Support BARAC UK in our humanitarian aid work and campaigning against racism and injustice and for human rights

 We have started a new crowdfunder to continue our work bringing solidary and humanitarian aid to people who are displaced and refugees in Northern France. Our next mission will be in November so we are seeking your support to maximise the food and essentials we are able to take. 

Click here to donate

For several years, we at BARAC UK have been organising humanitarian aid missions to support people who are displaced  and are refugees.  These are people who have fled persecution, the impacts of climate change, conflict and poverty. They are stuck in limbo in France, with the hope of being reunited with loved ones in the UK, following months of perilous journeys.

We believe in practical solidarity so as well as campaigning for migrant and refugee rights we wanted to do something that was practical  also.

Over recent years we have facilitated regular bi-monthly or quarterly missions to take aid and solidarity and support people, organising fundraising events and activities and then travelling to France to distribute food,  clothes, toiletries, camping equipment, blankets and sleeping bags and what ever is most needed at the time.  Joining BARAC have been other grassroots race equality groups and students to support the work we are doing and to go with us to France.  We have worked directly with people who are refugees and with charities on the ground to cater for cultural, dietary and religious needs in addition to urgent and practical needs.

During the pandemic over the past 18 months plus, we have been unable to carry out an aid mission so instead we did fundraising and donated directly to the Refugee Community Kitchen as well as supporting people here in the UK with no recourse to public funds who were destitute.

We are planning to take aid and solidarity in late November, working with our regular partner organisations in France, the Refugee Community Kitchen, L'Auberge des Migrant and Help Refugees.

We will spend the funds raised on food  and cooking ingredients and if we raise enough also  on warm clothes, sleeping bags, blankets, toiletries and other essential items.  

People who are refugees in France have no shelter, no camp, they are living out in the open and it becomes very wet and bitterly cold during the winter, especially at night.   Most of them are children  or young people in their early twenties, many have lost their parents and are alone.   They have experienced trauma and loss. 

We have been supported over the years by both grassroots migrant rights and race equality organisations and the trade union movement including the TUC Black Workers Conference and PCS Union.

We appreciate that the pandemic has impacted financially on everyone, but for those who are refugees or with no recourse to public funds, it has been even harder so no donation is too small as they all add up. Our fundraising support has always been facilitated by people power.  We have raised over £20,000 since we started doing this. 

We thank you for your support as we can't do this without you. 

https://www.crowdfunder.co.uk/help-raise-funds-for-food-essentials-for-refugees

Jamaica 50 campaign - opposing the hostile environment : by Donna Guthrie, BARAC Women's Officer

 Thank you for your solidarity in opposing the government's Hostile environment and the mass deportations taking place.

This Wednesday 2 December, in the middle of a worldwide Covid 19 pandemic, the Tory government carried out a racist inhumane deportation of 13 black men to Jamaica, a country they had not seen in some cases since childhood and ripping them apart from their families here in the UK. 

From the lives they have built, their loved ones and children just days before Christmas  despite huge opposition.

The same racist system that targets black people disproportionately with stop and search, delivers injustice in terms of harsher sentencing now under the hostile environment immigration controls revisits these black men to deport them. This is unjust, inhumane and racist and punishes them again due to the papers they hold. 

Men, who in most cases committed minor offenses have served their sentences and been rehabilitated and are living their lives only to be ripped away from their families and the only home that they know in the UK.

BARAC UK along with  BAME Lawyers for Justice, Detention Action and other race equality and migrant rights groups have worked tirelessly to build the campaign to #StopThePlane and highlight the plight of the #Jamaica50.

 
Black Activists have lead this campaign involving students, anti-racist activists, black celebrities and public figures, lawyers and barristers  and MPs to demand the cancellation of the deportation flight on 2 December.

Over 185000 people  signed the BARAC UK  petition online and wrote to their MPs. Many more put pressure on major airlines and the pilot union BALPA to refuse to fly the deportation flight.

