Asylum seekers brought together to clean Southport beach

Asylum seekers have joined green fingered community activists in Southport to help clean up the local coastline.

Eco friendly asylum seekers from from Eritrea, Iran, Iraq, Kenya, Mali, Palestine, Somalia and Sudan joined up with other volunteers from the Marine Conservation Society last week as part of the group’s Great British Beach Clean.

The event was coordinated by Action Asylum, a national mission which brings together asylum seekers and local communities through environmental engagement and outdoor pursuits.

A spokesperson for Action Asylum said “The day simply could not have been possible without help from the Marine Conservation Society, lending us litter-pickers and gloves, nor could the days have been such a pleasure without all the local volunteers and asylum seekers alike, whose good humour and patience in adapting to COVID-19 protocols made new challenges conquerable. Thank you to everyone who took part and helped behind the scenes.

In damaging the spaces we inhabit, human beings sabotage the places we use as refuge; be it a park, a beach or even a street. One hot December morning on the Atlantic coast, in Sierra Leone, I was amazed to discover that there is a designated day of cleaning. On the first Saturday of every month, an entire city will clean the streets. Although not exactly enforced by police, as it is in Freetown, people across the world in Japan are diligent never to make litter another person’s problem. Beside Osaka Bay in another coastal city, Kobe, I saw an elderly woman clean the road with a dustpan and brush as she would her own home. A clean space is not only a healthy one, but it is a happy one.”