- Jersey Overseas Aid Commission issuing an emergency grant to help the millions of Syrian refugees
- Island set to donate £1 million to the refugees
- Chief Minister recently said he was in talks for Island to take in a small number of refugees
- Islanders share their views on the current crisis – watch the video below
THE amount of emergency aid Jersey will give to the Syrian refugee crisis is set to rise to £1 million after a States-funded organisation pledged a further £650,000 to support relief efforts.
Yesterday, the Jersey Overseas Aid Commission announced it will be issuing an emergency grant to help the millions of refugees who have been displaced in Syria since 2011 due to civil war and the rise of the Islamic State.
The announcement comes after Chief Minister Ian Gorst said that he was still in discussions about taking in a small number of refugees from the crisis zone.
A JEP reporter recently visited the makeshift Jungle camp outside Calais where more than 3,500 migrants are currently living. Read about his experience here
Prime Minister David Cameron last week said the UK would accept 20,000 Syrian refugees over five years into the UK.
If Jersey was to follow the same proportion the Island would take in about 30 refugees.
In 2013, the Jersey Overseas Aid Commission, a States-funded body which provides overseas aid, provided a series of emergency grants totalling £350,000 to support refugee camps in neighbouring countries along the Syrian border.
And in 2014 it also funded the transportation costs of 12,500 winter jackets donated by Headway Jersey to the camps.
The Commission has said that it is now consulting UK-based agencies to establish the best way aid can be delivered using the new funding it has pledged, which comes from its 2015 budget.
It is working with agencies including the British Red Cross, UNICEF, Save the Children, Oxfam and Goal, and will be meeting representatives in London next week.
Commission chair Carolyn Labey said: ‘It is crucial that the Island responds in a co-ordinated way with others involved.
‘The aid agencies we are working with are working on the ground and are best placed to identify the areas where support is needed.
‘They have experience of dealing with crisis situations and are able to network with one another to maximise the benefit of the relief.’
Meanwhile, the founders of the Jersey Calais Refugee Aid Group (JCRAG) have met the Chief Minister Ian Gorst to discuss the work their organisation is carrying out.
De La Salle schoolteacher Bram Wanrooij and his wife Sophie Renouard, who is a nurse, set up the group last month to provide relief to more than 3,500 migrants living in a squalid camp outside Calais, known as the ‘Jungle’.
After being inundated with donations of food, tents and clothes they have made several trips to the Jungle to deliver supplies to the camp, which contains many migrants from African countries such as Sudan, Eritrea and Somalia.
Mr Wanrooij said in the meeting with Senator Gorst, that they had discussed JCRAG’s ‘short-term and long-term plans’ and how the States of Jersey could help them.
He said: ‘The Chief Minister asked us how the JCRAG had expanded and invited us to talk about what our ideas were.
‘We talked about the challenges we were facing, what the States of Jersey could provide and the possibility of Jersey taking in some refugees.’
The Chief Minister said: ‘I was pleased to meet representatives from the Jersey Calais Refugee Aid Group and to hear more about their activities.
‘I will be considering if there is an appropriate way for the States of Jersey to support this newly formed community organisation in its relief work.’