BARAC UK and more than 90 high-profile figures, campaigners and activists urged airline companies to decline to operate the plane. Model Naomi Campbell, actress Thandie Newton, author Bernardine Evaristo, and historian David Olusoga and a host of prominent Black figures signed an open letter, addressed to airlines including Hi Fly, Titan Airways and TUI, also calling for they to stop the operation of future deportation flights to Commonwealth countries.

Lawyers worked tirelessly to gather details of cases and assist with urgent legal challenges brought right up until the plane left Stanstead  in the early hours on Wed morning.

Zita Holbourne BARAC UK co founder and national chair spoke throughout the campaign to those families affected, providing support and advice and shared reports and did numerous press interviews to get their voices out.

The Home Office has confirmed that 13 people were on board its chartered plane. This is far fewer than the 50 they had hoped.

Together we stopped 37 people being deported but the children of the 13 taken are heartbroken.

Thank you to everyone who took part in these actions. Your solidarity has made a real difference.

Deportation is a part of the hostile environment responsible for the Windrush Scandal and continues to impact on windrush descendants and wider.

With further deportation flights planned its clear that the racist backlash to our campaign has begun with the right wing media joining Priti Patel to target immigration lawyers and leading activist. Pushing out racist troupes  such as those from Nick Ferrari on LBC and from the Daily mail.
 
It's clear we must redouble our efforts to push back against racism. 
We must demand justice, reforms in the law and an end to detention and deportation.

We must demand that the Home Office implement the recommendations of the Windrush Lessons Learned review, that they compensate Windrush victims and that they cease with their racist agenda.

I urge you all to support BARAC UK. Please follow us on Instagram, Facebook and Twitter and sign up to our mailing list for campaign updates and together let's build the campaign to #StopThePlane and oppose racism.

Donna Guthrie National Women's Officer BARAC UK. 

To support our work please see affiliation / donation form and BARAC Humanitarian Aid crowdfunder:

BARAC AFFILIATION FORM

 

To affiliate to Black Activists Rising Against Cuts (BARAC) UK please complete and return this form together with a cheque or alternatively pay directly into our account bank account.

 · I wish to affiliate to BARAC UK annually;

£10 Individual concession

£20 Individual waged

 £50 Local organisation

 £100 Trade union branch or Trades Council

£200 National trade union or organisation

 

 · I wish to give a donation towards BARAC’s work; £250 £100 £50 £35 £25 £10 Other

 

 £ .….….….….….

 

· I enclose a cheque for a total of £ ..........

 

made out to BARAC UK or Black Activists Rising Against Cuts

 · I have paid the following amount £……….. into the BARAC Bank Account:

 

BARAC UK Bank details:

Black Activists Rising Against Cuts (BARAC) UK

Barclays Bank

Sort Code 20 67 90

Account No. 53317803

 

 

Signature:

 

 Date:

 

Name of Organisation (if applicable)

 

Name:

 

Position:

 

Address:

 

 Tel no.:

 

 Email:

 

 

 

 

Please return affiliation form (and cheque) to:

 

 BARAC UK C/O Zita Holbourne, National Co-Chair BARAC UK PCS HQ 160 Falcon Road, London, SW11 2LN

 

 Alternatively email to: barac.info@gmail.com

https://uk.gofundme.com/f/BARACHumanitarian

 

Black Activists Rising Against Cuts (BARAC) UK Web: www.blackactivistsrisingagainstcuts.blogspot.com

 Twitter: @baracuk

Facebook: BARAC UK

Instagram: BARACUKoriginal

 

 Thank you for your support

DONATION APPEAL SUPPORT BARAC UK HUMANITARIAN AID AND

     

DONATION APPEAL  

SUPPORT BARAC UK HUMANITARIAN AID AND  

SOLIDARITY WORK WITH REFUGEES IN FRANCE   

"To deny people their human rights is to challenge their very humanity." - Nelson Mandela   

 

BARAC has been coordinating regular monthly aid convoys to Calais since summer 2015 to support people who are refugees stuck in limbo in horrific conditions in Calais and in Dunkerque. In addition to the regular distribution of food, toiletries, clothes, camping equipment and other essential items including addressing cultural and religious needs, we have carried out solidarity and fact-finding visits.  

