Nobel Peace Prize nominee and founder of Gunjur Marlborough link, Nick Maurice, has excoriated European double standards over the treatment of African immigrants.
In a letter to a conservative lawmaker in the British parliament, Nick said: “I am provoked to write to you recognising that today is UN International Migrants Day, and having recently read an extremely disturbing report from ‘Migrants Support’, to ask why the Government seems incapable of taking a more caring attitude to the awful problems facing so many refugees from conflicts particularly in Africa.
“The Horn of Africa is once again in turmoil, and families who have been settled in the Tigray area are being forced to leave and reach desperately poor refugee camps in Sudan. And the route to safety is even more arduous – a ‘direct’ journey to the Mediterranean through Libya is fraught with hazards and risks of being trafficked or sold into slavery. The refugee camps are equally fraught with danger. The journey out of Africa now often involves long and hazardous journeys with traffickers offering journeys from Dakar in Senegal on dangerous waters and in flimsy boats to the Canary Islands – many hundreds of lives are lost in this journey as well as those who attempt the equally dangerous journey from Libya to Lampedusa. Our world in turmoil has one main outcome – the flight to safety and sanctuary for millions of displaced people”.
Nick Maurice who has worked with migrants in Calais said it must be understood that migrants must have been impelled by compelling reasons to leave the safety of their homes to seek refuge in Europe.
“In 2016 I worked as a doctor with refugees in the so-called “Jungle” in Calais (now demolished) and listened to the awful stories these fellow human beings had to tell about the conflicts that forced them to leave everything they knew and loved in their countries of origin, the perilous journeys they had to undertake to reach Calais and the ghastly conditions they were now living under (which I witnessed for myself) in the camp.
“The treatment of refugees in France, not least by the gendarmes is horrifying. They are often clubbed, gassed, their phones are seized and they are often evicted from the site in which they are currently living. And of course if they admit to being of the Islamic faith they are immediately considered to be terrorists.”
He concluded: “The UK Government is now applying double standards. On the one hand the Prime Minister has said that at least, and to start with, 600,000 people may emigrate from Hong Kong to UK as it becomes a less democratic society, and yet genuine refugees are not welcome.It appears that claims by refugees to come to UK and claim asylum take months to be processed and this has worsened during the pandemic.
“The accommodation provided on arrival here is grim, either in the cheapest of hotels or in disused barracks where the conditions are so awful that the Red Cross itself is demanding an end to their use.Why is it so difficult for the Government to set a humane strategy for real support for these desperate people?I find myself feeling ashamed of the country of my birth and in which I live because of the appallingly inhumane attitudes of our leaders.”
