A LONG fight for the rights of refugees across Europe has led an Isle of Wight based film director to write a book on the subject.

Sue Clayton, who lives in St Helens, first created the film Calais Children: A Case to Answer, about the refugee crisis.

The campaigner has now released a book, entitled The New Internationalists: Activist Volunteers in the Refugee Crisis.

It is available on Amazon or via independent bookshop site uk.bookshop.org

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The collected work is about the refugee crisis in Europe from the summer of 2015 to early 2020, when conflicts in Syria and crises in Afghanistan, Iraq, Sudan, Eritrea and elsewhere brought almost two million asylum seekers on perilous journeys to Europe.

The book tells how Europe, far from being a place of safety and security, in large part proved unwilling or unable to accommodate them.

The new arrivals, having in many cases already faced war and violence, abuse by traffickers and near-drowning at sea, were met on arrival by closed borders, police aggression, the abuse of their human rights and a lack of basic food or shelter.

Sue said: "My own experiences of working with and filming refugees in the Calais 'jungle' and other parts of Europe have brought me into contact with hundreds of volunteers of a completely new order.

"Thus, I have come to understand first hand that set against the generalised hostility has been a powerful new force, the flowering of the 'activist volunteer' movement — a grassroots mobilisation of people of every age, skill and background, who responded to a humanitarian crisis that neither governments nor the larger aid agencies seemed willing or able to address.

"Between them, this mobilisation of over half a million people across Europe sourced hundreds of thousands of tents, trainers and waterproofs, baby clothes, sanitary towels and sleeping bags.

"They built huts and put up tents, cooked thousands of meals a day and sourced clean water.

"They gave legal and medical advice and support. They set up crèches, language classes, therapy, music, theatre and arts.

"They scoured the sea for shipwrecks, then faced arrest for saving lives. They were abused and tear-gassed by police in the makeshift camps.

"They brought corpses out of the sea so families could have closure, they helped bury the dead and mourn with those grieving, and repatriated bodies back home.

"What they did, and continue to do, was in every way truly extraordinary, and demands to be documented.

"They bore unique witness to a crisis that is one of Europe’s most shameful episodes, and their testimonies hold vital knowledge the world needs to hear.

"This book is for them and for our new arrivals, in solidarity."

The hard copy is 400 pages with more than 100 images, and selections from the 180 personal testimonies sent from across Europe.