Ireland Refugee Solidarity, (formerly Cork to Calais) a grassroots group of volunteers who are taking an aid convoy to a refugee camp in Calais later this month, is calling on the public to stop donating items.
The organisation says it is currently necessary to “stop” what has become a tidal wave of Irish people’s support and empathy for the refugee crisis” as its depots are full and the volunteers on the ground are working day and night to sort what has been donated.
Group founder Tracey Ryan said: “The convoy to Calais is packed, our 70 depots are packed and we have filled an extra three articulated lorries to Syria via Human Appeal. We can no longer afford to fund the transportation of these donations internally throughout Ireland, as the Gofundme donations are being used just for supplies, and our warehouses are filled to capacity.”
The group is now concentrating on effectively delivering what has been collected, and as winter approaches, improving shelter and fuel supplies in the refugee camp in Calais.
Tracey continued: “We are putting together a list of suggested charities that we are going to work with and that we hope you can work with as well. Thank you so much for your work so far and we really hope you can work with us and help redirect these extra resources to other groups that can absorb them”.
Ireland Refugee Solidarity began as ‘Cork to Calais’ with one small depot in Cork City and within three weeks it grew to 70 depots nationwide.
The convoy, which leaves on October 1, has also grown from two vans and a cash donation target of €400 to three trucks, six vans, a medical team and 60 volunteers.
Online donations to the group via GoFundMe have now reached €82,642 and the amount from the countrywide local fundraisers has not yet been tallied.
Ireland Refugee Solidarity will distribute the donated items, which include warm clothes, tents, sleeping bags, shoes and toiletries, through French aid organisation Auberge des Migrants.
