THE Bude Welcomes Refugees group turned out on Crooklets Beach on Saturday to mark Human Rights for Refugees Day of Action.

The group gathered on the beach to create a welcome message, stating ‘Bude Welcomes Child Refugees’.

The group said the purpose was ‘to focus minds on the needs of this particularly vulnerable group, which has arrived with little more than the hope to be helped on thousands of beaches in the Eastern Mediteranean, very similar to the wonderful beaches we enjoy locally, but which we don’t for a moment associate with war, migration, or wounded bodies and minds’.

A group spokesperson added: “The event’s purpose was to highlight the needs of thousands of child refugees who are living in desperate conditions in refugee camps in territories adjacent to Syria, as well as up to a hundred thousand unaccompanied minors scattered throughout Europe whose futures at present look very insecure.

“This event also marked the government’s recent U-turn respecting Lord Dubs’ amendment to the Immigration Bill. Having rejected a commitment to receive 3,000 children, the amendment will now permit a yet unspecified number of unaccompanied child refugees within Europe into the UK.

“This commitment has arisen from the work of Save the Children, which continues to highlight the threat to life and safety faced by thousands of children who have arrived in Europe but have yet to be reunited with family members, or be offered long-term stable sanctuary, and in a growing number of cases have disappeared without trace, vulnerable to people traffickers and prostitution networks.

“Bude Welcomes Refugees continues to work on a plan to welcome up to two Syrian families who may be suited to relocation in Bude as part of the 20,000 refugees the government plan to accommodate as part of its response to the ongoing crisis.”

The group has a Facebook page — Bude Welcomes Refugees, and may be contacted through Mary Whibley by emailing [email protected]

The group next meets at 10.30am this Friday, May 20, at St Olaf’s Church Hall, Poughill — all are welcome.