified efforts to defeat the government's Nationality and Borders Bill with a mass rally outside Parliament on Wednesday. More than 800 people attended, chanting, 'Say it loud, say in clear, refugees are welcome here.' They included representatives of the Jesuit Refugee Service, Caritas Westminster, Justice and Peace Westminster, Seeking Sanctuary and Care4Calais with missionary groups, such as the Daughters of Charity.

Labour Peer Lord Alfred Dubs - who campaigned to let child refugees into the UK - told the rally he hoped Home Secretary Priti Patel's Bill will be defeated in the House of Lords. One of 669 children saved from Nazi occupied Czechoslovakia during World War II, he said the Bill treats refugees like criminals not victims. "We can't close the door on the vulnerable, especially after what they've been through."

The rally came as MPs scrutinised the legislation as part of the Bill's committee stages, before it returns to the Commons for its third reading. The protest was part of a week of action against the new legislation which, critics say, will criminalise asylum seekers who arrive in Britain via irregular routes and give the Border Force powers to turn around small boats in the Channel. MPs, lawyers and campaigners have roundly condemned the legislation, with the United Nations refugee agency warning that it would breach international law. The rally - organised by groups including the Joint Council for the Welfare of Immigrants and Refugee Action - called on MPs to drop the Bill. A sprinkling of MPs and Lords joined the protest and celebrities such as actress Juliet Stevenson.

Rallies were also held around the country. Campaigners formed a large heart on the beach at Tynemouth encircling the wording 'Together with Refugees'. Coventry Refugee and Migrant Centre used twitter to call for "a fair and humane refugee system". Central Bradford and Bristol saw rallies under the banner, 'Refugees welcome here'. In Birmingham, schoolchildren created artworks for refugees to welcome them to Birmingham. Pupils from Abbey Catholic Primary, Holy Cross Catholic Primary and St Dunstan's Catholic, presented poems and orange hearts at an event in Birmingham Central Library.

Meanwhile, a giant puppet of a Syrian child refugee has landed in Kent as it continues its 5,000-mile journey symbolising "millions of displaced children." Little Amal has travelled through much of Europe after setting off from the Turkish-Syrian border in July and will finish its journey in Manchester. On Monday 25 October it will be welcomed to Westminster Cathedral by Cardinal Vincent Nichols at 2pm.

And more than 40 celebrities have written to Boris Johnson calling for a kinder, fairer and more effective asylum system. Actors Olivia Colman, Imelda Staunton and Stephen Fry are among the famous arts and media personalities to have signed an open letter calling on the Prime Minister to "think again" on the Nationality and Borders Bill.