Volunteers get ‘thousands of death threats’ for helping asylum seekers

A group of volunteers who greet asylum seekers as they arrive on British shores say they have faced a barrage of death threats.Steven Martin, co-founder of human rights monitoring organisation Channel Rescue, said footage of volunteers aiding people as they arrive at Dover is often shared online, leading to his team suffering abuse.Channel Rescue was set up during the coronavirus pandemic and advocates for safe and legal routes for those seeking asylum in the UK.Mr Martin said: “Last year, there was myself and another volunteer, we assisted a landing. We were helping to help secure the port on the beach and help people out of the boat safely. We were trying to do it as safely as we could.”There was no border force or police around. There was just us. People took some footage of us doing it and sent it to Nigel Farage and it ended up on GB News and he did this 20-minute piece about how Channel Rescue is essentially facilitating people smuggling.”We ended up getting thousands of death threats, saying we are traitors to our race, we’re traitors to our country.”Now we occasionally get a stupid email. Somebody will see something in the news and we will get an email – ‘look what you’re doing. you’re bringing this country down. If I see you, I’m gonna throw you off the cliffs. We get that kind of idiocy.”With the increasing number of asylum seekers crossing the English Channel, the charity is hoping to raise funds to maintain their presence along the coastline and help vulnerable people trying to reach British shores.But the group of volunteers needs £10,000 to carry out their everyday activities, reports Kent Live. Migrants being helped ashore from a packed lifeboat in Kent (Image: Channel Rescue)The volunteers monitor the the channel, watching arrivals by small boats from France.Mr Martin says “a mature adult conversation about the humanitarian crisis” is needed to deal with the current situation.He continued: “When we were setting up Channel Rescue, the government was talking about using water cannons, with machines, nets and push backs to stop people making the crossing.”We knew that the government would be breaking the law, if they started doing what they were saying they were going to do. As there is a notable far-right presence on the Kent coast, we also monitor human rights violations that may result from racist agitation.”Suella Braverman, the Home Secretary, used the term “invasion” to describe the number of people crossing the English Channel last week. Mr Martin called the language “inflammatory”.”We have been shocked by the inflammatory language adopted by the Home Secretary in her statements about the recent events in Dover,” the volunteer said.”It was gut wrenching. This kind of jingoistic rhetoric is not helpful.”It inflamed tensions that are already there and what we need to do is not exacerbate those tensions, we need to move towards creating a better level of understanding and awareness around the amount of humanitarian crisis that we have in our borders and not demonise and stigmatise people in order to get some cheap political points. The language used by the government is very intentional.”The way they talk about ‘illegal migrants’, there is nothing illegal about crossing a border in order to seek sanctuary to claim asylum. That is not illegal. That’s a perfectly legal thing to do.”It’s like dog whistle politics, they are talking to the right wing of their party. I think that they are wilfully misrepresenting what is going on.” The group will be using some of the money raised towards its boat (Image: Channel Rescue)Ms Braverman, who was appointed Home Secretary after Rishi Sunak became Prime Minister last month, has been praised in some quarters, including by Daily Express columnist Carole Malone.In her latest piece, Ms Malone, 68, said: “The fact is we cannot house 40,000 people – it’ll be 50,000 by the end of the year – so why are we allowing those from holiday destinations to claim asylum here?”More than 12,000 Albanians have arrived this year – 10,000 of them fit young men. A mayor in one Albanian town admitted this week that these blokes aren’t asylum seekers but have come here because they ‘want a better life’.”And I get why they do – but it’s not our job to pay for it. It’s costing taxpayers nearly £7million a day to house migrants. Tenants are being chucked out of rented accommodation because landlords are cashing in. Four- and five-star hotels are being commandeered to put them up.”And terrified people in communities all over Britain are living in fear of migrant gangs roaming around their towns. In Dover, residents have been told to lock their doors and windows.”Suella Braverman is our only hope in fighting the migrant crisis.”You can donate to Channel Rescue by clicking this link.