Refugees Welcome March: Thousands to march through London calling for Government to tackle the 'issue of our generation'

Refugees welcome: Marchers brought along banners to support the cause AFP/Getty Images
AFP/Getty Images
Chloe Chaplain17 September 2016

Thousands of protesters will take to the streets of central London today to support refugees coming to the UK.

Almost 100,000 Refugees Welcome campaigners marched through London last year after the world was rocked by harrowing images of the body of Syrian child Aylan Kurdi.

One year on, demonstrators will share the “refugees still welcome” message from midday as world leaders prepare to discuss the issue at the UN refugees and migrants summit next week.

Solidarity with Refugees, the campaign group responsible for the marches, said the UN meeting meant the timing of the march is critical.

Protest: Campaigners gather outside London's Shard
Dean P

They said: “Last year, in the week of our demonstration, the government agreed to resettle 20,000 Syrian refugees. We know that public pressure can make a difference.

“Eighty per cent of Britons want our government to do more and we want to tell the government that we are waiting to help.”

In the days leading up to the march, Solidarity with Refugees has collaborated with social video platform Seenit to release videos filmed by people around the world.

They show messages from different companies, charities and refugee camps around Europe speaking about the refugee crisis.

The videos provide an insight into life inside the camps and the struggle to maintain support from Western cities, including London.

As increasing numbers of refugees travel into Europe, diminishing resources leave many people living without sufficient medical supplies or proper food.

Crisis: Refugees arrive by boat on the Greek island of Kos

Volunteer groups are working to provide basic medical supplies, like rubber gloves and cotton wool, or hot food.

But they explained that, although awareness has increased since the march last year, the situation in the crowded and chaotic camps is not improving and support is waning.

A group of women who provide free food to refugees in Calais said there are "more and more" people turning up at the camps every day and that it is not a long term solution to the crisis.

They said: "We need more activism back home because the situation here is not getting any better, there are more people coming every day.

"Anything we do here is useless if there isn’t awareness in the UK, so we have to demonstrate."

Waning supplies: Volunteers are desperately trying to get more medical equipment 
Angelos Tzortzinis/2016 Sony World Photography Awards

Another volunteer working in Calais urged people to take to the streets to have a say in "the issue of our age".

He added: "It belongs to all of us, it is not something that is going to go away soon. It is something that we all have to work around."

The march, from Park Lane to Parliament Square, will be calling on Prime Minister Theresa May, to "do more to share responsibility".

The group wrote: "We call on our government to do more to lead the way towards a more humane global response.

"To offer safe passage to the UK for more people who have been forced to flee their homes.

Clashes: Left wing protesters are held back by police from right wing protesters
EPA/ANDY RAIN

"And do more to help refugees in the UK rebuild their lives here."

One of the voices featured in the videos is that of a young male refugee in the camp on the Greek island of Leros.

In a piece to camera, he said: “I am coming from genocide in Iraq to genocide here. We have lost our hope.

“My message from Leros to those people that are going to the demonstration in London is: You are our voices. You are our hope.”

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