Sue Clayton - The New Internationalists

Gulwali Passarlay

Thirteen years ago, I made the dangerous journey from Afghanistan to Europe as an unaccompanied 12-year-old, and now have status here in the UK. Many of the people supporting me in my hardship and showing compassion were volunteers. I was touched by the kindness and support of volunteers with providing basic necessities of life, like food, water and shelter in Athens, Rome and Paris, and particularly in Calais. I was so grateful to all the wonderful people out there who supported and helped me in my most desperate situations and give huge thanks to all volunteers and friends for continuing their efforts and dedications.

Now I myself have spent the last ten years so volunteering and giving back to the community. I have founded an organisation, called My Bright Kite, that aims to improve the wellbeing and inclusion of young refugees who arrive here because making the journey is only half the story; young people then have to find a place for themselves and ways they can fit in and belong. I have written an account of my own journey, The Lightless Sky, and have been asked to events across the UK to share my experiences. People are mostly kind and generous and often want to know how they can help refugees. I encourage people to write to their MPs, go on protests for social justice and get active and engaged with their local City of Sanctuary group or refugee support network, or I suggest they volunteer in the UK with refugee charities or in refugee camps in Calais and Greece. I am humbled by how they have then gone on to travel to refugee camps across the world to support the efforts and work of independents and NGOs. It is amazing to see ordinary people doing extraordinary work, when EU governments have been failing refugees, and to see the massive volunteer movement that has come to the rescue of literally millions of refugees who entered Europe in 2015 and since. I have every hope that this book will inspire people in the same way, and give the knowledge and the inspiration that they need.

As we see across Europe, things seem to have changed in the last few years and the environment has become so much less welcoming. With governments not always helping, or being hostile to refugees, and NGOs not always up to the job, the role of volunteers has become essential and is now a whole new movement. It has been alarming to see humanitarian workers treated as criminals in Italy and Greece, as well as the Stansted 15, peaceful protesters, having been criminalised for supporting asylum seekers in the UK. We all need to go on speaking out and be advocates for human rights for refugees and those who support them.

Gulwali Passarlay, BA (Hons) MPA, author of The Lightless Sky