Activist’s GoFundMe page hits £50k in two hours in response to far-right’s fundraising efforts to thwart refugee sea rescues
Melanie May | 5 June 2017 | News
A GoFundMe campaign launched in response to the news that far right groups are fundraising for boats to stop refugees reaching dry land raised more than £50,000 in its first two hours, and has now reached over £63,000.
Unite Against Terror was created by activist and journalist Caroline Criado-Perez on Sunday (4th June) following a story in The Observer that reported how members of the anti-Islam and anti-immigrant ‘Identitarian’ movement had raised over £50,000 to enable them to target rescue boats and stop them from helping refugees.
On her GoFundMe page, Criado-Perez says:
“You wouldn’t try to stop a victim of a terror attack fleeing from danger. Don’t let the far right do this to refugees. Don’t let the far right’s hatred define us as Brits, or as Europeans. Now is not the time to give in to fear and hatred.
“I do not pretend to have the answers. I do not pretend to know how to defeat this hateful ideology. But I do know that letting desperate people, who are themselves fleeing terror, drown is categorically not the answer.
“Let’s fight back against hatred. Let’s not let terrorism kill off our humanity.”
The page raised more than £50,000 in its first two hours, and has a target of £100,000. The current total is just over £63,000, from 427 people, with all finds raised donated to MSF search and rescue teams.
https://twitter.com/CCriadoPerez/status/871433094951317504
According to the MSF, in 2016, there were 355,361 arrivals by sea to Europe, with 5,096 people reported dead or missing at sea. 43% of the people making the journey by sea are women and children.
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About Melanie May
Melanie May is a journalist and copywriter specialising in writing both for and about the charity and marketing services sectors since 2001. She can be reached via thepurplepim.com.