Top musicians come together for Help Refugees benefit gig
- Text by Alex King
As temperatures drop this winter, conditions for thousands of refugees sleeping on streets or in makeshift camps across Europe will become even tougher. Despite months of media coverage and popular pressure, governments and major aid institutions’ response to the biggest refugee crisis since WWII has been found wanting.
“How is it that UNHCR and other refugee charities can be failing their clients, the refugees, so abysmally?” asks comedian and activist Heydon Prowse, who’s now working with Help Refugees. “If this was a business, heads would roll.”
Grassroots groups across the continent, such as Help Refugees from the UK, have stepped in to pick up the pieces where official institutions have failed. They’ve organised search and rescue operations in Lesbos, shelter building for families in Calais, food distributions in Serbia and more.
“In these places you get the feeling that you could hand someone some water and it would last them across the border or give them some shoes, which would perhaps last them until the muddy fields of Hungary,” Heydon explains. “But the welcome people receive from volunteers would be of some small comfort the entire way across Europe until they found their new homes.”
To raise funds to continue their vital work, Help Refugees are holding a benefit gig on Sunday November 22 at O2 Forum in Kentish Town. Head down to show your support and catch Paloma Faith, Peace, refugee musicians The Stone Flowers and a secret band.
Find out more on the Facebook event or buy tickets here.
You might like
The last days of St Agnes Place, London’s longest ever running squat
Off the grid — Photographer Janine Wiedel spent four years documenting the people of the Kennington squat, who for decades made a forgotten row of terraced houses a home.
Written by: Isaac Muk
As salmon farming booms, Icelanders size up an existential threat
Seyðisfjörður — The industry has seen huge growth in recent years, with millions of fish being farmed in the Atlantic Ocean. But who benefits from its commercial success, and what does it mean for the ocean? Phil Young ventures to the remote country to find out.
Written by: Phil Young
Activists hack London billboards to call out big tech harm
Tax Big Tech: With UK youth mental health services under strain, guerrilla billboards across the capital accuse social media companies of profiting from a growing crisis.
Written by: Ella Glossop
In photos: The boys of the Bibby Stockholm
Bibby Boys — A new exhibition by Theo McInnes and Thomas Ralph documents the men who lived on the three-story barge in Dorset, giving them the chance to control their own narrative.
Written by: Thomas Ralph
‘We’re going to stop you’: House Against Hate tap Ben UFO, Greentea Peng and Shygirl for anti-far right protest
R3 Soundsystem — It takes place on March 28 in London’s Trafalgar Square, with a huge line-up of DJs, artists and crews named on the line-up.
Written by: Ella Glossop
In photos: Lebanon’s women against a backdrop of war
Where Do I Go? لوين روح — As war breaks out in the Middle East once again, we spotlight Rania Matar’s powerful new photobook, which empowers women of her home country through portraiture.
Written by: Miss Rosen
