Hello!

On July 28^th four considerably unfit friends - Kevin, Johnny, Rory and Conor - will cycle from London to Paris (170 miles) in less than 24 hours to raise money for the Alf Dubs Children’s Fund (part of Citizens UK’s Safe Passage programme) – action to transform the lives of refugee children.

The Safe Passage Programme is aiming to bring 2,000 children to the UK this year and so every donation to our project helps them to get closer to achieving that goal.

Why now?

More children than at any point for generations are fleeing
for their lives. At an age when most kids need supervision to do their
homework, hundreds of thousands of minors are crossing continents alone. Over half of the 21 million refugees worldwide are children and of the 1.3 million people who sought asylum in Europe in 2015, nearly 100,000 were unaccompanied children.

The Dubs Amendment to the Immigration Act 2016 was a promise
by our government to offer 3,000 unaccompanied refugee children safe passage to the UK amidst the crisis. However, in February 2017 the Home Office shamefully announced that the scheme will be abandoned once only 350 have been housed – an act of chilling indifference to the lives of these children, especially when local councils in the UK have offered to house hundreds more.

With the Calais ‘Jungle’ refugee camp now destroyed we must
not forget that millions of children need help and tens of thousands remain on our doorstep across Europe, unable to access safe and legal routes to protection, whilst those arriving in the UK need support to rebuild their lives.

Why Safe Passage and the Alf Dubs Children’s Fund?

Safe Passage is literally transforming lives. Through a combination of
operational delivery, litigation, and political advocacy, Safe Passage is
helping these unaccompanied children, as well as vulnerable adults, access safe legal routes to the UK. They believe that no one who has a legitimate claim to asylum in the UK should risk their lives trying to get here and through the routes they have provided, 1,110 refugee children have arrived safely and legally in the UK.

The Alf Dubs Children’s Fund stands in the tradition of the Kinder-transport, seeking to carry forward the legacy of efforts by the British
public in 1938/9 when close to 10,000 children were brought to safety from Europe. The Fund is coordinated by Safe Passage.

Why Paris in 24 hours?

Many of the refugee children trying to make it to the UK are currently in France. Johnny has been on numerous trips to Paris where he has
worked with young people who are sleeping rough there and so we feel that cycling to Paris in less than 24 hours highlights just how close to home this issue is. The fate of these children is in the hands of our elected leaders and Paris is only a bike ride away.

How will the money be spent?

The money raised will be used by Safe Passage and, where appropriate, sub-granted to trusted partners, to open safe and legal routes to Britain and other destination countries for children stuck in France, Greece, Italy and beyond. It will do this through a mix of community organising,  strategic litigation, high level case work and parliamentary advocacy that has been the driver of so much of the change achieved this year. The fund will also be used to ensure the basic needs of children are met both while their cases are progressed and during the first stages of their new lives here in Britain.

Every penny donated will go to Safe Passage as all ferry and
accommodation costs incurred will be covered by the cyclists.