Leeds Festival Tents Donated To Migrants

Published 1st Sep 2015

After thousands of festival goers descended on Leeds this weekend - Radio Aire's been out with a local campaign group who're making good use of their leftover tents.

Emily Jennings is from Leeds No Borders, she says 'it's literally a field full of tents and it looks like the festival could still be going on - it looks like no-one's actually taken anything away, but then there's so much rubbish..."

"For me, seeing the field full of left stuff just highlights that we're a really rich country and we can afford to look after people that are coming from really poor countries because if we can leave all these belongings in a field then we definitely have enough resources for everyone."

Over the past few weeks, hundreds of migrants in Calais have been breaking through fences and hanging onto lorries to try and enter the Channel Tunnel

Emily's been at Bramham Park collecting up all the unwanted items - from tents, sleeping bags and shoes.

"People in Calais are stuck at the border, you cannot get to the UK legally and apply for asylum so you're forced to go in trucks and things, so while people are trying to make that dangerous crossing they're living in really bad conditions - living in really makeshift tents - and a lot of people don't have any tents, that's why we're taking over these tents for temporary accommodation.

"Obviously this is nothing really, it's not a house, but it's the best we can find in a bit of crisis situation for people in Calais and as it's going to landfill unless we recycle it, it might as well go to people that need a home."

But people across Leeds are also donating to the campaign and she says the response has been great.

"The response from people in Leeds has been amazing, my phone's been non-stop. People are really moved by what's happening in Calais. People know that it could have been any of us it's just that we happen to be born in this country and we're not fleeing from war where as other people are... so the response has been amazing."