Rescuers relieved after France provides port, but angered by ‘dire ordeal’ they have been put through

Three-week journey almost over for the 230 remaining survivors aboard the Ocean Viking IT WAS with a mixture of relief and anger that rescuers welcomed the news today that they had finally been given permission to disembark over 200 refugees in a safe port. The Ocean Viking rescue ship is heading to Toulon, southern France,

Italy’s far-right government accused of causing further harm to the traumatised refugees on two rescue ships

• Survivors on the Humanity 1 and Geo Barents begin hunger strike in protest against government’s mistreatment • Mission Lifeline disembarks 95 people in southern Italy • Ocean Viking declares emergency and heads to France • Inadequate translations postpone Iuventa pretrial again ITALY’S far-right government is causing further harm to people already traumatised, human rights

Activists celebrate ‘stunning victory’ after UK Home Office drops refugee pushback plans

ACTIVISTS celebrated “a stunning victory” today after Britain‘s Home Secretary Priti Patel abandoned her controversial plans to push refugees crossing the Channel back to France. Care4Calais, Channel Rescue, Freedom from Torture and the Public and Commercial Services (PCS) Union brought legal challenges against the Home Office last year opposing its proposed policy of turning back

Tactical police unit tear gasses housing activists and refugees from an empty tower block in Calais

AN ELITE tactical unit of the French police launched a rooftop raid on an empty residential tower building in Calais today, using stun grenades to clear out activists who had been providing shelter for refugees this past week. In scenes resembling Holywood cinema or the Grand Theft Auto video game series, the Search, Assistance, Intervention

Choose Love: why is the charity funder quitting Calais this Christmas?

To find out, CORPORATE WATCH speaks with some who worked with the organisation and explores its links with a private equity fund that has a Tory Lord on its board THINGS will be even more desperate in Calais and Dunkirk this Christmas. Many charities working to support migrants there depend on funding from one organisation:

Channel Rescue launches legal action against British Home Secretary’s plans to push refugees back to France

At least 30 people drown in the Channel today in an ‘macabre coincidence’ with the group’s announcement AN ACTIVIST group is to take British Home Secretary Priti Patel to court over her plans to have the UK Border Force push refugee boats in the Channel back to France. Channel Rescue, a grassroots human rights monitoring

UK Border Force boats seen practising refugee pushbacks

Channel Rescue witnesses border guards use jet skis to turn an overcrowded boat around UK BORDER Force vessels in the English Channel were seen taking part in drills today that, according to a human rights monitoring organisation, resemble the illegal practice of refugee pushbacks. Channel Rescue activists spotted the training exercise from the beach at

UK government spent up to £1bn for military drones to monitor migrants in the Channel despite no-one evading the coastguard

Surveillance drones’ sole purpose appears to be to help the state prosecute those seen driving the boats THE UK government paid up to £1 billion (€1.1bn) to a drone manufacturing company last year to monitor migrant crossings of the English Channel despite the fact that no-one made it past the coastguards, The Civil Fleet can

Alan Kurdi refugee rescue ship heads to France after Italy refuses to help

AN NGO refugee rescue ship carrying 125 people is bound for France after several Mediterranean nations ignored its calls for help for five days. The Alan Kurdi, operated by German charity Sea Eye, saved the lives of 133 people when it picked them up from three separate boats in the central Mediterranean at the weekend.

Activists to prevent English Channel becoming ‘a mass migrant graveyard like the Mediterranean’

A MIGRANT rescue group promised today to “not sit back and allow” the England Channel to “become a mass graveyard like the waters of the Mediterranean.” Channel Rescue, which launched last Thursday and surpassed its £10,000 funding goal in less than 24 hours, will be launching a human rights monitoring mission off the Kent coast.