There are four key ways to help support our humanitarian aid and solidarity work with refugees in France:  

1. Donate to the BARAC UK Humanitarian Appeal by visiting the GoFundMe page here: https://www.gofundme.com/nvbvy8qc. Alternatively send a cheque made payable to ‘BARAC UK’ with the form below to: Zita Holbourne, BARAC National Chair, PCS National Vice President,  PCS HQ, 160 Falcon Road, London, SW11 2LN.   
2. Drop off essential items to our distribution point at PCS HQ. Please address items (see list of items needed below) to: Zita Holbourne, PCS NEC, C/O Harvey Jacob (for Calais), PCS HQ, 160 Falcon Road, London, SW11 2LN.   
3. Sponsor transport & travel. For details on how you can sponsor a future humanitarian visit please contact Zita Holbourne, BARAC Co Chair by email: Barac.info@gmail.com  
4. Join the BARAC convoy by bringing a vehicle.  To coordinate efforts and include your own vehicle on a future humanitarian visit please contact Zita Holbourne, BARAC Co-Chair by email: Barac.info@gmail.com  

Items needed include:   

Clothes: Mainly men’s but also women’s and children’s.  Small and medium size boxer shorts/ underwear, gloves, scarves, hats, waterproof coats, socks  and shoes (waterproof and size 7 or 8 men’s),  hoodies, jogging bottoms, fleeces.

Camping equipment:  Warm blankets, emergency blankets, sleeping bags, tarpaulin, ground mats, tent pegs, tents, camping stoves and gas cylinders, cooking pots, utensils, torches.

Toiletries: Sanitary towels, wipes, tooth brushes, toothpaste, anti-bacterial hand gel, shower gel, shampoo (including for African hair), razors, skin cream,  coconut oil, body butters including cocoa and shea, African hair products, halal toiletries.

Food in bulk supply:  Extra virgin olive oil, basmati rice, sea salt, fresh chillies, black pepper, fresh and powdered spices, coconut milk, vinegars, mustard, tahini, harissa, sumac, honey, dried fruit and nuts, dates, golden syrup, sugar, fresh garlic and ginger, fresh vegetables and fruit, tinned fish, long life mil, filter coffee, pulses and beans.

Mobile phones and sim cards. Washing up sponges / liquid, cleaning products, catering kitchen towel and cling film, large bin bags.

DONATION FORM   

To donate please complete and return this form together with a cheque or alternatively pay directly into our account bank account.  

• I wish to give a donation towards BARAC’s humanitarian aid and solidarity work with refugees’ in  

France;  

    £250    £100      £50         £35         £25        £10       Other £ .….….….….….  

• I enclose a cheque for a total of        £ ..........                   Payable to BARAC UK Or  
• I have paid the following amount          £………..           into the BARAC Bank Account:  BARAC UK Bank details:  Barclays Bank    Sort Code: 20 67 90     Account No:  53317803  

 

Signature:                                                                                     Date:   

Name of Organisation (if applicable)   

Contact Name:                                                                      Position:  

Address:   

 

Tel no.:                                                                                      Email:   

Please return this donation form (and cheque) to:  

BARAC UK  

C/O Zita Holbourne, National Co-Chair BARAC UK  

PCS HQ, 160 Falcon Road, London,   

SW11 2LN  

Alternatively email to: barac.info@gmail.com  Thank you for your support   Web: www.blackactivistsrisingagainstcuts.blogspot.com   Twitter:  @baracuk       Facebook:  BARAC UK